quest1on

more of Marek Szyszko and Eastern styles Lithuanian Tatar cavalryman, 16th century Muscovite Reiter, 17th century.

Lithuanian boyar from 14th century, by Marek Szyszko, Polish ilustrator whose few works have already been posted in some of those threads.

Definitely. That said, well done fantasy designs should be something to cherish - it's a rather rare occurence. I like Keller's take on the warg riders the most, there's not much more brutal than wearing pieces of carcass of your previous steed.

Yeah, about those codpieces... I recommend reading entry number one in this article http://www.cracked.com/article_21133_7-insane-r-rated-trends-you-never-noticed-in-famous-art_p2.html

We can always make female characters wear a tonlet this one even has this "Marilyn Monroe on a subway vent" vibe.

Coloured plate you say? How about painted German sallets or velvet covered Italian celatas?

Matt Easton truly is a wonderful man. And as for the longsword with shield, there are pictures from fechtbuch of Paulus Hector Mair like this Triple wielding! Now I want to dual wield a sword and a spear and still get to have a shield! No! If it's possible to dual hold in one hand, then it should be possible for both hands! Two swords and two shields FTW! http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/64003-armour-weapon-designs-a-plea-part-iv/?p=1417656 Yeah, I already thought about occasional shield + supposedly two-hand weapon or shield + two weapons (like in Talhoffer's fechtbuch, where there is a man shown with sword, buckler and dagger in the buckler hand).

It's probably just a longsword, those things were designed for two-handed use, after all. The blade does seem to be too long for one, though, but hey, I'm no specialist. At any rate, it's weird for something with that long of a hilt to be used with a shield, I don't think that was ever a thing (do correct me if I'm wrong). And it's probably not a proper two-handed sword though, I think those things are way larger. Again, I'm in no way an expert about this stuff. Actually, this video: might provide some insight. It's mostly set in the larger context of HEMA fighting, but the first few minutes especially talk about lengths of swords (specifically hilts) and such. In fact, this guy seems to know his stuff when it comes to weapons, historical fencing and stuff. You might give his videos a spin, pretty entertaining. Matt Easton truly is a wonderful man. And as for the longsword with shield, there are pictures from fechtbuch of Paulus Hector Mair like this

I like that the guy with dragons on shield is "fingering the quillon", although in his case it's probably not a representation of innovative fenncing technique.

Munition grade half armour, similar to the one on the altarpiece I posted. It's interesting to note that this cheap, mass produced armour has sliding gauntlet like flaps to make a fits-all size.

He does like this "girl with raised sword" pose.

Altarpiece of Wit Stwosz in Kraków's St. Mary's Basilica. I always liked the two crossbowmen in front, as they show how varied the lighter troops armour could be - from looking almost as full and heavy as man-at-arms' to half-armour with arm defences covering only outside and not surrounding the entire arm. As for the guys in the back, they always were a bigger problem for me. Is the one on the right wearing scale armour or some unnaturally shiny aketon? And why in the late 15th century is he wearing a 14th/early 15th century bascinet? My general conclusion is that the guys in front are Polish, while the back ones are Lithuanian, as they were always the worse equipped half of Commonwealth (although the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth hadn't fully formed until 1569).

If I remember corectly, first batch of trained Muscovite hussars tried to present themselves to the people on a parade and upon the departure through the city gate broke all the lances.

This piece of anima armour inspired me to make a little informative post about Polish hussars you seem to like so much, but I had to finish my finals session to get to it. So, after 2 weeks, I finally can go with it: First of all, Polish historians divided hussary's history and developement in 4 phases, depending on their equipment and the place they took in army. 1st phase Those are pieces of much bigger painting "Battle of Orsha" that took place in 1514. It's the first known Polish depiction of hussars in the so called racki (Serbian) style, useing light, hollow lances and wooden, wing-shaped shields, dressing in the lavish Balkan-Hungarian style influenced also by they mortal enemy, the Turks. They came to Polish service through Mathias Corvin's Black Army in late 15th century (first written source about them in Polish army is from the year 1500). They were used either as a more maneuverable support for the traditional men-at-arms or in the eastern-most steppe part of the country as men-at-arms' cheaper and better suited for fighting the Tatars alternative. There's some discussion at which point they adopted some armour - in 15th century, while fighting under Hungarian command, they still fought in the traditional Balkan way, in padded clothing only, but in the first half of 16th century, in Polish recruitment documents they are shortly described as serving with "p.p.t.d." which stands for "przyłbica" now meaning close helmet in modern Polish, then it probably was applied to the skull cap or secrete helmet; "pancerz", which is haubergeon;"tarcza", the shield; and "drzewo", literally wood, but it meant lance. A saber was considered for them, and soon for most Polish army, a side arm so obvious that it didn't recquire mentioning, although some of them also used pallasches (straigh, wide single- or double- edged swords with curved saber hilt), warhammers and flanged maces. There's some evidence on the Orsha painting that by this time they already, or at least some of them, wore the helmets underneath their fur caps and top hats and mail under the kaftan. 2nd phase By the late 16th century, hussars replaced altogether men-at-arms as heaviest type of Polish cavalry. During the reign of Stefan Batory, going by current Hungarian standards and some Muscovian influences, they started to wear mainly zischagges (some bourgonets, too) and added on top of mailshirts either anima cuirasses or bechters, which are like the thing in the last picture, armours of small metal plates kept together by mail. Also, use of the second sword, either pallasch or estoc-like "koncerz" became widespread and pistols started appearing amongst them. This phase lasted up to the very early 17th century. What's more, this is the phase during which appeared first evidence for their famous wings, specifically in the Stockholm Roll, where each hussar has a single, black feathered wing mounted to his saddle. 3rd phase This phase lasted throughout most of 17th century, when hussars where most needed by the Commonwealth. In comparition with previous phase, the armour got heavier by adding pauldrons and "karwasze", oriental style vambraces that reached the elbow with a kind of shalow bowl and the cuirass transformed into half-anima, as the only part of your thorax that moves is your abdomen anyway. The pistols became universal. That's where the most iconic look of a hussar comes from. 4th phase This is the decline of husaria. In the times when Wettin dynasty was on Polish-Lithuanian throne in 18th century, hussars became unreliable due to changing warfare and social decay of nobility which recruited the ranks of husaria for most of it's existance. It lacked skilled officers, who prefered to express their status by eschewing usual armour in favour of better looking but heavy, unwieldy and less protective scale armour ("karacena"). Another popular trend were scale, turban helmets or zischagges with metal wings on top. Also, from this phase comes most of exisitng specimens of armour with wings mounted on the backplate/straps keeping breastplate in place instead of backplate, which was pretty common in the previous phase. And, that's all folks!!!

Little piece of information I found recently reading about Thirteen Year War between Pomeranian states, Polish Kingdom and Teutonic Order in the middle/second half of 15th century, that has something to do with explosives: one of the key ingredients used in making incendiary missiles was amber, so the fact that this war took place by the coast of Baltic Sea was really helpful for both sides of the conflict.