Month: August 2011

DBA Army III/35b: Feudal Spanish

Feudal Spanish Knights; Old Glory 15mm

I finished the Feudal Spanish army I bought from Tony Aguilar via Fanaticus.  I’m quite happy with the way the army turned out, and I particularly enjoyed the painting process I used for this army.

These are all 15mm Old Glory figures.  I’m happy with the figure selection: Thanks, Tony!

Feudal Spanish Cavalry; Old Glory 15mm

We went on vacation for the first week of August, and I decided to take a painting project.  These Spanish were cleaned and primed but I hadn’t started painting them yet.  I knew the basic color scheme I wanted to use, so I put together a limited set of paints and used only those colors to paint the figures.  It was an interesting change to work from a more limited color palette. 

I also didn’t bring any research materials with me, and I was mostly without Internet for the week.  The only reference I looked up while I was on vacation was getting an idea of Andalusian shield patterns.  This is why some of the shields and smaller flags have yellow stripes on a red field instead of red stripes on a yellow field.

It felt liberating working under these self-imposed restrictions… some might even call it a “plan.” I finished the painting with a few days left over, and lamented the fact that I didn’t bring a second army to start painting.

Allied light horse; Old Glory 15mm

The General’s stand is flying the colors of Aragon and/or Catalonia.  As far as I know, these figures slightly predate the age of heraldry, so shield patterns were primarily decorative and not hereditary insignia.

Feudal Spanish spearmen; Old Glory 15mm

I have a lot of red, white, and yellow armies, and plans for more.  I didn’t want the Spanish to have the same general look as my other armies, so I emphasized the yellow more than I’ve seen on other Feudal Spanish armies.  I also colored most of the cloth in various shades of excrement and detritus, instead of using cleanly dyed colors.  Overall I like the greater contrast here between the colorful shields and flags and the bland natural colors.

I hadn’t painted any Old Glory 15mm figures before I did this army.  I like the variety of poses available without overly dramatic, active posing.  The sculpting isn’t bad, but it’s not the best I’ve seen, either.  The figures are a bit smaller than Essex, which is fine with me:  the horses actually fit on the bases.

Feudal Spanish Psiloi; Old Glory 15mm

The spears are basically square, which is a bit weird.  They require a bit more cleaning than other manufacturers’ figures, but not dramatically so.  The main drawback I see is that Old Glory 15s come in packs of 24, so it’s often not cost effective to buy armies that have more than a few different element types, unless you’re building a triple army.

I haven’t played this army yet, so I don’t know how it’ll do.  That’s a lot of psiloi, but I like psiloi.

Painted for Historicon 2011

Say hello to my little friend!  Museum miniatures.

 I am only just getting around to photographing the random elements I painted up to bring to Historicon in July.

First are two bases I painted to use my Rajput Indian army in DBA-RRR. 

The cannon is huge, and sticks off the front of the base.  I didn’t expect this to be a problem, since it’s basically doomed if anything contacts it anyway.  As with my other artillery crew figures from Museum Miniatures, these crew are way taller than the other figures in the same line.

Essex miniatures Rajput general for DBA-RRR

DBA-RRR allows the use of a separate general base if you want, so I painted one up.  I like the way the shield turned out, and the more intricate design makes the individual figure stand out.  He also almost always detached from his unit, since elephants are so fragile in DBA-RRR with cannons shooting 8″.

Baueda Viking tent

I finished this Baueda Viking tent as a camp for my Leidang army, and I expect to be painting a Viking army to use it with as well.

GW giant eagles, 28mm

At Cold Wars I picked up some more figures for my Hordes of the Things Elf army at the flea market.  Here are two units of fliers: giant eagles from one of the Games Workshop Elf lines.  I was happy to learn how to use fliers at Historicon.  These figures originally had Elf riders, but they were too big for the eagles and didn’t match the rest of my Elves, so I decided to remove them and build some more general-purpose flier elements.