Italian Wars- Rennaissance

If you take a look at some of the Blogs I regularly read, many of them are dedicated to, or have great sections on the Italian Wars 1494-1559. There is a lot of colour and pageantry in this period along with diverse troop types. Swiss mercenaries, French Gendarmes, Italian crossbowmen, Landsknechts, arquebusiers, Spanish Jinetes- you name it, it's there. And some very colourful personalities- Pope Julius II, the French Kings Charles VIII, Louis XII, Francis I. Add to this mix El Gran Capitan -Gonsalvo de Cordoba and a host of other characters from France, the Empire, Spain and the Italian States- Naples, Venice, Milan, Florence...you get my drift! There is enough stuff to keep any wargamer occupied for a few weeks at least!! And when Ross recently told me that he would be doing a French Ordonnance army to cover the second half of the 15th Century I figured that's close enoughfor me. By adding Swiss and some extra artillery he could have Charles VIII's army that invaded Italy in 1494, I decided is was time for me to get my act together and make an opposing force.

The funny thing is, that as soon as I started on this project I dug out some suitable heavy knight figures that had been sitting in the cupboard  for years- and they looked fine! Then I got a unit for a very fair price on ebay for some arquebusiers. Earlier this year I picked up a nice unit of heavy knights at Cancon in January. Last week Phil came by and gave me a very nice gift- some very good artillery pieces. I also dug out an old vignette from Redoubt- a Landsknecht recruitment party.
I'm well on my way. I've painted a couple Landsknecht units and will start on some Spanish pike soon.

Skirmishers

The whole force so far.

Landsknechts- the Ultimate 'have pike, will travel' troops.