Progress: Paint on Lead (and Plastic)

I've been trying to stay productive with my hobby, starting to tackle a 6mm Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth army to fight my Swedes and Russians. First up are enough pancerni for two regiments of cavalry. 

Only ones left to paint are the command. I will probably add a third pancerni unit and one or two winged hussars and some light horse detachments. 

There's nothing that I love more than a diversion to keep me motivated (and distract me from the primary task).  When I was over at my local hobby shop, I noticed they had some of Wargames Atlantic's 10mm plastic orcs in stock. I had planned to order some of these whenever Wargames Atlantic decides to release their 10mm plastic Azincourt armies. Yesterday I decided to take the plunge and support my local hobby shop. 

The box set includes three sprues of figures and 40x20mm bases. I plan to base mine on 40mm bases for either Chipco's Fantasy Rules! or Nic Wright's Fantastic Battles. I rinsed the sprues in soapy water and primed them black the following day. The image above shows my first go at these figures. Overall I am pretty pleased. The faces were les successful nut I am hoping to go back in and paint tusks, and perhaps a light ink wash will help with some facial details. These fellas will definitely be a speed-paint project so I'm not too concerned.

Game On....

Today, Alex and I got together for our game. It had been a while since I had seen my old friend and it was really good to catch up, share a few jokes, roll some dice and push some lead. 

Alex opted to take control of the Russian horde as they marched on towards Narva. His force was tasked with securing a village near a stream and driving the Swedes from their defensive positions. 

As the Swedes, I started with only half my force under Governor-General De la Gardie. A relief force commanded by Colonel Burmeister would arrive on Turn 3. The village was capable of holding one battalion in a fortified position. I opted to place the blue coated infantry battalion in the village with a green-coated dragoon regiment to their left and a yellow-coated infantry battalion and an artillery battery to the right of the village. 

I accidentally deleted the initial setup pictures so here we are after Turn 1(above). A unit of Streltsy on the right advanced too close to the village and received a volley from the blue coats for their trouble, inflicting a wear point. The Russian artillery bombarded the yellow coats from a distance, inflicting a wear and disordering the infantry regiment. Alex brought the rest of the Russians into position with some detachments of dragoons and Cossacks managing to cross the stream on the far flanks. 

At the end of Turn 2 (above), things looked good for the Swedes. Their dragoons chased off a Russian dragoon detachment on their far left ((top center of the photo barely in view). In the center, a streltsy battalion attempted an assault on the village and was repulsed with heavy loss. Another streltsy unit was unsuccessful in reaching the yellow-coat Swedish infantry and received a cannon blast into them causing some wear and disorder. The yellow-coats unloaded a volley into some roaming cossacks on their far right causing wear and disorder. The Swedes also saw their reserves arrive at the table edge.

The end of end of Turn 3 and beginning of Turn 4 (above) was probably the high-mark for the Swedes. In the third, the Russian reiters attempted an assault on the village and were repulsed with two wear inflicted for their troubles. The Russian westernized infantry filled gaps between the center and both flanks but had yet to make any meaningful action. The Swedish reserves were approaching the lines and their horse were primed to make a counter attack on a damaged streltsy battalion on the center left. Things went bad for the Swedes from here out.

At the end of Turn 4 (above), and the Swedish cavalry comprising their left flank is in trouble. The Swedish horse charged the injured streltsy and lost badly. Despite rolling 7 melee dice to the Russians 4 (their bardische allowing them to ignore wear markers in melee), the Swedes were repulsed after inflicting only one wear and suffering three. The green-coated dragoons were charged by a Russian westernized battalion and suffered two wear. The Swedish infantry failed to attrite the Russian units facing them.

Close-up of the situation at the end of Turn 4 (above).

The situation after Turn 5 (above). The Swedish lost their dragoon regiment on their left and the thier horse regiment were at their breaking point. The Russians lost one of their streltsy battalions and another was heavily damaged with three wear and also disordered. On the far right, the grey-coated Swedish infantry were disordered and suffering two wear after being shot up by cossacks and charged by streltsy.

