Dear John,

Somogyi's books are superb, aren't they?

I have Strelets Austrians, most of the British and now Bavarians (& soon Dutch) to use as Austrian infantry. If needed for numbers, I'll include a few of my Mars Austrians (ex-Great Turkish War); no pikes, of course.

As you said, the Austrian/German states cuirassiers are perfect. I have thrown in a few Dutch to provide some with hats for variation/fun.

For Austrian dragoons I have some Strelets 252 French Late War Dragoons in Reserve, plus a few British horse late war as extra figs. I'll use these figs for key regiments and will make up the rest with Saxons (for which I have used Strelets Russian Dragoons of the Great Northern War) and other cavalry/dragoons as needed.

I have earmarked to convert Zvezda Prussian hussars (Seven Years' War) without pelisse as Kuruc cavalry.

Hopefully some of these ideas are suitable for you as well.

Regards, James

thanks James, i'm ok for Imperial Austrian troops, used all WSS types from many makers over the decades, like Strelets sets and other plastic sets, as well many metal figure makers like Les Higgins , Alberken , Minifigs etc etc

but still looking for suggestions of what figures could be used for Raloczi forces, happy to do conversions
cheers Old John

Dear John,

In addition to the line about using Zvezda hussars for the Kuruc cavalry, I had a line about using haiduks-various for the infantry, but seem to have deleted it when I was editing...

(Oh yeah, I also thought that I will 're-use' Kosciusko scythemen, which in turn are coming from various Mars Thirty Years' War and Polish inf.)

James

Hi James, thanks for figure suggestions, luckily i have spare unpainted Haiduks and Mars 30YW sets, got any other thoughts?
cheers Old John

Dear John,

I think that, like me, you are taking a pragmatic, wargaming approach, so these suggestions may work?

Mars 72033 Polish Infantry Mercenaries (Haiduks) is the first and most obvious set.
Mars 72043 Imperial Light Infantry has lots of interesting figures for various applications/adaptations— the fellows wielding the long-handled knife/scythe are perfect for peasants/scythemen and I have some of the firing poses in mind for Vendeans.

Others can/will come from:
Mars 72074 Polish Pahioki
Mars 72075 Eastern Mercenaries in Winter Dress
Mars 72099 Sobieski's Polish Infantry
Mars 72049 Imperial Mercenary Infantry in Winter Dress

The head dress will need a bit of knife and putty work and I may need to cut down some of the coats, but we'll see. Muskets could be replaced with flintlocks or just 'adapted' or painted to look that way.

Somogyi's plates are absolutely superb, but probably too lovely for the level of my painting (and scale of figures), so I have also been influenced by more simple representations in films and reproductions of 'contemporary' paintings in docos such as these (unfortunately, I don't speak nor read Hungarian (yet!), so rely on the images):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF9OIUvg-AQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UzD-0d3Bm4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpoDYbvHROA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FHiWfO4sj0

Hopefully something new and of use/interest to you here.

Kind regards, James

Hi James
very many thanks for all figure suggestions, had a look of them on Plasticsoldierreview website and suddenly recalled that was given sometime back from a pal a large pile of these figures , now just have to find them!!
also there was a German firm (Tom's Miniatures?) that did mounted and foot figures similar to Haiduks
again many thanks
cheers Old John

Hi

Where did you get hold of the Gyozo Somogyi book please?

I have several but not the one on the Kuruk Revolt

Beautiful books like



cheers