Landsknect Halberdiers

This week saw the completion of another mini-project. Not everything was a straightforward as I wished. First off there's the results:



These figures represent the heavy foot with heavy weapons that I needed to add to my Landsknect pike blocks although I only have one pike block painted at the moment.

I needed these for two reasons. Firstly, in Field of Glory, they have an important benefit if they are fighting as an overlap: they hit on 3 or more. Secondly, my Imperial French army is big enough for DBR but I don't have enough for a balanced 800 point FOG R army.



I also finished four bases of Swiss halberdiers for the same reasons. Taken together two bases of Swiss and two of Landsknects will add a further 30-36 points depending on the armour and quality I decide to use. The remaining 100 points will be a second Landsknect pike block; so that will take a while.

The main reason for the delay in finishing these was one of those rare coincidences. As I sat down last week to begin painting the second pack of the Landsknects I came across this from Steve Dean's Painting Forum:



This unit featured exactly the same pack as I was about to paint. Not only is the painter's skill exceptional but his photography and lighting is far better than mine. Just look at those stripes!

The first pack I'd painted didn't have any stripes as I was looking for a quicker colour scheme but after studying this work I decided to attempt stripes. As it turned out it wasn't too bad with the red,white, black and yellow colour scheme I'd chosen. If you look closely at my work you can see the front rank is striped, plain, striped and plain.

Finally, the image is from the current painting competition on Steve Dean's site so the painter is anonymous but I've a really good idea who it is and for now my lips are sealed. I'll reveal his name and post a link to a bigger picture when the competition has finished.