int4.html

July 2005 - Alterations - session 5

Ran: We are not professional customisers, rather what you may call amateur "passionate 1/6th scale hobbyists"... learning - and blundering - as we plod along!

Rik: I, too, was the same way, as a youth, venturing into the world of model-building. In fact, my Father, used an old version of the model kit of the "Lone Ranger" and re-worked it from scratch into a winged hussar. I still possess the polaroid photo of it.

Ran: Rik - any chance of us seeing and displaying that pix done by your father in the projectblog? That would be so cool.

Rik: Well, I'm not online at home yet, soon tho. The scanner isn't hooked up. So, I can't scan & send you copies of the pics yet. My Dad originally worked off of an old B&W print, and found out about the colors later, so, his leopard 'cape' was only painted papertowel, and the wings are all painted brown, carefully cut-out, detailed paper, on balsa wood brackets. The rest looks pretty good. I have to figure out a way to get the pics on the internet...

Ran: Painted papertowel, cut-out paper .... these are also a few of our favourite things! The fun of customising as far as we're concerned is to manifest things out of ordinary stuff found at home ... this is not to say we're thumbing our noses at the 1/6th manufacturers with their $$$ design/production studios equipped with all the fancy equipment and material, but rather, it is a humble attempt by the man-in -the-street to emulate what 's done by them. Come to think of it, it's more like enforced thinking -out-of-the-box due to the lack of material and equipment. Hahaha.

Rik: Here, in the U.S. it's a 'very' arduous effort to get this out to the general public. Incidentally, for all of us who love the winged husaria, be advised, that Osprey Publications author, Richard Brzezinski, who wrote books I & II of 'Polish Armies 1569-1696', will be coming out with a VERY long-awaited new book on the winged hussars, in November in their "Warrior" series! Illustrator Velimir Vuksic's work will be in there as well.

Ran: I think this project has moved from the pure whimsical fancy of two friends to create a particular figure for themselves, to capturing the imagination and great attention of many others who likewise share an intrinsic interest - be it the particular customising process and it's steep learning curve, the historical connection and the respect that needs to be given in the areas of research and accuracy - notwithstanding the fact that copious amount of research into the armour, weapons and gear have not been readily available on the English language market, save for (as far as I know) a couple of books by Osprey and what is available on the internet. But because of circumstances, and forced to work from secondary evidence - that is 2 dimensional photographs gleaned off the internet - it is indeed heartening to have someone like Rik with his tremendous knowledge.

Ron: I have a problem with the gold seals on the cuirass. Well, it measures about a quarter of an inch and the research photos weren't that good so I just kind of had to fake them. I don't know even with all that Rik described on the one with the virgin Mary can be done on that little space without one of those Laser cutters.

Ran: I based mine on the same pix I think you had. Only I had it enlarged with Photoshop. I thought you did the same thing!! here it is. It's really pretty easy to do. I have the Osprey Polish Armies winged hussar book (recently bought in Malaysia) which has the close up of the medallions which Rik mentioned. I'll copy it and send it to you later. I did mine on the adhesive foil after reversing the template and printing it. Then painted it in gold paint. You have to refer to some of your colour pixs for where the gold colour went.

Ron: And I'm sure when Rik sees the costume I made it's not going to the right material design so I know it's not going to make it to the Polish Museum. LOL

Ran: I don't know about him but I'm sure (knowing you so well) you wouldn't want to get your stuff wrong, especially after putting so much comp-obsessive effort. LOL!!!

Ron: But on the other hand if I have a good close up of what the medallion then I can just peel off the old one or put the new one on top of it.

Ran: Yeah, that's what I would do. It's real easy like I said.

Ron: So like I said we can address Rik's points one by one but I don't think I'm going to scrap the whole cuirass just because the joints don't move.

