15 mm Swiss Army Finally Completed after 25 Years

Last Part of my 15 mm Swiss Army Completed

Way back in 1994 when DBM v1.3 was still in use I decided that I might like to build a Later Swiss Army. Because Navwar was local to me and the figures relatively cheap I decided to use their Naismith/Roundway figure range to build it. As other plans changed including real life events causing problems they project languished in a draw for years and years.

The Swiss Confederation army of this era consisted of troops drawn from 14 Cantons which meant that I had some guidance on the Cantonal Flags and used these as inspiration for various uniforms of each contingent. As I built the army over the last four years I restarted with contingents 9 and 10 back in 2016. Fast forward to 2019 and now Cantons 13 & 14 are finally done along with the last element to complete the Early Swiss Army which came about due to my ending up with a bag of very cheap Minifigs 13th C Halberdiers which I had painted earlier.

So that's two armies finally completed from Project Lead Mountain which I started back in 2012.

First up is the Early Swiss CinC Reg Bd [X] which includes a converted pike general who is now holding a halberd. The cantonal inspiration is Schwyz, one of the founding cantons.

The list requires two optional Psiloi generals elements so I used Basel for the inspiration for this element. Whilst not a canton until quite late they still provided troops to the confederation before they formally joined. Again I took a pike general and modified the casting to carry a much more handy spear for use in rough going terrain.

Next up is the Basel Cantonal Contingent made up of eight elements in all, four x Reg Pk [S], 2 x Reg Bd [X], 1 x Reg Ps [S] Handgunner and 1 x Reg Ps [O] Crossbowmen.

Last up is the final cantonal contingent drawn from Schaffhausen organised exactly the same as the Basel contingent.

 

Of course posting about a completed army would not do unless I posted a picture of all the troops together. All in all it made for a colourful army painting project and I am very pleased with how it turned out.

 

Milanese Civic Militia Under the Visconti's 1277 AD to 1447 AD

Milanese Civic Militia Spearmen 1277 AD to 1447 AD

As part of my ongoing project to clear out unpainted metal and replace items in my collection with more suitable figures I purchased a batch of QRF Italian Militia Spearmen back in April Code MIT03 Italian Pavisiers/Spearmen

https://quickreactionforce.co.uk/product/mit03-italian-pavisiersspearmen/ 

Some of them ended up at Catalan Company troops as per a previous blog entry and I had 24 left over castings in the same pose that were ideal for Spearmen or the front tank of Pavisier carriers.

Subsequent to this I purchased a huge batch of Blackhat Italian Spearmen at 50% off in the Vexillia Clearance Sale as they have discontinued selling these castings as he restructures his business into other options. This meant that the original plan to use them to create more Reg Bw X/O elements went out the window.

I recently used my Italian Condotta Army in a special game at the Club Open Day and fielded the Milan version against the Republic of Florence. The Civic Militia Spearmen I had were actually Roundway Hungarian Spearmen and totally unsuitable for the army but were the only figures I had when I created the army 20 years ago. I have now rebased the figures and repainted their shields into something more Eastern European looking and intend to sell them on [pictures at the end of this blog].

Since I wanted to field the Visconti Era army I looked at the heraldry for this time and realised that the Milan arms are the Flag of St Ambrose, which English people will notice is exactly the same as the Flag of St George. To be honest plain white shields with a red cross are really boring and uninspired so I took the liberty of creating my own shield transfers using the Family Arms of the Visconti's as the model. I often create my own flags and transfers and I am very pleased in how they turned out.

QRF MIT03 Italian Spearmen

These are the now surplus Naismith/Roundway Hungarian Spearmen

Roundway RKH08 Armati Heavy Infantry

Later Swiss - Part 3

Another Swiss Canton Contingent Completed

Due to some more down time I have completed the contingent from Solothurn which is number 12 of 14. I added a Psiloi general to this contingent to ensure I field optional commanders. All the castings are Naismith/Roundway and the general had his pike removed and replaced with a short spear. 

Later Swiss - Part 2

More Later Swiss Now Added to My Collection

After what seemed like a short time but turned out to be three years I have now completed Canton contingent 11 of my Swiss army. The Canton of Appenzell whose flag is a black bear on a white field. As with all my Swiss contingents I based their clothes on their flag colours to create pseudo uniforms for them. They are more of the Naismith/Roundway range which has sat in my to paint pile for far too long. Only three more contingents left to paint along with some more elements to enable me to use some of these troops for the Early Swiss army if I ever feel the need.

Condotta Knights For A Club Demonstration Game

Essex Warriors 2019 Open Day DBM Demonstration Game

I have been asked to put on a DBM demonstration game at the club open day in September. I have plenty of army choices and managed to find a fellow club member to take part on the opposing side. He wanted to use his Florentine Army so naturally I will be fielding my Milanese Army against him. I tend to had a lot of generic figures that end up being used in lots of different armies. As part of my Project Lead Mountain I am painting up the unpainted metal I have had for far too long to get rid of it into my collection or to sell on. I had 30 knights from Naismith/Roundway which I had based up as Knight Wedges a couple of years ago. I have never used them and they sat in my storage box alongside other knight wedges. I tried to sell the wedges on Ebay for the last few weeks but there was no interest. I have put a picture of the wedges at the bottom.

I decided since I am putting on the demonstration game I would break up the wedges and turn them into conventional knight elements and at the same time flag them up to represent troops aligned to Milan.

The knights came in two poses, 15 on armoured horses and 15 on unarmoured horses so I made two groups of five elements of knights. I intend to sell them on after the demonstration game.

Later Swiss Army As Part Of Project Lead Mountain

Later Swiss

As Project Lead Mountain rumbles on I had the metal for a Later Swiss army that had remained untouched for more years than I can care to think about. In the DBM era there were in effect 14 Swiss Cantons so I decided that I would create 14 different uniformed Cantonal Contingents. Each contingent consists of four elements of Pikes. two elements of Halberdiers, one element of Handgunners and one element of Crossbowmen. I have just completed contingents 9 and 10. These are for Luzern [Blue/White] and Glarus [Red & Monk]. All the infantry for this army are from Naismith and Roundway which whilst fairly small castings being true 15mm paint up easily and cleanly. Not every canton has a general's element and Luzern made up the last canton that would have a command group.

Luzern

Glarus

Swiss Mounted Crossbowmen Cavalry as an option to their Light Horse