Elizabethan Swashbucklers

When I heard that Two Hour Wargames was coming out with a new ruleset call "By Savvy or Sword," I knew I'd be getting them, because I already had the figures and terrain. I dug out the old figures, and they were in varying degrees of disrepair.

Some needed rebasing, some needed repainting. And I had since learned how to hammer out my own swords, so the first thing I did was make new rapier blades for all of the swordsmen. After seeing how the first blade looked on a figure, I knew I had something that was going to look nice.

Here are the first three (pictured above.) The figure in the middle has not been repainted or rebased; the only thing I've done to him was to replace the blade. I can't remember when I originally painted him, but it must have been in the past couple years, because that's one of my better "early" paint jobs.

The other two figures weren't bad, but I still wanted to start fresh, so I stripped their paint, reprimed and had another go. Just like the pirates, these were fun to paint. I believe these were sculpted by Mike Owen, who did a good job of creating nice sweeping planes on the figures, combined with just enough detail to make the figures interesting, but not too difficult to paint. These would make a good intermediate project for someone learning to paint.

A quick note on By Savvy or Sword: The rules look like they cover the Musketeer era, 1625 onward. I've chosen the Elizabethan era (well, those are the figures I have, anyway) which starts about 50 years prior. But honestly, I don't think there will be much different save for some slight changes in costume. Even still, I have sculpted my own Cyrano (who is later 17th Century,) because every swordplay setting needs a poet-warrior. You'll be seeing him a little later.

My collection isn't large. I'll be painting only about 20 figures. I do have some others (Sea Dogs) I painted for the second Foundry Painting Guide. I'll probably dig those out, too, though, I won't be redoing any of them. They are mostly halberds and muskets, along with a captain and a small cannon, all based for the jungles of the new world. These newer figures are all based for fighting in the city, Shakesperean style!