The winged issue

You probably are familiar with glorious images of the Polish Winged Hussars charging with pair of wings strapped to their back, a magnificent sight to behold. However, in reality, Polish hussars - just like Balrogs! - did not have wings. Or rather, there are almost no historical accounts of them wearing wings into battle. They did however sometimes strap a single wing to their saddles, mostly for ceremonial occasions. Wings on the back would heavily hinder hussar's movement in battle. The popular image with two wings strapped to their backs comes from a later time when they were probably used for parades, or even later - a myth coined in the 19th century to bolster patriotism under enemy occupation. Nevertheless, they were indeed one of the best cavalry of the 1500's and 1600's.

So, to honor historical accuracy, I made the wing optional, there are model variants with and without it.

There's something new about the rider models themselves - because I wanted them to hold lances a bit more realistically, they are a single model (no glueing, hooray!). However, for printing in FDM the thin legs needed some kind of support structure. And because I hate wasting filament for supports, I added some additional small scatter models (small crate, sacks and hens) to work as supports, that you can snip off with your cutting pliers after print. Still it'll be probably necessary to use brim for better adhesion.

There are of course model verions without the supports if you want to try (probably better for resin). I like this idea and will probably use it more for riders and other models as well.

To make things less complicated, the stl naming convention is as follows:

• Hussar_rider01 - model without support structure and without wing

• Hussar_rider01_support - model with support structure and without wing

• Hussar_rider01_winged - model without support structure with wing

• Hussar_rider01_support_winged - model with support structure with wing

There is also a modular version of the hussars with the legs part printed upside-down the old way, arms with sabre and pistol and heads. They are of course compatible with all the other modulars. The modular bits will be avialable for the next month or so.

There's also a new horse - a bit more dynamic, with a tail printed separately.

And, there's a Polish Noble on foot.

Let me know how they print for you.

Oh, by the way, if you weren't around for the modular undead, the set is available on MMF. Grab it with a 30% discount with the following code: bonerattle

Next: spooky time.