Friday, December 7, 2018

Semi-Flat Landsknechts - 40mm



Finished painting the first group of  Italian Wars era landsknechts.  The castings are Russian, made by the Three Heroes company.  I bought three sets of 8 each from Soldatikov.net.  One "Swiss" one "Mercenary" with the third being Spaniards.  Prices were quite fair,  ~ 100 rubles a figure works out to $1.50 US, not bad at all for a hefty hunk of metal.  Shipping charges were also reasonable and proprietor Maxim Latsin, very fluent in English, was a pleasure to deal with.  There are also "extra" sets of 4 figures each for these groups, so 36 in all, but none of the latter were in stock.

So let's take a closer look.  Some of the the castings are a little on the rough side, you might even call them crude.


Nominally 40mm scale, they're a bit larger than true 40mm figures.  And you'll notice some size difference in the two figures below, but within the realm of normal human variation I'd say.


Stylistically they match up pretty well with Meisterzinn.  Unfortunately,  I have no direct comparison shots for you.  My sister-in-law was asking for some painted figures and I gave her my painted Meisterzinns. I feel rather like the guy in the insurance commercial who throws his wallet into New York harbor to emphasize a point about wasting money and then says to himself, "Wish I hadn't done that".  But the mold image below at least gives an idea.


How flat are they ?  Pretty darned flat.

"Sire, the enemy advance and we can't hit them !"
And a few more shots of the completed figures.  I painted a mixture of the Swiss and mercenary groups, as unless you take into account the rather high ratio of halbardiers, there's nothing particularly Swiss about any of these. 




Too bad there's no cavalry.  Three Heroes also produced some 30 Years War cavalry in a similar style, so perhaps something could be done there, although the visual gap of 100 years in military evolution would be a little jarring.  And I'm not entirely sure the figures are currently in production although it would be easy enough to find out.

To sum up, I'm pretty pleased with them.  I think anyone wanting to game the early 1500's in 40mm who has been relying primarily on casting and modifying Meisterzinn figures would find these a useful option to pad the ranks of infantry with more variety.

13 comments:

  1. Very nice; I've been wanting to try out some flats someday. Will be checking these out in detail

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Dean. You're quick off the mark !

    Yes, these would be a good entry point to the world of flats as they're in more bold relief than true flats but still benefit from some simple shading.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's good to see you posting again Steve. Nice work on these figures.

    Jim

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Jim. Very nice to hear from you again as well.

      Delete
  4. Great figures,you have done them proud.
    Alan

    ReplyDelete
  5. Most attractive. They invoke the old illustrations better than most wargame figures.

    Thanks for the comparison, they look slightly larger than but comoatible with the Meisterzinn armoured swordsman. Unfortunately he's already bigger than most of the other figures which in turn are bigger and ......less delicate than my Elastolins. Still Rob might want to add some to Imperials.

    Speaking of cavalry, TYW may not make convincing gensdarmes but they may be suitable to paint up as mounted arquebusiers etc Depends what they make I suppose.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Ross. As for the cavalry, they look fine for 1600, not so good for 1500. The riders in lobster-tail helmets have some conversion possibilities, not so much for the guys in floppy hats. A little hard to see from the photo, but looks like there's a mix of cuirasses and buff coats. The mounted officer turning in the saddle is very well done. The more I think about it, they all might be worth a shot with filing and some green stuff.


      Delete
  6. I'm late to this party, but your paint job is gorgeous. I have some Russian plastic flats that are languishing in a drawer - I doubt I'll do half as nice a job, but you've inspired me to get them prepped and on the painting table.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks very much, John. Always good to hear from fellow hobbyists, early or late.

      I also have some of the Russian plastic flats, have posted about them a couple of times in the past. Funny how the Russians, whom we usually associate with highly detailed round figures (and intricate paint jobs), have also kept this niche sideline of the flat figures alive as well.

      Delete
  7. Great paintjob as always. I've followed you blog for a couple of years and it's always nice to see what you're up to.

    ReplyDelete