The Battle of Dirschau 1627....(1) Information and Setting Up...

The battle of Dirschau was fought during the Polish-Swedish war of 1626-29 (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dirschau). I'd wanted to play a game based on this battle for a while; I noted down the basic particulars and found some maps in 2022 ready to tighten up the scenario definition. However as I got stuck into my Samurai project this battle game went on the back-burner. In 2023 I noticed the Via Regia blog was doing a game for Salute, so I followed the relevant posts with interest.

Finally I've taken my post-it off the reminder board (side of the filing cabinet next to my modelling desk) and decided to fight the battle with my 40mm collection. A chance to get my Polish army into action again.  I've drawn information form the Via Regia blog, including a scenario map; relevant posts below...

• https://theviaregia.blogspot.com/p/the-battle-of-dirschau-tczew-1627.html
• https://theviaregia.blogspot.com/2023/04/dirschau-tczew-1627-battlefield.html
• https://theviaregia.blogspot.com/2023/05/dirschau-tczew-1627-at-salute-50-game.html

For the purposes of the game, I've used some of my TYW'ish horse and foot regiments to stand-in for the Swedish. Initial setup pictures of the battle Polish on the left, Swedish on the right... the whole table....

The Polish end of the table ...

the Swedish end of the table....

I may make a few tweaks to the setup before battle commences ....

Cossacks ... first metal...

 Moulds made last weekend and some trial castings done yesterday..

I've had to add a few more air vents to the moulds, so far the figures are coming out reasonably well. I have a defect in one mould - air bubble from pouring provides and extra lump on the front of one figure - it may be possible to fill the hole with some mould compound.

Cossacks ... pouring reservoirs...

 Master sculpts tidied up and pouring reservoirs fitted....

ready to started mould making; need to order some more mould making compund.

Cossack War Wagon (WIP)....

I've been building a cossack war wagon for 40mm figures; made from lego wagon wheels, cardboard, bamboo skewers and a cocktail stick.

This a prototype for a number of wagons to support a cossack army.

Cossacks ...sculpting

 I've been working on sculpting some 40mm cossacks, to home-cast a cossack army and/or some registered cossacks to fight with my Polish army.   I've reworked the generic rider and musketeer I did in 2020 and I've added a ten more ...

Two options for riders (which I can vary with different weapons and modify with green stuff as needed)...

Officer (?), three variants to hold half-pikes (or standards) and six musketeer variants

Next step will be to make some moulds...