Thursday, July 1, 2010

The Steppe Lord's Muster

"Everyone knew how hard it was to deal with that violent and warlike crowd known under the name of the Dnieper Cossack army, whose external unruly disorderliness was merely a cloak for the disciplined orderliness that was best adapted for times of war. The horsemen rode without overstraining or overheating their horses; those on foot march soberly behind carts,and the whole army moved only by night, resting by day and choosing their camp wastelands, uninhabited places and woods...Spies and scouts were sent on ahead to spy out the land and bring news of the whereabouts of the enemy forces..."
"Very often they appeared suddenly in place where they were least expected - and everything took leave of life..."
"The villages went up in flames..."
"the cattle and horses that were not driven off with the army were slaughtered on the spot.."
"And it really looked as though the Cossacks were feasting rather than conducting a military operation..."
 From Taras Bulba by Nikolai Gogol. 

9 comments:

Dhinanta Aloke said...

Love your narratives. Love your painting, especially those horses and the shields. For some reason the shields are really standing out for me. I'm not sure what it is, but they really look like black leather.

Any idea what other units we have to look forward to? I'd love to see what you do with the characters and some warriors...

CounterFett said...

These are terrific pieces! They remind me quite heavily of Thulsa Doom's raiders from the beginning of the Conon movie.

Martin said...

Looks great.

Going to join in the new map campaign @ the bunker?

Faith and Fury said...

Great job! White undercoat right? I have marauder horsemen myself and would love to learn to paint them like that! Tutorial please?

Marc said...

Amazingly awesome!

Cobalt Cannon said...

Great work! Did you make these guys from one set, or with pieces from several sets? They have a wonderful barbaric freeman's appearance, like vikings.

No Gray Speckled Horse? Darnit! haha

Sulfure said...

Good job, I love them :)

Maybe their skin is a little too pink, don't you think ?

Do you plan a whole Cossac looking army ?

After a long time of hesitation, I also choosed to start a chaos warrior army.
I must say that the marauder horsemen kit looks awesome and It includes a lots of heads.
I'm still wondering if I will build massive units of horsemen backed by converted chariots and a few heavy armored units.

Kremmet said...

Great looking Marauders there. With the power of Mortals in 8th, I expect to see a lot more of the amazing kits GW has put out for WoC which can only be a good thing!

Tim said...

Great feedback guys!

Yes, I am working on making my army a Cossack themed force. The only issue is that Cossacks didn't use a lot of heavily armored warriors or knights but, hey, we can stretch it a bit. My Marauders on foot are coming out really well. I'm using lots of Flagellant, Free-Company and various marauder bits to create a Cossack feel to them.

The skintone is painted that way to make for a contrast to their dark clothing and weapons.

This group was undercoated in Army painters Leather Brown primer. I have sworn off of black undercoat forever!