In turn 6, the Russian reiters slammed into the injured Swedish horse destroying them and killing Colonel Burmeister in the process. A second streltsy battalion was destroyed on the Russian side. At the end of the turn the Russians led in victory points 9-8 but would need an advantage of 3 points for a clear victory at this point. Alex and I decided to play one more turn to decide things.

The end of Turn 7 (above). The Russians managed inflict wear and cause disorder by bombarding the yellow-coat Swedish infantry. In a desperate gamble, the yellow-coats attempted to charge and kill a vulnerable Potyomkin but failed their order check. Both the grey and yellow coat Swedish infantry were destroyed including Governor-General De la Gardie. The Swedes were left with a lone artillery battery and the blue-coated Swedish infantry entrenched in the village. 

It was a bloody affair that went very bad for the Swedes late in the game. Both Alex and I had a blast. I really can't say enough positive about Tercios. We finished 7 turns in about two and a half hours and I also managed to remember to do the various things I typically forget: orders checks for weary units, adjusting dice for weary and disorganized units, etc.

I may have to adjust some ratings for detachments. I lowered their melee and stamina but often kept their shooting value the same. We agreed to play again in the future. I really need to paint up my Poles and Ottomans now!

Nevermind the Bardiche...

Just a quick post because I ran through a few turns of Liber Militum Tercios the other night and followed that up with a reading of the reviews this evening. Perhaps I should have done those in the reverse order but no matter. 

For my practice solo game, I placed a small Swedish force on the table consisting of a commander, infantry battalion, dragoon regiment and light artillery battery. The Swedes were tasked with defending a stream edge. 

Opposing them was a slightly larger Russian force with a westernized infantry battalion, a streltsy battalion and dragoon detachment. 

To start the game, the Russians advanced. Streltsy are given slightly faster movement so they are a bit further out. The dragoon detachment hadn't moved yet at the time of this picture. The Swedes moved forward to the stream edge and their artillery bombarded ineffectively. 

The Russian infantry are given assault orders while the the Swedish loose off a volley. The Swedish infantry manage to inflict some wear on the streltsy but the 

Russians slammed into the Swedish pike and shot. The bardishe axes allow the streltsy to ignore the wear marker in melee, they roll 6 dice and inflict 3 wear markers on the Swedes. 

The Swedish dragoon regiment probably should have charged the Russian dragoon detachment but they opted to engage in a firefight instead. Soon the Russian pike and shot battalion started pouring fire into the dragoons as well and they were on the brink of breaking. 

At this point, after 3 quick turns, I opted to conclude the practice run. I keep forgetting to conduct orders check rolls for reactions and when worn units are tying to act on orders. I learned that those streltsy are pretty nasty in melee against other infantry. Tercios is a great ruleset. I really need to play it more. 

On a side note, I really like using the plastic bushes from Monster Fight Club as clumps of trees for my 6mm and 10mm games. They don't take up much storage space because they are stackable, they are pretty much impervious to damage in storage and I think they look really nice on the tabletop. They aren't cheap but I think I may have to get a bunch more. I think they used to have a convention sale when I would see them at various HMGS shows.

The Road to Narva 1656

So it appears that I will be getting together with my friend Alex to roll some dice and push some (tiny) lead soldiers. Next week we will play a hypothetical battle from the Russo-Swedish War during the Deluge. The rules will be Liber Militum: Tercios and the figures will be from my freshly painted 6mm Baccus collection. 

I generated the scenario using ChatGPT and tweaked the OOBs to what I had and wanted to use. ChatGPT provided the following scenario background (I designed the crude map in MS Paint):

"In late 1656, the Tsardom of Russia launched an offensive into Swedish Livonia. After the capture of Dorpat, a Russian detachment under Prince Ivan Khovansky advanced towards Narva to secure the approaches to Ingria. A Swedish relief force under Governor-General Magnus De la Gardie marched south to cut off the Russian column before it could consolidate its gains.

