AHPC XI - Mike W - Late 17th Century dismounted Polish Dragoons

Second post of the day is a group of dismounted Polish Dragoons that have just been completed. These eight figures were added to the painting pile to bulk out a similar group of 12 figures that I had completed over the summer. You can find a link to our club website <HERE> to see further details of this earlier group...

Unpainted figures ready to be painted

The aim was to add enough figures to the existing unit to expand it out to 3 full squadrons each of 6 figures, plus a couple extra to allow additional flexibility for the fielding of a second regiment - hence an additional standard bearer and officer figure in the new group. Painting was designed to allow the new group to be integrated into the existing figure group.

Finished group of Polish Dragoons

Figures were old Essex models acquired via eBay and they appealed to me as they give a good motley mixture of poses and dress types that agrees with my view of how these early dragoons operated.

Another view of the new group of figures

Figures were undercoated in white before having blue jackets added to red trousers and hats. the hats were varied , I even added one figure with out a hat by replacing this with a plastic Gripping Beast Dark Ages Archer's head.

Mixture of dress styles to promote the diversity of dress 
likely to have been found in such units at the time

I also kept the fire lock muskets on this group to add another layer of variety to add to the over all group.

The flag is based on an image of an old Polish Cossack flag that I found on the internet.

A simple blue flag with White cross was selected as an alternative regimental banner.

I washed the painted figures with watered down Dark tone Army Painter ink and varnished with Newton & Windsor's Matt varnish.

The two groups of figures deployed together for the first time

Bases were completed with fine sand cover and electrostatic grass.

AHPC XI - Mike W [The Armoury] - 17th Century Ottoman Turk Armoured Cavalry

Pushing on into the second level of the Dungeon, I'm now submitting a post from within 'The Armoury'.

This sees me returning to an old favourite - my 1683, Siege of Vienna Project and padding out the Ottoman forces somewhat. Basis the premise that you can never have too much cavalry in an Ottoman army I am painting up another squadron of Heavy Armoured Cavalry.

Undercoated Ottoman Armoured Cavalry, 
waiting for further attention

(By the way I have an Ottoman Janissary Orta, lined up to be painted in the next couple of weeks as well some tents / camp equipment that will add flavour to ay table top game - hopefully) 

Finished Ottoman Armoured Cavalry

I think I have described in previous challenges how I have sourced Ottoman cavalrymen from eBay without horses, or with horse models that I was not happy with, and have substituted plastic horses from the Hat Industre 28mm 'El Cid' range to provide mounts. I have done this again here.

Unit from their left flank, highlighting the generic standard

I repeat the note of caution - I do not rate the mounted figures that come in the above boxes so  throw these away and use just the horses.

Another view of the unit, from the right flank

So these little guys are all armed with a lance and shield, the shields are from the Wargames Atlantic Medieval Irish and / or Afghanistan packs - both looking suitably Turkish. I have not gone overboard and armed these guys with bows and / or firearms as with previous iterations as I felt I needed to have some more 'run of the mill' type troops to bulk out the army.

A white undercoat started the painting process, and then a mix of bright colours to do their trousers and coats, 'Oily Steel' for the armour and 'Monster Brown' for the fur cloaks.

Close up of three of the guys

I applied various washes to the figures, this time an overall 'Sepia' to et whole figure before picking out armour using black ink and the fur using brown ink.

Finally the other three guys!

The flag is a generic Ottoman standard.

Figures are glued to plastic bases and then matt varnished and ground texture applied - i.e. fine sand and static grass plus a few random tufts.

AHPC XI - Mike W [Gallery of Ancestors] 28mm Clelland's Troop, Scots Dragoons, 1685

After reading Tom G's Gallery post the other day, with his ancestor participating in the Battle of Agincourt, I knew I would need to up my game for the post I was planning in the same Gallery.

The undercoated figures awaiting further attention

So here it is, 13 x 28mm mounted Scots Dragoons, dating form 1685, where they fought for James II against the invasions lead by the Duke of Monmouth and the Duke of Argyll and their rebellious Whig followers.

The finished troop, charging up the Muir Dyke

My ancestor, John Whiteford, was the Ensign in Captain William Cleland's Troop of the Scots Dragoons and together they are documented as having fought at the Battle of Muirdyke (to be fair it was more a skirmish and definitely not on the scale of Agincourt!).

A cracking read if anyone is interested in the period

This is not the right place to go into the details of the Argyll Rebellion but you can Google it or refer to the great new book on the subject matter by Stephen Carter 'Fighting for Liberty', to find out more.

Another view from the right flank, John Whiteford is carrying the flag (ensign)

... and from their left flank.

