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:

Aventine Bolt Thrower WIP

I've been doing some work on another batch of speed painted 12 Beja for my Sudan project whilst waiting for the days to roll by as my last batch Early Byzantines wait for their coat of gloss varnish to go fully off. On the advice of a great painter Redzed and fellow compatriot of the very much missed Steve Dean Forum I am leaving the gloss varnish a week before applying a matt coat. I did a test mini last night on some I had already painted up and even after one light spray of matt varnish it has come out well with no sign of any speckling. good news indeed!! In future I will going to be using this particular varnishing method on all the mini's I take my time on so many thanks to Redzed for this great advice.

Fully Varnished Test Mini- Actual Size Give or Take a Few mm

(it will be getting another light spray of matt in a day or two):

Glossy Torsion engine and Crew:

Three Singers:

(To make up the numbers on the painting desk)

The next update on the Early Byzantines will be the back ranks of the Dismounted Bucellarii/Extra Heavy Infantry which should not be too long as they were completed prior to the bolt thrower lot.

Early Byzantine Front Ranks with Hand Painted Banner

Hi,

After a lot of going backwards and forwards in my head over what to do about the banner for this unit I decided to go 'old school' and paint up my own. It's been years since I have done this for a couple of reasons one which ought to be obvious; transfers save a hell of a lot of time. The other being I couldn't find a suitable transfer/flag sheet that was very representative of 6 CE Eastern Romans. Many of the depictions of the various saints etc on these transfers were clearly from a later era thus they would look out of place on a unit on the cusp of the genesis of the Eastern Roman Empire beginning to reassert themselves by making their presence felt in Western Europe, particularly in north Africa and Italy.

It has been such a long time since I painted up a banner from scratch I have to admit to a little trepidation. I think that the result has come out quite well. If I were to go back and do another version I would have made the border of  of the banner a little more complex, perhaps incorporating a number of Chi Rho symbols etc.

Over all though, I'm quite happy with it. The last two ranks of the unit are now complete but after being left for the acrylic to to thoroughly dry and being given a coat of gloss I'm going to take the advice of Redzed and leave the models for a day or two longer before matting  down.

Aventine Byzantine Heavy infantry Update

Hi,

Just a very quick update with a few quick snaps of the next rank of the Aventine Extra Heavy Infantry to show.

The mini'as a re pretty much finished with just the leather work on the scabbards and belts and a few bits and bobs like buckles and the helms.

The chap with the flag is a Junior Officer who will be dressing the ranks and the chap with the raised hand another Junior Officer who will be commanding the back rank of archers to loose!

Battle of Solachon 586 CE, Claymore Wargames show 2008

My old steam powered laptop has been revealing more of the secret stash of pictures today.

Battle of Solachon 586 CE was a display game put on by Myself, Brian Phillips, Jack Glanville and JP in 2008 at Clamore Wargames Show. I was given the task of being commander to my own Justinian Byzantines and Jack's Late Romans (which doubled up nicely as Byzantines), Brian his lovely Sassanids and JP with his Sassanids which were originally painted up beautifully by Phil Olley.

We won something.... There's a trophy so I tempted to say it was for Best Display Game though I might be a little out on that!