The battle takes place on open ground near a small Livonian village, where the Swedes attempt to block the Russian advance while the Russians push aggressively to drive them back."

I swapped out Prince Ivan Khovansky for my Pyotr Potyomkin which is historically plausible. I gave De la Gardie and Potyomkin Colonel Burmeister and Ivan Poltev (respectively) as their assistant commanders and I will provide all of them with some traits for added flavor. Poltev was, in fact, Pyotr's assistant commander. Burmeister was a cavalry colonel who was involved in the Livonian campaign and seems to have been fairly aggressive and fairly successful.

The Russian forces have Potyomkin (on the left) commanding two streltsy battalions, a detachments of dragoon, one detachment of cossacks and both artillery batteries. Ivan Poltev has command of two westernized battalions and a reiter regiment. I bungled the picture and left both dragoon detachments with ol' Pyotr. 

The Swedes will begin the game with two pike and shot units, a green coated dragoon regiment, an artillery battery all commander by De la Gardie (on the right). On turn 3, a Swedish relief force will arrive commanded by Colonel Christopher Burmeister which is comprised of a pike and shot unit and a cavalry regiment. If you look closely, the dragoons and horse are in the wrong positions and I have yet to add static grass to Colonel Burmeister's base. I should have this rectified by game time. 

The scenario will task the Russians with seizing a small village and attempting to drive the Swedes from the table. They will have a slight points advantage and the benefit of having all their units on the table to begin the battle. 

WarGames: "Shall We Play a Game?"

The title is a reference to the 1983 movie WarGames when the computer program WOPR asked what kind of game a young Matthew Broderick wished to play. 

Recently, I saw an episode of LittleWarsTV in which the club used ChatGPT to craft a Peninsular War scenario between Spanish Guerrilas and a French force. The approach taken seemed unbelievably easy so I decided to take some practice runs at this AI-driven scenario generation. 

I started off by asking ChatGPT to craft a wargames scenario during the Russo-Swedish War that occurred between 1656-1658. Surprisingly, it provided me a scenario for the Battle of Nyen which I played a few years ago with my friend Alex. I was blown away so I asked for a hypothetical scenario and the AI program gave me a battle where the Swedes were defending a ford crossing  and even gave me the historical context. Simply incredible! Pushing the envelope, I asked the program to craft the scenario using Liber Militum: Tercios wargaming rules and it tailored the scenario, more or less, to what the AI could find regarding the rules. There were things that I would need to tweak but the whole experiment was really quite impressive.

I don't often have a lot of time to game and sometimes scenarios are a time-consuming stumbling block. Using AI to generate plausible scenarios (real or hypothetical) along with the historical context will be incredibly helpful to improve my gaming experience. 

Sumer or Later...

I've previously mentioned how the illustrations in the book The Soldier by Richard Humble and Richard Scollins has been the inspiration for many of my wargaming interests. My interest in the Risorgimento, Sedgemoor, Flodden and the French Wars of Religion (specifically the battle of Dreux) were all because of seeing pictures on that book. 

Another illustration in that book is that of Sumerian soldiers with their big shields and long spears. Ever since laying eyes upon that picture I've always wanted to game Sumerian city states going to war with each other. Over the years I purchased figures in 10mm (Steve Barber and Magister Militum..not compatible by the way) and 15mm (Chariot I think) but never finished off the project. 

Baccus recently released a Sumerian range and I was tempted but opted not to purchase with all of the tariff craziness going on right now. I remembered that Micro World Games had a Sumerian range (as well as a cool 16th century range with landsknecht, reiters and gendarmes). I decided to place a relatively small order in for their Sumerians and it arrived today (great service and packaging by the way). 

