Hello! Barely anyone ever does mid-17th century Eastern Europe, and when they do - it's either Poles or Turks. I'd like to bring attention to some other factions of this period and region which fascinate me: the Russians and the Zaporozhian Cossacks! I'll show off what I have and share the history that I know.
The Russian army is the one nearest to completion out of the two. I have still to do the artillery and commanders, or the lancers that arrived not too long ago. The Russian army of this period has recently underwent further reforms under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich after the initial ones done by his father, Mikhail Feodorovich in the 1630s. Tsar Alexei expanded the creation of regiments of foreign order, increasing the amount soldiers, reiters, dragoons and lancers that the Russian army had at its disposal.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50996427536_c6f8b919ac_b.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50996545602_0879e17e1c_b.jpg)
On the left here we have a base of dragoons and a caracole of reiters. Because no-one actually makes Russians of this period, these are proxies. I used League of Augsburg allied dragoons and cuirassiers in helmet, respectively. They are the closest models I could find.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50996427491_31994ef7aa_c.jpg)
Reiters were particularly important as the cavalry was still the main striking force of Eastern Europe. With the constant conflicts of the late 16th and early 17th century, the Russian gentry and regional nobility that fought as horsemen became impoverished, often not affording adequate equipment to fight with. Reiters were supplied by the state with most or all of the equipment, so the Russian nobility that entered the ranks of the reiters were saved from both their material constraints and the indignity of serving in the infantry. Russians also lacked a good stock of horses that could be used for hard cavalry charges, unlike their neighbours, so they had to make do with mediocre little beasts, with some lancers even riding what were essentially almost ponies. Lacking adequate tradition and material conditions to train up and supply anything en masse to rival the Polish hussars, the Russians went for the cheaper massed firepower of the reiters instead. The dragoons were very important to support the reiters. They also had to do a lot of digging fortifications, I've heard even more so than the rest of Russian infantry. Their uniforms are modelled after the Novgorod Regiment, a regional-administrative unit rather than just a group of soldiers, led in many battles and skirmishes in Lithuania by the talented Ivan Andreyevich Khovanskiy.
Next we have the Russian infantry. At the back I have (what I think are) the Moscow streltsy of the fifth prikaz (regiment).
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50996545567_5e21349d11_c.jpg)
By this point of Russian history the streltsy were being trained up to fight in the manner of western infantry, though I have not really heard of them using pikes. In front of them are soldiers of foreign order, conscripts and volunteers taught to fight in western manner. These did use pikes in 1630s and rarely in the Russo-Polish War of 1654-67, depending on the commander in charge. They were still trained to use pikes, just in case. A big misconception about these guys as well as the streltsy is the use of the bardiche. At the start of the war, the standard issue close combat weapon was the rapier. In the mid-1650s the tsar ordered the manufacture and issue of bardiches according to government specifications. There is also no evidence they rested the muskets on the bardiche, but everyone poses them like that anyway so I had to make do. You might have noticed that I have cut off some of the bardiches off some of my figures, but it's just too bothersome to do it for all of them.
On the right we have some more dragoons and the pomest'ye cavalry.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50995733318_2ef6ee88ce_c.jpg)
The pomest'ye cavalry were landed gentry and nobility that served for life in exchange for land. I have mentioned their material troubles earlier, and while they did have problems, one must not forget that they were still dedicated and professional warriors that, along with the streltsy, were the most reliable troops the Russians could offer. Their equipment has also changed noticeably since the time of Ivan The Terrible, so I avoid outright calling them "traditional". At the border of the 16th and 17th century, due to financial problems, the proud Russian nobility had to pick up guns alongside or instead of bows. By the 1650s the pomest'ye cavalry were very similar to reiters in terms of weaponry (I'm not sure about the tactics though), use of bows became more of an old martial art and something of prestige among the nobility. When Russian entered the war with Poland, it were the Poles that had more bows in their armies. They also lacked body armour, at most wearing helmets and padded clothes.
Unfortunately the models do not reflect all that at all. These guys are a mix of Irregular miniatures and a few Pendraken ones (officers from the ECW range). A few have lances and shields and only the Pendraken ones have visible guns (no more shields back then and lances were pretty rare). So there's that.