Ran: What joints? Oh, you mean the plates on the back cuirass? I wouldn't worry too much about that especially since you've bolted the wings structure to the back. I don't think it'll move much or at all. I think your cuirass is the same era as mine. So you would have to decide whether you want to do a 17th or 18th century hussar. For a 17th century, it would be easy, just remove the wings from the helmet (OH NO!! ) and the thigh guards and rework the last panel of the shoulder guard with reference to the pixs Philip took. So now you got even more research work done for you unlike before. Yeah, I know... why couldn't all these material come before we started work on the project. LOL Well, it's because of the great interest that we have generated, that people want to chip in and help us. Aren't we lucky?

Ron: You bet! I started working on the flintlock. I really like the one that re-enactor had and the pics were good. I looked up some French flintlock weapons and there it was, only it's listed as an English flintlock on this site.

<http://www.swordsdirect.com/flintlock_pistols.html>www.swordsdirect.com/flintlock_pistols.html

LG2 said it was a French Flintlock, so go figure. Other web pages did list it as French.

I have been working on that pistol. Tiny thing to do. I read it is 44cm so I printed one out at 1/6 that size. Then cut it out and pressed a piece of flat sculpy into the negative cut out piece. It made a perfect outline. Baked it and filing it into shape. I was wondering though (since we only have one view) it's hard to see how the top Barrel fits at the end near the stock because the locks in the way. I was thinking it just ends there straight but can't see it. I don't have any flintlocks to copy from. You done that part yet?

Ran: I haven't even started on the flintlock but when I do, I'll base it on the one Rik has got. My main concern now is fixing the wings to the back of the cuirass and producing that leopard skin. I just came back from the fabric/craft store with a fabric that looks like 1/6 (or so) scale leopardskin, it seems to have better colouration than the one you sent me. I'll send a pix later...

Ron: As for the pics I sent of my Hussar standing by the table... I'd say go ahead and post it and see what flies cause I kinda like the richness of it. And if I have to scrap it and redo it, well at least it got shown. Maybe my Hussar is a little rebellious and wants to wear what his wife made him. Since she was a royal court seamstress, till he killed her husband in a fierce battle and took her, as spoils of war, as his own wife, because she was such a beautiful Polish girl and had a way with the needle and ornamental threads. LOL

Okay so I made it up. LOL

Ran: Okay, here they are...

Ron: That's my Leopard draped over the seat. Haven't got the red backing on it yet. Here's my Hussar headsculpt. Well they're just to show what I've been up to. My WIP like you said.

Ran: Nice effort there, will be nice to see how he looks after the alteration.

Ron: Anyway I'm also thinking we shouldn't do both of our figures the same, I mean what's the point of that? Only because we've seen so many different versions of the Polish Hussar's it seemed to me that they were all unique. And I'm sure that some dressed different cause there's always one. The guy that wears whatever he wants. As long as we don't stretch it too far from the century we're portraying. But I will keep all the former things discussed and alter mine to conform to proper standards. Anyway, I bet your Leopard skin is perfect Ran.

Ran: My leopardskin? No way. I was looking at the leopardskin fabric I bought, then noticed that one end was not given this "fur emboss". And you know what? The pattern was exactly the same as yours. Only the colours more muted and dirt tan like. So this must be version 2.0 where they used some embossing thing to create "furlike texture". So you know what this means right? The spots are out of control and almost like over the place.... Anyway, I proceeded and cut a pattern, sliced off the plastic cheetah/leopard head I bought (luckily it was hollow inside), cut off the paws, painted them and glued them onto the fabric. Then painted some white along the ends and sides before retouching the spots with a black marker. It looks like an undersize leopard, perhaps it can pass off for a juvenile leopard or even an ocelot. I however have a bad feeling about the leopardskin - I think it's way too small. I think I'm going to have to redo it.

Ran: Well, here's my completed Polish Winged Hussar, for what it's worth! I've reworked the laminated/articulated armoured panels on the front from thicker aluminium sheet. The plastic hinges were made from an old credit card, while I used plastic sprues taken from my son's Gundam kit for the L-shaped hooks.

