"French Arquebusiers 1525-35: hats?" Topic

I am painting a 15mm French Italian Wars army for FOGR and struggling with these units.

There don't seem to be many/any good references for what they should look like. I'm assuming that by that period there would have been considerable convergence of dress with the Landsknechts and Swiss but keeping some French fashions and a bit plainer in style?

I bought a pack of Old Glory ‘generic' arquebusiers

but now I have painted the first batch they look too much like Landsknechts, despite keeping to a restricted colour range and not having two many stripes and contrasting slashing. I'm also not at all sure about the figure on the right with the long-sleeved coat.

My thought was to modify the rest with different hats partly for variety and to give more of a French style. The question is what styles would be appropriate and should I include some helmets too?

I have taken inspiration from the fantastic work here link and thought to include the hat shown in the detail from the siege of Dijon tapestry but that was 10-20 years earlier than my period.

Regarding style of cap, the link below will give you some idea.

Restricting the colour range is a good idea, perhaps earth tones would help achieve the plain style you are searching for?

link

Cheers,

One of the NYPL prints is based on The Battle at Castellacio in 'Le Voyage de Gênes' (The Journey to Genoa) by Jean Marot, 1510-1520
For more 19th century prints see France: 16th-Century Military Costume by Racinet

Another 16th century source is French Aventuriers in Breydenbach's Peregrinationes in Terram Sanctam
These prisoners, in the Triumph of the Emperor Maximilian may be French. The colouring is from later.

Druzhina
Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

Thanks very much, both of you. I had heard of those references before but overlooked just how good they were. I have been through them and made some sketches of the different headgear and there is a surprising commonality of styles.

I have made a start this evening, filing off the Landsknecht floppy hats and feathers and replacing them with Miliput. I'll post the photos up here when and if I have something presentable.

The idea of using more sober colours, earth tones and similar, sounds good for me. I have used the same palete of colours to paint French, Spaniards and Italians. It is a good way of diferentiate Swiss and Landsquenets from the warriors of other nationalities, althoug every people in west Europe at that time copied, more or lees, some features of the Landsquenets fashion.

I found an interesting picture here:
link

If it is correct in identifying the middle foot figure as an adventurer then his hat looks very similar to some of the OG figures.

I certainly think more variety is needed though. I have modelled new hats and helmets, in various styles, from milliput and I am painting the first 8 figures now. I'll post some pictures here when they are done.

This seems to be a composite drawing as the 'adventurer' doesn't appear in this panel of the Bas-relief du tombeau de François Ier et Claude de France / Basilique de Saint-Denis. Perhaps from another panel I haven't seen?

Druzhina
16th Century Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

I have finished the first unit. It's much harder than I had hoped to make even these minor modifications look ok and I have even more respect than before for those who make actual complete master figures. Even so, I'm quite pleased with the overall effect and I learned a lot from doing these so I hope the next batch will be better.

I forgot to add:

Rather than particularly muted colours, I went for a limited range of colours but tried to keep them quite bright: with too many earth tones at such a small scale I was afraid they would look like WW2 infantry.

My photo bucket gallery is here:
link

Beautiful job – figures and army. I also like the Gendarmes and Landsknechts. Very inspiring! I think the Gendarmes were mostly Essex, but who makes the Landsknechts?

Thank you.

One unit of Gendarmes uses Essex figures but the other is a mix of 2nd and 3rd (current) generation Minifigs with Asgard / Table Top Games / Altuos. I replaced all the lances with wire/Milliput and made some changes to add or extend skirts, change barding and reins.

For the command group, Bourbon is an Asgard rider on a Minifigs horse, the trumpeter is old Minifigs and the standard bearer is modern Minifigs.

The Landsknechts are a similarly mixed lot: mostly old Minifigs with some new Minifigs armoured pike, Asgard light pikemen, Frei Korps officers, drummer, 2-handed swords and one Black Hat standard bearer. I replaced the pikes with brass wire and made the halberds with wire and solder to get a more uniform look despite the different manufacturers.

Those Gendarmes are very impressive.

I have finished modelling the hats and helmets for the second batch now, so they are ready for painting. I have also modified what I think was a Venexia Spanish figure to represent their officer by filing down the comb on his helmet, the ribbing on his shield and his baggy breeches and re-modelling them as tights to try to make him look earlier and less Spanish. Also replaced his rather bent sword with brass.

It certainly gets much easier with a bit of practice and I am happier with these than the first ones, albeit some things like the attempt at scarves round two of the helmets aren't quite right, though a think that will disappear under the paint.

Here are some WIP pictures.