#landsknechts

[askymzbuki]

Landsknecht Stickers

[oldschoolfrp]

"Oh, no! Not more Landsknechts. The ultimate 'Have pike, will travel' troops. From a Renaissance game recently staged by the editor." (Duncan Macfarlane's 25mm armies, photo by Martin Fuller, in Miniature Wargames No 4, 1983)

[mclalan]

[illustratus]

Landsknecht with Halberd and Lady with Pansies by Lucas Cranach the Elder

[howdidthisevenhappenanyway]

I like the idea that jaster mereel’s troupe of supercommandos are really colourful in their armour. I think we should push it so they dress up like space landsknechte

montross is already wearing short sleeves on his kute, I think kal skirata should be wearing slutty shorts that his cuisses can hang off of, it will be fine

at the very least the kute need some colourful stripe action, and some sleeve slashes!

[heroineimages]

New zweihander design!

Had an idea for a new zweihander design and I needed a landsknecht to give it too. She somehow ended up being a halfling.

I enlarged the Simple Great Sword and kitbashed it with the Spike Piercing stretched as wide as it'll go. Pretty simple, but I think it works well.

Link: https://www.heroforge.com/load_config%3D52754694/

[schweizercomics]

Blades of May #10: a late-16th century sword inscribed with the seal of the Brewer's Guild of Cologne, as long as I am tall (6'3) and weighing a shave under ten pounds, from the upper gallery of the Royal Armouries in Leeds.

[petermorwood]

Amused to see that long post about Landsknechts and their bare-legged battle shorts surfacing again. There’s another example in that pic and, given battlefield medicine of the time, a chap in shorts would probably be less at risk of infection from a injury to his bare leg than a man with lots of unwashed clothing fibres driven into the wound.

*****

As usual, there’s a lot of interest in the codpieces, which were of course the fashion of the time as well as projections (hah!) of aggressive masculinity, all of which suited Bad Boys like Landsknechts to a tee.

Nine years ago I reblogged and commented on a picture called “Young Man in a Landscape” by Vittore Carpaccio, which is a great reference for how Maximilian armour fitted a human being rather than an armature in a museum, and how a knight can be in shining armour without looking like he’s been chrome-plated.

So what has this to do with Landsknechts and codpieces?

(1) The mounted man in the background is wearing a “civilised” version of Landsknecht costume; it became fashionable and started being worn by other soldiers than the original mercenary roughnecks. The Papal Swiss Guard (mercenaries yes, roughnecks not so much) still wear a version of it to this day.

(2) Our knight is carrying a sword with the distinctive and typical Katzbalger hilt favoured by Landsknechts, but a much longer (more knightly, certainly more cavalry) blade.

(3) He’s got a codpiece. The funny part is that he’s using it as a mailbox. Why? In a painting this full of symbolism, your guess is as good as mine.