Next are the Cossacks and their allies. Unfortunately, I know about them significantly less than about the Russians.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50996433681_3321290871_b.jpg)
On the left we have mounted cossacks. Despite the unsheathed sabres, these guys fight dragoon-style (these are the closest models I could find). I decided to paint them grey-white because that is one one of the most widespread colours of cossack clothes, the clothes was either cheaply dyed or undyed. I have read that the oldest and most authoritative cossacks purposefully wore white to look humble. That's why I went for white to distinguish them as being more veteran and richer, being able to afford a horse.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50995739708_3ff396a292_c.jpg)
Next we have the foot cossacks. At the back I have veterans, again, in white. In front of them I have cossackised peasant rabble in tan and dark grey coats (obviously cheap clothes). Both the veterans and the rabble use the exact same models, so I have to be creative in distinguishing them. The veterans have a semblance of order (they were not trained to march in order, they are irregular troops), while the rabble are all over the place. I remember that a Polish writer of the period described cossacks advancing as "looking more than cattle than people" (don't quote me on that quote).
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50996433686_45e60deee1_c.jpg)
Finally we have their allies (or enemies, depending what side the cossacks are on) - the Crimean Tatars. To be precise, these are Nogai Tatars, the nomadic tatars under the vassalage of the Crimean Khan. I have asked a historian on the colour scheme for them and it turned out to be rather simple, I painted them up faster than I originally expected. Nogai Tatars were ordinary steppe warriors, they wouldn't have worn anything fancy (their main priority was acquiring slaves for sale). They were allies of the cossacks in the Cossack rebellion that started in 1648, but switched sides to the Poles when Russia invaded the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1654. Tatars were an important component of the Cossack armies as the cossacks themselves lacked any adequate striking cavalry; it is one of the main reasons the previous cossack rebellions ended in failure. After the Tatar betrayal, they were replaced by the Russian cavalry.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50995739693_26c9d15119_c.jpg)
I still have a fair bit of models to do. The afore-mentioned Russian lancers are a few. I have mixed the remaining mounted cossack and Tatar figures to make a banner of light cavalry. I have a big pack of Polish pancerni lying around too, as well as more cossack foot. My initial purpose of this was to have two armies in one, I could have cossacks fight against Russians if there is no-one else with an army around me (at one point of the war a bit less than a half of the cossacks joined Poland and fought against Russia), and I could combine them to play against someone with an army. Though I don't think anyone in the country, let alone city, really does this sort of thing, so it's going to be the former for a long, long while.
I hope this was interesting, I will upload more, eventually.
This is fantastic, I always enjoy finding out about lesser known conflicts and regions so very much enjoyed reading through this and seeing all the figures. What rules are you planning to use with them?
Quote from: mmcv on 02 March 2021, 02:58:39 PM
This is fantastic, I always enjoy finding out about lesser known conflicts and regions so very much enjoyed reading through this and seeing all the figures. What rules are you planning to use with them?
Thank you very much! I'm planning to use Twilight of Divine right for them. Nick Dorrel has kindly provided me with the prototype expansion of the rules for Eastern Europe, and it looks well enough for the job, though there are some questions. I'm just waiting for the lockdown to end to actually try them out.
Superb post.
I will return to this and read it again.
When I was learning history at school, the impression was that time flowed differently for Russia.
No insult intended, but British history had a big focus on the French and German bits, with occasional cameos in America, Africa or India.
Once in a while Russia would appear in the European theatre, with a footnote that they had been "fighting the Turks" in the interim.
My school history paid little attention to developments; social, cultural or military between these appearances.
Thanks, once again, for the post.
I can see it starting me off on some new research of my own.
I have both those, and I agree they're well worth having. In our current 1640s campaign, in fact, the Poles have been wiped out and the Turks are on the ropes; an uneasy Muscovite-Zaporozhian alliance is half holding together in the realisation that Sweden has picked up an awful lot of northern Europe.
By the way, Poland supplied the Cossacks with an awful lot of blue cloth as part of their wages, and a few Ukrainian paintings support written reports that they were fond of reds.
Irregular Miniatures have some 10mm figures that are useful supplements to the Pendraken ranges, and I use some Kallistra and TB as a major part of my Boyar forces. The older Pendraken Jpanese had a peasant musketeer who can easily convert to an excellent topless Cossack.
Quote from: steve_holmes_11 on 02 March 2021, 03:55:09 PM
Superb post.
I will return to this and read it again.
When I was learning history at school, the impression was that time flowed differently for Russia.
No insult intended, but British history had a big focus on the French and German bits, with occasional cameos in America, Africa or India.
