I'm Back in the Saddle Again...

[Terry37]

...Out where a friend is a friend.... Well, what I am really trying to say is that after a long absence from the painting and modeling room, I have over the past month or so been enjoying some brush time.

Many years back in a swap for some old Rap Partha Renaissance figures I had a friend painted me a lovely Milanese Italian Wars army. This was made from my considerable collection of the 70's and early 80's Minifig 25 MM figures they were just releasing at the time. And, at the time they were exceptional figures to me, but in looking at them today they are still nice, but rather plain, stiff and a bit overfed and short! Also, they are lacking any really active animation. My friend did a very nice job on them but his knowing more about Middle Age costuming than the Renaissance, he gave them a rather Medieval look. So on a whim I decided to just repaint the lot and also see what I might be able to do to add some character and interest to the figures. So after numerous cut and filed thumbs and fingers I completed cold sculpting many of the figures just to add some variety. I am very pleased so far in achieving a more Renaissance look to the figures and have really been enjoying the challenges of the new project. Although I am also still working on Nick's Sea Wolf dio as well.

Here are a few pictures showing the heavy Knights, the Light Horse Knight's, some Light horse harquebusiers and crossbowmen, and two elements of Italian Harquebusiers. I am currently working on the Imperial (Landsknecht) pikemen. I only had two figures for these two elements, but wanted to see what I could do to have each figure differently dressed besides just in paint colors. So lot of research and studying pictures, and two more week's of cuts and finger filing! I also added a new Milanese flag for the Sforza family.















More to follow, but thought you all might like to see the Sforza Familia as they are busy preparing for battle!

Terry

[sunjester]

You have done a really nice job on those (very) old figures.

[fred.]

Great work on these figure Terry!

The more modern painting style does bring them to life. I do like the knights - I've got some 10mm on my desk at the minute, and am struggling a bit to decide how to paint them, not least from trying to work out which bits of the barding are metal vs cloth, let alone trying to decide on colour schemes. 

[mmcv]

Very nice, welcome back!

[paulr]

      

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Superb

[Steve J]

Welcome back as it were and oyu've done a superb job on those figures .

[Big Insect]

Welcome back

I totally agree - you've done a fab job of those old Minifigs. Giving them a totally new lease of life.
I have a large Mike's Models 15mm Ottoman Turkish army that I did a similar thing to a few years back.
It became addictive, tracking down figures and units I was missing, or that Essex Miniatures (who owned the masters/moulds back then) were missing. But a great project.

I look forward to seeing the final army

Mark

[Terry37]

Thank you all for the kind comments. It is fun and I am pleased with how it is coming along. I've still got two elements of 4x CB to do but those figures are going to need some resulting, and at the very least to modify the awful helmet they are wearing! They are also bearded so will probably look at making them Imperial/Landsknecht too as everything I see about the Italians is clean shaven primarily.

Fred, I know well your pain in deciding how to do the knights. I actually painted on of my fellows three times before I was happy. A lot of figures and modern references show lots of bare metal for knight and horse armor, but more contemporary art shows more colorful painted armor, so I opted to pain mine and make them as colorful as possible, while still retaining an Italian look. Good luck, and would love to see how you end up going.

FYI, I play DBA-HX and HOTT so my armies are usually pretty small in numbers, but as slow as I am at painting that really works the best for me.

Terry

[Big Insect]

HOTT - a great favorite of mine. A very versatile set of simple rules.

[d_Guy]

Beautifully done, Terry, I would expect nothing less from you. Welcome back to the forum.