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.