Once in a while Russia would appear in the European theatre, with a footnote that they had been "fighting the Turks" in the interim.
My school history paid little attention to developments; social, cultural or military between these appearances.
Thanks, once again, for the post.
I can see it starting me off on some new research of my own.
Thank you very much! I'm happy if my writing has explained something new.
I see what you mean. Here in Ireland our history classes mention Russia only from its 1870s Russo-Turkish War and onwards, what happened before is pretty much unknown to most of the populace. Then again, the textbook I had barely explained Cromwell in a short paragraph anyway.
For me, Russia on the surface always looked very archaic, always "traditional" and virtually stagnant, but when looking under that veneer, development never stops. That is why I love this period in particular, the cultural shifts, the attempted reforms of society, the "East" soaking up some aspects of the "West", and so on.
Quote from: FierceKitty on 02 March 2021, 04:22:31 PM
I have both those, and I agree they're well worth having. In our current 1640s campaign, in fact, the Poles have been wiped out and the Turks are on the ropes; an uneasy Muscovite-Zaporozhian alliance is half holding together in the realisation that Sweden has picked up an awful lot of northern Europe.
By the way, Poland supplied the Cossacks with an awful lot of blue cloth as part of their wages, and a few Ukrainian paintings support written reports that they were fond of reds.
Irregular Miniatures have some 10mm figures that are useful supplements to the Pendraken ranges, and I use some Kallistra and TB as a major part of my Boyar forces. The older Pendraken Jpanese had a peasant musketeer who can easily convert to an excellent topless Cossack.
Sounds like a nice campaign! May the dice be in your favour!
I have heard of the Polish authorities paying the registered Cossacks with cloth, but I have also read that those payments were, traditionally, few and far between. I have not heard of red being popular though, I'll need to look into that. When it comes to white, I have heard the gruesome yet poetic line from a contemporary Polish writer: "the field has whitened with cossack corpses" (I translated this from Russian, which was also translated from Polish), something like that. Considering the wide social make-up of the cossacks, many colours will do. But I'm lazy.
I originally did start out with Irregular miniatures, but their stuff is good enough only for Ivan The Terrible at best, unfortunately. Similarly with Kallistra and TB. The mid-17th century Russians look in some ways different in clothes and equipment from their previous century counterparts. The Japanese peasant musketeers would have been a nice addition to my cossack rabble, I really should have gotten them. It would have been easier to explain who's who on the battlefield to newbies.
Quote from: The_Wrong_Khovanskiy on 02 March 2021, 03:15:29 PM
Thank you very much! I'm planning to use Twilight of Divine right for them. Nick Dorrel has kindly provided me with the prototype expansion of the rules for Eastern Europe, and it looks well enough for the job, though there are some questions. I'm just waiting for the lockdown to end to actually try them out.
Very good, I've gone a few solo test games with the Twilight rules recently and been enjoying them, hoping to get some of the scenario books soon and look at starting up a project in the near future.
Thanks for posting this and as others have said, it's always nice to learn about periods and/or conflics that we often don't hear that much about :)
What a great write up, and great looking figures (lets not get into the table cloth, though!)
Thanks for taking the time to write up and share!
I think there is a pretty reasonable film about this era - although it might be a bit earlier - all to do with a Polish invasion of Russia.
It might called '1644' or something like that. I need to have a trawl of my DVD collection.
Very nice
>>I think there is a pretty reasonable film about this era - although it might be a bit earlier - all to do with a Polish invasion of Russia.
It might called '1644' or something like that. I need to have a trawl of my DVD collection.
I think the film is "1612". Pretty good actually with some excellent battle scenes.
Phil
That's a mighty fine looking army !
:-bd =D> :-bd
Damn fine looking army.....And if we haven't said it already...
Welcome to the forum, that man !!
Cheers - Phil :)
AS Phil says (Good Greif i'm agreeing with Phil)
You've obviously got a very high fever...and starting to hallucinate, Ian. :)
Cheers - Dr Phil. ;)
Quote from: Glorfindel on 02 March 2021, 09:52:21 PM
>>I think there is a pretty reasonable film about this era - although it might be a bit earlier - all to do with a Polish invasion of Russia.
It might called '1644' or something like that. I need to have a trawl of my DVD collection.
I think the film is "1612". Pretty good actually with some excellent battle scenes.
Phil
Yes - I thought it was a good film ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1612_(film)
Thank you everyone! I'm glad yous found my writing informative and you liked my minis!
