Early and Later Polish - Part 3

Feudal & Medieval Polish - Part 3

Continuing on from my previous two posts here's the latest update on my 2017 army project.

As stated before the Polish army is broken into two lists but the lists are completely different in composition and since it starts at 935 AD the clothing and equipment styles change fundamentally during the 565 year list lifespans.

I have been accumulating the bare metal to build the army from start to finish taking into account the changes in equipment and armour styles.

Having lots of metal still left in Project Lead Mountain allowed me to produce some purpose made elements to represent the High Medieval Knights. Essex Miniatures castings are generally very reliable for this period and as luck would have it I had six similar riders left over which would be perfect for the Polish senior nobility. Four of them were shieldless figures so I filed the shield arm slightly flat and glued some spare Corvus Belli shields I have in the spares box to make them an almost perfect match to the central casting. The figures have been detached from their horses a long time ago so I have no idea of the specific figure codes or even which horses were supplied with the riders but I wanted them to have full barding. The Polish nobles have a limited choice of heraldry in this period and lots of people shared the same coat of arms as they belonged to the same Herb, [the Polish term for a Clan Family], red is very popular in Polish heraldry. I made some waterslide transfers of the Polish national eagle which I am using for members of the Royal Family. I have yet to finalise their flags and standards so these will be added to the command stands when I have finally completed the army.

The changes in equipment style means I will need to paint up two complete sets of spearmen for the Early Polish list.

I have settled on various figure makes for the army and am happy to mix and match ranges but not usually on the same bases. I purchased a large amount of Irregular Miniatures castings from the NR41 Polish/Russian/Prussian Spearmen. Unfortunately due to the way the range was designed only one casting comes with the rectangular shield suitable for the start of the list, the others are a round shield casting, a wooden almond shield and three different metal almond shields. I sorted out the castings and produced a battlegroup of ten elements of Irr Sp I using the rectangular shield. They look quite nice one cleaned up and painted. I have discarded the round shield castings into the spares box. The almond shielded castings will probably end up mixed together to provide some variety in the 1200 AD style toops and will mean the entire part of this army will use identical figures.

Irregular HR41 Polish Spearmen with rectangular shields 

Next up are some more Irregular Miniatures castings but at Ian's suggestion I used the V12 Rus Spearmen castings They all have the same rectangular shield but come in a variety of poses. They were painted in traditional Polish clothing for the period of browns, blue and green. I am very pleased the the end result for the ten Irr Sp I elements.

Irregular V12 Rus Spearmen painted as Polish spearmen

Last up are some Minifigs Z338 castings. These are described as Polish Heavy Infantry, Spear, Square Shield. I have enough castings to create 20 elements but to be honest compared to the other two ranges the figures are showing their age but since I have the metal I shall have to paint them all. They are vey easy to paint up and the pose whilst limited does have a look of realism about it.

Minifigs Z338 Polish Heavy Infantry, Spear, Square Shield