Vlad Drakul from TAG

 

Vlad Drakul from The Assault Group. 

Quite a nice figure, sculpted by Shane Hoyle, and one of the better available options for this historical character.

He was originally holding a mace- quite appropriately as maces in eastern Europe were generally carried as a symbol of rank and status- however it looked a bit wimpy and atrophied so I replaced it with a sword, which I think made him a lot more imposing looking.

I had intended to paint him to match the historical portrait of Dracula however I decided to paint his hair blonde as it seemed to work better with his blackened, gilded armour. So I'm not sure anymore if I'll use him to represent Vlad III The Impaler or maybe just some another Wallachian Aristocrat. I suppose now he does look a bit like Stephen the Great of Moldavia.

He came in a pack with a "Bride" and "Boyar", but these other figures have me a bit puzzled. Especially the Boyar. I can't for the life of me figure out from where the historical references for the Boyar could be derived from- he is wearing a shako, a waist length cape, fur trimmed coat, armed with a multi headed flail, and what looks to be a 17th century cuirass. I would certainly have a use for a Boyar figure if this could be established to be an actual historical representation of some kind. The Bride is probably meant to be Elizabeth Bathory, which is cool but doesn't really fit with Vlad. I really like TAG and their offerings, great ranges, I have a lot of their Rennaissance figures, but the boyar in this pack has me a bit stumped- if there is anyone out there who has an explanation I would love to know.

Crossbowmen

This unit of crossbowmen is made up mostly of GW Marksmen of Miragliano, with one old C26 Man at Arms to make up the tenth member.

These models really impressed me when I had a chance to study them closely as I prepared them. They are very finely sculpted by the Perry twins and full of lovely characterful details. They really look like a villainous band of war weary mercenaries on campaign. They are laden with sacks, bags of pillaged loot, hunted game, spare boots etc. fantastic!

I made a few minor conversions mainly to attempt to give them a slightly more Eastern European look to fit in with the Late 15th century Hungarian theme of my army. A couple of head swaps, and adding some more facial hair was the extent of it.

They were painted very rapidly using the oil wash method I describe in detail in this post on the Devoured By Saturn Blog.