I’m now just working through the last few bits and pieces for my Zaporogian Cossack army for the (unofficial) eastern European version of For King & Parliament.
Here’s the latest offering, once again showcasing the beautiful banners that come ready provided by the chaps from By Fire & Sword.
It’s always nice to see who’s going to be first to get an entry into the new year’s Painting Challenge and, this year, it happens to be me: the extra bank holiday day giving me the chance to both start and finish a couple of units of Cossack cavalry.
These are more from the By Fire & Sword range, and very nice they are too. It was also such a relief to paint a “regular” unit (i.e. one where the figures are all the same) after the five units of Tatars that were my final entries into last year’s Challenge.
And that, of course, is one of the reasons that I have been able to finish them so quickly: less time switching between paints and poses. That and the fact that they have very little in terms of “webbing” or equipment.
Oh, and if anyone is wondering how I got the roan colour on the unit with the purple and yellow banner, it’s using GW Contrast Fireslayer Flesh with a Cygor Brown mane and tail. I think I should have given them white socks as well, but that can easily be fixed the next time I want a roan horse.
Only a few more Cossacks to go now…
After my brief diversion to the Far East, it’s back to the slightly nearer East with just about the last of the Tatars that I need as allies for my Zaporogian Cossack army. All that’s left on the Tatar section of the painting table are three command figures to use as a General should I want to field them in two brigades rather than one.
These are very nice figures but I’m still not convinced by the plastic horse, metal rider combination: I think it would work better the other way around. I will, however, save my final opinion until after I’ve used them a couple of times: the proof being in the (presumably left-over Xmas) pudding.
I hope everyone had a good Christmas Day, and ate and drank as much as I did!
I also managed to put the finishing touches to a base of Tatar nobles to further support my Zaporogian Cossacks:
These are lovely figures from By Fire & Sword, in 15mm, and painted mostly with GW Contrast Paints.
I decided to mount them in a “V” formation rather than in a simple line in order to differentiate them from any other horse that might be on the tabletop at the same time.
This has worked very well, and I am looking forward to the moment a unit of these bad boys drives into a unit of more traditionally, linear-mounted Dutch or Swedish horse.
I’m still plugging away at my 15mm Cossacks-with-Tatar-allies: only two more units and then I have my 130 point army for FK&P, with another six or so units then clearing all the figures on my painting table.
After all, you’ve got to have enough figures to allow for a few changes and/or bigger battles!
First up today is my overall Cossack commander-in-chief. There’s the Hetman himself, his standard bearer with the usual very impressive flag, a mounted drummer and, finally, a little help from above in the shape of a dour looking orthodox priest.
Figures are, as usual, from the By Fire & Sword range, which I cannot recommend enough. Okay, so I still find the plastic horses a little fragile for my liking, but just the flags they provide with every unit make them a must-have. These are painted with GW Contrast paints.
Second up is another base of Tatar bowmen. I also like these a lot: the detail is very crisp and takes the Contrast paint very well. I’m trying to make them look different from the Cossacks by having most wearing light tan clothing - the Cossacks in general being more colourful - with the odd figure in Cossack blue (traded clothing presumably) or a reddy-brown, mixed-on-the-palette shade.
I should be able to finish the army off over Christmas (well, as much as any army is ever finished!) and then it’s on to their opponents: probably the Poles.
Sorry for the lack of posts this week: been very busy in the real world!
Expect a flood of interesting content over the next couple of days but, to start, here’s a catch-up of some painting I’ve been doing.
First up are a couple of command bases for my 15mm Zaporogian Cossacks. Lovely figures from the By Fire & Sword range painted mostly with Contrast paints. I especially like the chap on the right with the pipe.
Alongside the two Colonels, I also painted a base’s worth of Tatar light horsemen. These are also from the By Fire & Sword range, and are also nice figures.
One thing: the riders are metal and the horses are plastic. There must be a good reason for this, and I didn’t notice that the figures felt top heavy, but the plastic is of the soft, bendy variety, so sometimes the horses are “set” at a funny angle and, unlike metal figures, can’t be straightened out. You have to slope the base when you mount it to get the horse as a whole to sit straight.