July 2005: Leopard heads / Wings - session 6

Rik: Awesome!
Personal notes:
A) looks like you copied 'my' first set of wings exact. My wings were made without the necessary 'curves' that were inherent in them, because I hadn't a proper wood-shop to fabricate them. Knowing this, it was a mistake, but I had the armor by then, and hurried to make a set of wings. Hence, you need to re-do those wings. The 'hockey-stick' look isn't correct. I knew this when I made mine, and tried to replace them a.s.a.p. I now have the correct shaped wings. Pics are in our yahoo chat group. B) Too much gold (brass) on the wings, and not enough 'red'. The brass was only trim, not the entire wing covering. C) Chainmail is waaay too long, shouldn't be longer than the tops of the upper thigh. You should trim that. I almost forgot...You need to 'flatten' the leopard's head.
They never kept the head full like that. This way it sat
correctly on the shoulder...

Other than that, Totally Awesome!

Ran: Uhh, not exactly, I knew your first set of wings weren't correct and based mine on a line illustration used as reference- I just traced out the basic shape, sorry if the curves were not obvious, but I had a most vexing time fret-sawing that bassword board.

Rik: Yet, still, your wings have a definitive 'angle' and not a smooth curve. I have pics of my first wings and they look exactly like the ones you have pictured here...To cut curves, you can simply use the tools of a 'Dremel' style tool. Makes curves much easier...

Ran:The brass covers only half the width of the struts, but I guess this is not obvious because I painted gold decorations to the red coloured wood background. I'm now thinking of repainting the exposed wood area red. Sorry for the misleading photographs.

Rik: The brass trim should, at that scale, be reeeaaalllly slim. Just the very edge of the wing frames. Some wings had the trim on both front & back, some only on the back, some only on the front. However the major color we see used is that red running the entire length of the wing, top to
bottom.

Ran: Regarding the chainmail, Straight cut is fine huh?

Rik: Straight, or like this: V^V^V^V^V^V. Either, or, is acceptible...Some even mixed in brass and/or gold looking links as well. It all depended on the personal wealth of the hussar.

Ran: Thanks Rik. Straight-cut it is. Well it's back to the old drawing board and even more researching...

Ron: Yes it Looks good, real good. Flat Leopard head eh? I guess then some of those Hussar miniature models may have taken a little liberty. LOL Other than the flattened head your Leopard looks really nice. Fluffy fur and as excellent as I imagined it to be. I got some red material and did the skin lining. Now I think my Leopard head may be too thick as well, so I'll have to remedy that.

July 2005: Firearms - session 7

Ron: Ran, I know you said your not there yet but are you going to use this pic for your pistol? I've done some Web searching and I'm pretty sure it's an English Flintlock Blunderbuss. Is this what Rik is using? This pic was from the Fort pics that good old Philip took: I sent this to LG and LG said this about it: "At nothing more than a cursory glance, I'd say it has alot of French influence in it's lines and ornamentation. The belled muzzle (brass barrel) conveys the idea of an older timeframe. The fact that it's a flintlock, puts it no earlier than late 1600s at best, but likely early 1700s." Haven't found the exact dates for it yet. But I found pics of this same weapon at a few sites this one has a lot of reproduction Flintlocks. Man Lots of people make non firing flintlock replicas
<http://www.siouxcity.com>www.siouxcity.com.

Rik: That pic isn't mine. That's not my pistol. The ones I have are Looong...Really long handgrips, and long barrels. I'm not sure exactly 'where' mine are from, I'll have to look into it, myself. However, mostly used were firelocks, doglocks, and matchlock pistols. Then, gradually, the flintlocks started coming into use. The pistol you have here, in the pic, is too small to be used by the husaria. The pistols were longer to better fit into the long saddle-holster bags that held them. What 'looked' like a saddlebag on either side of the saddle concealed the longer 'tubular' holder for the pistol(s) barrels, which stuck out
from underneath. I'll have to see if I have better pics of my pistols and the saddlebags, and send them.

