Steven’s Spanish Army of the Eighty Years War

My Renaissance Spanish army. These chaps can do service in the latter part of the Eighty Years’ War or in the Thirty Years’ War.

Roland Davis painted all the figures and flags. He uses the Black Undercoat Method of painting. He followed my Painting Guide. Roland glued on the sand to but I finished the the bases using Sand, Flat Earth paint, and Dry Brushing method. Except where noted all figures are the 15mm range from Essex Miniatures.

The Tercios

OK the Tercios weren’t a battlefield formation but you can’t have a renaissance Spanish army without mentioning the word “Tercio”. Strictly speaking the Spanish formed “Squadrons” on the battlefield. Like their opponents the Spanish had a core of pikes with sleeves of shot.

Spanish Pike and Shot

Spanish Pike and Shot – Flag with white field

So far Roland has painted two units.

Spanish Pike and Shot

Spanish Pike and Shot – Flag with yellow field

The Spanish retained the arquebus longer than their contemporaries. Aside from the fact the weapon changed over time so a late period arquebus wasn’t so different to a late period musket, the Spanish retained the weapon as they believed smaller men could not use a musket effectively so there was no point in giving them one.

Essex don’t do a 30 years war arquebusier so I’ve used figures from the Italian Wars. The big differences is the puffy pantaloons and a sword with a simple hilt rather than a rapier.

Spanish Arquebus

Spanish Arquebusiers

The rest of the shot are musketeers. The same figures as I used for the Dutch but without uniforms.

Spanish Musket

Spanish Musketeers

The Spanish retained armoured pikemen until quite late. Roughly speaking, half the pikemen would have had a corselet and helmet.

Spanish Pike

Spanish Pike

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