28mm Painted Portuguese Conquistador Mastiffs or War Dogs.

The conquerors were professional armies, using modern tactics, firearms, combat dogs, and cavalry tactics against unprepared groups. The Companies would often specialize in forms of combat that required longer periods of training that was not available in the form of a mobilized militia.
The strongest war dogs, broad-mouthed breeds of mastiff specifically trained for battle , were used against almost nude troops. The Spanish conquistadors used armoured dogs that had been trained to kill and disembowel when they invaded the land controlled by South American natives. They were used to flush out ambushes by sending the dogs out ahead of columns.


The use of dogs in warfare has been common even in many early civilizations. As warfare has progressed, their purposes have changed greatly. Some examples are:

• 628 BC: The Lydians deployed a separate battalion of fighting dogs.
• 525 BC: Cambyses II used huge fighting dogs against Egyptian spearmen and archers.
• 490 BC: Battle of Marathon: A brave fighting dog was immortalized in a mural.
• 385 BC: Siege of Mantineia: Fighting dogs cut off enemy reinforcements.
• 101 BC: Battle of Vercellae: Large Cimbri dogs led by women defended their wagon forts.
• 1525: Henry VIII exported 400 mastiffs to support Spain.
• 1580: Elizabeth I sent 800 fighting dogs to fight in the Desmond Rebellions.
• 1799: Napoleon assembled large numbers of fighting dogs in front of his reserves.
• 1914: The Belgian Army used carabiniers, strong-muscled Bouvier des Flandres to haul heavy machine guns to the front.
• 1914–1918: Dogs were used by international forces to deliver vital messages.
• 1941–1945: The Soviet Union used dogs strapped with explosives to destroy invading German tanks.
• 1943–1945: The United States Marine Corps used dogs, donated by their American owners, in the Pacific theater to help take islands back from Japanese occupying forces. During this period the Doberman Pinscher became the official dog of the U.S.M.C.; however, all breeds of dogs were eligible to train to be "war dogs of the Pacific". Of the 549 dogs that returned from the war, only 4 could not be detrained and returned to civilian life. Many of the dogs went home with their handlers from the war.^[6]
• 1966–1973: Approximately 5,000 US war dogs served in the Vietnam War (the US Army did not retain records prior to 1968); about 10,000 US servicemen served as dog-handlers during the war, and the K9 units are estimated to have saved over 10,000 human lives. 43 military working dogs and 73 US servicemen working as dog handlers were killed in action during the war. Only 200 Vietnam War dogs returned to the U.S. with their handlers; the rest were euthanized or left behind.^[7]
• 1979–1988: The Soviet Union again used dogs, this time in the Soviet war in Afghanistan.
• 2011: United States Navy SEALs used a Belgian Malinois war dog named Cairo in Operation Neptune Spear, in which Osama bin Ladenwas killed.^[8][9]

28mm mastiffs from Vendel miniatures, can be got now from Sgt Major Miniatures, real nice land sharks.

28mm Sengoku Samurai Game Pictures and Eye Candy.

Asked by some people to show my samurai collection, so I put up a few pictures and will probably use this as a game setting for The Rejects to have a game with a few changes. The game is loosely based on Japan expelling Christian clergy from it's shores due to secret and not so secret plots and plans of the missionaries.

Missionaries were not reluctant to take military action if they considered it an effective way to Christianize Japan. They often associated military action against Japan with the conquest of China. They thought that well-trained Japanese soldiers who had experienced long civil wars would help their countries conquer China. For example, Alessandro Valignano said to the Philippine Governor that it was impossible to conquer Japan because the Japanese were very brave and always received military training but that Japan would benefit them when they would conquer China. Francisco Cabral also reported to the King of Spain that priests were able to send to China two or three thousand Japanese Christian soldiers who were brave and were expected to serve the king with little pay.

The Jesuits provided various kinds of support including military support to Kirishitan (Roman Catholic Christians) daimyo when they were threatened by non-Kirishitan daimyo. Most notable was their support of Omura Sumitada and Arima Harunobu, who fought against the anti-Catholic Ryuzoji clan. In the 1580s, Valignano believed in the effectiveness of military action and fortified Nagasaki and Mogi. In 1585,Gaspar Coelho asked the Spanish Philippines to send a fleet but the plan was rejected due to the shortness of its military capability. Christians Protasio Arima and Paulo Okamoto were named as principals in an assassination plot to murder the magistrate in charge of the Shogunate's most important port city of Nagasaki.

More can be read here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirishitan

Below are pictures of the collection but not all, still more samurai and ashigaru to be deployed plus the Ikko Ikki forces and of course 50 or 60 ninja (did a game once of Oda Nobunaga attack on the Iga Province, needed a lot of ninja for that).Any questions just leave a comment and I will try and answer it.

My 28mm Painted Portuguese Conquistador Artillery.

My 28mm Portuguese artillery and crews from the Wargames Foundry Elizabethan range for their time in Japan around the 1550-1600 period. Have kept the artillery piece separate because pieces were sold to the Japanese (before they started making their own) and I then add a samurai/ashigaru crew.

In all fairness I believe the Portuguese called themselves Discoverers rather than conquistadors.

Portuguese in Japan, my 28mm painted Rodrigues.

This so-called namban (literally, "southern barbarian") screen depicts some of the Portuguese who arrived in Japan in the Azuchi-Momoyama and very early Edo periods. There remain today only about 60 examples of this namban genre. This is an especially important work because the name of its painter, Kano Naizen, is known. The bottom screen shows Portuguese departing from a port in one of their colonies in Southeast Asia, and the top screen shows them entering a Japanese port and engaging in trade activities. A group of the foreigners are walking in the direction of a Jesuit chapel (nambanji). The artist was active during the Azuchi-Momoyama period and was a close associate of military and political leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi.


1543—Portuguese Arrive in Japan


Blown off course during a storm, Portuguese traders shipwrecked near Tangeshima island off the southern coast of Japan. Intrigued by the Portuguese firearms, the local daimyo warlord bought two guns from the European sailors and commissioned his swordsmith to make copies. The daimyo then asked the Portuguese for shooting lessons.



1549—Jesuit Missionaries Settle in Japan

Eager for more firearms, the Japanese warlords welcomed trade with the Portuguese. Along with trade, the Portuguese brought Christian missionaries, and in 1549, Francis Xavier established Japan's first mission at Kagoshima. Jesuit missionary Luis Frois arrived later and wrote Historia de Japan, which covered the years 1549-1593. The book provided most of the known information about contemporary Japan at that time.

I have used a mixture of wargames foundry elizabethan british and spanish figures to portray the portuguese conquistadors or sometimes known as discoverers and this figure is listed as Lord Hawksmoor in the foundry catalogue. I have about 80 portuguese in total including Jesuits and artillery and will post pictures of the rest, somebody asked how many samurai I had, I have hundreds including ninja, ronin, Ikko Ikki etc...... 

My Rodrigues bought a long time ago, bonus points for where that name comes from?