Quote from: Techno II on 03 March 2021, 10:21:31 AM
You've obviously got a very high fever...and starting to hallucinate, Ian. :)
Cheers - Dr Phil. ;)
I hope not I'm doing some Covid testing in Halewiood from Friday for 8 1/2 days. :D
Quote from: Big Insect on 02 March 2021, 07:15:58 PM
I think there is a pretty reasonable film about this era - although it might be a bit earlier - all to do with a Polish invasion of Russia.
It might called '1644' or something like that. I need to have a trawl of my DVD collection.
yep, as Phil pointed out, it's "1612". It's a guilty pleasure of mine. Despite it being borderline fantasy with some weird and silly choices in terms of costume and battle tactics, it's such a nice watch. There are so few films about the time period every drop is important.
Quote from: ianrs54 on 03 March 2021, 10:59:03 AM
I hope not I'm doing some Covid testing in Halewiood from Friday for 8 1/2 days. :D
Good for you, Ian !Just take care, chum.
Stay as safe as poss....Phil. :)
Good to see these in 10mm, and I'm interested in which codes were used for them.
You might want to have a look at 'By Fire and Sword'. These are rules for this exact period for this exact location. It covers all major and minor armies. They have their own extensive range of 15mm figures as well.
The (free and online) army creator will give you an idea of the armies that can be built: http://ac.oim.wargamer.pl/index.php
The basic rulebook is available as a pdf download: http://www.fireandsword.wargamer.pl/index.php?option=com_rokdownloads&view=folder&Itemid=86
And there are also downloads for the various armies with unit stats, worth it for the potted history and examples of painted units alone.
Quote from: Techno II on 03 March 2021, 11:06:51 AM
Good for you, Ian !
Just take care, chum.
Stay as safe as poss....Phil. :)
Thanks Phil, I am getting paid but would do it for nothing. Only problem is getting there - Mersey rail are running a 50% service so up at 05:30 :'(
That's even earlier than me ! :o
Just make sure you're as safe as poss, Matey.
Cheers - Phil.
Quote from: OldenBUA on 03 March 2021, 11:24:28 AM
Good to see these in 10mm, and I'm interested in which codes were used for them.
You might want to have a look at 'By Fire and Sword'. These are rules for this exact period for this exact location. It covers all major and minor armies. They have their own extensive range of 15mm figures as well.
The (free and online) army creator will give you an idea of the armies that can be built: http://ac.oim.wargamer.pl/index.php
The basic rulebook is available as a pdf download: http://www.fireandsword.wargamer.pl/index.php?option=com_rokdownloads&view=folder&Itemid=86
And there are also downloads for the various armies with unit stats, worth it for the potted history and examples of painted units alone.
Russian reiters: LOA31 (with EC31 mixed in), dragoons: LOA42. Infrantry and streltsy: GNR7. For the pomest'ye cavalry, I mixed in EC31 with ones from Irregular miniatures: TER 16, as well as TC 4, 5, 6, but I wouldn't use those again. For Cossacks I used P10 and P12, and for Tatars OT7. I've some more lying around, some mounted cossacks from Irregular TER range, as inaccurate as their hats are. For Russian lancers I got a pack of standard bearers of EC10 (get those via custom order). To fill out the Cossacks, I got some Polish dragoons and and pancerni too, but those are easy enough to find.
I have seen the "By Fire and Sword", but the rules require a fair bit of markers and I also prefer my minis to be smaller to accommodate larger battles. Unfortunately, as you can see, I do not take the easy way out, for some strange reason. I might try the rules out eventually.
Lovely stuff, inspirational.
Well done Ian & stay safe
Thanks Paul
An unexpected update, I have painted and based another addition to the Russian army - the hussars!
I was a bit confused in the original post when I referred to lancers, I should have called them hussars. Both the hussars and the lancers had an identical combat function, there were some minor differences between them.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51020245152_3627db6e6f_c.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51019417933_3774268008_c.jpg)
The story of Russian hussars goes back to the 1630s with the first army reforms in Russia in preparation to the Smolensk War against Poland. Russia attempted to imitate the Polish hussars. They were dressed up in very similar armour and weapons, even the long and hollow lances, and they were made up of Russian Orthodox Poles and Lithuanians, anyone that had something to do with the original hussars. They had some action in the Smolensk War, but not much is known about them afterwards until 1654 when they once again saw action against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. They evidently haven't done very well, so they were reformed into reiters.
