Painting Challenge Submission 4 - Byzantine Cavalry (Encore)

Byzatine Kavallroi on maneuvers in my kitchen.

Things move along slowly at my painting table, but they are still moving. This submission to Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge continues with my 28mm Byzantine project - here we have even more cavalry to add to my small-but-growing forces. These are 28mm metal castings from Gripping Beast - there are six "Heavy Kavallroi" troopers and four "Hippo-Toxotai" (mounted archers). Four of the figures have shields with LBMS tansfers, and two of the shields are hand-painted - no issues with the transfers here, I just can't count, and didn't have enough transfers on hand...so I whipped up an easy shield paint job for two of them that matched the colours of the LBMS transfers.

28mm castings from Gripping Beast's Thematic Byzantine line. The figure on the right has a hand-painted shield.

These troops carry the long "kontarion" spears common to the Byzantine forces.

These Heavy Kavallroi troopers are as central to any Byzantine army as blocks or spearmen and archers - the Thematic Byzantine forces generally live and died on the strength and capability of their cavalry, and these riders would have been key to the force. These troops are much lighter than the lumbering Kataphractoi, but by any reasonable standard these fellows are still heavy cavalry - the riders are wearing a mix of chain mail, lammellar, plate and heavy cotton armour, and carrying the long "kontarion" lances. They can charge home, hit hard, withdraw and charge again because very disciplined and well-trained riders. They can pick their moment on the battlefield and have a decisive impact, and they are much more mobile, and therefore more flexible, than the heavy rumbling Kataphracts.

Mounted archers ready to ride & shoot in support of their Kavallroi colleagues.

Sometimes mistakes happen when packing miniatures - oh well - and that is why one of the riders is missing his quiver.

It is a common thing in the Thematic-era Byzantine armies to blend archers into the formations, and this cavalry unit will be no exception - again, the amour on these mounted archers is a little less than on those who accompany the heavy Kataphracts, and there is no barding on the horses, so they can keep up with their colleagues, providing a "sting" for the Heavy Kavallroi force.

As always, lots of character in these metal sculpts - although some of the riders look a touch "stiff" in the saddles...lighten up fellas, you'll never catch the Turks riding like that!

Less armour than the Kataphractoi, but still armoured and heavy by any reasonable definition.

Consistent with all of the Byzantine models I have painted so far in AHPC XI, these models are all based individually so as to allow for maximum gaming flexibility - for example, the six Heavy Kavallroi riders would represent a unit of cavalry in skirmish games "Lion Rampant", and once I add some command figures to this group, it will comprise a unit for Warhammer Ancient Battles, Swordpoint or Hail Caesar.

Thanks for reading - hope you are staying safe, and please stay sane. Cheers. 

Painting Challenge Submission: Dooku, Count of Serenno

I decided to enter the Challenge's Hall of Traps with this entry, Count Dooku. In almost every Star Wars film, at some point the protagonists come face to face with an enemy Force user, lying in wait for them with an ignited lightsaber. 

This ~40mm ("1/47 scale")  model from FFG is a very nice likeness of Sir Christopher Lee, who played the role in Episodes II and III. However, I chose to paint the figure not as Dooku appeared in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, but as he appeared when he first left the Jedi Order. This is recounted in the radio play & novelization, Dooku: Jedi Lost, set over 40 years before the events of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Dooku left the Jedi Order to aid his sister when neither the Republic nor the Jedi would help her when her planet was attacked. So, I rendered him as a man in his middle age instead of old age, armed with his then-signature blue bladed dueling saber.

Keeping the colours minimalist, I airbrushed zenithal highlights onto the figure's head, and airbrushed the lightsaber colours before attaching the right arm. I under-painted his face in acrylics to set the contours of his face, then painted it in oils. 

His clothing, boots, and gloves got 3 different tones of black, and I finished with some highlights, shadows, and details in oils.

