cavalry preview

Just a little preview of the next update...

Ivan Bohun, Cossack commander

This is my interpretation of Ivan Bohun, one of the Cossack commanders at Berestechko. He commanded the infantry in the last days of the battle. He survived the defeat there, and participated at the Battle of Batih where the Cossacks avenged themselves on the Commonwealth.

I've based him pretty closely on the second picture in that wikipedia article, even though it looks a bit anachronistic to me - the pelisse-looking jacket thingy seems particularly odd, to my (admittedly untrained) eye. But whatever, it's a dashing image.

As usual, I see some things to touch-up now that I've photographed the thing.

And just for fun, a picture showing Ivan with his opposite number, Mikolaj Potocki. I think the difference in character between the two historical figures comes across rather nicely in their differing poses.

Vikings!

Berserkers, to be specific. Built mostly from Warlod Games' Celts with bits from Gripping Beast's Vikings to make them properly, well, vikingish.

Assault Group Cossacks

and just for fun, here's some more pics of the drinking cossack, and one of a TAG-only regiment of cossacks. A pretty fearsome bunch!

back to the Cossacks

Other times and places are all well and good, but I really need to try to stay focused on the Berestechko project. So here are some more Cossacks. Less than a full units worth, but they bring my total to a multiple of eight. The drinker is a special Assault Group freebie... normally they are only available as a bonus for when you buy a large order, but for a limited time they were also giving freebies out in exchange for being "liked" on facebook. The rest of these are converted zouaves, as per usual.

Druzhina

And now for something... slightly different.

These are the first of my Kievan Rus' minis. They are mostly converted from Conquest Games' Norman Knights, with some bits from the Gripping Beast Vikings (mostly heads), and greenstuff for the chainmail cowls and extra armor plates. Oh, and the standard-bearer's mask is from a Games Workshop Empire militiaman.

I have a small Kievan army, and a slightly larger Viking army to oppose them, and you can expect to see more of them over the coming days. I could also see myself using these guys as Pancerni for my Cossack Wars armies, at least temporarily...

Registered Cossacks

Remember this guy? Well, he's back, and he brought some friends!

My idea here was to show that, while the Cossacks may have been issued uniforms, they might not have been great at keeping them up. That one fellow in particular seems to have managed to literally lose his shirt, either on some bad dice rolls or pawned directly for booze. For the rest of these guys, the variety is a little more subtle, mostly just hats and guns.

I'm not entirely happy with all the poses I concocted here.

Pirates!

So I just got back from Illinois, and I brought a bunch of previously-stored miniatures with me. Here are some of my pirates, converted mostly from Wargames Factory WSS infantry, with a few Warlord Games Celt bits and Gripping Beast Viking bits to make them appropriately unkempt.