This Workbench up-date, deals with our final basic troop types which are used for the armies of the various Italian States in the period of known as the Great Italian Wars.

The Italians seem to have been the first of the European states to start to use fire tactics troops from horse back, initially with crossbows but later with arquebus

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

This section of the workbench is dedicated to the Venetian Militia bowmen, which although the Venetian had started to arm their infantry with mass fire-arms more quickly than other European forces they were still using bowman, both on the main land of Italy and in there Balkan and Mediterranean  colonies well into the 1540’s.

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.

Three new packs of horsemen on our Workbench feature this weekend, all for our early Great Italian Wars range of miniatures; one packet of Spanish Jinetes with light lances or javelins to accompany the pack we already have in production, one new pack of Albanian Stradiots with side arms, to add variety to the lance armed minis we have on sale, and finally one packet of Italian Elmeti, mercenary heavy cavalry very much in vogue in the early parts of the 16^th Century.

Next on to the Workbench here at TAG HQ are 3 new Tatars for our Eastern Renaissance range of 28mm miniatures.

These musket armed warriors, called Segban, were mounted on ponies for ease of movement. We released the basic troops a year or so ago, but these new miniatures will allow those that would like to show their horse-holder represented on the model battlefield.

These new miniatures, i delighted to say, are the final type necessary for Spanish armies in the first part of the 16th Century, they are suitable for both the Trastamara Spanish and the Caroline Imperial lists in the new Fields of Glory Renaissance army lists.