This figure, plus associated time portal shenanigans, will make for an interesting encounter for players in my nascent Star Wars Legion campaign setting.

Painting Challenge Submission: Old School Talisman Warrior

I saw Gin's post about the Talisman Monk on the 20th Century Tabletop Miniatures FB page, so I decided to finish Citadel's Talisman Warrior as my next 2nd for the Analogue Hobbies Challenge. 

I painted several of the figures Citadel made for the Talisman board game, back in the late 1980's. Over the years I collected about 50(!) more in bare metal; they were all based on the card art, and replaced card stock standup pieces.

Part of the challenge was trying to somewhat match my painting style of 30+ years ago. For example, nowadays I airbrush zenithal highlights over black airbrushed primer. 

Following my old techniques, with a rounded steel sculpting tool I burnished the Warrior's helmet, shoulder guards, thigh pieces, and the metal of his weapons. The face was undercoated in brown, and I brushed on black primer everywhere else, and then worked up some grey and white for highlights before painting the figure in acrylics. I used a tiny amount of oils for some details and blending, and some Abteilung Smoke oil to shadow the burnished metal parts.

The Warrior is a colourful addition to my existing Talisman models; I should really paint more of them.

These characterful figures are also useful for solo dungeon crawls like Steve Jackson Games' re-issued The Fantasy Trip, another relic from the 1980's that has been reborn in these pandemic times.

Faramir, Captain of Gondor

 The latest off the Dusty workbench is a trio of figures from the Games Workshop Lord of the Rings range representing Boromir's brother, Faramir, both mounted and on foot, and a mounted standard bearer.

 

Painting the figures followed a similar technique used with the Company of Gondor project I completed last week, The figures were initially primed with matt black, The plate armour and chain mail was first painted gunmetal, followed by drybrushing on silver. Faces were painted with Vallejo medium flesh followed by a reddish-brown wash, as I did with my Warriors of Minas Tirith figures. The detail on the bases continued my 'ruins of Osgiliath' theme that I am using on all my Gondorian forces.

The only  thing that made this one different from the earlier project was painting the horses. I haven't done many horses in 28mm scale, but did a lot in 15mm years ago. I never bothered to do much shading on them, just a basic colour of some shade of grey or brown, the occasional sock or stocking, and then the saddle and bridle. At one point, somebody asked me if I didn't like painting horses, so I guess my minimalist approach sucked. It was time to do a little online research to try and up my game. The final technique I used was a blend of ideas from a number of different YouTube videos and blog posts that I found. I didn't copy any one style exactly, but borrowed different bits here and there, plus my own spin until I got something I liked.

Mounted Faramir - I decided to paint this horse as a chestnut. The horse was painted in a reddish brown, then drybrushed on a lighter shade to pick out the musculature. Then I applied a medium brown wash to the entire horse, and then did a bit more drybrushing with the lighter shade on the mane and tail. I gave the horse white socks on both hind legs. 

Dismounted Faramir - This was painted much as my earlier Elendil and Isildur figures, but with a bluish-grey colour scheme. The pictures available online from Games Workshop of a painted Faramir showed kind of a 'double helix' pattern along the edge of his surcoat, but I found my hand just isn't steady enough anymore. I compromised with a simple band of gold trim. 

Mounted standard bearer - For this horse I went with a colour scheme appropriate for a bay. A dark brown base coat was applied followed by drybrushing a medium brown to pick up the musculature. Then a dark brown wash was applied to the horse. The mane and tail were painted black and then drybrushed with a medium grey. A black wash was then applied to the mane, tail, and lower legs.

I am pretty happy with the final look of both horses. More mounted figures are waiting in the wings to experiment with duns, blacks, and greys

Painting Challenge Submission 3 - More Byzantine Cavalry

28mm metal Byzantines from Gripping Beast.

