Here I Stand

 Here I Stand is a boardgame of Early Modern Europe, combining military, theological and diplomatic action into a very complex card-driven map-based game. My brother rounded us all up and learned the rules, and also put together themed music playlists and drink options. It was a blast.

 I decided to chip in by building miniatures to replace the standees that represent the military commanders on the board. I initially thought there was just one per faction, but there's more! I did have a couple preexisting minis that were relevant, but I had to do a lot of converting. It got a little rushed but overall they turned out quite well enough for the group.

 

The game standees have tiny portraits, so I explored Wikipedia and sometimes Google image search to get fuller pictures of the individuals in question. I did get a little creative to distinguish some of the plainer-dressed commanders.  Fun fact: Montmorency's tennis racket is not an anachronism (except maybe very specifically in the details of form, he was Francis' tennis buddy), but Dragut's telescope predates their actual invention by decades. 

 

 The game itself was a blast! We called it at the end of turn 5 or 6, since it was 2 in the morning, and my Ottomans had the most VPs (by one!) at that point, but I doubt I would have won if we played to a proper game end. 

I did feel bad about the Papacy not having any commanders to model, I had meant to bring some of the Catholic minis from my previous post so the Papal player wouldn't feel left out... but it turned out he had a better way to represent his faction: 

Noble Duelists for Flashing Blades

Eventually the Player Characters will come into conflict with fancy-pants aristocrats, so here are a few built from the Warlord Games pike & shotte infantry command sprue.

Swordsmen for Flashing Blades

I threw together some goons for Flashing Blades. The pictures are bad, but the painting was rushed anyway, so whatever. These are all based on Warlord Games plastic infantry, with sword hands/arms from the plastic cavalry, and random other kits for left arms.

Swashbuckling Heroes for Flashing Blades

Oof, life's been busy these past few month. Not even in a bad way, and I did manage to get some hobby work done, but most of it wasn't really blogworthy.

Here's something though: a set of miniatures representing the characters my game group rolled up for a Flashing Blades campaign.

The two on the left have been posted before, the lady in the middle is an old metal fantasy mini I've had for ages, and the last two are kitbashed plastics specifically made for this campaign.

Museum Visit (early modern stuff)

Last month, the Art Institute of Chicago reopened its European "medieval" arms and armor exhibit (actually extending into the mid-1800's), and I finally got around to visiting yesterday. It was fantastic! I took a bunch of pics, and although my cell phone camera doesn't really handle museum lighting well, there are still some neat pieces that I want to share. Maybe later I'll post the random other cool stuff I saw that wasn't quite so relevant to my wargaming.

The pic is too blurry, but this helmet has pointy teeth!

I should paint a nobleman with an ivory pistol stock like this

ceremonial giant sword hilt

Emperor Ferdinand's breastplate. Wonder if I could pull this off on a 28mm mini?

This musket has two actions! Better safe than sorry...

obligatory hussar gear

Papal guard, so shiny!

Fancy yet functional armor for a wasp-waisted Englishman

plain hilt of giant sword

This one's from about 1800, but I had to include it. It's a powder tester! Like a pistol, but instead of shooting a bullet it forces an arm along the scale. Super neat!

A spider helm, essentially having "noseguards" all around, with each one hinged in case gets in the way

triple-barreled fowling piece, with striking buttstock design

triple-barreled pistol, looks like a nightmare to handle, but still probably preferable to handling three separate pistols

Literary Villains (and other personalities)

To start, here's Cardinal Richelieu and Vlad III "Dracula".

Dumas' villain is from Warlord Games, and Stoker's from The Assault Group.

The Dracula figure also comes with a boyar (armed with a neat triple-headed flail) and a noblewoman (not yet painted, not shown). Last night I also painted a set of heroes to oppose these villains: Stickler Mitchell and Young Megan from Warlord Games, and Bertha Bestraufrung(sp?) from Games Workshop's old Sisters of Sigmar range.

I think Drac and his buddy look pretty neat next to Warlord's voynuks...