Minis looking for a good home

Do you like minis? Do you want more minis?

Do you like these minis?

I posted a few years back that I was given a full army of historical minis. The are beautiful, and they are painted, but I never use them, and I am in dreadful need of space. So, it is with a heavy heart that I am looking to offload these miniatures to whoever wants them.

The only catch is that you either come get them (which if you are in the Montreal area shouldn't be an issue) or you pay postage.

I will pack them up as best I can and post them anywhere on the planet. I will also give a quote before sending them, so you know exactly what you are going to pay.

This post in particular gives the background as to what they are and where they came from.

Please help me find a home for these minis, and give them a second life. They are just gathering dust, and I need to make space. I'll likely be posting similar posts with links to other minis and books I am having to sell for the same reason.

Old Stuff Day

I really like the idea of Old Stuff Day.  Originally the idea of Warhammer 39,999, March the 2nd is a chance to go through the back catalogue of your blog, find a post you feel is under appreciated, for what ever reason, brush it off, and bring it to the attention of your current readership.

Unfortunately, I was not able to blog yesterday, so I'm 1 day out, so sue me!

Ideas for posts that could be used are:

• Posts that you considered special that didn’t receive as much attention as you thought they deserved
• Content that people liked in the past, but haven’t seen recently
• Posts you might have created before your site received much traffic, and now deserve to be reshown
• Or any content you’re particularly proud of!

I think this year, I'll bring to the fore a collection of posts, on the free army I received from a very generous gamer in town. A 25mm army for the Italian Wars. If there are any of the readers who have joined since I first posted these, I'd be very happy if you had any information on the figures or the army.

Infantry 1
Infantry 2
Mounted
Personalities
 
I hope you enjoy this little blast from the past.

As an update to these minis from my end, no, I have not yet managed to game with them, but I have been in touch with some local historical gamers, so it's not impossible that it will come to pass.

The Assault Group free miniature

The TAG free miniature that I requested a while back arrived today. I'm impressed. Very clean little miniature, simple in design, but the face is very well sculpted with little to no flash. I decided to ask for the Russian priest from their renaissance range, although, his robes are such that he could happily fit into any era since, for example I have seen him in dioramas for Bordino in 1812. He,s all cleaned up, about to stick him onto a base and get painting him. Thanks again to The Assault Group for this chance of a freebie. Now to go on over to their site to see if I can use this 10% off voucher that came with him. This mini is certainly a good advert for their sculpting and their minis.

Renaissance Army: Personalities

Some of the miniatures were obviously command types. Like the guy to the left, he's surely the general. the others are there to add moral support, or just to bring the music.

Renaissance Army: Mounted

 Mounted figures. Mostly landsknechts I assume. I'm impressed by the painting of the barding. Each is individual.

Renaissance Army: Infantry II

The pikemen.  Lots of.

Renaissance army: Infantry I

Here's a picture of the box (click to enlarge), as it was handed to me. I went through it all last night, trying to put it into some kind of order, and figure out what went with what. It was mostly in order in terms of units, with some small number of individual figures left at the end that I'm unsure where to put. Thankfully, these have the look of leader types, and drummers/standard bearers, so I don't think it'll be too hard to put them somewhere useful.

Like I said, I went through them photographing what I have gained, and will stick them up here for 2 reasons. Firstly, that those in the know may tell me what I have got my grubby hands on (in terms of the units they represent, and possibly even the manufacturer), and secondly that I myself may have a record (as these have all been re boxed and put away at the back of the cupboard till I find a rule set, and more importantly, an opponent.

In general, they were all in good condition. Only a few pikes had fallen off, and from what I can tell only one or two are missing (and these are the smaller ones from the mounted javeliners). The painting was well done, for the most part to good tabletop standard, with a couple of flourishes here and there which raise the bar. The consistency of the painting, especially the stripes impressed me. I doubt I'll ever finish an army to this standard for sure.

Anyway, on to the pictures, the first batch at least (as always, click for larger pics).

25mm Renaissance Army

Here I have some more info, from the kind gentleman who gave me the minis, in response to some questions I sent him (links my own addition):

  

  "The army represents a European army of about 1525. This was the time of the Italian wars of which the Battle of Pavia is perhaps the best known engagement.

    The army consists of Spanish Tercios, which is basically pike blocks with sword and buckler infantry and some crossbow men or arquebusiers (early muskets). There are small mercenary units particularly Swiss pikemen and Landsknechts similar to the well known 'Black Band'. There are also some Italian state infantry.

    In the cavalry there are of course heavy knights and some special light Spanish cavalry carrying javelins.

    The War Games Research Group, Tercio rules were what I used to use but this was many years ago. I have not used them or played wargames for many years so I'm not much use for any contacts.

    The figures are all made of some kind of metal alloy. It's not lead it may in fact be some sort of pewter. I think you will find some odd Saxon figures in the box and even a couple of 15mm size figures. Oh and there is a mounted Bishop who used to go to battle particularly with Italian troops giving them a morale boost when nearby."

I can find no reference online to the Wargames Research Group 'Tercio' rules. As it is, their web presence is minimal (not a modern setup by any means). This means I may have to look into getting a copy of Pike & Shotte to run these guys with, as this seems to fall under the wars of the Tudors, which looks like the start of the period covered by these rules.


Quite a trove all in all.

(Links and pictures courtesy of Wikipedia)

Free 25mm Army/Armee 25mm a Donner

I got a message on a local forum a couple of weeks ago, asking if I was interested in a free 25mm army. I said yes, and was put in touch with a nice English chap, who had a 25mm renaissance army to give away. I jumped at the chance and after some to-ing and fro-ing about collecting them, I went over this afternoon to get them. I haven't had the chance to de-box them yet, but what I saw looked good.
The minor inconveniences of lack of space and time to play, lack of opponents, no previous knowledge of renaissance gaming (except for once having an Imperial army for warhammer Fantasy) will not be again mentioned.

Pics to follow, as I intend to give the box a good rummage this evening once the kids are abed.

All those with knowledge of the era, be ready to tell me what it is I have gotten into.