Polish Hussars Nearly Complete
After adding lances I found yet another thing to add - pistols with holsters; these were made from putty and if you look closely you can see I haven't finished painting them.
I also need to paint black checks on the pennants, a fiddly detail I have put off doing. The pennant colour varied with different units but this one corresponds to a unit which went on a suicide mission to test Turkish defences. I bought the Osprey book on the winged hussars and it is full of such interesting information.
The actual colours of the uniforms varied quite a bit, so if you had more than one unit of these you could distinguish them with different pennants and colours. The clothing colour also varied between individuals although some attempt at uniformity was probably made. I decided on blue pants and parrot green tunics although the latter is not visible on most of the figures due to the armour.
Armour worn by the winged hussars varied to include mail and plate. Unlike most other European armies of the 17th century the armour was not blackened.
As amendments to my comments on an earlier post and after reading the Osprey book I note that the feathers did not make a rustling noise at all! The intimidating effect was visual although they may also have hindered sword cuts and might originally have had a roll in stopping the hussars from being snagged by lassoes. Also, although the hussars with their lengthy lances did defeat some pike units it was not a regular occurrence as it would still be a difficult thing to do. In my wargame rules I'll allow them to charge pike but remove impact bonuses. The lances were primarily one use weapons as they tended to break on impact so the effectiveness would be most apparent in the winged hussars first melee. They were, however an elite unit so they should be a useful unit to have around on the wargame table.
The figure with white spotted horse has wings made from wire and putty. Another option would have been to split up the pairs of wings to some single wings as this was another historical variation. Some figures in the unit, such as musicians and flag bearers did not necessarily have the wings.
The officer with mace is a Polish made character figure which fits in well with the unit and brings the unit up to 11 men. I intend to also make a flag bearer or maybe two with a choice of standards. I'll dispense with the wings for those - makes for easier conversions.
'Animal skins': The tiger and leopard skins were not always what they appeared as often the spots and markings were painted on non-big cat skins. An interesting variation for one unit's skins was black with white stars. The Russian made figures actually have the stars moulded on to these items; if I had noticed before painting I might have gone for that paint scheme but they are not apparent when I have painted the spots or stripes.
I also need to paint black checks on the pennants, a fiddly detail I have put off doing. The pennant colour varied with different units but this one corresponds to a unit which went on a suicide mission to test Turkish defences. I bought the Osprey book on the winged hussars and it is full of such interesting information.
The actual colours of the uniforms varied quite a bit, so if you had more than one unit of these you could distinguish them with different pennants and colours. The clothing colour also varied between individuals although some attempt at uniformity was probably made. I decided on blue pants and parrot green tunics although the latter is not visible on most of the figures due to the armour.
Armour worn by the winged hussars varied to include mail and plate. Unlike most other European armies of the 17th century the armour was not blackened.
As amendments to my comments on an earlier post and after reading the Osprey book I note that the feathers did not make a rustling noise at all! The intimidating effect was visual although they may also have hindered sword cuts and might originally have had a roll in stopping the hussars from being snagged by lassoes. Also, although the hussars with their lengthy lances did defeat some pike units it was not a regular occurrence as it would still be a difficult thing to do. In my wargame rules I'll allow them to charge pike but remove impact bonuses. The lances were primarily one use weapons as they tended to break on impact so the effectiveness would be most apparent in the winged hussars first melee. They were, however an elite unit so they should be a useful unit to have around on the wargame table.
'Animal skins': The tiger and leopard skins were not always what they appeared as often the spots and markings were painted on non-big cat skins. An interesting variation for one unit's skins was black with white stars. The Russian made figures actually have the stars moulded on to these items; if I had noticed before painting I might have gone for that paint scheme but they are not apparent when I have painted the spots or stripes.
Utterly splendid figures,fantastic. I look forward to seeing them in action.
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