Tuesday 14 February 2023

Thematic Byzantines, Varangian Guard


Many years ago, under the influence by two exceptional painters and modellers at the Edinburgh Club, South East Scotland Wargamer Club (SESWC), after much study of their work I came to realise that the secret to creating interesting dynamic looking units was to go for as much variation and dynamism as possible and to limit in as much is possible, the repetitiveness of the miniatures! I won't jump too deep into that concept except to throw in a few pictures below..... 

Anyway, with that in mind, as I started to clean up these Varangian Guards and ordered some extra sword and axe hands from Gripping Beast. With a quick-ish hand swap, I think these have reduced the level of homogeneity in the unit to make each miniature more interesting and the unit feel more "alive".

The Anglo Danish unit below is a nice example of how I strive for variation and to create as much dialogue between the miniatures as is possible with my toys. To have the miniatures "talk" to one another. There are many manufacturers in the unit which at first glance oat the list one might not think would necessarily fit together; Wargames Foundry, Footsore Miniatures (Matthew Bickley), Footsore Miniatures (Bill Thornhill), Gripping Beast, and Long OOP Gripping Beast so the variation was easy enough to create by using the various manufacturers. This was not the case with my Varangian Guard units where all the miniatures were from Gripping Beast's Thematic Byzantine range ergo the variation in weapons option.

With this in mind here's what I managed with the simple hand swaps for the Varangians.....


(Yeah, I know, two of the same miniatures has the same sword but I was having an off day!)





 





































20 comments:

  1. As always, a fantastic looking unit.

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  2. Superb painting as ever. Looking at the unit, which does look really dynamic, makes me wonder whether the 2-handed axemen would stand in the front rank prior to contact. It seems sensibe to let someone with a spear and shield bring the opposition to a stop first and then one could step forward while bringing the axe down on them so hard a shield might not save them.

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    1. I quite agree though we actually do not know how Dane Axes (which varies wildly in size) were actually used on the battlefield. We can only make educated guesses really, though I do agree that they would probably not be spearheading the move into combat. Unfortunately, wargames miniatures are the size they are and the degree of modelling available in any given unit is not always what we would most desire out of the miniatures :)

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  3. Great job! Your Varangian unit looks great!

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  4. Fantastic looking troops, and gorgeous flags, too!

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  5. Just guessing, but it seems like you give your infantry a 20mm frontage and 25mm depth per figure?

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    1. That is what they are all based on. As you can see, there are double and quadruple sized bases too.

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    2. Thanks, when you say all you mean the cavalry has a 20mm frontage too?

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    3. No sorry Ben. The Cavalry is on 25mm frontages and 50mm deep; all the bases are variations of the 25mm x 50mm for the Cav. Hope that helps?

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    4. Yeah, thanks. The deeper infantry bases is something I don't think I've seen before.

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    5. No probs. It's something I've done for years as I like to have the miniatures "talk" r-to one another. To interact. It works better on larger bases.

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  6. Hello,
    Superb paintjob !!! As per usual !!
    Nikkobourges

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