Pro Gloria Landsknechts – A review

Landsknechts ca. 1525

After a childhood flirt with Revell’s excellent 1/72 SYW range, I went into a more serious collector mode in my mid-teens, with the beautiful figures from the GW Empire range as a my favoured objects of purchase.

Now, some 20 odd years later, I find myself once again drawn to the rather excessive garniture of the landsknecht uniforms. This time however I’ll swap Emperors! Karl-Franz will park his Griffon and abdicate the throne of The Empire to the advantage of the historical character, Charles V – Holy Roman Emperor. It’s time for some Italian Wars!

Games Workshop's Empire - were it all started

Having only a few historical figures for this period (All from Foundry), I mapped out my options for building a collection. No wrong on Foundry’s behalf, their renaissance range is very good indeed. But, my heart skipped a beat when finding the excellent Pro Gloria range.

 I quickly found my way to their web shop and found a unit deal that would set me up for a start. A week later the neatly packed figures found their way to my home. Here are my thoughts after I poured the contents out on my desk for a closer view:

The unopened blister pack, with logo printed leaflet

Packaging:

A very presentable blister pack with a nice logo-printed leaflet inside.

8 figures per blister pack. Sealed and posted in standard card board box.

 Sculpting:

As I understand from the Pro Gloria Facebook site, Paul Hicks is behind much of the work. It’s really crisp and clear sculpting with a lovely depth for painting. Modern and anatomical bodies (i.e. no extreme calf muscles or watermelon head sizes.)

Size comparison - the painted figure is Foundry

Size:

28 mm from base to eyes. This is exactly what my Foundry figures also measure,
offering me a welcome opportunity to mix these ranges.

Price:

Standard packages of 8 figures are €14.95 (€1.87 per figure)

Foundry is €15.12 for a standard package of 8 figures (€1.89 per figure)

Both companies offer unit deals. I went for the “Standing Regiment” deal.

Pike unit of 24 figures incl. command for €42,95 (€1.79 per figure)

Overall the price is very reasonable, the products are right up there in the top regarding quality.

Example of the range - standing pike and command

Range:

I must commend the variety of the infantry range. Each blister pack contains 4 poses x 2. At the moment the range offers 2 types of standing packages, and 2 types of attacking packages. This gives you 16 different poses to mix when building your pike block.

Elaborate doesn't really cover it - a landsknecht in full splendor

For each type of pike pose (standing / attacking) there is a matching command package of 4 figures. Two blister packs types of handgunners (8 different poses in total) were added to the range last quarter of 2013., pretty much completing the normal infantry. To add periodical flavour Pro Gloria offers a selection of cool civilians and extras, like landsknechts gambling in camp or a dangerous looking Hackbut.

One of the deciding factors for me was that Pro Gloria is aimed at the renaissance specifically, and that they are building a complete range. Near future releases includes cavalry in the form of Gendarmes and the market’s first box of 28 mm plastic Landsknechts. A great economical advantage when building an army or larger collections i.e. pricing above.

What we can look forward to - Gendarmes on the sculpting table

Fluff:

The packaging is decent, but I imaging there will be much more in terms of historical fluff and nice imagery on the upcoming plastic box. Website, blog and Facebook are present and updated regularly.

Rating:

8/10.

The last two point I’ll reserve for Pro Gloria to give them when they release their plastic Landsknecht kit. One extra for the economy added to the range by offering plastics, and one for the extra fluff completing the range with the nice imagery of boxed sets - Peter Dennis have done some really cool stuff for Pro Gloria. Can be viewed on their FaceBook site. This will in my opinion put them at the top of the market, for anyone interested in modelling renaissance and Italian Wars.

Thank you for reading!