Painting Polish 15mm cavalry [Tutorial]

A little tutorial on how I painted the Polish cavalry - the method is very similar to how I paint infantry. I have cut out 2 steps that proved to be too time consuming when painting a larger batch of models, that being the scorched brown basecoat of the models and using calthan brown as the 2nd step when painting all belts and bags. It still looks a bit better with those steps included - but I would save it for units that are very small or that will attract a lot of attention on the gametable.

I'm sorry about the somewhat crappy quality on some of the pictures but they are mainly there to give a rough reference to the paints I use and to show in which order things get painted.


As always everything starts out primed black. First step is to paint the rider with Khemri Brown.

Give the riders a generous wash of Devlan Mud. Once the first wash has dried, hit them again to really get a dark/dirty look on the uniforms as you will need it to paint the highlighted portion of the uniform next.

When dry, repaint the entire uniform with Khemri Brown, leave the dark shades of Devlan Mud visible in uniform folds, near belts and pouches. It should look something like these pictures below when done. Just make sure you do this step in a tidy fashion so you won't have to clean up too much.

Halfway there on the riders. All skin is basecoated with Elf Flesh, and then given a Ogryn Flesh wash. I rather have them a bit more shaded than on the light side, it helps if the models are sculpted with very deep details like eye sockets etc.

Now before you paint the helmet paint the chin strap with black. Then paint the helmets, all belts and bags on the rider and the little satchel bags - as well as the rifles in Scorched brown.

Wash the helmets with devlan mud to darken them and give them  a toned down dark brown color. All straps, bags, belts and such are now painted with a 70-30 mix of Bone White and Calthan Brown. (If you have the time you could paint all details with Calthan Brown as the middle step).

Next up is a bit of a "jump"  as I grouped several small things together. You paint the wood on the rifles with Bestial Brown. Paint the bedrolls with Orkhide shade, then US Army Green, wash them with Devlan Mud and paint the straps with Bestial Brown.

Apply the first layer on the horse flesh using a mix of 70-30 Black-Stonewall Grey. The mane and the tale are painted with Charadon Granite.

Entire base is drybrushed with Khemri Brown, then roughly 60% of the area is drybrushed with Calthan Brown. Final highlight is made with a light drybrush of Rotting Flesh.

Final step, second layer on the horse - use something like a 50-50 or even 40-60 mix of Black- Stonewall grey for a lighter but not too loud shade of grey and hit all the muscles and pronounced details on the horses. Wash the mane and the tail with Badab black, then paint the reins with Bestial Brown.

And that's pretty much it. Apply whatever basing material you like, I just went for simple static grass bases "Army Painter Steppe Grass" and left patches of naked ground. The choice of color on the ground itself is based upon the sandy earth around the area in central Poland where my grandparents live, the area is full of Pine Tree forests and the ground have a distinct mix of earth and sand grain that is brown-light grey in color.

This is most likely the last tutorial on the Polish, you can check my other tutorials on regular infantry and tanks in the Tutorial section of this blog.