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.