Sci-Fi Trooper

Basically a test in painting and shading for a bigger figure, this is a Mantic enforcer with a much better head option ;-) Merry Xmas!

Siege of Neuss - Part VIII

Defenders of Neuss - first unit finished. The flag changed after the end of the siege when the emperor allowed the Neussers to incorporate the imperial eagle into the flag for their endurance during the siege.

Siege of Neuss - Part VII

As the siege continued and the weeks went by without any sign of the imperial relief force, first shortages began to appear. Interestingly enough, it was neither famine nor sickness but the lack of gun powder that proved to be the first real challenge for the Neussers. In November 1474 nearly all salpetre supplies had been exhausted, the guns fell silent. In this serious situation two messengers managed to get to the city of cologne to ask for help. 550 volunteers from cologne, each equipped with a 10 pound bag of salpetre, set forth to the besieged town. Having found out the Burgundian watchword the men from cologne miraculously made it at night through the siege ring into Neuss. Troop movements in the Burgundian camp, reinforcements from Flanders and Brabant, did surely help this feat. The successful supply coup was a boost to the morale of the besieged Neussers and Landgraf Hermann let all the church bells ring at the arrival of the volunteers. Duke Charles was enraged and sent a troop of Burgundians and English to destroy the hamlet and kill the farmers who had given shelter to the two messengers.

Siege of Neuss - Part VI

Though the Burgundian ring around the town was closed in August 1474 after the capture of the two Rhine isles, the siege did not show any significant results yet. So Charles decided to launch a major attack towards the Obergate and the Rhinegate on 10th September. After days of heavy bombardment the Burgundians stormed the gates for five hours. Summoning all their strength the Neussers managed to hold the gates, the Rhinetor was heavily damaged in the process. The defenders could not imagine at that time that 56 more Burgundian attacks should follow in the next months until the final relief of the town.In the chronicles the commitment of the Neusser women and children is stressed repeatedly who not only helped to repair the damaged defenses and walls.but also armed the fighting men, carrying rocks, pitch, burning chalk etc.

Siege of Neuss - Part V

Moving on with the project! This time some Neussers, trying to make red the predominant colour of the unit to get some contrast to the burgundians white and blue.More to come!

AWI Regiment Rall Command

More Hessians! Figures from the Perry AWI range. There seems to be an uncertainty about the colour of the Rall regimental flag (if any). I went for the light blue one as pictured in the Reese book, however there are others depicted as green or black...

Doeffingen Knights Finished

Not much time to paint recently but managed to finish the horses.

WIP - Doeffingen Knights

Some nobility of the League of Princes: Wolf von Wunningen, the Count of Katzenelnbogen, Werner von Rosenfeld. Horses next...

Doeffingen 1388 - Reloaded

This time some men of the League of Towns, from Augsburg. I couldnt figure out exactly whether they used this flag in 1388 alreday but it looks nice ;-) The two knightly figures supposed to be wealthy Patrizier of Augsburg. Figures by Claymore.

Siege of Neuss -Part IV

Duke Charles soon realised that his siege efforts would be fruitless without having isolated the town from the supply via the waterway. The Neussers received provisions, ammunition and reinforcements from shipments arriving on the two islands in the River Rhine near the eastern city walls. Charles put all his efforts to capture these two small islands "Weid" and "Wert".On 6th August 1474 a Burgundian landing party attacked the larger "Weid" island. The Neussers send reinforcements by boat and a bitter struggle developed. During the fight, the flag bearer of the Burgundians, a giant Ethopian named Christoph was captured. His red flag bearing the inscription: "His maximum est periculum,qui maxime timent." (Those are most in danger, who show the most fear). He was paraded through the streets of Neuss and must have appeared as the true devil to the Neussers, even more so as he managed to escape a few days later! The Burgundians lost nearly 200 men that day but managed to finally capture the islands on 11th August.

 and the complete unit

Siege of Neuss - Part 3

After his offer to surrender had been declined, Charles moved his army into position. Surrounding the town (except for the River Rhine which was passing directly beneath the eastern city walls), Charles put his forces opposite the 5 city gates. His main force, soldiers from Burgundy and Picardy, were arrayed in front of the Obergate.The second largest unit, Lombardian mercenaries, were put in front of the Rheingate. The English had their camp southeast of Neuss.The Neussers had not been idle in the meantime, they secured their already strong gates with Bollwerke, additional structures of earth amd timber. More important, they stocked massive supplies of food and gunpowder.