The submissions to Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge continue! The Conscripts are out in force, and you have already seen a lot of great submissions from Dallas and Mike shared here as well. Hopefully Byron will share some of his amazing projects too. For my part, I am bit disappointed at my slow pace thus far. I find my move to a new house, even though it took place in September, still causes a lot of disruption to my usual hobby pace as I struggle to locate bits, get figures base coated etc. etc. and just can't get the hobby motor running smoothly, as it were...my points target seems a touch fanciful at this point...

That said, some figures are still getting painted, and I return to you with more efforts in the 28mm Byzantine area. There are eight figures here, all metal castings from Gripping Beast's line of Thematic Byzantine troops. There are three more Kataphractoi (super heavy cavalry), four Hippo-Toxotai (mounted archers) and a lone figure to serve as a Byzantine commander/character. As with my previous Byzantine entry, these figures are all based individually to provide some flexibility in terms rules/gaming approaches.

I love LMBS designs, but I do wish they could be normal waterslide transfers instead of the convoluted, multi-layer exercise. This entire sheet of decals failed, as the various layers would not come apart. Cue the hobby fury!

All of the figures - save the commander - are carrying shields, and most, but not all, of those shields have decals from LBMS. I find these products indispensable, as painting and managing shields is one of my greatest hobby foes! Shields, generally speaking, are a large mental barrier to painting these kinds of figures - only heraldry is worse. But as much as I love the LBMS transfers, I do find them frustrating...there was some manner of defect in the pack of decals for the bucklers on the arms of the mounted archers, and I found myself needing to try and duplicate the established pattern myself with freehand painting...which SUCKS. I'm sure there are reasons for the design of these products, but I just wish there were some more options for shields out there involving plain old waterslide transfers, as opposed to this incredibly fiddly and complex process of peeling layers etc. of the LBMS products.

For all that, like I said, they are indispensable...I just ordered more!

Byzantine commander/general/warlord.

Lovely sculpt from Gripping Beast, lots of fun to paint.

Anyway, enough complaining, and on to the figures. For starters, the commander/character figure is a lovely sculpt...again, it has a lot of character and I really enjoy that about many of the metal figures from Gripping Beast. He has a haughty air, as one would expect of some senior Byzantine officer/nobleman. I put a touch of purple into his clothing...not to make him an Emperor, but someone "in the family" (and is thus at least likely plotting to become Emperor).  He is not on a flashy command base, but as I intend to have him available for Warhammer Ancient Battles, he will need to have his base able to mix with others - so a standard size mounted base for him.  

Kataphractoi cavalry, ready to wreck some sh*t in the name of God and the Byzantine Empire!

The long kontarion (big spears) are steel spears from Wargames Foundry.

Thankfully there were no problems with these three shields.

The three Kataphracts are similar to the ones I painted a few weeks ago. I really enjoy these particular Gripping Beast castings, they have a lot of character.  Two of the riders are armed with Kontarion, the long spears seen with "eastern" heavy cavalry such as the Byzantines, Sassanids (and others). The other rider is brandishing his heavy mace. These figures are so fun to paint!

Mounted archers, a critical component of Byzantine cavalry units.

Again, lovely character and detail on these metal castings from Gripping Beast.

The four mounted archers, with half-barding on their horses, will join the the Kataphracts. Byzantine cavalry (and many others) often mixed archers in with their heavy cavalry into powerful combined formations. Thus the Kataphracts could shower their enemies with arrows even as they approached them, and then slash/smash and crash them to bits at contact. While I often feel like archers are second-fiddle to their mail-clad and fully barded Kataphract colleagues, the archers were essential troops for the Byzantine army, and very skilled. To be able to ride and shoot, and do it as part of a disciplined cavalry formation, took considerable practice, skill and a lot of training...even without all of the armour of their Kataphract bretheren, the mounted archers and half-barded horses represented a significant investment of resources for the Byzantine armies. The archers were key troops.

