Husaria - Building a Polish army for the 1620s

In this entry I get on to painting the Avanpost Cuirassiers.

As the weather was wet I couldn’t spray prime the figures outside, as I normally would, and so I primed the figures by brush. I typically use Humbrol Enamel paint for brush priming as it gives a really good base to paint on top of. In an attempt to have an easier to use product (i.e. you don’t need to clean the brushes in white spirit!) I have been using this product from AK Interactive and it works really well – very matt and good adhesion to the figure; metal, plastic and metal.

Åke Tott

After painting a few brightly coloured units I decided to paint this unit as a complete contrast. Swedish (and German) troops’ armour was typically blackened in this period, to protect the metal. I therefore kept everything else on the figure also in very dark tones. I think this gives the unit an ominous look. For a cavalry standard I chose to use one that is attributed to Ake Tott’s regiment.

As his name could be interpreted as ‘death’ in German, Ake Tott played on this theme with his regiment’s standards, using a black field and a skull motif. Who doesn’t want a flag with flames bursting from a skull’s eye sockets?! The flag is from Flags of War.

Here is the completed unit:

Conclusion

These Avanpost figures were an absolute joy to paint; such crisp detail and beautifully sculpted figures. I’m not sure that I would mix the horse figures with other manufacturers in the same unit, but I have used the riders in the same unit with Warlord, Perry and TAG. I enjoyed this unit so much that I have ordered another unit’s worth from Mezzer’s Minis.

Some more close-ups.

Next time will be back to the Poles!