"First Stradiot/Stradioti 28mm Unit" Topic

Many more images, all clickable, of the unit from various angles and of the single bases in detail on my Just Add Water blog here:
justaddwater-bedford.blogspot.com/2021/05/first-stradiotstradioti-unit.html
I have plans for 36 Stradioti in six units of three bases, each base with two miniatures. The bases are simply the same size as the pike bases but turned through 90 degrees to leave enough wiggle room to stagger the models.

Every second unit will be given a banner. The next one will be bearing the arms of Piedro Diodo which were very kindly supplied to my by one of his descendants in Northern Italy (I have stupidly forgotten your name; I'm really sorry- I had to delete some emails to avoid googlemail charging me for space so if you're reading this please contact me and I will happily add in your name). The third banner will be another Standard of St Mark with the tail removed again.

The rules I'm planning to use are Furioso, available from Alternative Armies. If you plan on buying make sure you just get the core rules as the Italian Wars supplement is very fantasy based. Unless of course you are planning to field Da Vinci's weird and wonderful machines in which case go ahead and spend!

Another couple of teasers:

Superb, I love them!

You have done an excellent job on these minis. I just never have been a big fan of stadiots. They look too much like Puritans on horses wearing nightgowns. That said, your paint job and basing technique are outstanding.

Yeah. I was going to say "Pilgrims with spears". Lovely painting job though!

Very nicely painted!

Great painting and basing.

Very nice work!

Great brushwork!

>Puritans on horses
>Pilgrims with spears

Puritans & Pilgrims… nothing could be more misleading to their battlefield performance :-)

Malicious tongues claim that that Charles, at the battle of Garigliano, deliberately let his train trail without proper guard so that the Stradioti would abandon the main fight to go pillage & looting. It certainly worked out that way, wether by intend or not.

I am currently assembling a small units of Stradiots from Venexia, cast now by Lancashire. Looking forward to mix them with TAG and Perrys (and perhaps OG).

For those who find the basic stradiots in their traditional Balkans garb (which predates the Puritans dress style by more than a century), Perrys also do a pack of late 15th century "westernised stradiots", who have been in Italian service long enough to equip themselves with local style clothing and armour.

That said, looking at the miniatures painted by Atheling, the way the traditional long robes have been sculpted seems to provide excellent opportunities – look for example at the wonderful green robes of the mace armed stradiot in the centre.

Now that is a very colourful unit! Love them – thanks for posting

I always thought that Perrys "westernized" stradiots depict Italian (or other western) units that tried to emulate the Stradiot warfare – just like Hussars on the Balkan – using their own typical equipment.
As the Albanians originally have fled from their home territories to Italy around 1450 they were probably pretty conservative in their style, as they would still be recognizable with their hats and coats at least a hundred years later. For some reason the hats caught on with the Landsknechts around 1550, when similar styles showed up.

I always thought that Perrys "westernized" stradiots depict Italian (or other western) units that tried to emulate the Stradiot warfare

In that case would they not be called straditionised westerners instead?

My impression is that stradiots kept coming from the western Balkans to western Europe well after the Ottoman conquests of later 15th century.

The puritan hats were what drew my eye. I'd almost want the army just to get those hat-wearing guys. I can be pretty shallow like that . . .

Cheers,
John

If you are into skirmish gaming, you could very credibly field a scouting force consisting of just Stradioti with their hats.

Or if you want even more of the hats, you could try putting together a whole Albanian army for Skanderbegs revolt in the 15th century. Such a force could consist of mostly stradioti. However, painting them might eventually get a bit boring, especially as there are only so many Stradiot figures out there… and if you want to add some infantry for support, you may need to do some hunting for suitable figures.

I find Stradiots intensely cool. You could probably add in some Hungarian and Ottoman lights in hats if you got desperate for more cavalrymen.

Fantastic work mate!!!!!!