I can also reccommend joining up with another great Polish 17th C. yahoo chat site: "Zagloba's Tavern". They have a lot of great photos and such in their members only gallery, as well as godd files and links in those areas as well. Our yahoo site has some really great links too: "Suligowski's regiment of the Polish Commonwealth"

Ron: Ah I see the English Flintlock wasn't even yours! And I studied the detail of that one so intensely! LOL But well it's not a bad thing. I learnt to appreciate the beauty of the Flintlock.

Ran: Ron, here's a pix of Rik's firearms that Philip took. Rik, did the Hussars use English Flintlocks?

Rik: Not as far as we can tell, however, I'll post that one in Zagloba's Tavern, as see what we get. I know, that despite the claims of history about Colt inventing the first cylindrical multi-shot guns, the Polish Pancerni cavalry were using 3 and 6-shot carbines WAAAYYY before the American frontier cowboys were doing it...There's pics of replicas of them in Zagloba's Tavern.

Ran: Ron, Rik posed your question in Zagloba's Tavern of the types of pistolety used by the husaria, and whether they ever did use English style flintlocks. The answer was rather open-ended, however, on account of the intensive trade between 17th century Poland and England, there is the possibility that the Poles could have bought some weapons in England. It was also mentioned that the register of weapons of a 17th century Polish hussar denoted French and Italian pistols - meaning, probably French style flintlocks.

Ron: That's great, thanks Rik. I was thinking that sooner or later we'll need pics of those pistols that you're using and if you can, a couple close ups of the lock top and side and 3/4 view would really be nice to have. As well as length in mm. so we can scale it properly. And some measurements of the holster and weapons bag. And later we'll need some good reference pixs for the other weapons as well. But no rush, one at a time will be fine. A few months research on this project won't hurt as much as having the wrong thing. We are so fortunate to have people who know the specs like Rik and LG. (Armand)

To be continued ...



