Battle of Orsha Hussars

I have long been a bit obsessed with Hans Krell’s amazing Battle of Orsha painting, it is surely one of the most interesting martial images of the early Renaissance. I find it's depiction of the hussars absolutely fascinating.

These converted early 16th century hussars were inspired by them. I did my best to approximate them by converting Gripping Beast Arab light cavalry, as no 28mm models are available unfortunately. Old Glory do have some Serbian Hussars that look like they might be ok but as is usual with OG it is a bit of a gamble and I was hesitant to take a punt on them sight unseen, as they are quite expensive to import where I live.

I did my best to capture the remarkable details of the Hussars depicted in the painting- the false sleeved, richly brocaded dolmans, the popped collars, the variety of headgear that would give a Mad Hatter envy, the asymmetric shields, bedazzled sabres, and winged stirrups. 

Every time I look at this painting, more minutiae and nuances are revealed, the attention to detail is astounding. There must be hundreds of figures in the painting, every square millimetre is filled, and every single one of the figures looks like a fully realised portrait of an individual participant of the battle.

If you are interested in finding more about this painting, the Wikipedia article is quite good and has a great high resolution picture of the entire painting. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Orsha)

There is also an academic paper by Zdzislaw Zygulski Jr. which analyses the arms, armour, and other accoutrements portrayed in it which is really worth a read. (https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/artdok/3363/1/Zygulski_The_Battle_of_Orsha_1979.pdf)

 

Two Kev Adams Orcs and an Asgard Troll

2 Kev Adam’s Citadel orcs and an Asgard troll by Nick Bibby. I really like the weird lunging poses of the pair of Nick Bibby trolls from Asgard. The first orc is in gladiator garb and looks like he has gone toe to toe with Mike Tyson as his ear has been chewed off. The third orc is my first attempt at a John Blanche style ogre face shield.

 

Asgard Orcs

These Asgard orcs are so tiny, with remarkably fine and delicate details requiring a totally different approach to painting than their more robust and chunky descendants by Citadel and the like. Many poses are bafflingly odd- bent almost 90 degrees to the ground so the orcs appear to be crawling or slinking across the ground. There’s something a bit primitive or animalistic about them, which matches Tolkien’s descriptions of twisted, corrupted elves. Very unusual design choices, but nevertheless amazing models, would love to hear more about the thought process that went into sculpting them. Sculpted by Jes Goodwin.

Great Orc with Spear. Apologies to Amebix, just my little tribute.

Asgard Orcs. Black Orc in armour with sword, Warrior Orc with scimitar, Cave Orc with spear.

Black Orc with scimitar, Orc Shaman, and Orc Officer. 

 

Gobbo Command Group

Gobbo command group. I painted these originally in I think 1996! Bought direct from GW mail order by sending in a hand written form with the figures and codes you wanted. Those were the days! Surprisingly just needed a few touch ups, and added a banner and shield, rebased too.

 

Eldar Space Pirates

Eldar Space Pirates, start of a new project. Inspiration derived mainly from the Book of the Astronomicon and Rogue Trader- this has always been the Eldar that appealed most to me- ruthless alien corsairs reaving about the cosmos, as well as a fair helping of Moebius and Chris Foss’s Dune concept art (I’m sure a big influence on Jes Goodwin to begin with). Don’t forget the Zoats! I figured they would be recalcitrant individuals and reject uniforms. Their outlandish, flamboyant dress reflects their arrogant, mercenary way of life, a bit like Landsknechts or historic pirates.