I decided to post some of the MWG Sumerians next to some Baccus 17th century Sun King range pike for a size comparison. 

As you can see, the MWG figures are head and shoulders bigger than the Baccus 6mm. I don't have any of the Baccus Sumerians but I'm not sure they would be able to mix together. 

Anyway, I doubt I will tackle the Sumerian project anytime soon. I've thought about rules and there's the possibility of using Trebian's "To Ur is Human" rules although I might have to change the basing for them to suit my preferences. 

Ottoman Blues and a lack of time...

I was talking to my good friend and fellow gamer about how our hobby time is very limited these days and the frustrations that come from it. This year has really been difficult as far as time and schedules are concerned. Wargaming conventions have been missed, painting time is curtailed and gaming opportunities nearly impossible. Even when I do have time, often I am lacking the motivation or energy to take advantage of the opportunity. Until these realities change, I will try to take advantage of the moments I have and progress with painting miniatures so that they are ready to make war on the tabletop when the opportunity arrives. 

I recently completed a 6mm 17th century Muscovite army and a 10mm Macedonian army. With time limited, I am delaying the start of a new project. I am just painting figures that were partially painted and lingering on my hobby desk. The current task were a bunch of Crimean War Ottomans that I primed blue nearly 2 years ago! 

The figures are 10mm Magister Militum and were acquired right before MM went out of business. Luckily Peter Berry's Tenth Legion endeavor has acquired the 10mm offerings from MM. 

I think I primed them with GW Macragge Blue, applied a very diluted blue/black ink wash, dry brushed with more Macragge Blue. That was the plan at least, I'm thinking these may have just been primed only. Anyway, the figures are fairly straight forward to paint if a bit tedious with the white straps. 

References indicate the Ottoman uniforms and equipment were pretty rag-tag. I've thought about mixing in some random brown or grey pants and giving a few brown leather accoutrements or a varied blanket rolls. That may be too much effort. 

I should also point out something....I often go to great lengths to determine what a soldier's uniform looked like. Despite the efforts at historical authenticity, I will snib my nose at it and paint it differently for aesthetic purposes. With the Ottoman fellas above, the fez tassel should be a dark blue like the uniform. I intentionally went a light blue for the purposes of color contrast and diversity. I also added a yellow tassel button (I had seen some color plates showing a gold button, I went yellow instead) just to give the figures a little extra pop of color. 

I think I have 3 battalions worth of Ottoman infantry to finish (about 70+ figures). I'm not sure what is next after these guys are done. I think there are some Ottoman cavalry, 10mm Greek mercenary hoplites (earmarked for service in my Persian army), 6mm Scottish infantry for my Killiecrankie project and perhaps some other stuff too. While time is limited and schedules are wonky, it doesn't really matter which project I'm working on, what matters is that I make progress. Paint now (when I can) and game later. 

Complete: Pikes and Pachyderms

I have previously posted on the nearing completion of my 10mm Macedonian/Successor army for To The Strongest rules. Today I managed to snap a picture of the army in its entirety. 

And above is an image of all it's glory: 6 pike blocks, 3 units of mercenary hoplites, 2 bases of hypaspists, 2 units of Thessalian cavalry, 2 bases of purple-clad companions, 3 bases of slingers, 2 bases of archers, 6 bases of "elephant screens" and 3 commanders. 

While I had the armies out of their storage trays, I decided to pose a few staged battle scenes featuring Successors versus Romans.

Some Successor elephants with their screen of bow-armed skirmishers face off against pesky Roman velites. 

 

Next up we have some pike-armed phalangites ready to skewer Roman Hastati, Princeps and Triarii. It's been mentioned in the posts covering my Roman army but the red shield reflect Roman legions and yellow shields are their romanized Latin allies. 

Lastly we have a rather gallant charge of Companion cavalry led by their king. Opposing them are Roman cavalry who are led (from behind) by a Consul. 

