Medieval Russian Hand Gunners

Recently, I was lucky enough to pick up a pack of Roundway's 15 mm Russian Hand Gunners (RURU5) via eBay. Here's the finished results:

I wanted to add some Russian mercenary types to my collection of Lithuanian & Polish medieval figures. I already have some generic hand gunners (from Essex) but I wanted some with a more eastern European flavour.

I have plans to use Roundway's medieval Russian cavalry to do the same for my Lithuanian Boyars. In fact they are on the painting table now. In the meantime here's some more photos of the hand gunners:

As pictures of the Roundway range are rare I thought I'd also post a picture of the bare lead I found online:

The figure is clearly based on this drawing from page 176 of Ian Heath's Armies of the Middle Ages, Volume 2 published in 1984:

This was really helpful as it shows the crossed strapping (or gaiters?) on his legs and that he is wearing shoes not boots. Sadly the detail on the figure is such that this was not obvious on first examination.

Once I knew what it was supposed to be I was able to use a combination of painted highlights and washes to create an impression of the strapping: you may choose not to bother!

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