With the Winged Hussars ready for action, it was time to paint the supporting ifantry for my 17th Century Polish-Lithuanians.

First up are the Haiduks: the PBI.

I decided to use the By Fire & Sword box set because (a) their infantry figures are always very nice and (b) their unit sizes mean that buying the box set would give me the extra figures thast I would need for the Polish Dragoons that I also needed to paint.

As Rob had produced such lovely Winged Hussars with the “undercoat black then acrylics” method, I decided to try and do the same for the Haiduks. Unfortunately it had been a long time since I’d painted figures like that, and despite using an undercoat, base coat, wash and highlight (rather than my usual Contrast paints) I just couldn’t get the figures to look how I wanted.

I think perhaps my choice of colours is partly at fauly here: The light blue just doesn’t work.

I put the figures away with the rest of the Poles…but they were preying on my mind. I briefly considered dumping them and starting again, but re-painting a unit you’ve “finished” is soul-destroying. Eventually I decided to see what I could do with my collection of washes and Contrast paints.

The actually colour of the uniforms I was trying to achieve was a light grey-blue coat, so I washed the Haiduks in a grey Contrast paint and crossed my fingers as I waited for the paint to dry.