Knights

I have slowed my painting tempo to put more thought about how to simulate painting armour without using metallic paint. Using the Renaissance masters as a guide, ground colour varied from light grey or blue to dark grey. To simulate the variation in quality or manufacture of the knight’s armour, I too used different shades of grey to dark grey. With four plinths full of knights to paint, I mixed four different shades for my basic armour.

The next photo shows the result of highlighting the edges of plate armour with white. This is less evident with a light grey ground colour, but stand out nicely with the darker grey.

The next stage is to add colour to horse harnesses and lances of the knights. I plan six colours which will run diagonally through each plinth to take advantage of the variation in rider and horse. This should take another day. My first batch have been varnished so adding the knights, I will have 28 elements done. I only lack 8 elements of pike and my first three commands of Bavarians will be complete.

I have a commission project to do first before I can start on the Imperial commands, but that will not stop me from ordering more Legio Heroica before the end of the month. I want to take advantage of their 20% discount.

Cheers,  

Short update - Medieval Bavaria

Taking a break from painting at the moment as I wanted to add a few pictures and a bit of text. This first batch of medieval figures are done with the exception the two general whose horse trappings lack colour.  

This has taken longer than I expected as background information for the armies is also in a state of evolution, that is “speculation” based on plausible evidence. At the moment I am working on a 15^th century Bavarian army, with Household troops accounting for one third of the total force. With blue and  white as theme colours the “uniforms” will follow the fashion of the time; a patch work of colour. The remaining Bavarian troops will represent provincial and city militia collected from other regions.

Theme colours I have taken from the coat of arms of the major cities within the provinces. So you will note a portion of the crossbow and Billmen are painted in household colours while the remainder have two colour combinations.

The second batch will consist of knights, Coustilliers and Pikemen; some of which will be Swiss mercenaries. The rest are Pikemen from various cities. When completed, the Bavarian army with options have 40 to 45 elements.

Cheers,

Legio Heroica - Burgundian and Swiss 15s

You might describe this purchase as a “controlled impulse”; something planned for the long winter days but brought forward as a result of unforeseen circumstances. I had ordered more SYW French infantry from Old Glory early May, but after three weeks my paint brushes were itching to work again.  

While near completion with three DBA armies, I had been online looking for suitable figures for a late Medieval army. Old Glory had the right figures for the infantry, but the mounted figures were not in correct armour. Searching further, I found Legio-Heroica and I knew these were to be my next army. One problem, I had to act fast as they were planning to move and by early June would not be able to ship figures. I also knew, most of Italy is on vacation during the month of August, so the long range plans suddenly became high priority. As an extra incentive, Giuseppe was offering 20% discount for orders placed prior to the move.

I usually do not purchase one DBA sized army when the postage will cover the weight of three, so I ordered enough Burgundian and Swiss for a big battle sized army. With a bank transfer the registered  package arrived five days later.

The quality is first rate. Detail I would normally expect on a 28mm figure could be seen on these 15s. The online catalogue photos do not do these figure justice. Plenty of character, poses are natural and the figures are near an 18mm height, while they do mix with OG or similar sized figures, I would not mix them on the same base as these are beautiful figures. One minor quibble, all weapons are separate; bills, crossbow, pike and lance, even the improvised weapons for the peasants are seperate.

The last photo shows a mix of foot and mounted crossbow with a command element at their first stage of painting. Here, you can clearly see the variety of helmets and weapons for the figures. I should be finished with these by the weekend.

Did I mention that I was pleased with the purchase? So much so, I took advantage of Giuseppe’s latest offer as posted at TMP: LegioHeroica is Moving. I made nearly a duplicate order so I would have two matched big battle armies for the Late Medieval period.

This one arrived in three days. Enough keyboard work and now back to the paint brushes.

Cheers,

Three DBA armies painted in one week

I had not planned to complete these three armies in so short a time, but with my order of Legio Heroica coming this week I want to clear the work table. The weather here was extremely warm, so drying times were short. I also improved my technique for painting folds and outlining which quickened the pace.

Photo one, show the Serbian collection. The Serbs were off and on allies of the Byzantines, so clothing, arms and shields would be influenced by them. I still wanted the irregular look, so kept a balance between the linnen colour and the reds and blues one would expect for Byzantines. Not shown is the standard which has a cross. All flags were done but the fixative had to dry well before handling.

Photo two, are the generic Slavs (III-1c) which have a geneeral on foot. Lots of linnen, beige and btrown clothing. Shields are likewise leather covered wood. Banner, again not shown depicts a Griffon on a near white background.

The Moravians in Photo three are the largest of the three armies as this has all possible options; extra bow and blades. These were covered in an earlier posting which mentioned their clothing styles and shield patterns were influenced by the "West".

From receipt of package on the 22nd, all three were varnished, based and flocked by the 29th and this morning the flags were painted. As the creativity is still flowing, I shall work on the medieval flags for my next army, the 15th century Bavarians.

Cheers,

Moravians

The Moravians are one three DBA armies (with options) I am painting as a commission work. The challenge is to create three distinct collections as all three are from the same time period and region; Moravians, Slavs and Serbians.

Only the Moravians are pictured and in photo one, the have just been cleaned and will be placed on their plinths for priming and later painting. The plinths are long enough to fit 6 mounted or 12 foot. Painting irregulars becomes easy, as every third or fourth figure may have the same coloured shirt, but later during the process will have different coloured breeches and so on. Having painted a number of Slavic armies I kept darker colours for breeches and lighter tones for tunics. With shadow and highlights the clothing would lighten somewhat.

What could be gleaned from the WRG Dark Age book, mentioned the Moravians choice of colours and shield patterns were influenced by the Franks (East and West). Photo two, show the infantry need only the wedge pattern on their shields and they are ready for varnishing.

The mounted in the background lack not only the shield pattern, but breeches and tunics as well. In addition to the Moravians, there are six Lithuanian horse that will be added to an army of Wends painted a few months ago.

With the additional holiday tomorrow, these will be ready to varnish on Monday.

Cheers,

DBA Wends, Bohemians and Croatians

With flags added to each command stand, the Wends, Bohemians and Croatians are complete and ready to be shipped to their owner. The collections were a mix of Essex and Baueda figures and I must say I was delighted to see the latter first hand. These form the impressive shield wall of eight spear and fill in some of the ranks of the other two. Cheers,

Bohemian

Croatian

Wends

The Wends (III-1a)

The Wend Army III/1a is the last of the commission work.

The customer was as near a duplicate of the one I did in December of last year. These are Essex 15mm, but come from a slightly different range of figures.



The infantry are varied but have different poses. The shield certainly is characteristic of the Baltic region, tear drop shape reinforced with metal plates.
The cavalry are bow armed but are ready for serious business holding lance or javelin erect.



The last photo shows the finished army ready for varnishing and tomorrow I can base all three armies.

Cheers,