It also means that I am less confident of picking up the base by the two outside figures: I’m worried that the plastic won’t take the weight. I know I shouldn’t be picking up the base by the figures anyway, but sometimes in the heat of battle etc. I shall have to see how they manage on the tabletop.
Another base of Cossack Moloitsy rolls off the production line. That makes four I have now, which is enough for the 150 point army I have planned. I do have one more base’s worth of figures to paint, however, so will probably end up with five in all.
As before, these are By Fire & Sword miniatures painted up using mostly GW Contrast paints, and mounted on a Warbases large vehicle base.
My Cossacks, not being of the Ukrainian sort, don’t have very good cavalry, so I’m going to add some Tatar allies to the army. I have bought enough to field what I need but, whilst wandering around Warfare this weekend just gone, I saw these chaps on sale for quite a reasonable price i.e. painted well enough for me to like them, priced at under double the raw lead.
Whilst I’m not sure that they are actually Tatars, they will do as Tatar bowmen…and I shall probably use them to indicate veteran bowmen as their distinctive headgear makes them look like they are more of a chosen unit than a random collection of warriors.
In between all the re-basing that I’ve been doing, I finally got around to picking up my brushes and finishing off another base of Cossack Moloitsy.
These are more of the excellent By Fire & Sword miniatures. I like the ones in blue, but am not so keen on their purple-clad neighbours, even if it does match their banner!
Talking of which, the chaps in blue gave me all sorts of problems with their banner. Not the one shown: that is attempt three, with the previous two ending up in the bin. Unusual, as I’ve found the provided banners really easy to deal with in the past. Must be clumsy hands from too much re-basing!
Anyway, one more base of Moloitsy to go, and then the officers and artillery…and the Tartar allies are already on order!
Regular visitors will know that I am building a Zaporozhian Cossack army for use with the eastern theatre version of For King & Parliament.
I’ve painted up the ‘regular’ Registered Cossack element of the army, and the tabor wagon armed wagon train, so now it was time to start on the Moloitsy: the mass of pretty rubbish musket and spear armed infantry that made up the majority of any Cossack force.
As the figures I’m using (from the Wargames Company’s By Fire & Sword range) come in sotnias of twelve men, and I’m using bib bases of twenty-four men, I’ve decided to paint the troops in twelves: effectively two sotnias per base.
This does, of course, mean that I’m going to have to come up with ten colour schemes for my five units rather than just five, so it’s lucky the GW Contrast Paint range is quite large!
I’m loving the banners that come with these figures: there do seem to be loads of different designs. Again, not sure if I’ll be able to do all ten sotnias with a different banner, but there won’t be much duplication.
So that’s two down and three to go!
Regular visitors will know that I am currently building a 17th Century Zaporozhian Cossack army using By Fire & Sword miniatures.
I’ve already built the Tabor (war wagons) so next task was to paint up the Registered Cossack element: the nearest Cossack equivalent to regular soldiers. The Registered Cossacks began life in 1572 and served as a significant element of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth’s army until the 18th Century.
I’ve only painted two bases of Registered Cossacks, as most of a Cossack force should be lesser quality Moloitsy. Here they are:
I’m learning more about the Zaporozhian Cossacks as I go along. These weren’t the “born in the saddle” elite light cavalry of the Don Cossack type, but infantry based chaps from the Dneiper River area of the Ukraine. First recorded in the early 1500s, they seem to have fought just about everyone in the area: either separately or as part of a Polish army.
They specialised in raiding into other people’s territory, especially that of the Ottoman empire. One legend has it that the Sultan Mehmed IV asked them to stop their raids by sending the following letter:
As the Sultan; son of Muhammad; brother of the sun and moon; grandson and viceroy of God; ruler of the kingdoms of Macedonia, Babylon, Jerusalem, Upper and Lower Egypt; emperor of emperors; sovereign of sovereigns; extraordinary knight, never defeated; steadfast guardian of the tomb of Jesus Christ; trustee chosen by God Himself; the hope and comfort of Muslims; confounder and great defender of Christians – I command you, the Zaporogian Cossacks, to submit to me voluntarily and without any resistance, and to desist from troubling me with your attacks.
