Hello!
Painting by Eugenio Caxés commenmorating the defeat of Hendricksz, it currently resides at El Prado museum.
One of my prior WIP's is here, an "arquebusier" or a hollywoodised gun powder rifleman, whichever is the most appropiate. The inspiration for this came from a long desire to make a figure of the pike and shot era, it's an interesting period where armies are switching from swords and shields and onto gunpowder and artillery.
A bit of history
But still I'm centering in a specific area and that is Puerto Rico, most people seem to think that Puerto Rico is just a cool vacation place where nothing interesting has ever happened, oh are they wrong. In 1625 Boudewijn Hendricksz along with 17 ships made history by breaching the defenses of San Juan, his ships sailed past and out of range of El Morro and El Cañuelo and for two days he stayed in the harbor planning how to disembark his force of 800 men past the shoals that made landing difficult, this was more than enough time for the citizens of San Juan to flee inland leaving the walled city with only a handful of soldiers and militiamen.
Hendricksz entered the city unopposed and captured The Palace of Santa Catalina (La Fortaleza) after which the Dutch started construction of siege trenches and installed a cannon battery, El Cañuelo and San Antonio Bridge where also captured effectively cutting those on El Morro from all supplies. For the next two months there would be an artillery duel between the Dutch artillery and the Puertorican aritllery in El Morro, Juan de Amezqueta, already a war veteran would lead parties of men to assault the siege trenches. The fighting would last two months of back and forth with Hendricksz telling Juan de Jaro y Sanvitores (governor of Puerto Rico and commander of the troops at El Morro) to surrender. At one point Hendricksz said he would burn and raze the entire city to which Juan de Jaro replied "We have enough courage and wood and stone to build again."
On October 22 the Dutch finally made their threats a reality, setting more than 100 houses ablaze, destroying the archives and the Bishop's library, Captain Amezqueta and Captain Botello would soon attack the Dutch, pushing them towards the sea and onto their ships, the city of San Juan would be freed from the Dutch however news of the liberation would never reach Amezqueta as he would be killed in the last minutes of fighting.
Hendricksz entered the city unopposed and captured The Palace of Santa Catalina (La Fortaleza) after which the Dutch started construction of siege trenches and installed a cannon battery, El Cañuelo and San Antonio Bridge where also captured effectively cutting those on El Morro from all supplies. For the next two months there would be an artillery duel between the Dutch artillery and the Puertorican aritllery in El Morro, Juan de Amezqueta, already a war veteran would lead parties of men to assault the siege trenches. The fighting would last two months of back and forth with Hendricksz telling Juan de Jaro y Sanvitores (governor of Puerto Rico and commander of the troops at El Morro) to surrender. At one point Hendricksz said he would burn and raze the entire city to which Juan de Jaro replied "We have enough courage and wood and stone to build again."
On October 22 the Dutch finally made their threats a reality, setting more than 100 houses ablaze, destroying the archives and the Bishop's library, Captain Amezqueta and Captain Botello would soon attack the Dutch, pushing them towards the sea and onto their ships, the city of San Juan would be freed from the Dutch however news of the liberation would never reach Amezqueta as he would be killed in the last minutes of fighting.
Painting by Eugenio Caxés commenmorating the defeat of Hendricksz, it currently resides at El Prado museum.
The Figure
The figure is comprised of some bought items, those are the vest, shirt, pants, helmet and rifle(modified) the shoes, socks, belt, powder flask, baldrick, shot bag the "apostles" and the sword scabbard are made by me. The decision to use a pikeman's helmet was one based on looks rather than historical accuracy, a more historical accurate helmet would be a proper morion, a cabasset or burgonet as these are helmets currently residing in the collection of the ICPR and in the collection of El Morro and San Cristobal. The apostles I made with a cut wooden dowell and the little bits drilled from the top, I don't have a thin enough bit to drill them on the side and my attempts just made them split, they are not great and I would like to change them. I sewed the shoes, these are the second try as the first try where for giants. The rifle is a modified Sideshow Tatooine Luke rifle made to look like a period rifle and that's about it really.
The next figure will still be about this period more or less, it will be a fun thing to put together just how this guy was, and with that, I bid you all a good weekend, and to stay safe out there and keep on having fun.
The next figure will still be about this period more or less, it will be a fun thing to put together just how this guy was, and with that, I bid you all a good weekend, and to stay safe out there and keep on having fun.
