Commander Mikołaj Abrahamowicz

 This blog post covers the third command stand for my Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth force from the 1620s; this commander representing Mikołaj Abrahamowicz (or Abramowicz ). 

Mikołaj Abrahamowicz with entourage; 28mm figures from Warlord, TAG, Foundry and 1898 Miniatures.

Abrahamowicz was one the Polish-Lithuanian ruling noble class, who’s family came from Smolensk in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. He was unusual in being a Protestant and yet well connected and influential in Royal circles in this predominantly Roman Catholic country. 

By the later 1620s he was already a veteran military leader of some years experience.  He had been in charge of the Commonwealth’s artillery and was also associated with leading the ‘Foreign Infantry’ in the Army (see the entry here on the Foreign Infantry https://theviaregia.blogspot.com/2021/03/polish-lithuanian-foreign-infantry.html).  

“If you look carefully, Sir, you can see the Swedes about to break through just over there!”

He is often listed as one of the commanders at The Battle of Dirschau / Tzcew in 1627, and so he seemed an interesting candidate as my third command base.  With his Protestant background and close association with the western style, Foreign Infantry, I thought it would be interesting to have Abrahamowicz represented with a figure in western style dress and equipment.  I picked Warlord Games’ ‘Sir Arthur Haselrig’ figure from my ‘pile of opportunity’, to use as the man himself.  This figure, sculpted wearing cuirassier armour, looks every bit the part of a well armoured general of the 1620s or 30s.  He looks as if he is shielding his eyes from the bright sunlight, and staring in to the distance to study some detail of the battle.  This pose looked like it would go well with a TAG dismounted Polish cavalryman that I had, who was posed pointing out some important detail.  The two figures together had a nice narrative to their poses, and would also provide both a western and a Polish touch to the base. 

To finish off the base I used a spare Foundry horse to be the dismounted Polish cavalryman’s mount. I also added an 1898 TYW pikemen as an ensign to carry a personal standard for Abrahamowicz.  The standard is conjectural and another ‘nod’ to Abrahamowicz’s western influence.  The device on the flag is Abrahamowicz’s family crest, the white background representing a colonel’s colour, matching Abrahamowicz’s rank.

The Abrahamowicz crest added in to a typical wreath used on colonels’ colours of the period, on an (off) white field / background. 

The figures were all really nice to paint; and it was great being able to lavish a bit of extra time on a command base like this one.  Although the figures are all metal there was very little work required to get them ready for painting.  The one bit of ‘fiddling about’ was the reigns on the Warlord horse.  The reigns are cast as a single piece under the horse’s head.  I could have probably left this, but ended up drilling this single piece of metal to form the two separate reigns. 

The resulting base makes a distinct commander for my Polish-Lithuanian forces, and I look forward to getting him on to the miniature field of battle soon.

Note.  The idea for Abrahamowicz’s style of dress, and his coat of arms, result from an email conversation with Michal Paradowski of the Kadrinazi blog, and author of two wonderful Helion books on the Polish armies from this period.  Thanks to Michal for the great thoughts and ideas, and any mistakes in the resulting base are purely my own! 

The next subject on the painting table will take me to the other end of the social scale but is no less fun to paint.

Until next time!

Andy @ The Friends of General Haig (FoGH).

Last Roar of the Lion

This post gives the background to my Gustav II Adolf command base for the Lutzen game.

Gustav II Adolf, the 'Lion of the North' is one of the iconic figures of the Thirty Years War, and is famous amongst wargamers for many military innovations.  Lutzen, 1632, was the second and last of Gustav's major battles in the Thirty Years War.  His death in the battle cemented Gustav's position as a hero of the Protestant cause at the time, and as a national icon for Sweden to this day.

In some ways you could say that Gustav was a risk taker.  He was not the sort of general who commanded from the rear.   He took decisions based on being in the thick of the action.  There appear to be numerous occasions in his earlier Polish campaigns where he narrowly missed serious injury, death or capture.  It was one such narrow escape which saw him wounded and this wound which continued to make it too painful for him to wear armour.  So, at Lutzen the scene was set.  Being at the front of the action led to Gustav receiving another wound.  While trying to retire to the rear, poor visibility seems to have led to Gustav and his entourage blundering in to the path of Imperial cavalry who recognised a senior enemy commander, even if they were not sure of who exactly it was.  His entourage were either killed or dispersed, and Gustav was killed trying to escape.

As I said in my previous post, I really like the Warlord Games Gustav figure (here).  He is in a really dynamic pose, charging in to the thick of the action.  Very in character for him, especially at the battle where this boldness probably led to his untimely demise.  His horse appears to be just landing after jumping some obstacle.  I used an old cannon model I had in my bits box to provide the obstacle that Streiff, Gustav's mount, had just leapt over.  Interestingly Streiff, who died after the battle, was stuffed and is still to be seen at the Royal Armoury museum in Stockholm (link).

The model was a joy to paint.  A nicely detailed metal casting that fitted together (man and horse) very easily.  I undercoated in Humbrol enamel matt black (seems to be a growing trend!) and then painted in Vallejo acrylics.  Finished off with a coat of Daler-Rowney matt acrylic varnish, which I find to be the mattest finish out there.  I have tried to give an impression of Gustav in the same clothing looted from his body in the battle, riding Streiff.

Gustav is accompanied by two equally excitable companions, also leaping their horses over the broken cannon debris.  These are two further Warlord figures, Fairfax and Rupert.  Rupert went together very nicely, while Fairfax needed a tiny smidge of green stuff to make the join between his body and legs work.  I also decided to change Fairfax's helmet.  He has a very nice three barred English pot helmet, with the three barred visor raised.  This type of helmet is more typical of the English Civil Wars rather than the conflicts on the continent.  I snipped off the raised visor, and then cut this down to be just a peak that I glued back on to his helmet.  I then added small pieces above and below the peak to represent the adjustable nasal bar of a Dutch pot helmet.  A bit fiddly but I think it looks ok.

I still need to add some flock and tufts, but I am pretty pleased with the command stand.  I hope Gustav will be luckier at the Lutzen refight on the 6th April and manage to survive!

Until next time.