Charles wasted no time: on 29th July 1474 he attacked with 6.000 men towards the Obergate. The Neussers, boasting with confidence, made a sortie and challenged the Burgundian force in an open field battle. Greatly outnumbered though, the Neussers had to withdrew quickly behind the gate. The approaching Burgundians were met by a hail of gunfire from the walls and had to withdraw. In the words of a Burgundian nobleman writing a letter home: The bullets were flying denser than arrows in a battle with the English.

Figures are Perry and Crusader with Perry head swaps.

Siege of Neuss - Part 2

The Burgundian army arrived at the gates of Neuss in July 1474. Before engaging into costly siege operations, Charles sent his heralds to town to demand surrender. In the words of the chronicler Christian Wierstrait the herald asked:
"Yr Burger uch sy allen kundt,
der Printz gesynt van uch zur Stundt,
as myr bevoil syns selues Mundt,
dat yr yn laist herynnen."
However, the Neussers didnt want to let the prince (duke) in so easily and the mayor of Neuss replied equally polite:
"Herr Herald uch sy vry bekant,
wyr stayn an Paes ind Kaysers Hant."

Nurgle Warrior No. 6

and the last one for now.

 and all together

Nurgle Warrior No. 5

The Shrimper.

Siege of Neuss

Nurgle break - and finally an excuse to paint some Burgundians! In 1474 - under the pretext of helping the archbishop of cologne who had trouble with the city of cologne as well as the surrounding towns - Charles the Bold entered the Rhineland with a mighty army of at least 13000 (according to others 18000) men. Among them Flemish, English and Italian mercenaries. He decided to lay siege to the city of Neuss, a stronghold of opponents of the archbishop. Neuss, a heavily fortified town, was defended by the Landgrave of Hesse who had been appointed episcopal administrator by opponents of the archbishop. The town was held by a force of 60 Hessian knights along with 1200 Hessian levies,some 500 mercenaries from Cologne and Bonn and of course by the citizens of Neuss.

Burgundian Pikemen

Neuss Pikemen

Nurgle Warrior No. 4

... and slightly converted.

20mm WWII Japanese Comparison

For those interested in 20mm WWII Pacific Theater wargaming I put this one up with the recently re-released 20mm foundry japanese troops. Sizewise they belong to the smaller 20mm figures. A major drawback is that they come in no more than three different poses.

From left to right: Grubby (some of the best 20mm figs), Foundry, Warmodelling and Britannia. Eureka is missing, their japanese troops are also quite nice.

Nurgle Warrior No. 3

... and one of my favourite GW chaos figs.

Nurgle Warrior No. 2

More Nurgle Stuff

Support for my chaos warband. An old Talisman  plastic warrior. One finished, five others to go...

Darkhammer Undead Samurai - Review

Normally I am not a fan of critical reviews - you rather have to appreciate the creative effort someone puts into the hobby. However, this time my hopes were so high and the disappointment so severe that I decided to put this one up.

When I heard about that company Darkhammer and saw the pics on the net I was hooked: An Undead Samurai - wow! And when I noticed they did one in 28mm scale I ordered one immediately.

After several weeks of waiting - a small package arrived from Hong Kong. I opened it and my high hopes were shattered. Inside was a tiny figure - nowhere near 28mm scale. As you can see on the comparison pic with a Perry horse (Perry horses are not among the big 28mm horses!), the undead horse looks rather like 20mm scale.

The scale issue becomes even more apparent by comparing the undead head and torso with a Perry Samurai (again: Perry are not among the big 28mm figures!). The Darkhammer samurai looks rather like 15mm !!!

Selling this as 28mm scale figure for USD 19.99 is just ridicoulous. Dont know if I return it to China, probably not worth the hassle. But consider this before buying one yourself. Darkhammer offers the undead samurai in 54mm scale for USD 45.99 also - maybe the 54mm figure comes near 28mm :-)

AWI Hessians

Being from Hesse myself I was tempted to paint these wonderful Perry figures. Supposed to be Musketeers of Regiment von Donop that saw some action in the early campaigns as in New York and Philadelphia.

Little Sci-fi Vignette

Entered this piece in the Steve Dean Painting Competition but didnt fare very well. Its an old Space Hulk Genestealer fighting a new Mantic Robot Soldier (forgot its name...)

Landsknecht Comparison

When I heard about Foundry going a step back to their roots and releasing the old perry figs I decided to try my luck with the renaissance range - and i have to admit that, despite their age, the Foundry landsknechts still look well. Anatomy and proportions are right and they have that distinctive 3D feeling of the Perry work to them. Yet they show their age, or rather the age of the moulds, and the details are definitely not as clean and crisp as in the Pro Gloria figs. Nevertheless they go quite well together. Left to right: Pro Gloria, Foundry, Pro Gloria, Foundry.

Samurai Cannon

European saker cannon put in service as a samurai siege weapon.