Cossack Army of 1651

After completing the Tatar horde, I have the Cossack Army and the Polish Army to complete for my 1651 Cossack uprising project in 28mm. Over the past few weeks I have made some progress on the cossacks. I have completed all of the mounted figures, about 30% of the infantry and I have painted (but not based) the war wagons.

After some changes here is a list of cossack army forces that I plan to complete:

• 10 war wagons
• 4 units each of 12 foot figures of Register Moloitsy (these units have flags)
• 4 units each of 12 foot figures of Moloitsy (these units will not have flags)
• 2 units of 30 figures of cossack peasants
• 4 units of 8 mounted figures of mounted cossacks
• Each of the mounted cossacks will also have a dismounted figure and horse holders
• 2 units of cossack artillery with captured Polish guns
• Command bases

The above picture shows the war wagons that I bought from Redoubt Enterprises and the cossack flags that I bought from Adrians Walls. All of the figures are from the Assault Group cossack range. I still have to base the war wagons, but I was quite pleased with how they turned out. I have ten of them at the moment and this should be enough for a defensive Taber (I can alway add more later as they are very reasonably priced). On the basing I plan to chain some of them together and have some small earthworks in front. I used the artillery figures from TAG to man the war wagon small calibre cannons. The flags were assembled and I use some model war ship rigging rope to lash the cross beam onto the main staff. I actually used a needle to thread it around the pole.

For the cavalry I have used two bases of four figures for each unit giving a total of eight figures per unit. There are a total of four units. As the cavalry often fought dismounted I will be painting some dismounted figures on skirmish bases to go with them. I also have some horse holder figures to place on the table when they are dismounted. These dismounted figures and the horse holders are the next units on my paint bench.

For the infantry I will have three types of units. The best will be 12 man units of register Moloitsy. I will have four of these. I will also have four 12 man units of Moloitsy. The register Moloitsy will be distinguished from the Moloitsy by having a flag, otherwise they will be the same. At the moment I have painted three of each unit.

I also plan to have two 30 man units of peasant cossacks armed with farm implements. I plan to use TAG figures but to equip them with farm implements from Bicorne miniatures. I have ordered the farm implements and I will review them when they arrive.

Below are a few more pictures of the cossack army of 1651. With mainly infantry and dismounted figures left to paint (about another 150 figures in total), I feel that I am about half way through the cossack army. With their Tatar allies, they should be quite a formidable force for the Polish Army to take on.