Scottish Mercenaries

This is my last batch of German-style musketeers. Inspired by this Thirty Years War woodcut, I decided to let my Scots be a little bit caricatured. Realistically, the Scottish population in Poland would probably have been a bit more assimilated than this - tartan in particular was not yet a symbol of cultural pride, rather, more like a reminder of backwardness, so it was unpopular with any Scotsman who could afford better. The same logic may have applied to beards as well...

Anyway, here they are. The tartan could probably stand a bit more work, once I get a lighter shade of red to work with.

King's Footguard version 2

I had to repaint the pants anyway, since I scraped off the mold lines. I think the blue looks nifty.

Sup dawg I herd u like Cromwell

...so I put Cromwell in a Cromwell

(apologies to Darren Linington and Invisible Officer)

more musketeers

Not every German-style soldier was a snappy-looking Royal retainer. This regiment is just a generic bunch of Germans, possibly having wandered over to Poland in search of employment after the end of the Thirty Years War in 1648. For the sake of aesthetics, I've painted them with a rudimentary uniform in their shared coat color - the Osprey book suggests that musketeer units could wear cloth coats dyed a yellow-ochre, to resemble leather buffcoats.

I have one more unit of musketeers to put together. I'm thinking some grey-coated expatriate Scots.

Here be Dragoons

I painted the dragoons I posted earlier. I got a little ambitious with the officer, trying to match the illustration in the Osprey book (although gold stripes on the sleeves would have been a bit much, I think, so I restricted myself to the gold on the gloves and the pants). Also I forgot to paint the tassel on his partizan, at least partly due to the fact that I couldn't decide on a color.

Now technically, the unit is only half painted; in Pike & Shotte dragoons can change between being mounted or on foot, and you have separate miniatures that you use for each. I have the pieces for the corresponding mounted versions of these guys, I just haven't had the energy to do the helmet conversions I need to make them match up.

Also, note the horseholder in the back rank. This was my clever way to to harmonize 6-man cavalry units with 8-man infantry units, ensuring consistency of unit footprints with the rest of my army, while at the same time keeping the headcount consistent between the foot and mounted versions of this regiment.

The peasants are revolting!

Also, they might be rebelling.

Yeah, it's an old joke, but this isn't a humor blog (although one could argue that my painting is pretty laughable...) Anyway, peasants, with a few of the poorest cossacks mixed in. Basically filler, the first of many needed for the rebel army at Berestechko.

Mix of Perry plastics, WGF plastics, TAG metals and a few Warlord Games metal weapons.

Penultimate Potocki Progress Post

Done except for basing and touch-ups. At this point, I've pretty much decided that digital photos are the best way to catch those last needed corrections to make, hence this deluge of almost-complete pictures.

Commercial Break (well, not really)

Painting of Mikołaj Potocki continues apace, but as I was poking around the internet trying to figure out a likely hair (or rather, beard) color, I stumbled across this vodka. It's got the appropriate coat of arms and everything! Looks expensive, must investigate further...