I want to briefly touch upon the basing approach I use for these armies. There was a time when grass tufts were becoming more available that I was using them... overusing them (see my WW1 armies as an example). My approach to the  armies for TTS was different. I try to cut corners to speed up the painting by priming in black and leaving alot of the black to create depth. Highlights are minimal. Basing is also simplistic. Initially I used a gel paste for texture but I now use a fine sand since it's quicker and less messy. Folkart craft paint is used for the sandy earth (Teddy Bear Tan for these armies) followed by a dry brush of bone white or off white and application of fine grass turf from Woodland Scenics. Not fancy but effective. 

With three TTS armies complete (Macedonian, Roman and Carthaginian), I hope to get in some games with them and also ultimately paint up my Indian and Persian armies. 

The "Undiscovered Country"...

At the risk of sounding too morose, I titled this post with a line from Shakespeare's Hamlet. It's a favored phrase of mine; I believe it's a reference to the afterlife however I use "undiscovered country" for anything that I (or others) have yet to explore. 

For the purposes of this post, I want to discuss what my next project will be. I still have some 10mm Macedonian cavalry to finish so that I can complete my Successors army for ato The Strongest. But what will be after that?

As I was putting some of my recently painted figures away in storage, I saw my 10mm forced of 1973 Egyptians, Korean War Chinese and 1940s Viet Minh. None of these "armies" have an opponent painted to game against. They were all initially painted up for the Pendraken painting competition but I never got around to painting their opponents. Those are all strong candidates for what will end up on the painting table next. There is also the Fenian Invasion project that is nearly finished and very much languishing. 

I'm also anticipating the purchase of the 10mm plastic Azincourt army sets whenever Wargames Atlantic decides to release them (if you can't tell I have been eagerly and impatiently waiting for their arrival). The plan there is to base them up for Test of Resolve's Hundred Years War variant. 

Only time will tell what I decide to slap some paint on next...

Pillow Punching Pachyderms

Another item that had been languishing for quite some time were the final batch of Macedonian/Successor elephants. The three elephants had been painted but the crews had laid in primer only for months. I decided to finish them off once and for all on my day off from work. 

With them complete, it brings my total number of "elephant screen" bases to six. While not quite rated as steamrollers in To The Strongest, perhaps they can anchor a flank or cause some horses to get a bit uneasy. 

As previously mentioned, towers would probably be more accurate than the riders I have crewing these elephants. I would have enjoyed the visual spectacle of the towers but they and their crews would have created headaches for storage. I opted for the riders instead. These little buggers are pinned to their pachyderm mounts and, as you can see, I have some archers, javelin throwers and quite a few sarissa-armed crew. 

With the completion of the elephant screens, I only have two units remaining to paint for my Macedonian/Successor army: mounted bases of Companions and Thessalians. 

Muscovite Mission Accomplished!

Making progress with the painting queue has been a challenge for most of 2025, but especially so this last month or so. I finally managed to finish up my 17th century Russian army in 6mm. 

The army is comprised of three "western" pike and shot units, two streltsy units, one "western" reiter unit, two dragoon detachments, a Cossack detachment, two artillery pieces and two commanders. 

Here is the third and final pike and shot unit showing off their red and blue uniforms. I found the red company flag online and the regimental flag is courtesy of Baccus. 

And here are the western reiters, the only full sized cavalry unit in the Russian army. They are loosely based on a color plate I can across showing a green-clad member Colonel Wormser's reiter formation. 

And lastly a closeup look at the detachment of cossacks. They will probably be of dubious battlefield effectiveness but they might be able to secure an objective or something where mobility is needed. 

