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: 

Swedish Commanders for Dirschau/Tczew

 According to a board game about Gustavus Adolphus, his subordinates at Dirschau were Graf von Thurn, Herman Wrangel, and Johan Baner. From left to right, I've got: a converted Perry ACW commander as Thurn, Warlord's Adolphus as himself, Warlord's Ake Tott as Wrangel, and Warlord's Gustav Horn as Baner.

Vikings

Mostly minis I bought when GB first released their plastics, just rebased and touched up in some cases. Army shot only, I might pick out some favorites to highlight later, but honestly this bunch is pretty out-of-the-box.

Now with Flag

The flag is adapted from a wikipedia image of an artifact depicted the thunder god Perun. I was going to add a border, but honestly I kind of like how stark it looks without one...

more slav elites, and the voivode

The elites are a mix of GB plastics much as before, except the lamellar armor is carved directly into the chest of Dark Age plastic figures (ouch!), instead of being taken from the Arab Heavy Cav box like last time. Also, the flag and horn guys are GB metals, the last of the purpose-built metal Slavs I got from GB. I have yet to decide on a flag for the army.

And here's the general for these guys. He's a Gripping Beast Arab, with a Warlord Games Celt head, and some greenstuff fingers and nasal piece. I figure he's an older dude who prefers to let others do the actual fighting these days, which accounts for his relatively relaxed pose and lack of body armor. He should still stand out on account of having the only helmet in the entire army though...

Italian Wars officer types

I tried mashing together Landsknecht and Perry Mercenary bodies with ECW arms and bits, I think it works out pretty well even if the details are a bit off. Also trying out the camera on my new cell phone, not bad.

Voevode (Russian Commander)

My Muscovites need an officer, and while I believe The Assault Group is working on one, I'm impatient! So I made this guy mostly out of Gripping Beast Arabs, with a Warlord head and horse and a TAG mace.

I gotta say, the Gripping Beast Arab Light Cavalry plastics have been an absolute godsend for Eastern Europe kitbashing. The long-robed legs and embroidered-front torsos are just so handy!

Ottoman commanders

The two red-turban guys are sultans from Warlord (or technically, two versions of the same sultan), and the ulema (religious scholar/judge) is a TAG freebie.

Once again, no conversions. Hmmm, gotta fix that soon...

Who Invited the Bishops?

So, The Assault Group provides special freebie miniatures if your order exceeds a certain price threshold, and if you forget to specify which you would prefer, they just send one that seems appropriate given the other contents of your order. Since I mostly use TAG for Cossacks and Muscovites, it makes sense that I would mostly end up getting Orthodox priests. So here they are.

I decided to do some minor converting just to avoid having identical quadruplets. I just googled "russian orthodox priest" to get a sense of how the outfit might vary, I have no idea what the history or theology is behind the hat colors or whatever. The beard extensions and hat flaps are greenstuff. The staff is a plastic Persian spear bit with a blob of gs on the end, and the ikon is the end of a wooden coffee stirrer.

(the title of this post is a line from The Death of Stalin, which I recommend if you like Armando Ianucci's brand of grim satire).

Carl X Gustav of Sweden

As promised, a historicals post.

I recently realized that, while I have converted several Polish and Cossack personalities, I hadn't yet done any Swedes despite being potentially able to field a decent force of them in Pikeman's Lament. So, off to wikipedia I went!

I let myself have a bit of fun with this one. Most paintings of good ol' Carl show him as a standard dour Swede in cuirassier armor (scarcely distinguishable from a Wrangel or a Wittenberg). But this rather idealistic/allegorical work gives him a bit more panache, so I went with that, even if I don't know how realistic that weird tinsel coat actually is.

(This is mostly just a standard Warlord Games P&S cavalryman, with a Anglo-Zulu War arm, an ACW hat, and plenty of greenstuff)

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...