However, to be brief, it was the northern part of a twin invasion of England and Scotland, designed to usurp James II from his throne,  it was backed by the scheming William of Orange and remembered more for the southern invasion of England by the Duke of Monmouth.

Now, one of my other interests happens to be family history and I was well aware of John's involvement with the Scot Dragoons, as I had seen copies of muster rolls from 1685 and 1686 with his name on them. So with the AHPC being announced and the inclusion of the Gallery of Ancestors, it seemed like perfect timing to do some of these little guys.

Found on Pinterest - can't find any details or original source

Having made that decision , I then spotted a cool picture on the internet (see above) that depicted the Scots Dragoons at just this period and this made it a definite must do for me!

So the Scots Dragoons, better known (by Napoleonic times) as the Scots Greys - were so called, not necessarily because of the colour of their horses but because their Colonel (one 'Tam Dayell of the Binns') opted to keep them in Grey uniforms, some say it was to save paying for the more expensive red cloth recommended for the Scots Army at that time, other say it was to enable the dragoons to more easily sneak up on Covenanter insurgents that they had spent years helping to suppress in the West for Scotland.

A motley group of Dragoons, armed with swords, pistols and carbines

As Dayell was also the General in command of James II's Scots Army, he got his way. I'll have to do a figure of Old Tam as well some time - an interesting character, an English Civil War veteran who fled the county when Cromwell put a price on his head, he entered service with the Russian Army where he became known as  'The Moscovite Devil' during his actions against the Turks.

Anyway, I digress.

These figures are 28mm Front Rank and I have pulled together a somewhat motely group to reflect their status, I have also changed around some of the hats to add variety and given them a mix of pistol, sword and carbines to reflect the style of warfare that they were involved in. Namely counter insurgency and harassing Argyll's columns of march.

Three more Dragoons from the unit

Clelland's troop fought at Muirdyke, 18th June 1685, along side Major Ross' troop of the Royal Scots Horse (who were in red!) and some Lanarkshire Militia and together they repeatedly charged and attacked a stone enclosure, a top a hill,  defended by some of Argyll's most experienced men, including many veterans from Dutch service.

Ultimately the Whig rebels won the day, holding out to night fall and then slipping away under cover of darkness, but the Scots Dragoons gave a good account of themselves, the militia ran away when the going got tough and the Scots Horse lost heart leaving the main fighting to the Dragoons.

If anyone is interested in refighting the battle for any of the major actions of the Argyll Campaign I recommend the League of Augsburg / Warfare Miniatures 4PLay series, specifically - 4P017 'The Campbells are coming! Argyll Rebellion 1685', which can be purchased for less than the price of a beer!

Click for more details

During the course of the battle, Captain Cleland was killed, its interesting to note that Cleland was wearing a scarlet jacket at the battle - at this time officers could largely dress as they pleased. Accounts of the battle describe how he was stripped of his jacket and it was used as a banner by the rebels to further provoke the Royal troops.

The unfortunate Captain Cleland, before he lost his jacket

As ever these figures were undercoated white, I tend to paint the horses first and then the men, before going back to tidy everything up and apply washes and or dips. 

In this case I used dip, as it gives the horses nice shaded effect and provides a tougher varnish finish,  I have done Cleland in a red coat but opted to keep John Whiteford in grey, as a lowly Ensign his pay may not have stretched to a fancy red coat and I can't see a record of him serving after 1686...

The ensign he carries is speculative, there is no known description of the Scots Dragoons' for this period so I have taken the liberty of adapting a flag from  a different Scottish dragoon regiment's ensign of the same approximate period and used a thistle as the troop's symbol. As I do not glue flags in place on my figures, it will be easy to change if needed some time in the future.

Close-up of Ensign John Whiteford

From the other side, I'm not hugely happy with the flag,
it may need replacing...

Additionally you may be wondering why I have painted a Drummer and a Trumpeter for this unit - again it will allow future flexibility as I can now deploy the unit as a generic troop of Horse (who used Trumpeters as musicians) rather than using the Dragoon's Drummer figure.

Dragoon Drummer and Horse Trumpeter, 
allows flexibility in table top deployment of this unit

I will also now need to think about painting up a dismounted group of these guys, I'll have to dig through the unpainted pile of metal to see if I have any suitable figures...

Basing was done in my usual manner using fine sand, static grass and then grass and flower tufts to represent the heather and moorland found in south western Scotland...

AHPC XI - From Mike W [The Tomb] Mummy King and his Guard

Continuing with my new pet side project of an Egyptian Undead Army, may a present the Mummy King and three of his Guards.

The figures are all from Reaper, the Mummy King being metal, whilst the Guards are plastic of some kind. Detail on the figures is great and it made the painting job seem really easy.