I will be using the army with the Liner Militum: Tercios rules and the Kingdoms expansion (which covers the ECW and Deluge armies). Here's a look at the points breakdown:

• 2 Streltsy bases (large sotnia): 100 points each (200 points total)
• 3 Pike & Shot bases ("modernized" streltsy, large sotnia, muskets, pikes): 115 points each (345 points total)
• 1 Reiter base (large unit, arquebus): 100 points each (100 points total)
• 2 Light Artillery bases: 70 points each (140 points total)
• 2 Dragoon detachments (small unit): 60 points each (120 points total)
• 1 Cossack detachment (harasser rule)" 65 points 
• Potyomkin (Passionate trait)
• Pushkin (Will trait)

970 total army points (if my fuzzy math is accurate).

I will tackle some Ottoman and Polish armies to.do battle with the Russian host, however in the interim they will be facing off with my 17th century Swedes in a few hypothetical battles.

Armies of the Two Peters...

I haven't been quite as productive at the paint desk as I would like. There have been some logistical and work hurdles I've been trying to overcome with mixed success. 

I wanted to post some pictures of painted figures to reflect what modest accomplishments I've achieved regarding the 17th century Russian army I've been working on. 

Here is the Russian army this far: two streltsy units, two "western" pike and shot units, two dragoon detachments, two artillery bases and two Peters, or should I say "Pyotrs", but more on that later...the plan is to add a "western" reiter unit and a third "western" pike and shot units, a base of armored boyars and a few cossack detachments. Almost there.

Here are the two streltsy units, one which was shows previously. I found the flags online and edited the colors to reflect specific streltsy regiments. 

The two western units. The flags were found online, they apparently did use those digital looking designs on their standards. I read that the officers were often wearing reverse colored uniforms as the rank and file. I will add a third regiment in red uniforms later.

Here are the dragoon detachments. I have them a ragged uniform with a red/grey/tan palette theme. 

The artillery, my sources indicate that red was a popular color for the crews so I went with that. Online images showed alot of red/black cannon schemes. 

And lastly the command bases, a pair of Pyotrs. My armies are loosely based on the Russian forces that invaded Swedish held territory during the Deluge. These armies were led by Pyotr Potyomkin and Pyotr Pushkin. I was able to find several images on the colorful Potyomkin, one in a white and yellow ensemble and another in a dark red outfit (shown above). I had less success finding images of Pushkin. I decided to base my two command bases off the two separate images of Potyomkin. The bases may represent Potyomkin and Pushkin but really they based off the one Peter...or Pyotr. 

You can see the commanders in the respective costumes based on the paintings, you can also see the grey beards. The banner with the religious iconography was found online and edited. I had another photo of the command bases from a better angle that showed off the banner but I accidentally deleted it. These command bases were a bit of a stumble for me. Actually a series of stumbles. I had to pry one of the Pyotrs off the base after gluimg and reposition him because he was too forward and close to the edge. I also applied too much matte varnish on them in humid conditions and completely frosted the figures over. I recovered some of the original color with gloss varnish but had to repaint a good portion of the figures. The paint jobs aren't quite as crisp as they once were but they are good enough for 6mm. 

I look forward to getting these on the gaming table and slug it out with Swedes, Poles and Ottomans. 

Cossack Conundrum and a question of Boyars...

As I assemble a small army for my 17th century Muscovite army, I'm running into some challenges. The Baccus Great Northern War Russians offer early "modern" pike and shot and streltsy infantry. For Commanders, cavalry and artillery, I have to borrow from other Baccus ranges for proxies. 

For the reiters, I plan to use WEC16 (horse in continental pot, as seen abve) and I think that's a good match despite that they aren't in kaftans (in 6mm, you can fudge things a bit). 

I had planned to use GNC01 (cossack cavalry) as boyars but I think they are better served to represent dragoons. These sculpts have muskets (or arquebus) and just don't look boyar to me. It seems that dragoons would probably be the most common mounted unit present for the Swedish deluge. Originally the dragoons were really just mounted infantry but as they received carbines, they operated more from horseback. I'm thinking that the dragoons should probably be based as small units, while they seemed prolific, they weren't really battlefield cavalry and shouldn't be based as full units. 