Needless to say, this didn’t go down too well with our Cossack friends, who replied with a letter so rude that I have been forecd to use asterisks for some of it!
Zaporozhian Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan!
O sultan, Turkish devil and damned devil's kith and kin, secretary to Lucifer himself. What the devil kind of knight are thou, that canst not slay a hedgehog with your naked arse? The devil shits, and your army eats. Thou shalt not, thou son of a whore, make subjects of Christian sons. We have no fear of your army; by land and by sea we will battle with thee. F*ck thy mother.
Thou Babylonian scullion, Macedonian wheelwright, brewer of Jerusalem, goat-f*cker of Alexandria, swineherd of Greater and Lesser Egypt, pig of Armenia, Podolian thief, catamite of Tartary, hangman of Kamyanets, and fool of all the world and underworld, an idiot before God, grandson of the Serpent, and the crick in our dick. Pig's snout, mare's arse, slaughterhouse cur, unchristened brow. Screw thine own mother!
So the Zaporozhians declare, you lowlife. You won't even be herding pigs for the Christians. Now we'll conclude, for we don't know the date and don't own a calendar; the moon's in the sky, the year with the Lord. The day's the same over here as it is over there; for this kiss our arse!
This momentous event was commemorated in a huge painting by Russian artist Ilya Repin:
Some excellent ideas there for invective to throw at my opponents once the army takes to the tabletop!
Tabor Commander
Finally finished the first four bases of Cossack Tabor: the war wagons that can serve either as fortifications or as a moving fort.
These figures are the first of the By Fire & Sword miniatures: a Polish figure manufacturer specialising in 17th Century eastern European wars. Friend Bevan is collecting Poles, so I went for the Zaporozhian Cossacks.
I thought these were going to be a bit like the Cossacks you see in Taras Bulba (i.e. masses of light cavalry) but actually these particular Cossacks had rubbish cavalry (substituting Tartars when they needed horse) and were specialists in infantry fighting from behind lines of war wagons. Ah well, you live and learn!
What with lockdown, lorry drivers, Brexit and an imminent second edition, By Fire & Sword miniatures are quite hard to get hold of in the UK. I started my collection by cleaning out the Entoyment Hobby & Wargames Centre online store. Entoyment are an excellent supplier who not only offered a slight discount but also posted my figures to me the very next day after I’d ordered them. Highly, highly recommended.
I don’t usually bother with an unboxing photo, but the By Fire & Sword packaging for their Cossack Tabor box set is absolutely lovely. Here’s a little gallery of the original outside packaging, the inside box, and what the box looks like when you open it. Lovely: really got me enthused to get painting.
The wagons come in several bits: the wagon body, an under-wagon frame that holds the wheels and provides the tongue/shaft, the horses (about half with saddle and rider, half with just a yoke), a few small cannon to mount at the corner of a wagon, and the wagon crew.
Putting the wagons together is fairly easy, although I did find that I had to drill out every wheel’s socket with a pin drill before being able to fix them. A pain, and certainly much more difficult than most wagon wheel attaching.
I chose not to attach the crews onto the wagons before painting, although I did attach all the riders to their mounts.
Painting was fairly easy: I used GW Contrast Paints as usual but restricted myself to dark reds, dark greens and two 0r three blues for the Cossack crews.
This is how they turned out:
Overall I’m very happy with these, and looking forward to getting them onto the tabletop. I’ll be using them with an adaption of For King & Parliament, using a single base as the Tabor as a Fortification, and double bases as the Tabor as moving, deep war-wagons
Next up are the Registered Cossack infantry…
Regular visitors will know that one of my favourite games at the moment is the ECW expansion to The Strongest called For King & Parliament. I’ve built up quite a collection of pike and shot figures as a result, and have been looking around for more ways to use them.
