"15mm Italian Wars" Topic

Most of my collection are 15mm Essex figures. However Essex does not seem to have an extensive selection of Italian Wars, or Renaissance in general, figures.

What manufacturers would you recommend for Italian city state infantry with the oblong or square or triangular shields that also mix well with the Essex 15mm? Also who has a good selection of genitors, stradiots or reiters? I definitely like Essex figures but I am just not seeing the variety of figures I would like for this timeframe.

I think Vexillia's Milirton and Venexia ranges might be the ticket, but I havn't compared the scales to be certain.

vexillia.ltd.uk

Mirliton and Venexia are the ticket. Although slightly thinner and a millimieter or two taller than Essex on average, they do mix in fairly well.

Italian Foot with shields.
Mirliton 15mm "Condottieri" range (1450's+ but suitable for early 16th century as well--although use of shields among non-Sword and Buckler troops declined greatly in the Italian Wars):

link

Pics (and Review):

picture

Stradiots and Jinets.

Venexia 15mm "Italian Wars" range (1500+) are superb:

venexiaminiatures.com

If in the US, Olderivertowne carries Venexia miniatures.

link

Vexillia in the UK is also an excellent source:

link

They carry Mirliton and Venexia, and with the dollar strengthening vs. the Pound, it is far less expensive to order from Vexillia than it was a year ago. I think the prices shown are with VAT tax included. If you are ordering from outside the UK and EU, then your prices would be lower (if I am not mistaken).

Old Glory 15s also carries Jinets and Stradiots:

link

link

Reiters
As far as Reiters, unfortunately Mirliton and Venexia do not seem to make them. They weren't really Italian Wars troop types anyway (until the very end I suppose). But, I think Essex makes a Retier figure or two in 15mm, as does LKM Direct:

link

…and Old Glory 15mm:

(Late Reiter):
link

(Early Reiter w/boar spear):

link

Hope this helps.

Thanks John and Keraunos! I will take a look at them.

Check out Museum Miniatures, too. Reduced 25% until the end of January, which is today…no time to waste.

I have a collection of Venexia, Essex, and some other nice landsknecht figs that I am considering putting up for sale since I have been doing the same armies in 28mm. They are mostly unpainted except for a unit of around 48 landsknecht.

If anyone is interested, I might be tempted to put together an inventory of what I have.

Kyle

I would second the recommendation for Museum. While not ideally suited to an Italian army, they do an excellent range of Landsknecht. This range includes some mounted figures and artillery, and there are some knights in their War of the Roses range that will mix reasonably well with them to add more variety. You can then "cherry pick" both Venexia and Mirliton ranges for the additional troop types. All three ranges are a very good mix together, even in the same units.

This is what I did a couple of years ago when Museum's US distributor had a great sale on the Landsknecht range and a pretty good sale on the WoR. I then added about 100 figures from Venexia and Mirliton to build out my Italian Wars French. They all look very good mixed together and don't mix well with any other manufacturer that I've found. Although they do look fine either in separate units of the same army or facing an opponent using, say, Minifig or Essex or Old Glory.

Note: I haven't seen Old Glory's range personally, but I do have a large quantity of their TYW and ECW figures that I use mixed with Museum ECW and they are an excellent match as well. So, maybe their Italian Wars figures would mix. It would certainly be worth picking up a few OG to see, as this would greatly increase your available range of figures and add a lot of variety.

Bill

The Viking Forge produces the Asgard 15mm Renaissance range, as well as the Matchlock Miniatures ECW range.

vikingforge.datasquire.net