July 2005 - Alterations - session 5 Ran: We are not professional customisers, rather what you may call amateur "passionate 1/6th scale hobbyists"... learning - and blundering - as we plod along! Rik: I, too, was the same way, as a youth, venturing into the world of model-building. In fact, my Father, used an old version of the model kit of the "Lone Ranger" and re-worked it from scratch into a winged hussar. I still possess the polaroid photo of it. Ran: Rik - any chance of us seeing and displaying that pix done by your father in the projectblog? That would be so cool. Rik: Well, I'm not online at home yet, soon tho. The scanner isn't hooked up. So, I can't scan & send you copies of the pics yet. My Dad originally worked off of an old B&W print, and found out about the colors later, so, his leopard 'cape' was only painted papertowel, and the wings are all painted brown, carefully cut-out, detailed paper, on balsa wood brackets. The rest looks pretty good. I have to figure out a way to get the pics on the internet... Ran: Painted papertowel, cut-out paper .... these are also a few of our favourite things! The fun of customising as far as we're concerned is to manifest things out of ordinary stuff found at home ... this is not to say we're thumbing our noses at the 1/6th manufacturers with their $$$ design/production studios equipped with all the fancy equipment and material, but rather, it is a humble attempt by the man-in -the-street to emulate what 's done by them. Come to think of it, it's more like enforced thinking -out-of-the-box due to the lack of material and equipment. Hahaha. Rik: Here, in the U.S. it's a 'very' arduous effort to get this out to the general public. Incidentally, for all of us who love the winged husaria, be advised, that Osprey Publications author, Richard Brzezinski, who wrote books I & II of 'Polish Armies 1569-1696', will be coming out with a VERY long-awaited new book on the winged hussars, in November in their "Warrior" series! Illustrator Velimir Vuksic's work will be in there as well. Ran: I think this project has moved from the pure whimsical fancy of two friends to create a particular figure for themselves, to capturing the imagination and great attention of many others who likewise share an intrinsic interest - be it the particular customising process and it's steep learning curve, the historical connection and the respect that needs to be given in the areas of research and accuracy - notwithstanding the fact that copious amount of research into the armour, weapons and gear have not been readily available on the English language market, save for (as far as I know) a couple of books by Osprey and what is available on the internet. But because of circumstances, and forced to work from secondary evidence - that is 2 dimensional photographs gleaned off the internet - it is indeed heartening to have someone like Rik with his tremendous knowledge. Ron: I have a problem with the gold seals on the cuirass. Well, it measures about a quarter of an inch and the research photos weren't that good so I just kind of had to fake them. I don't know even with all that Rik described on the one with the virgin Mary can be done on that little space without one of those Laser cutters. Ran: I based mine on the same pix I think you had. Only I had it enlarged with Photoshop. I thought you did the same thing!! here it is. It's really pretty easy to do. I have the Osprey Polish Armies winged hussar book (recently bought in Malaysia) which has the close up of the medallions which Rik mentioned. I'll copy it and send it to you later. I did mine on the adhesive foil after reversing the template and printing it. Then painted it in gold paint. You have to refer to some of your colour pixs for where the gold colour went. Ron: And I'm sure when Rik sees the costume I made it's not going to the right material design so I know it's not going to make it to the Polish Museum. LOL Ran: I don't know about him but I'm sure (knowing you so well) you wouldn't want to get your stuff wrong, especially after putting so much comp-obsessive effort. LOL!!! Ron: But on the other hand if I have a good close up of what the medallion then I can just peel off the old one or put the new one on top of it. Ran: Yeah, that's what I would do. It's real easy like I said. Ron: So like I said we can address Rik's points one by one but I don't think I'm going to scrap the whole cuirass just because the joints don't move. Ran: What joints? Oh, you mean the plates on the back cuirass? I wouldn't worry too much about that especially since you've bolted the wings structure to the back. I don't think it'll move much or at all. I think your cuirass is the same era as mine. So you would have to decide whether you want to do a 17th or 18th century hussar. For a 17th century, it would be easy, just remove the wings from the helmet (OH NO!! ) and the thigh guards and rework the last panel of the shoulder guard with reference to the pixs Philip took. So now you got even more research work done for you unlike before. Yeah, I know... why couldn't all these material come before we started work on the project. LOL Well, it's because of the great interest that we have generated, that people want to chip in and help us. Aren't we lucky? Ron: You bet! I started working on the flintlock. I really like the one that re-enactor had and the pics were good. I looked up some French flintlock weapons and there it was, only it's listed as an English flintlock on this site. <http://www.swordsdirect.com/flintlock_pistols.html>www.swordsdirect.com/flintlock_pistols.html LG2 said it was a French Flintlock, so go figure. Other web pages did list it as French. I have been working on that pistol. Tiny thing to do. I read it is 44cm so I printed one out at 1/6 that size. Then cut it out and pressed a piece of flat sculpy into the negative cut out piece. It made a perfect outline. Baked it and filing it into shape. I was wondering though (since we only have one view) it's hard to see how the top Barrel fits at the end near the stock because the locks in the way. I was thinking it just ends there straight but can't see it. I don't have any flintlocks to copy from. You done that part yet? Ran: I haven't even started on the flintlock but when I do, I'll base it on the one Rik has got. My main concern now is fixing the wings to the back of the cuirass and producing that leopard skin. I just came back from the fabric/craft store with a fabric that looks like 1/6 (or so) scale leopardskin, it seems to have better colouration than the one you sent me. I'll send a pix later... Ron: As for the pics I sent of my Hussar standing by the table... I'd say go ahead and post it and see what flies cause I kinda like the richness of it. And if I have to scrap it and redo it, well at least it got shown. Maybe my Hussar is a little rebellious and wants to wear what his wife made him. Since she was a royal court seamstress, till he killed her husband in a fierce battle and took her, as spoils of war, as his own wife, because she was such a beautiful Polish girl and had a way with the needle and ornamental threads. LOL Okay so I made it up. LOL Ran: Okay, here they are...