All together, the Kataphracts (including the archers) I have painted so far in the Challenge can comprise a 15-figure unit to use in games of Warhammer Ancient Battles, and thanks to the individual basing, they can make use of a special wedge formation, and I have ranked up the full unit together for a couple of pictures. 

Wedge formation for Warhammer Ancient Battles!

I look forward to having these fellows counter-charge Dallas' Normans someday!

Of course, this group can be split up as well, to skirmish in games such as "Lion Rampant", which I look forward to trying sometime soon as well.

Stay sane everyone - thanks for reading. 

Star Wars Legion - Reinforcements

In addition to painting the odd figure here and there myself, I have been augmenting my Star Wars Legion collection with various figures that I have purchased or commissioned.

Arguably, the television show The Mandalorian has almost single-handedly revived the Star Wars franchise. Certainly, it's my favourite piece of Star Wars media in the last 20 years or so, with the possible exception of the film Rogue One. My first entry is the titular character, Din Djarin and his adoptive son, Grogu.

Before Christmas, UK Facebook user Jonathan Corps held a fundraiser for The Fairy Godbrothers charity (they send sick children to Disneyland and such), selling several 3D printed Mando and Child figures that he had painted. He left the bases empty for the buyers to place terrain to suit. It's a lovely, delicate print (see Baby Yoda's cute little fingers), and Jonathan painted it in striking fashion. I just added some acrylic garnet gel medium and painted the groundwork to match the rest of my collection.

The next several entries are from the Polish commission painting service, Minis for War. 

Jyn Urso is one of the main characters from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The model is a decent likeness of actress Felicity Jones. Minis for War have really shown the character's grit and determination.

  

Also from Rogue One, I commissioned a second squad of Pathfinders, so I can field two squads with two different heavy weapon options. I like especially how the alien squad leaders were rendered. in game terms, my two Pathfinder squads have good synergy with Jyn, infiltrating near the enemy.

I recently painted the LE Luke Skywalker. He will be a great commander for these Rebel Veterans. At my request, they based them in a more desert scheme, instead of winter groundwork (like when the troop type first appeared on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back). The figures remind me of coalition forces serving in the Middle East (with an alien twist).

First seen in Empire is this Rebel Veteran Mark II medium repeating blaster. Very dangerous looking, and a welcome addition to my Rebel forces, who don't have a lot in the way of heavy weapons and war machines.

   

Also first appearing in Rogue One are these imperial Shoretroopers. They have also appeared in The Mandalorian; they seem to be a type of garrison troop. Their groundwork is suitable for Scarif, Tatooine, and other sandy places. I like the details Minis for War did on the armour. 

To support the Shoretrooper squad is this last Minis for War commission, a DF-90 mortar. In the Star Wars Legion tournament meta, for awhile Shoretrooper squads and mortars were the "go to" choice to fill up one's Imperial "Corps" unit slots (i.e., the mandatory rank and file troopers, as opposed to elites or heavy support); this was due to a peculiarity of the rules that has since been rectified in a (free) revision via downloadable PDF. I do love my Stormtroopers.

 

First appearing in Rogue One, but also appearing in Star Wars Rebels, and as part of Moff Gideon's forces in The Mandalorian, are these Death Troopers. Like their movie counterparts, in the game these troops shoot straight and hit hard. The central figure with the raised fist is a named character from Rebels, a female Death Trooper named DT-F16.  I obtained these on eBay from  UK modeler "protechpainting". 

What's better than a squad of Death Troopers? Two squads of Death Troopers! I got these from eBay painter "sweathoger". With their starship decking bases, they go with the Darth Vader that SteveB painted for me. I will field them with the alternative figure to DT-F16, the model with the DLT-19 repeating blaster (which looks a LOT like a WWII German MG 34 dressed up for sci fi).

At the time of writing this article I have 114 painted Star Wars Legion figures, walkers, and speeder bikes. lots of choice for the scenarios I am writing, in the hopes of playing face to face games again in the hopefully not-too-distant future. Stay safe!