Aut Cesar, Aut Nihil, Wargaming the Borgias.

Aut Cesar, Aut Nihil, Wargaming the Borgias.

Monday 20 July 2015

Akinji and Tartars.

 Well as I promised, I have finished basing more Turkish light cavalry, which are a combination of spare light cavalry from my mate John's collection and some repainted figures I bought from Rahul Sarnak. They have come up really well, and certainly will make a welcome addition to the Turkish cannon fodder, that is the Akinji and Tartar squadrons.




 These chaps are Minifigs with a couple of Garrison figures from Rahul's collection.




A Diamond Geezer!

 I regularly read about various unpleasant persons who seem to take pleasure in attacking [in a verbal sense] other wargamers on the internet. Perhaps I've just been lucky, but the wargamers I have had contact with are enthusiastic people with a love for our hobby.
One such person is a wargamer/collector called Jason Williams, who has been fortunate to collect a lot of the renaissance figures used by Mike Ingham and previously owned by Peter Gilder from the old Wargames Holiday Centre.
 Jason totally out of the blue some months ago sent me some spare figures from the collection. It was like some wonderful dream really. Anyway Jason has come up trumps again and very kindly sent me some spare command figures, he didnt need?
I have now been able to make up a base, adding a Perry standard bearer. I'm afraid the photographs do not do justice to the two mounted figures. But I would again like to thank Jason for his extreme generosity. Now if I can just get John Ray to donate his collection to me.





Sunday 19 July 2015

Colunellas steaming ahead.



 Well I have made some progress with painting my Spanish Colunellas, and have now completed one totally, and I am well on the way with the second one. The completed one is made up mainly of TAG figures which are very accurate representations of the real thing, whilst the second Colunella is made up in the main of Connoisseur figures, which while not as accurate are still very nice figures.
 I am taken with the TAG sword and buckler men, who are heavily armoured chaps.
 I have also been cracking on with the repainting and basing of some Ottoman Turk Akinji and hope to complete them in the next couple of days. I originally obtained these chaps from an old wargames friend, Rahul Sarnak, and they are a mish mash of Garrison, Mini fig, and Hinchliffe figures. I am really pleased with how these have turned out. Hopefully I will have them in a post very soon.







Monday 6 July 2015

Turks and Spanish.

 I think its fair to say that I like just about every range of wargames figures that have been produced over the last God knows how many years. Some ranges I like more than others. I never particularly like the old Dixon renaissance range which I thought was out of proportion, but even these had a certain charm. But I digress. An old wargaming acquaintance of mine dropped in to see me a few weeks ago, and he brought with him an eclectic selection of Renaissance Turks, most painted. Amongst the figures Rahul brought me was a group of painted Turkish cavalry that appear to be Garrison and Minifig, but Im not that certain. What I did think was that they were full of vigour and would look great, repainted and re based. Anyway I have now finished them.I wasnt disappointed and although they must be well over 40 years old they look okay to me.    
 So 12 more light cavalry to add to the Turkish horde that I am now building. Scale wise they are not heroic 25mm, but the old 25mm size, whatever that means.


 Another great range from the early 1980's was the Connoisseur Renaissance range by the late great Peter Gilder. I managed to get a load at Salute this year for my second Spanish Colunella. I have now completed the second unit of pike, and although there is only a limited option on the figure range, they still look pretty businesslike. I added the odd Perry head, and a couple of figures from my spares box. The flags are by Adolfo Ramos and Pete of Pete's Flags. Next are the sword and buckler men for both pike units.







Honour Guard of Cesare Borgia.

Honour Guard of Cesare Borgia.