Ron: That's my Leopard draped over the seat. Haven't got the red backing on it yet. Here's my Hussar headsculpt. Well they're just to show what I've been up to. My WIP like you said. Ran: Nice effort there, will be nice to see how he looks after the alteration. Ron: Anyway I'm also thinking we shouldn't do both of our figures the same, I mean what's the point of that? Only because we've seen so many different versions of the Polish Hussar's it seemed to me that they were all unique. And I'm sure that some dressed different cause there's always one. The guy that wears whatever he wants. As long as we don't stretch it too far from the century we're portraying. But I will keep all the former things discussed and alter mine to conform to proper standards. Anyway, I bet your Leopard skin is perfect Ran. Ran: My leopardskin? No way. I was looking at the leopardskin fabric I bought, then noticed that one end was not given this "fur emboss". And you know what? The pattern was exactly the same as yours. Only the colours more muted and dirt tan like. So this must be version 2.0 where they used some embossing thing to create "furlike texture". So you know what this means right? The spots are out of control and almost like over the place.... Anyway, I proceeded and cut a pattern, sliced off the plastic cheetah/leopard head I bought (luckily it was hollow inside), cut off the paws, painted them and glued them onto the fabric. Then painted some white along the ends and sides before retouching the spots with a black marker. It looks like an undersize leopard, perhaps it can pass off for a juvenile leopard or even an ocelot. I however have a bad feeling about the leopardskin - I think it's way too small. I think I'm going to have to redo it. Ran: Well, here's my completed Polish Winged Hussar, for what it's worth! I've reworked the laminated/articulated armoured panels on the front from thicker aluminium sheet. The plastic hinges were made from an old credit card, while I used plastic sprues taken from my son's Gundam kit for the L-shaped hooks.

July 2005: Leopard heads / Wings - session 6 Rik: Awesome! Personal notes: A) looks like you copied 'my' first set of wings exact. My wings were made without the necessary 'curves' that were inherent in them, because I hadn't a proper wood-shop to fabricate them. Knowing this, it was a mistake, but I had the armor by then, and hurried to make a set of wings. Hence, you need to re-do those wings. The 'hockey-stick' look isn't correct. I knew this when I made mine, and tried to replace them a.s.a.p. I now have the correct shaped wings. Pics are in our yahoo chat group. B) Too much gold (brass) on the wings, and not enough 'red'. The brass was only trim, not the entire wing covering. C) Chainmail is waaay too long, shouldn't be longer than the tops of the upper thigh. You should trim that. I almost forgot...You need to 'flatten' the leopard's head. They never kept the head full like that. This way it sat correctly on the shoulder... *Other than that, Totally Awesome!* Ran: Uhh, not exactly, I knew your first set of wings weren't correct and based mine on a line illustration used as reference- I just traced out the basic shape, sorry if the curves were not obvious, but I had a most vexing time fret-sawing that bassword board. Rik: Yet, still, your wings have a definitive 'angle' and not a smooth curve. I have pics of my first wings and they look exactly like the ones you have pictured here...To cut curves, you can simply use the tools of a 'Dremel' style tool. Makes curves much easier... Ran:The brass covers only half the width of the struts, but I guess this is not obvious because I painted gold decorations to the red coloured wood background. I'm now thinking of repainting the exposed wood area red. Sorry for the misleading photographs. Rik: The brass trim should, at that scale, be reeeaaalllly slim. Just the very edge of the wing frames. Some wings had the trim on both front & back, some only on the back, some only on the front. However the major color we see used is that red running the entire length of the wing, top to bottom. Ran: Regarding the chainmail, Straight cut is fine huh? *Rik: Straight, or like this: V^V^V^V^V^V. Either, or, is acceptible...Some even mixed in brass and/or gold looking links as well. It all depended on the personal wealth of the hussar.* Ran: Thanks Rik. Straight-cut it is. Well it's back to the old drawing board and even more researching... Ron: Yes it Looks good, real good. Flat Leopard head eh? I guess then some of those Hussar miniature models may have taken a little liberty. LOL Other than the flattened head your Leopard looks really nice. Fluffy fur and as excellent as I imagined it to be. I got some red material and did the skin lining. Now I think my Leopard head may be too thick as well, so I'll have to remedy that. July 2005: Firearms - session 7 Ron: Ran, I know you said your not there yet but are you going to use this pic for your pistol? I've done some Web searching and I'm pretty sure it's an English Flintlock Blunderbuss. Is this what Rik is using? This pic was from the Fort pics that good old Philip took: I sent this to LG and LG said this about it: "At nothing more than a cursory glance, I'd say it has alot of French influence in it's lines and ornamentation. The belled muzzle (brass barrel) conveys the idea of an older timeframe. The fact that it's a flintlock, puts it no earlier than late 1600s at best, but likely early 1700s." Haven't found the exact dates for it yet. But I found pics of this same weapon at a few sites this one has a lot of reproduction Flintlocks. Man Lots of people make non firing flintlock replicas <http://www.siouxcity.com>www.siouxcity.com.

