Johanni De' Medici - Black Bands

 After  many years I decided to finally start the modelling project in 28mm of one of my most beloved historical characters: Johanni De Medici.

I already painted model inspired by this Florentine commander in my other armies, most of all in my WH Dogs of War army. Now I decided to start a historically correct army depicting him and his troops.

The models are from Mirliton Miniatures (which produces in Florence) with just a little conversion on some of the rider's arms and metal lances. Now that I live abroad, it has a special meaning for me to paint Florentine miniatures of a Florentine "hero". 

I painted units of 6 to play them with the ruleset "The Pikeman's Lament" of the Lion Rampant family.

 It appears that Johanni De Medici introduced some sort of uniform among his troops and that all the clothes were dark red. Moreover, to be able to attack at night, it is said that he made  burnish the armours of his troops, so that they did not reflect and did not expose the army position. The real models are darker than they appear in photo.

The banner is from Petes Flags and depicts well one historiographic source in which it is reported that the Black Bands had standards with daemons to honour their nickname "the Black Devils of De Medici". 

 I thank the film The Profession of Arms for the great inspiration.  

More units will follow to reach a 24 points Lion Rampant standard army.