Friend and regular opponent Bevan suggested we could look at Eastern Europe and the conflicts between Poland, the Cossacks and Tartars etc. He also mentioned that he had some winged hussars already on the painting table.
Two things immediately sprung to mind.
First, I want winged hussars too! I mean, you can’t get more iconically cool than a few squadrons of winged hussars. Very cheeky to baggsy them before me!
Secondly, did you mention Cossacks? As I have some of them as part of my Crimean Russian army. The only problem is that they are based in singles and pairs: a bit of a pain for an element game like FK&P.
Well, you say problem, I say opportunity! A quick call to those nice people at Warbases and a couple of days later some custom movement trays arrived (Warbases are highly recommended btw: always my basing and movement tray supplier of choice). A quick bit of painting and flocking later, a re-base of the Cossacks with some matching flock, and I now have an FK&P brigade’s worth ready to hit the tabletop.
I was a little concerned that each unit is only seven figures strong, but they look fine compared to my ECW Swedish horse…and I can always double up the units so that rather than four 7’s I have two 14’s.
So that’s the Cossack horse sorted, now onto the foot…
I completed my first battalion of early period French infantry in April this year, but have then spent the last four months trying to decide whether they are too big to match my existing collection of 15mm figures and scenery.
A recent 15mm re-fight of Talavera re-awakened my interest in the period, and I loudly assured everyone there that I had now made up my mind: the AB figures are too big and I would get ride of the battalion I’d painted, and the two unpainted ones as well, and swap to true 15’s.
I then went looking for a range of true 15’s to take their place.
I couldn’t find one.
Or, to be more accurate, I couldn’t find one that I liked as much as the AB figures!
So I changed my mind again, and am back on the 18’s!
Here’s the next battalion of Frenchies done…although I really must get better at painting the rosettes on the bicornes!
And just to make sure I won’t flip-flop again, the next battalion (the 3ieme!) is already undercoated and part-painted and I’ve just ordered another three battalions as well.
Just finishing off (as much as any wargames project can be declared “finished”) my ECW collection now with a few attached shot markers for my chosen ruleset For King & Parliament.
These are used to indicate when a horse or artillery unit has a body of musketeers attached to them to give them a bit more bite. They are the sort of thing you could use a counter for (as they disappear after one volley!) but look better represented by actual figures.
Figures are Peter Pig painted with GW Contrast Paint mounted on Warbases bases.
Here’s the last (for the moment!) of my shot-heavy battalia for my English Civil war collection.
With these, I can now field brigades of standard battalia, pike-only battalia, pike-heavy battalia and, of course, shot-heavy battalia.
The figures are from Peter Pig, painted with GW Contrast paints (the trousers are some kind of ork skin tone!), and mounted as a single battalia element on a large vehicle base from Warbases.
Here’s the second of my planned three English Civil War shot-heavy battalia: painted in a rather fetching shade of yellow!
The main body are from Peter Pig, the command figures from Hallmark via Magister Militum. The figures are mostly painted with GW Contrast paints and based on a Warbases large vehicle base. The flag is from Maverick.
I’m still working on filling in any gaps I might have in my ECW forces, so here’s a first battalia of shot-heavy foot:
The chaps with the muskets and the two officers are from Peter Pig, the pikemen and drummer boy are from Hallmark via Magister Militum.
On reflection, I should have mixed up the poses a bit, or at least had the back rank re-loading or similar, but one unit with the figures all giving fire isn’t a tragedy.
The figures are painted with GW Contrast Paints and mounted on a vehicle base from Warbases.
I’m still filling in a few gaps in my ECW collection.
This week’s completed unit is a squadron of Scots Pistoliers. The figures are from Khurasan, and very nice they are too.
As always, these are painted with GW Contrast Paints, and mounted on a single element base from Warbases.
Whilst I’m still waiting to find inspiration for my next major project, I thought I’d finish up a few bits and pieces from the lead mountain.
