Andrea Miniatures "Polish Winged Hussar" in 54mm scale

This video is not about the assembly or painting of this figure. It is a homage for the famous Winged Hussars of the 17th century. Just enjoy the show my friends!
I really enjoyed it to assemble and paint this white metal figure from Andrea Miniatures. Although the kit consists of 74 white metal parts the assembly was easier than expected.
I painted the figure with acrylic paints from Revell and Lifecolor. Oil paints were used for the shades.


The Polish Hussars (Polish: Husaria) were the main type of cavalry of the first Polish Army, later also introduced into the Army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, between the 16th and 18th centuries. When this cavalry type was first introduced by the Serbian mercenary horsemen around the year 1500, they served as light cavalry banners; by the second half of the 16th century hussars had been transformed into heavy cavalry. Until the reforms of 1770s the husaria banners or companies were considered the elite of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth cavalry. They were widely regarded as one of the most powerful cavalry formations in the world. Polish Hussars were undefeated in battle for over 100 years.

The hussars were famous for their huge 'wings', a wooden frame carrying usually eagle, but sometimes ostrich, swan or goose feathers. The symbolism is connected with the Serbian origin. In the 16th century characteristic painted wings or winged claws began to appear on cavalry shields. Wings were originally attached to the saddle and later to the back. In 1645, Col. Szczodrowski was said to have used ostrich wings. Several illustrations in this article depict Winged Hussars.

They wore the wings because they made a loud, clattering noise which made it seem like the cavalry was much larger than in reality. Unfortunately, the wings were very heavy and when the soldiers went into battle it proved to be strenuous.

In the 1970s those theories were disproved. When a film adaptation was made of The Deluge, a Polish historical novel, it revealed that the wings attached to the riders' back almost threw them out of their saddles when their horses went faster than a trot (when attached to the saddle they slowed down the horse greatly). Most probably the wings were used only for parades and other special occasions, but probably never in battle.

There is another possibility, however, that the wings were worn to make their own horses deaf to the wooden noise makers used by the Ottoman and the Crimean Tatars.

Some historians suggest that the tradition of wearing wings came from Ottoman "akinci" raiders who worked as a light cavalry in the Ottoman army. Hussars, in a sense, were a European answer to Ottoman cavalry tactics and original Hungarian hussars imitated Ottoman raiders'(akıncı) in equipment and in fighting tactics. While doing so, they also imitated their appearance. The Turkish tradition of wearing eagle wings came from Central Asian Turkish shamanistic traditions: it was believed their horses would go faster if bearing wings (a form of sympathetic magic). Some historians also speculate that it was for intimidating enemies with their strange look (a form of psychological warfare). İmages of Ottoman raiders who wore ox horns, eagle wings and leopard fur can be found in 14th,15th and 16th century Ottoman miniatures and engravings made by European artists who visited Ottoman Empire.

(Wikipedia)

I don´t own the rights for the music and the video clips.

Music: "To glory" from Two steps from hell (Album: Invincible (2010)
Video clips: "With fire and sword" ("Ogniem i Mieczem") from 1999

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• hamilkar barkas
• scale modelling
• historic figures

[ChainsawJimmy83]

very nice mini, but don't polish people have pale skin? he looks to have a very good tan.

p.s i'm really don't mean to offend it just all the polish i've worked with were pale white, lol

[888HamilkarBarkas888]

@ChainsawJimmy83 i don´t think it is too dark, it is quite right in my opinion. white does not mean pale white.

i guess it is a matter of taste, i´m accentuating the deepenings of the face a bit to much, maybe this causes a bit to dark look.

[BasicModelling]

Stunning.... :) :) Having seen this I think you should make a Japanese warrior / samurai type figure... Don't know if there;s any such figures available, but you would make it look good, I'm sure.. :)

[888HamilkarBarkas888]

@BasicModelling thank you very much :) i thought about getting a samurai figure quite often, there are stunning figures of them out there. there is just one problem: the money! stupidly they offer samurais only in 54mm scale (they are boring according to the poses) and 90mm scale or even larger (they have cool poses but are expensive as hell). its a little bit annoying. i will keep my eyes open, because i really want to do a samurai figure one time.

[WHGamingNL]

Brilliant paintwork! Also nice vid with the real action parts :D

[888HamilkarBarkas888]

@WHGamingNL thanks :)

[ScoutofP]

Eeeeepiiiic!!!

[888HamilkarBarkas888]

@AdamSavage88 animals are quite hard to paint indeed! i manage it to paint dark brown and black horses, other colours are very hard for some reason.

i use windows live movie maker.

[TheFrontHobby]

Excellent! Reminds me of Mount & Blade, its a good game

[Princethebuilder715]

Very epic....