Polish Winged Hussars

I have been looking forward to having these back from the basing department for some time and couldn't wait to photograph them and share them with you.


For a large part of the war armies tramped across and devastated the Polis-Lithuanian Commonwealth and very large mainly cavalry forces fought alongside and against the Saxons, Russians and Swedes as well as against each other. With often several thousand cavalry on the field.


What had started out for me as something of a novelty and the opportunity to paint some really lovely miniatures changed into a historical necessity as I read more about the conflict. Th majority of troops engaged were Pancerni, mail armed cavalry with lances and bows. However there were still many units of winged hussars and lighter  Kossack cavalry as well as Dargoons (more of these later) so the first unit I present you with are the famed Winged Hussars.


These lovely figures are from Warlord.

 The basing department admitted to an accident before handing these over, one base was dropped head first onto a laminate floor. Repairing the minor chips to paint and glueing the riders back on was not too painful but the horse on the left of the above picture was on the verge of snapping at the ankles, its a failing with many Ebob horses, the sculpts are lovely but to achieve the elegant slim legs the ankles can become very weak.


So araldite in one hand and twigs from the privet hedge in the other I made some repairs. This horse is now firmly fixed to the log and the base and I hope going nowhere. I actually think it looks better for the log.

You can see from the above that it was a crush to squeeze them all onto the narrow bases but got there in the end.


Pancerni and light cavalry to follow.


Longer term I already have nearly enough to paint three more units of Poles and I really do like the idea of a Dragoon unit. The Warfare dragoons in fur hat would work well, grey coats, red facings and a dismounted version. Thinking two bases of firing line and the third at the end being horse holders and horses.


Anyway getting ahead of myself. Next will be Pancerni.