First up are a couple of Gallant Gentlemen for my Scots Covenantor ECW army:
Wallace-sized. The real one, not the shorty Gibson effort.
These are 18mm figures from Blue Moon’s new Scottish ECW range, and lovely figures they are too.
I bought these as a test to see how well they fitted in with my existing collection as I still can’t get the hang of whether 18mm figures are actually large 15’s, small 20’s or a scale all of their own!
With these, however, there is no doubt: they are too big to fit in with the Hallmark (via Magister Militum), Peter Pig and Khurasan models that form the main part of my 15mm ECW forces.
That said, a couple of comparative giants as Gallant Gentlemen fit right in with the concept of the GG, so I am very happy to have these two fearsome warriors on board!
As I said: lovely figures, but 18mm, so highly recommended if you want to field an 18mm ECW Covenantor army, but not if you want to field one in 15mm.
Next up was another general for my Classical Indians:
May the Fourth be with you!
These are more figures from Museum Miniatures excellent CAD-designed “Z” range of Classical Indians.
I’m always being told that I should field four generals when playing To The Strongest at 130 points. Now, with these, I can…and I actually needed a more cavalry-orientated commander for the later Indian armies anyway: by the time you get into the ADs, chariot-mounted generals are so yesterday!
Finally, I’ve had these undercoated on my painting table for, like, forever (as Daughter #2 would say).
Thundercats are go!
These are more of Khurasan’s excellent Felids mounted on jetbikes. I already have a couple of squads worth, so can now field a platoon.
These new versions are painted with GW Contrast Paints, and it’s interesting to contrast them (did you see what I did there?) with how I painted their predecessors:
Both look really good, but the old-platoon were painted with the base coat/wash/highlight method (i.e. each figures was picked up three times per colour) whereas the new ones, with the Contrast Paints, are only one coat per colour i.e. each figures was picked up only once per colour.
You can decide which is better!
Whilst it’s nice to have a project to work on, it’s also nice to paint a whole load of itty-bitty things just to fill the gaps in a collection, or to take advantage of a new release…and that’s what this post covers.
First up, we have yet another Russian Orthodox church. Yes, after my last post, someone (kindly!) pointed out that I didn’t have the Hovels version in my collection. One quick order later, a couple of weeks wait and, low and behold, here’s my tenth Russian Orthodox church, and very nice it is too.
So now I’m fairly confidently stating that I have every single 15mm Russian Orthodox church available but, on the off-chance you know of any others, do feel free to let me know.
Oh, the others I have can be found here.
Next up is another command stand for my ECW armies. These chaps are from Matchlock Miniatures, available via the Caliver Books-run Minifigs website. I was ordering some of their 15mm ECW personalities for my Rabble bases (preaching puritan, ratcatcher, lady with long gun etc) when I suddenly remembered that I was short a Colonel command stand. These are two of their Generals, and very nice figures they are too, and perfectly compatible with my existing Peter Pig, Hallmark and Khurasan troops.
Although it’s quite hard to see in the picture, the chap behind (with the hat) is actually holding a dog! Anyway, highly recommended as a source of character figures if nothing else.
Finally in today’s random selection of bits and bobs from the painting table are more Ursids from Khurasan. For those of you unfamiliar with the range, these are giant 15mm sci-fi bears, seven feet tall, wearing sunglasses, smoking cigars and armed with bear-portable fusion guns or BPFGs!
The original release was four different infantry types, but now Jon has added a Big Man equivalent and an “Ur-Cannon” weapons team to the range. Loving these bears, and added to Stan Johansen’s Blareds (smaller bears) they make a great fun sci-fi force. My painting doesn’t really do these justice!
So all in all a bit of fun from the painting table. Next up are some more Romans and some Druid types to work their opponents up into a frenzy!
Vis Lardica is a website devoted to wargaming and military history, with a special emphasis on the company-sized rulesets produced by the TooFatLardies: I Ain't Been Shot Mum (WW2); Charlie Don't Surf (Vietnam); and Quadrant 13 (science fiction)
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