There was a resurgence in hussars in 1660 when Ivan Andreyevich Khovanskiy, the commander of the Novgorod regiment, in order to improve combat ability and morale of his troops after a crushing defeat at Polonka that year, selected the best reiters (out of them he picked only the Russian nobility, not volunteers or cossacks reformed into reiters) and named them hussars. By 1661 they were given hussar armour and lances, but their armament could sometimes vary as they could also wear armour identical to those of reiters. With both the earlier hussars and the resurged ones, there was the attempt to recreate the social standing of the Polish hussars, which were the elite of Polish society. That is why it was necessary for Khovanskiy's hussars to be exclusively nobility. While the Russian hussars were not steeped in long tradition like that of the Polish hussars, their battlefield prowess and social standing had indeed earned them a similar respect from Russian society. They fought well, were armed, armoured and trained well, and they were paid well.
The lancers date back to 1658 in southern Russia (the Belgorod regiment, to be precise, once again, a regional-administrative unit). They used lances and pistols and their armour was identical to that of the reiters. The main difference between hussars and lancers was the social make-up, as the lancers, unlike hussars, could take in reiters of lower classes like urban cossacks, and even infantrymen. Because my army is modelled after Khovanskiy's Novgorod force post 1660, these ones are hussars and not lancers.
Both the hussars and the lancers had an identical battlefield use. Reiters softened up the enemy with their firepower, then hussars and lancers charged in. Lancers were also usually divided up and posted to reiter regiments, making up a third of their reiter regiment. The hussars tended to serve together as a regiment, and they remained in service way into the Great Northern War (wink wink, nudge nudge. Actually, all the Russian troops I mentioned here were used in the earlier stages of GNW, so that's a very big wink wink and nudge nudge).
I hope I got that right, if anyone knows better, please correct me.
Another nice unit and historical background too :).
Quote from: Steve J on 09 March 2021, 09:33:25 PM
Another nice unit and historical background too :).
thanks!
I'm actually running through sources right now and quickly editing the text to be as accurate as possible.
Nice
Good stuff ! :-bd
Cheers - Phil. :)
That's a nice looking unit
Very nice mate ;)
Cudders
Good work
Hello again. I'm busy with assignments and I really can't do much for a while. For now I'll post some Polish-Lithuanian pancerni for now. I did them a few weeks ago and added snow yesterday. The snow is baking soda, PVA glue and white paint. I hope I got the proportions right and it won't degenerate into stinking sludge after a few years.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51113163563_794d7a6fd2_c.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51113008419_4031b1261c_c.jpg)
I tried to make them colourful. Sorry there's no historical info on them today, I'm absolutely swamped.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51113163553_ac82f7462f_c.jpg)
Pancerni facing off Russian reiters, which I also snowed.
Looking great!
What Matthew said !! :-bd
Cheers - Phil. :)
Another great unit 8).
Looks ace
Sorry for the late reply lads, but thank you all very much!
Do like the snow effect....
I really like these, well done. The snow effect certainly looks the business.
I've used the same combination (white paint, PVA & baking soda) and found that it is really enhanced if you add a sprinkling of just the baking soda over the
top of the final mixture. I can't tell from the pics whether you have done this or not.
Although the snow effect sticks well, the first 'post-sprinkle' game does tend to leave little white reminders all over the battlefield ! Nothing too dramatic.
You can also change the mix and add brown paint to give you a great 'mud effect'. Works really well with 6mm / 10mm vehicles - no care needed, just slap
it on the tank treads or whatever.
Phil
Quote from: Glorfindel on 15 April 2021, 03:28:06 PM
I really like these, well done. The snow effect certainly looks the business.
I've used the same combination (white paint, PVA & baking soda) and found that it is really enhanced if you add a sprinkling of just the baking soda over the
top of the final mixture. I can't tell from the pics whether you have done this or not.
Although the snow effect sticks well, the first 'post-sprinkle' game does tend to leave little white reminders all over the battlefield ! Nothing too dramatic.
You can also change the mix and add brown paint to give you a great 'mud effect'. Works really well with 6mm / 10mm vehicles - no care needed, just slap
it on the tank treads or whatever.
Phil
thank you very much! Thanks for the tip too, but I have heard horror stories of baking soda breaking down and it turning into oily ooze after a few years. I assume you didn't have these problems though, so that is a relief, I'll have to try it out. I wish I knew that I could make mud that way too, I would not have gotten a jar of Vallejo mud.
Quote from: ianrs54 on 15 April 2021, 03:09:17 PM
Do like the snow effect....
thank you! I'm happy that my first attempt doesn't look bad.
Hello, I have returned after a long hiatus. My newest addition to the armies are the Belarussian/Lithuanian/Polish gentry and Don Cossacks.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51298031596_882da4774d_c.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51297286592_528681f3cf_c.jpg)
Here is the gentry. As you can see, no uniforms, diverse weapon choices. I mixed in a lot of left-over figures I had from Tatars, Zaporozhian cossacks, Don cossacks and Polish dragoons of all things, since I usually have a few left after I put six horsemen on each base. I initially planned to make them into a light/Tatar banner for Lithuanians/Poles, but that would have only made half a unit, so I reluctantly mixed in other figures too. I suppose I can use them for both Poles and Russians, since Russians did employ them too from the Lithuanian/Belarussian territories they took over. Then again, many of them were inducted into reiters too in the Novgorod regiment. EDIT: No they weren't, only a couple of Belarussian gentry joined the reiters. I read the book wrong.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51298742604_8da445bb55_c.jpg)
The Don cossacks. The figures are from Irregular Miniatures, the sculpts aren't very good. I decided to use them since I had them. Don cossacks were painted much like soldiers of foreign order, shades of brown, that is why you cannot see some of them properly. Then again, there is not much to see anyway. Don cossacks fought both on foot and on horse, though predominantly on foot, as was the case with many other free cossacks in that war. Later on in the Novgorod regiment, many of them were also induced into reiters, serving alongside Russian gentry and lower ranks of serving people, as well as peasants. I have decided to use them as light cavalry.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51298206308_de13406893_c.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51299040840_8c18a45595_c.jpg)
I have incorporated dead and wounded into this one. One is lying dead with his horse, another one was shot and his horse was wounded in the legs, though you can barely see it. They both were done like that because the casting didn't go too well and the horse legs literally had gaps in them. Sorry that the photos aren't very good, I tool them on an iPad.
Good as ever
Great work once again 8).
Nice effects and admirable use of damaged castings.
I wonder how Oliver and the New Noddle would have coped with "hordes" of Cossacks?
actually I daren't wonder too much or it will be yet another project for the 2030s
Lovely work!
Quote from: DecemDave on 08 July 2021, 04:05:36 PM
Nice effects and admirable use of damaged castings.
I wonder how Oliver and the New Noddle would have coped with "hordes" of Cossacks?
actually I daren't wonder too much or it will be yet another project for the 2030s
Thanks! I really wanted to do casualties for this.
Oh no, don't give me ideas! I already ordered another starter army and planning another, I don't need more!
Very nice, indeed !
Cheers - Phil. :)
Quote from: Techno II on 09 July 2021, 07:13:48 AM
Very nice, indeed !
Cheers - Phil. :)
Thank you very much!
Stirring stuff, very inspirational!
How have you got on with Twiglet as a rules set?
Quote from: toxicpixie on 09 July 2021, 11:37:28 PM
Stirring stuff, very inspirational!
How have you got on with Twiglet as a rules set?
Thank you very much!
Though I have spotted a factual error in the history part and need to fix it ASAP.
I've played a test game against myself, it was pretty fun, though there are moments that I do not fully understand.
I really like Twilight, but they approach things rather differently to most wargames rules (and are much the better for it imo!), so we definitely had our share of "whut?!" Moments!
Enjoy editing your history, our understanding of the past is always changing so it's a process not a statement...
Hello, I have finally done Russian command, representing real people, no less.
