At the 1651 Battle of Berestechko there were around 40,000 Pospolite Ruszenie or Noble Levy. So they represent a sizable part of the Polish army and need to be represented in my army. When deciding on which figures to use it quickly became apparent that no manufacturer has these troops in their Polish range.
In the Osprey series Polish armies 1569-1696 (1) on Page 7 it discusses the dress of Polish Pospolite Ruszenie. It mentions how Hungarian dress was dominant, but how it was also influenced by Turkish and Persian fashion. In general noble dress was extremely expensive.
I therefore decided to use a mixture of figures from the Assault Group range. I used Hungarian Light Horse, Hungarian Hussars, Croats and even a few Ottoman Akinjis to fill out the ranks. I selected figures that looked noble, with an emphasis on those with feathers and ornate trim. The result is units of figures that look as if they fit in with the period but are different from the Polish cossacks and Polish Pancerni. I am very happy how the mixture of figures turned out, it gives a very distinctive force and contrasts well with other units.
I have painted 5 units of 8 figures each with two additional figures for a command group, giving a total of 42 figures. I hope to complete the movement trays for these figures later in the month.
The flags were a combination of a pack from Adrians Wall and a pack from Battle Flags. I selected general polish style flags (with the cross) for all except the one on the command figures, which almost exactly matches a noble levy flag in the Osprey book. The command flag can be seen at the front in the image below.
A few additional pictures of the Noble Levy are shown below. I have also recently painted 33 Polish cossacks and these are just waiting for the flags to be added in the next few days. Once the flags are complete, I will post some pictures of them.
