Filling in the corners

I finally replenished my greenstuff stash with a trip to the Compleat Strategist in Manhattan (strange that it's more convenient for me to take the train to another state than to get to any of the closer hobby stores, but that's carless life for you). Given my idiosyncratic style, my hobby progress was pretty much paralyzed without it. Here are a motley bunch of rebels to get my units up to full strength with no overflow.

To start, some plain Cossack moloitsy. Two from Perry zouaves, one from Gripping Beast dark ages warriors. GB head on the left, other two have Fireforge Mongol heads, all with greenstuffed hat/hair.

Mostly GB Arab bodies with Zouave arms and heads. The tall one is Wargames Factory WSS with a Mongol head, and the officer has Wargames Factory WSS arms.

GB dark ages with a few GB Arab bits. And a short length of wire for the nailbat.

Ditto here.

Flag preview

I want the moloitsy standards to look less geometrical and regular than the ones I made for my registered Cossacks. Here are some I'm working on, repurposed from Napoleonic Opolchenie flags. I printed them in black and white to use as templates, and now I'm painting them, and tweaking the designs as I go.

Painted Cossacks

I painted the moloitsy from earlier. I'm really enjoying mashing all these kits together, I don't know how people can paint uniformed armies without going insane.

Hopefully I can rustle up some flagpoles and flags for these guys this week.

Ottoman soldiers

I painted the azaps from earlier. Post is terse and pics uncropped because my keyboard broke so I'm on my phone.

The grubbiest of peasants

Not my best gs work or painting, but who really examines peasants close-up anyway? All based on Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors, with the occasional head and arm from elsewhere.

a whole mess o' moloitsy!

More kitbashing with the same sets as last time. These are all the guys I need to bring my moloitsy (non-registered Cossack infantry) up to six units. The first picture has musketeers and one spearman. The second is all the standard bearers I will be distributing among my regiments. Sorry it's so blurry, but you get the idea.

Kitbashing szlachcic, strelets, azaps, and serfs

Man, spellchecker hates that post title.

So I broke down and bought some of the newer plastics that weren't around back when I was building my armies. I got the Gripping Beast Arabs and their Dark Age Warriors, and also the Fireforge Mongol infantry. Seriously good stuff.

The simplest and most immediately useful application is using the Dark Ages minis as peasant rebels. Just give 'em furry hats and even worse weapons.

Next up, also easy but less relevant to my immediate projects, azaps made from medieval Arabs. Muskets taken from both Warlord's storming party and Perry zouaves, because they're a ramshackle bunch. More variety on the command, ask if you have questions about specific bitz. Even though I don't have plans for an ottoman army any time soon, these guys may come in handy for skirmish stuff.

Finally, two moderately difficult conversions. A szlachcic (singular of szlachta) and a strelets (singular of streltsy). The first is for skirmish gaming (or possibly a dismounted cavalry storming party), and the second is the first of an intended unit. Both are a bit involved, primarily because of the fiddly embroidery on their chests.