Steppe Nomads (Half) Cantabrian Circle

Not to blow my own trumpet but I am amazed at my output at present! Admittedly it is partially the result of the varnish queue that had accrued over the weeks but I do think that there is some acceleration with the old brush too. Perhaps it is a result of the (hopefully short) hiatus I will be undertaking very soon?

The first six out of 6 of the rank and file (if they could be described as such?) of the Steppe Nomads in a (half) Cantabrian Circle are happily based, painted and nicely "tufted". Hopefully I will be able to juggle things around to get the next six glossed, matted down then based within the next week or two. Fingers crossed; I'm not a big fan of half finished units lying around, they have a nasty habit of getting chipped no matter how careful I am.

And a more loose picture of the unit with the edges of the background popping out!

I think/hope(!) I have the models positioned in the right place to give the feel of the Cantabrian Circle  whilst also maintaining a sort of frontage that most wargames rules demand? I would love to hear your thoughts.

As usual, all the images are "clickable" both of the half unit above and the single bases below.

Single Bases 1:

Single Bases 2:

Single Bases 3:

Steppe Nomads II

The second batch of Steppe Nomads to complete the fist unit of 12 is now done and dusted. OK, all complete bar the varnishing process; stage one, the gloss, which is about to take place tomorrow. I'm not sure when I will get around to matting the miniatures down again as the builders will be firmly ensconced and (hopefully!) working very hard to complete their work.

It is worth mentioning again that unless very wealthy and able to afford more exotic types of horse/pony most of the ponies 5-6th Century Steppe Nomads would have had access too would not have had such a variation of colour and patterns on their mounts. Again, artistic license has been taken on that point.

The first batch of 6 are now based and will be ready to photograph tomorrow once the sand etc has dried and I can get some paint on the bases followed by the ubiquitous grass tufts of various proportions and colours. 

Unvarnished Steppe Nomads

 

It has been a while since I managed to find the time to post anything new. So, in the absence of any new posts and my blog beginning to feel a but forlorn; over the next few days I will be posting a small series of articles covering what I have been working on ranging from the Italian Wars and the Wars of Justinian and Narses etc. 

The latest painting has featured Aventine Miniatures Steppe Nomads (most of the range is being remoulded by Keith at Aventine). I have enjoyed painting these immensely. In an effort to save time and instead of the basecoat, drybrush then a few washes that I have resorted to use on some horse flesh of late, I have jumped back into "Early Byzantine" mode and spent a decent amount of time on painting different types of coats. I realise that most of the ponies 5-6th Century Steppe Nomads would have had access too would not have had such a variation of colour and patterns on their mounts but I simply could not resists. There is always room for artistic license right? The castings, although a little fiddly to put together (I know Keith is fixing this, thus the remoulding) are sublime and easily the best Steppe Cavalry I have ever painted up. They really were a joy.

All the images are pre varnish so will have some variation in the flatness of the paint. This is a result using paints from different manufacturers such as Vallejo - usually quite flat, Andrea - always consistently flat, Foundry - not nearly as reliably flat. 

Best get to the pics, which as usual are "clickable".

White Hun/Avar Horse Archer Armour Musings

 I have scouring the net been looking into what sort of armours that the non noble White Hun/Avar Horse Archer's might have worn as part of my Early Byzantine project when I stumbled across this very interesting site:

Military Culture of Horse Archers

This is a very interesting read as it shows most of the armours being made of leather. Whether or not the continuation of the wearing of such armours strides into the 6 CE is a matter of debate but it is very interesting to note that there seems to have been a vibrant culture of using leather as an armour which is something that I think I will incorporate onto the painting of my White Huns/Avars who will drafted in as allies and mercenaries in my Justinian and Heraclian Byzantine armies

Most of the images below are taken from the above website Military Culture of Horse Archers. It is certainly food for thought. In trying to answer this question; was leather preferred even by the higher ranks of society to metal armour(?) is an idea that am currently reading bits and bobs from various books which include:

The Byzantine Wars, John Haldon (Tempus)

Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome, Phil Barker (WRG)

Armies of the Dark Ages, Ian Heath (WRG)

The Hun, Scourge of God AD 375-565 (Osprey Warrior)

Mounted Archers of the Steppe 600BC - AD 1300 (Osprey- Elite)

Justinian's Wars, Belisarius, Narses and the Reconquest of the West Roy Boss (Montvert)

Byzantine Armies 325AD - 1453 AD Dmitris Belezos (Periscopio)

And, of course, any other information I can glean. I clearly have a lot more reading to do so if anyone has any suggestions I would be very happy to hear from you.

Metal and Padded Armours:

Leather Armours: