Dragoons WiP

Another component of the Royal Army. These dragoons, from Warlord Games, will have red coats with yellow lining. While fighting in the standard dragoon manner (ride into position, dismount to fight), the king's dragoons are documented as wearing szyszak/pappenheimer helms. This entailed a bit of converting, adding some helmets from the Warlord ECW cavalry, and others from the Wargames Factory WSS cavalry, and some green stuff as you can see. The horse's reins are electrical tape.

Potocki WiP 2: Arma virumque cano...

...because the man now has arms! Still needs work before painting, but very close to being ready.

Polish Commander (WiP)

This is, or at least will be, Grand Hetman of the Crown Mikołaj "Bearpaw" Potocki. He was one of the main Commonwealth commanders in the war against the Cossacks. For that matter, it was arguably his oppressive behavior as a major holder of Ukrainian land that helped spark the rebellion in the first place. At Berestechko, he commanded the Polish center.

Read more about this well-fed warrior here.

Underneath all the green stuff, this miniature is a Wargames Factory Celtic horseman on a Wargames Factory WSS horse. Of course, it is very much a Work in Progress.

Mold Lines Aplenty

I could have sworn I cleaned up these plastics before painting them, but clearly I was mistaken. Grumble grumble.

These models represent the King's Footguard, the infantry component of the Royal Guard of the Polish Vasa dynasty (the last of which, Jan II Kazimierz, was king and supreme commander at Berestechko). The blue-and-yellow "Swedish" look is no accident - the Vasas considered themselves the rightful kings of Sweden, and alluded to this with their soldiers' uniforms.

The Osprey book only defines the colors of the regiment's coat, so I made up the rest of the scheme pretty much off the top of my head. I might go back and paint the pants blue to make them look a little more posh and properly royal. Or maybe not - they may be the king's lifeguard, but they're still the poor bloody infantry...

Cossack Pike Unit

Here is a pike block, finished except for banners. I will be using the stats for Scottish Pike from the Montrose list in Pike & Shotte; since Cossacks are so famously individualistic, it makes sense to me that they wouldn't take too well to the drill required of pikemen. But whatever. PICTURES!

Pancerny squadron

Now that I'm seeing them close-up, they definitely need some touchups. Also the standard-bearer needs a standard. But I think this is a pretty good look at the unit overall.

Dead Souls (now with paint)

I painted my casualty markers. The one has a die in place to show how they "work".

Of course, I forgot to paint the banding brass. Oh well, I'll fix that eventually.

Cossacks and Dead Souls

A second regiment of cossacks. Note the brass banding on the guns... I had a conversation with a transparent gentleman who informed me that, if cossack guns had any banding at all, it would have been brass. I have also repainted the banding on my first cossacks, and shaved off the banding on my haiduks.

I've also started on some casualty markers, cossack on the left and haiduk on the right. The boxes will hold D6s to indicate the exact number of casualty points taken. I love how versatile plastics are...

Second completed unit for Pike & Shotte

Here is a unit of Hungarian-style Polish infantry, aka Haiduks (or Hajduks, or Heydukes, and so on...). Ruleswise, these guys are identical to the Cossack infantry shown earlier, they're just fighting for the other side. As explained in earlier posts, these miniatures are Wargames Factory Persians bodies, with Perry Zouave heads and arms (except for the noble and the sergeant, who have Persian arms), and greenstuff for the chest lace and short sleeves.

First completed unit for Pike & Shotte

My first completed unit for Pike & Shotte - a Cossack regiment, classified as Battle Line Infantry. Most of the miniatures are converted Zouaves, but a couple are unconverted Assault Group miniatures. The proportions are a little different between the two ranges, but I think the wildly non-uniform nature of the Cossacks gives me a bit more leeway than I might otherwise have. That is to say, the variety of poses and outfits camouflages the differing proportions that would be painfully obvious in, say, a Napoleonic regiment.