Preview - Servant cossacks with matchlocks

I've already shown some servant cossacks with melee weapons, but I'm also working on some guys that are equipped with matchlocks. Here is a small preview:

Stay tuned, more to come!

Painted Servant Cossacks - finished set

 Finished all 6 miniatures from the set. Here how they look like painted:

I used soft colors to show poor servant cossacks - only one guy in misyurka has expensive colored dress.

Painted servant cossacks with spears - first try

 Finally I took the brush and painted first 3 servant cossacks with spears from my collection. Cossack in misyurka helmet is an earlier print - now this model has visibly smaller head and more historically accurate size of said misyurka.

Stay tuned, more to come!

Preview - Servant cossacks attacking with melee weapons

 Another set of miniatures I am currently working on is "Servant Cossacks with melee weapons". 

These guys can represent pretty wide range of moscovite foot troops or various rebelling peasants and cossacks.

Here is a preview of first 2 miniatures:

As you can see, these lads are poorly dressed and armed. As I found out, iconic moscovite bardiche was a rare weapon in the first half of XVII-th century, not more than 10% of all melee troops and militias were armed with them and probably even less. Nonetheless I've decided to give that poor guy a bardiche so he looks more menacing.

Stay tuned for more updates.

Monastery defenders ready for battle

 I've decided to base all printed and painted monks to create 5x 40mm square unit bases.

For example, they can be used in Irregular Wars as 4 bases of Armed Mob + a Pious Priest. 2 options in one set.

As a reminder - you can buy stl to print these monks in my store at Myminifactory. Stay tuned!

Announcing next set - Servant Cossack with spears

Time to present next set of 15mm miniatures that I'm currently working on and that soon will be available for purchase from the webstore.

These are servant cossacks of the Moscovite Tsardom, but they also can be used as various rebelling cossack factions. Spear was quite common weapon, but mostly servant cossacks were armed with matchlock muskets. That's why in this set of 6 miniatures 2 cossacks have both spears and muskets. 

Others are armed with spears and some additional hand-to-hand weapons, such as knives, sabers, axes and even a small morning star. One cossack also wears a "misyurka" type of helmet - in fact kind of a mail coif with a solid metal top.

In all I plan to make 3 different sets of servant cossacks on foot and this is going to be the first. Stay tuned!

Dwarves ready for adventure!

In addition to the miniatures, I have some wargame rules on my workbench. One of those projects that is now more than 1 year old is "Iron Beard" - fantasy skirmish rules about a bunch of dwarves in an expedition to reclaim lands of the ancient dwarf clan.

One of my ideas was to create a set of miniatures in support of these rules, that are still not published yet, as they need more playtesting. But some of the miniatures are ready and I'm pleased to show them. They are a bit of a training work for me but still they have some charm. I decided to make my dwarves in a style of Caucasus mountains' folk, especially various Georgian people. 

Set includes 7 models:

- Noble in armor with torch and sword

- Huscarl, armored and armed to the teeth

- Lightly armored guard with a spear and throwing axe

- Miner

- Scout with a musket

- Priest, praying to the mountain spirits

- Berserk, half-naked and armed with two long daggers

You can purchase STL files of these dwarves in my store. Stay tuned and see you later!

Painted 15mm orthodox monks from the No Prayers for Tsar Herod range

To be sure that miniatures look as intended (especially I was worried about chainmails, icon and holy standard) I've printed and painted them. 

This is how monastery defenders look in real world:

1. First pack of monks successfully painted with detalisation high enough for 15mm miniatures.

2. First painted monk - chainmail looks pretty much like a chainmail.

3. More of his comrades in orthodox faith get painted.

4. Command group painted - never felt myself so holy and blessed.

5. All monks assembled together - ready to defend the their faith and belongings:

Stay tuned - more miniatures are yet to come!

Introducing Rakosz Miniatures and No Prayers for Tsar Herod 15mm range

Hello and welcome! This is Denis from the self-ptoclaimed Rakosz Miniatures.

Let's start this blog with the first preview of the upcoming 15mm range: "No prayers for Tsar Herod"

It is a XVII-century so-called Eastern Renaissance range. I've decided to start from an almost uncovered topic so let me present you a set of armed orthodox monks. While I was inspired by certain events - like defence of Troitsk monastery in 1608-1610 or defence of Solovetsky monastery in 1668-1676, this set of 15mm monks can be used for most part of XVI-XVII centuries. Some models (the ones without bardiches or muskets) can easily and quite precisely represent medieval orthodox monks.

They can be used in the armies of Moskovite Tsardom, as well as represent armed clergy, supporting cossacks of Zaporozhian Host, or even represent the self-defence forces of Polish-Lituanian orthodox monasteries or rebelling monks (as it was in the case of Solovetsky monastery). After all, it was a time when clergy used to participate in armed conflicts quite often.

At the time of the publication this set consists of the following miniatures:

1. 6 monks with various melee weapons - axes, bardiches, clubs and spears. 

One figure wears chainmail and the other one - XVI's century russian helmet with added mail protection. As you can see - old monk with small altar cross has 2 versions - more and less armed.

2. 6 monks with muskets. 

As in the previous case one figure is armored, while the other one has an old helmet from monastery armory. I haven't added bandoliers to any of the miniatures so their use isn't limited to the second half of the XVII-th century.

3. Headquarters - 3 monks with relics and "igumen" (abbot of the orthodox monastery).

Here we have a singing monk with a holy book, young monk carrying holy icon and a standard bearer. Icon bearer has alternative version with empty icon (if you want to use decals or paint something different). Igumen also has armed (with a heavy XVII-century saber) and unarmed versions. 

4. 2 casualties.

These are just two dead or wounded (or just drunk....) bodies of orthodox monks, that you can use as markers or add them to the unit bases.

So, that's all for now, stay tuned - later Rakosz Miniatures will return with more teasers and releases, as well as photos of the painted miniatures!