Here are the two I'm most proud of:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51317405934_4584e74fe5_c.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51316889308_8dae04e117_c.jpg)
First is the command for reiters, Martin Reitz (I do not know what nationality he is, so I do not know how to accurately transcribe his name to English) and his standard bearer. These are cool little figures I got with LOA dragoons, but I decided to use these for reiter command. I think their clothes looks like they're from the future and not late 1650s/early 1660s, but I have to compromise. While I do remember reading how Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich liked his standard bearers and musicians in troops of foreign order wearing western clothes, this may be a bit too much. The little standard is custom made. The little flag has indications of a six-ended cross in the upper corner near the pole, and the other corner has an indication of a star. The number of stars is the number of a rota in a regiment. Therefore this is the flag of the first rota, the colonel's (if I may use this terms) own. The colour of the flag actually has a basis in history, it is mentioned in a Polish document relaying the number of Russian troops at Lyakhovichi.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51317679615_d7dc5088da_c.jpg)
Next is the command for my streltsy. Earlier I made a mistake, these are not the 5th prikaz, but the Vasili Pushechnikov's 8th prikaz of Moscow streltsy. This prikaz has a very impressive service history in this Russo-Polish war and onwards. A very fun fact is that this prikaz in 1658 at Beshenkovichi fought off a numerically superior force led by Samuil Kmicic, the prototype for Henryk Sienkiewicz's main character in "The Deluge". The standard is also custom-made and made-up by me. We do not actually know what the standard was for this prikaz, we only know most of the colours and amounts of fabrics sent to the remnants of the regiment after their flags were lost at Polonka, which I knocked together into this. It looks decent enough, I think. The guy in the yellow overcoat is Vasili Pushechnikov himself.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51316889253_fb66be3439_c.jpg)
Finally, here is Ivan Andreyevich Khovanskiy himself and his standard bearer. That standard was part of the figure, so I only painted it. Khovanskiy himself is actually a little conversion, the body and horse is Irregular Miniatures (I think the Timurid range) while the head is from one of the left-over streltsy. This is much more fitting for one of his ancestors a century earlier, though the shield is still out of place, but once again, compromise. It is totally coincidental that the red colour of the standard is historical too, though it probably had some intricate designs that I do not know and would not want to paint.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51316893898_fb0178d8f0_c.jpg)
A better view. I have not based them properly yet since I might use other bases for them. Polish-Cossack commanders really won't be as interesting and might have to be settled on smaller bases, which might not be very fair.
Looking DAMN fine, that man.
Terrific work on those ! :-bd
Cheers - Phil. :)
Yes they are rather good
Quote from: Techno II on 17 July 2021, 12:56:46 PM
Looking DAMN fine, that man.
Terrific work on those ! :-bd
Cheers - Phil. :)
thank you very much! It was my first time making standards, so I'm happy they turned out better than expected.
Very nicely done :)
Fab
Hello, I have finally done these - Dragoons, Cossackised rabble and pancerni
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51372422922_e762152d6f_c.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51374186810_ea85416a94_c.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51373915244_10276b1a7d_c.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51373182671_e0193eaac0_c.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51373412708_3e16941a5f_c.jpg)
I messed up a bit on the snow application, it is in blobs and got on a few figures.
I have gotten a job and while I can afford more figures, I have less time to actually paint them. Uploads will be even less frequent than now.
I now have to do three units of Russian reiters and two units of Tatars. I might get more western units for Poles too. Plus there's a whole new project to do too.
Nice work once again 8).
Ahhh work is the curse of the wargaming classes!
Nice stuff again, hope they hit table soon :)
Quote from: Steve J on 12 August 2021, 01:17:51 PM
Nice work once again 8).
Thank you!
Quote from: toxicpixie on 12 August 2021, 01:41:25 PM
Ahhh work is the curse of the wargaming classes!
Nice stuff again, hope they hit table soon :)
Thanks! I hope they will too, we have to wait probably until vaccinations increase. But the armies were tested on the floor with my brother. The rabble is surprisingly resilient.
Excellent stuff!
Very impressive and so atmospheric too
Wot he sed !!
Really good stuff ! :-bd
Cheers - Phil. :)
Hello, it has been quite a while. Unfortunately my job kept me from posting anything. I have done up a few things during this time. For example, here are Polish cossack cavalry/pancerni, again, but this time they are semi-accurate to the period. I mixed in a few mounted cossacks from the Polish range. This was inspired by Michał Paradowski's book on the Polish-Swedish war where he has illustrations of some cossack cavalry being in hats instead of their typical misyurka helmets. Plus they don't have spears, which also adds to accuracy.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51908223915_af3a78915d_c.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51907914549_ff74826a50_c.jpg)
Next are, again, some Russian reiters. I was one figure short of the whole unit, so I took a LOA dragoon, chopped his head off, chopped the head off a Tatar, shortened his hat and stuck it on the dragoon body. Technically, I would prefer that look for Russian dragoons, but I fail to see the point in getting a lot of Tatars just to cut their heads off and use nothing else.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51906624342_c895c157e8_c.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51907914554_0b8d896d66_c.jpg)
Very nice
:-bd =D> :-bd
Looking good