Another potentially useful code for Muscovite horse would be some of the poses from the Polish black light cavalry pack (GNP05), I'm just not sure what I will use them for. 

I still don't know what to use for boyars and I'm not sure if it's even worth it since I will have reiters and dragoons present. OTT17 (Ottoman armored cavalry) could be used to portray Moscow dvorians since they have armor and lances. Polish Pancerni GNP7) are another option...perhaps a mix of both?

Artillery and Commanders will be addressed by using Cossack artillery (GNC03) and Polish generals (GNP09) respectively. 

Russian to Conclusion (or not)

As I mentioned in my previous post, I really need to finish off this Macedonian/Successor army...and I doing that? Of course not!

With some available painting time, I decided to paint up a 6mm 17th century Russian streltsy unit. After I gamed the battle of Nyenschantz with Alex, I ended up buying 17th century Baltic armies for the Scanian War and War of the Deluge. I made some progress on Swedes and Danes but decided right now was the perfect time to dive into the Russian army (it really isn't the perfect time to do this... Macedonians need finishing). 

Anyway, here is the 3rd streltsy regiment "Bukhvostova" in their light green kaftans with raspberry caps. I'm pleased with how these fellows came out. Such an anachronistic look for the late 17th century and they will provide a nice contrast when fighting the Swedish army on the tabletop. 

Same regiment from the rear where you can see their impressive berdisch axes. In Tercios, the axes give them some kind of positive modifier in melee. I don't think I ever mentioned this elsewhere but my 6mm Tercios armies are based on 3mm thick bases (with 3mm rounded corners) from Litko. The base sizes are as follows, for full-sized infantry and cavalry units: 65x35mm, artillery and company detachments: 30mm squares and commanders: 20mm rounds. The 65x35mm may seem a bit random but I chose it because it perfectly handles a three-rank infantry unit of nine Baccus strips. 

I should mention the sculpts are Baccus streltsy from their Great Northern War range (GNR-12). The 17th century will be a bit Frankenstein in composition, pulling from Polish, Cossack, Russian, TYW and Ottoman ranges. The plan right now is to have about five infantry units (2 streltsy and 3 "modern" pike and shot), three cavalry (two units of boyars and one unit of reiters), a couple of commanders and a couple bases of artillery. A fairly modest-sized army but enough to give me a quick game of Tercios for a weekday evening. When I inevitably make another order from Baccus, perhaps I will add few more packs to beef up this army. I think the Ottoman armored cavalry (OTT-17) would make passable armored boyars to serve a "dvora" unit of elite boyars.

Right now I'm painting up boyar cavalry which are really Cossacks with a fancy paint job. Reiters will come from the TYW range and armored boyars will come Ottomans. 

Persian Diversion

I should be painting the last few remaining units to complete my 10mm Macedonian/Successor however I have drifted a bit in my focus. This always seems to happen at this stage of a project for me. As an example, I'm still staring at the last few partially painted government units for my 6mm Killiecrankie project. 

Anyway, I decided to paint up a unit of Persian levy who will ultimately be facing that Macedonian army. I just wanted to paint something different. 

I chose soft, dirty pastels for these guys. They don't look particularly "martial" in their appearance which is probably appropriate looking at their stat lines for To The Strongest. I suppose I'm happy with how they came out but the inking process left them a little "dirty". 

Here is the same unit from the rear. Getting back to that inking process and the dirty effect it left....i typically gloss varnish after painting and then let the varnish cure for a day before inking. For the longest time, I used Testors gloss varnish and it always seemed to cure hard and handle the ink wash well. Recently I've been using Vallejo acrylic gloss varnish (my hobby shop was out of Testors). I feel like the Vallejo varnish absorbs some of the inking to make the figures look dirtier. Perhaps it needs longer to cure than the Testors? I don't know....all that I know is that I need to finish that Macedonian army.