These are the Greens for our Russian peasant labourers for use in the period 1575 - 1650. They are shown dressed in the same manner as our provincial Steltzi, with forked beards and rustic fur trimmed hats. These miniatures are stripped of their bulky outer-coats and sculpted with period shirts.  All are cast open handed to make them suitable for gun crews if equipped with our slight artillery items or as labours if given axes or hammers.

Work on our Spanish Century continues with more greens, dolls and parts from our Master Sculptors talented hands.

Firstly and the only complete 'greens' on show in this batch of miniatures, are a pair of Spanish Wives. These wifes, not subtler or whores, as designated by the visible wearing of the households keys on their skirts, are going to be given away next month with a Spanish Century offer.

Quite why I've taken so long to get the pictures of these latest greens on the workbench is anybodies guess, but it has been ages since we collected these miniatures from our sculptor Nick Collier, and only really my tardiness has stopped me showing them off earlier.

These are the final two packs of Neapolitan Spanish Arquebusier for the period leading up to 1525, s you can see we have gone for miniatures in marching and firing poses, to complement the standing and loading ones we already have on sale.

This evening I am very pleased to be able finally to get round to showing off these latest miniatures in our ongoing Spanish Century Renaissance range.

These new additions are the sword and buckler troops for the Continental Spanish armies and are slightly different to our Conquistador sword and buckler men that are already released. These being much more heavily armoured than the ones designed for the new World

So far, in our Spanish Century extension to our Renaissance range, of 28mm miniatures, we have concentrated on the Spaniards themselves, Conquistadors for the New World and the Neapolitans, for Continental Europe.

Today we can start to show-off what we have planned for the first of the 'armies and enemies', the Italians.

New on the workbench this week are a few packs to add to our huge Renaissance range, we have two new packs of German Musketeers in boot-hose and the conversions of the standing ponies we have made for our Cossack horse-holders.

The ponies are simple conversions, with the reigns back over the body of the beast, for riders to hold. These minis will not be added to any packs in particular, but every Tatar of Cossack pack that is now purchased will have an even greater mix of mounts to choose from.

The Musketeers are depicted in boot-hose as the previous packs that we release have proved very popular. They also all have 'forks' for supporting their muskets, which were very common in the period for which these are intended (1600 - 1640).

After last weeks bad tidings, its much easier this week for me to bring you the latest news form the TAG Workbench.

These four new 28mm miniatures, sculpted by our in-house sculptor Nick Collier are the first of our Germans for the period at the start of the Italian wars, the are taken from the famous wood-cut images commissioned for the Emperor Maximilian, I shortly before his death in 1519. They appear almost at the end of the Maximilian triumphal procession, after the French, Turks, chariots and beasts, escorting a group of prisoners.

These are Nick first stab at the slashed clothes that are so distinctive of this period of military history, I have add a couple of extreme close images of the detail on these parts to show how Nick has tried to convey weight and movement. Slashing seams to have arisen in Italy in 1480's but it was the Germans and the Landsknechts in-particular that took it to its extremes

This weeks news item features more Italians for our early 16th Century range, which we have been calling The Spanish Century.

These four new packs of 28mm miniatures are the final few we shall have for these types in the early part of the 16th Century, they are suitable for what was to become know as the great Italian Wars, but they would also be useful for Italians (Venetians particularly) fighting against the Turks in the eastern Mediterranean and Balkans.

The full details of the packs are as follows;