Rik: That pic isn't mine. That's not my pistol. The ones I have are Looong...Really long handgrips, and long barrels. I'm not sure exactly 'where' mine are from, I'll have to look into it, myself. However, mostly used were firelocks, doglocks, and matchlock pistols. Then, gradually, the flintlocks started coming into use. The pistol you have here, in the pic, is too small to be used by the husaria. The pistols were longer to better fit into the long saddle-holster bags that held them. What 'looked' like a saddlebag on either side of the saddle concealed the longer 'tubular' holder for the pistol(s) barrels, which stuck out from underneath. I'll have to see if I have better pics of my pistols and the saddlebags, and send them. I can also reccommend joining up with another great Polish 17th C. yahoo chat site: "Zagloba's Tavern". They have a lot of great photos and such in their members only gallery, as well as godd files and links in those areas as well. Our yahoo site has some really great links too: "Suligowski's regiment of the Polish Commonwealth" Ron: Ah I see the English Flintlock wasn't even yours! And I studied the detail of that one so intensely! LOL But well it's not a bad thing. I learnt to appreciate the beauty of the Flintlock.

	Ran: Ron, here's a pix of Rik's firearms that Philip took. Rik, did the Hussars use English Flintlocks? Rik: Not as far as we can tell, however, I'll post that one in Zagloba's Tavern, as see what we get. I know, that despite the claims of history about Colt inventing the first cylindrical multi-shot guns, the Polish Pancerni cavalry were using 3 and 6-shot carbines WAAAYYY before the American frontier cowboys were doing it...There's pics of replicas of them in Zagloba's Tavern. Ran: Ron, Rik posed your question in Zagloba's Tavern of the types of pistolety used by the husaria, and whether they ever did use English style flintlocks. The answer was rather open-ended, however, on account of the intensive trade between 17th century Poland and England, there is the possibility that the Poles could have bought some weapons in England. It was also mentioned that the register of weapons of a 17th century Polish hussar denoted French and Italian pistols - meaning, probably French style flintlocks. Ron: That's great, thanks Rik. I was thinking that sooner or later we'll need pics of those pistols that you're using and if you can, a couple close ups of the lock top and side and 3/4 view would really be nice to have. As well as length in mm. so we can scale it properly. And some measurements of the holster and weapons bag. And later we'll need some good reference pixs for the other weapons as well. But no rush, one at a time will be fine. A few months research on this project won't hurt as much as having the wrong thing. We are so fortunate to have people who know the specs like Rik and LG. (Armand)
		To be continued ...