Poles and Ottomans

Finally got around to taking some pictures of the latest figures off the painting table, namely some more Poles and some Ottomans. firstly for the Poles some extra medium cavalry, namely Pancerni. I already had 6 bases of these painted up as auxiliaries for my GNW Saxon troops. These figures are all from Essex miniatures, love the poses of their horses but hate the ridiculously small bases they are on.

Now to back up the cavalry I have also done some of the infantry. I've based these up with 3 figures a base instead of the 4 that I use for western troops. Again the figures are all from Essex and were given to me by Dave.

Now to make sure my ottomans keep pace I completed up 3 more units of Azabs in there later uniforms. Most of these figures are the ones I got from Friekorps with a few from Minifigs mixed in. The Friekorp figures are rather slender in comparison to the Essex i'm using for the Poles.

For the first unit I went for a Jade green colour with red which have come out better than I expected. this was because the handful of Minifigs I had were already started in this colour. The other 2 units have dark blue tunics with red trousers. Looking back I wish i had done the headgear in red and may go back to change it.

Next up I have a couple of bases of Cossacks to finish off, then I'll need to buy some cavalry bases from Warbase as I ran out for the next 3 bases of Pancerni. I'll then take a little break with some of my Austrian Napoleonics before coming back to the rest of the Polish infantry.

New Project

Well it is that time again when I totally go off the rails and start a project that wasn't on the plans. This time I blame Mick, after the battle involving his Ottomans it got me thinking of a more suitable opponent for them as well as adapting the he rules to better reflect the war in Eastern Europe, which has a more fluid style as well as some exotic troop types.

So who are these opponents, well think Vienna, 1683, it's got to be the Poles. Winged Hussars, Cossacks and Pancerni. I can even use some of my Saxon Cuirassiers in buff coats for German mercenaries. Also I have the benefit of already owning some relevant figures. One of the older guys at the club who is poorly gave me a bundle of figures as he knew I was into the Great Northern War and he would never get around to painting. So on searching through the bundle there is a mix of Hussars, Cossacks and a load of infantry. A couple of the figures had already been painted and though not to my taste, I have no intention of re doing  his work.

So here they are the first off the production line. It had to be the Hussars. The first unit includes a couple of Hussars without wings that Dave painted added to the others.

The second unit is the iconic view of the Hussars, with 2 wings. These were a pain to glue together, yet surprisingly easy to paint, not as difficult as I always imagined they would be.

Now for writing rules I would need some opponents, so a dig around in the lead pile unearthed a handful of Ottoman figures, some were already painted and just required basing (need bases from Warbase) other were part painted so I decided to finish them off.

I'm not sure on the make of these figures but think they are from Mini-figs. To bulk these out I have made a small order to Friekorps as they were having a sale for some extra Janissary's and Azabs. If these figures are okay I'll be making future purchases from them.