In the days before standing armies, the men that Scotland could call upon to fight in the 16th century came from two main sources. First there were the retinues of the lords, effectively private armies that could be placed at the service of the king, assuming that their lord approved of course. For larger armies however, the majority of the men were raised by levy, whereby citizens were required to serve when called for a set period, and to provide their own weapons and supplies. This could be for as little as 15 days, but could be 30 or, at the most, 40 days, which meant any campaign had to be completed quickly or risk the army simply going home, regardless of whether the operation had achieved its goals. The majority of most Scottish armies were made up of pikemen, and the pike or long spear had long been a favoured weapon since the days of the schiltron. In Europe, the Swiss and then the Germans had shown how effective the pike could be, and the Scots were keen to replicate their success, with large pike formations at the heart of Scottish tactics at many battles such as Flodden (1513) and Pinkie Cleugh (1547), but heavy defeat in both battles exposed the limits of pike warfare under certain conditions.

At various times Parliament regulated the length of the long spear or pike, and this equated to between 4.7 and 5.6 metres. The pikes in this set are all of the same length, about 48 mm in total, which is around 3.5 metres to scale, so they are a fair bit shorter than they should be. While it is true that some men did quietly reduce the length of their pike to save on weight, and the regulations may not have been scrupulously observed in the first place, at least some in this set should have been longer than they are to be historically accurate. However, such long thin items present many production problems, including the size (and so the cost) of mould required, so it is not unusual to see the length of pikes reduced like this, and those here are at least unmistakably pikes, and so are an understandable compromise. What is less easy to accept is the complete lack of detail, by which we mean that these pikes are merely crude strips of plastic, sometimes with a sharp point at the end, but with no sign of any detail such as a head. The photos of the master sculpts on the box suggests these were originally sculpted, but they did not survive to the production figures, which is a shame.

The eight pikeman poses in this set offer us an array of men handling their pike in different ways. This means there is a lot of choice, but also that it makes no sense to place all these men together in a unit, as they are doing very different things. All the poses look reasonable to us, but the one that is lacking is perhaps the most important one, showing a man with pike lowered and moving forward, as he would if part of an advancing pike block. This would be the required pose if showing a Scottish pike block in action, so its absence here is a problem. What poses we do find look quite nice, particularly those with the pike more or less vertical, and the ones walking with the pike resting on their shoulder make very useful marching figures, but all are quite useable.

As in ancient times with the phalanx, so in the early modern period the best armoured men were placed at the front of the pike block, and since many men were raised from the general populace when required, the standard of armour varied enormously, with many having little protection. Several here wear a jack, which was a coat with small metal plates sown inside for added protection, or else other forms of doublet or jerkin that might or might not have some form of armour protection hidden from sight. A couple wear a longer shirt, giving them the appearance of Highlanders, and one of these also wears mail around the shoulders and a basinet-style helmet, which again suggests a man from the western area. As well as the usual caps and bonnets, there are a handful of helmets in various styles, from a simple round skull-cap to a burgonet, and the last pictured pikeman is bareheaded, which at a time when men habitually wore headwear when outdoors further singles him out as a Highlander. Several also wear a cloak, and the wardrobe of all is interesting and varied, but nothing is out of place.

The command figures offer us a drummer, trumpeter, banner-man and officer. The drummer wears ordinary clothes, and is neither armed nor armoured, while the trumpeter has a cuirass front and back, and a peaked helmet with plume at the back. The man with the banner also wears a cuirass front and back, of ornate design, as well as tassets and a crested helmet, but the officer presents the most glorious spectacle, wearing a half-armour and fashionable burgonet helmet with voluminous plume of feathers. This man holds some sort of baton in the air – we are not sure what this is or why he holds it in the air. The drum is a nice size, and the banner is the same, being a little under 20 mm square and undecorated. So apart from the rather odd officer pose, we liked everything about the command figures.

The sculpting of these figures is very good, with plenty of detail on both clothing and faces, though not on the pikes as we have said. However there is quite a bit of flash on all seams, and this is quite thick in many places, leaving a very rough finish which many will want to remove, though this would be a time-consuming task. We found the pikes were mostly bent when first removed from the box, but immersing in steam for a few seconds soon resolves this.

If you are looking to make a handful of pikeman markers for some wargame then the figures in this box work well, but if you want to create a more realistic larger block of pikemen then you will need several copies of this set due to the variety of poses, and in that case the effort needed to clean up the figures will be more of an issue. Once cleaned up, and with sufficient of whichever pose is desired, you will have a very decent collection of figures for the core of any Scottish army. Those with a more casual interest in the period will find much to enjoy with these figures, which also have scope for uses beyond the borders of Scotland.