Undercoated Mummy's Guard figures, made of some kind of flexible plastic

I've mounted the figures on British 2p coins and added a desert base - fine sand and a dried grass tuft to give some interest.

The finished figures

As with my other figures, I undercoated these ones white, then did a coat on earth colour to get the base for the 'mummy' look. I dry brushed on light desert sand colour from Valiejo and did the 'fleshy' areas grey.

The Mummy King, dressed in rags & riches!

... and a better front view, I think less is best with dried grass in a desert setting.

I washed the bandages with a watered down brown wash and the fleshy areas with dark tone washes before picking out the bandages again in light sand colour and highlighting the fleshy parts with light grey.

A view of the unfortunate Guardsmen buried for eternity with their king in his TOMB!

Gold trim was added for weapons, shields and headdresses etc and the dark blue / light blue decorative patterns have been kept to give the army a bit of  a theme as it develops - these areas got a bit of a blue wash and the gold trim got a brown wash.

And a front view of the three guardsmen, who happen to come three to a pack!

All finished with matt varnish!

The guardsmen also come with a variant pose with a spear in their hands, although the soft plastic is about OK for these sword wielding guys, if I get some of the spearmen I'll likely replace the spears with metal ones as I hate a bent spear on my figures.

AHPC XI - From Mike W 28mm 17th Century Cossacks in Polish service (60 Points)

The workbench has a few items that are coming up for completion but first I offer you a small group of 6 x 28mm 17th Century Cossacks for my Siege of Vienna collection.

Nearly forgot the 'before' picture again! Undercoated and with horses given their base coat...

The Zaporozhian Cossacks have an interesting history but in the 17th Century they were nominally subjects of the Polish/Lithuanian Commonwealth, as such they fought alongside the more famous Polish Hussars.

Finished Cossacks

When armoured they were known as Pancerni, but there were also large numbers of these classic 'light' Cossacks with just sword and lance, scouting and clearing the way for their heavier colleagues.

And a re-shuffled view of the completed unit

These figures will represent an additional squadron that I can add to two pre-existing squadrons I painted a couple of years ago, so the painting style has deliberately been adjusted to try and fit in with these existing Cossack units.

Showing detail of the chest braiding on some figures

The figures are plastic Gripping Beast Arab Cavalry, in this case based upon the Heavy Cavalry variety but I have opted not to add armour to these figures. The existing 12 figures were painted with predominantly light blue jackets and where possible with yellow braid on the chest.

View of two more of the little guys

My aim this time round was to add a little diversity in to the colour of the jackets and also include a couple of figures with out chest braid, but with a wrap around top instead.

Last view of new batch

So most of these are brown or green jackets and  only three have decorative chest braid! As with the others in the existing unit I have sourced a variety of spare heads, weapons etc from other kits - can you spot a GW goblin quiver and arrows? Scavenged from the spares box to help make up numbers. To be fair its hard to see, on the figure in front row, extreme left of the top two photos. 

Believe me - it looks OK, better than it sounds!

Finally a snap of the new guys integrated into the existing Cossack units, 
the aim is to have a total of 24 Cossack figures. Just in shot - top left -
Armoured Turkish Cavalry and dismounted Polish Dragoons waiting on undercoats...

Most of the figures have the same top knot hair style that was typical of the Cossacks and the wider Polish army at this time. 

I have another 6 to make up in the near future as well.

AHPC XI - Mike W: [Shrine] Ork Gorka Morka Totem

First of hopefully two or three posts this week as I continue to work through the challenge and juggle different project themes and real world work.

Gorka Morka Shrine, skulls and entrance

Having completed four Chambers on Level One of the dungeon, I have now descended to level two.

For the Shrine special chamber I present just that - an Orc Gorka-Morka shrine, from the Games Workshop old Gorka Morka boxed set, if I remember correctly!

Slightly different angle

As a terrain piece or maybe an objective marker, this piece was moulded in two parts, I glued them together and spray painted black, before highlighting with a light grey spray paint and then a top highlight of white spray paint.

Gorka Morka Shrine, side view, wood panels

I painted the wooden frame and support planks brown, with metal work picked out in a steel colour. Around the base is a pile of skulls, painted a skull white colour, there is also a large greenskin face stretched between poles on the frame that makes an entrance to the shrine...

Back door!

I then spent way too much time coming back to this piece to add in the details. But, the fun in this piece was all the detail! This included what seemed like dozens of toadstools, all painted red with white spots, shields, skulls etc and the marvellous Moon Face icon on the top of the shrine 

Another side view

Everything was given washes and then matt varnished.

Lots of toadstools