From DarrellH 6 Late Roman Equites Scholae Palatinae- Speed Painting Horses experiment! (66 points)

A while ago I came to a decision regarding army painting where I planned to speed paint two armies for every one that I took my time over. Some may think me sprightly at 58 but I'm beginning to "feel it" in terms of how much can I paint in my life what can actually be used useful on the wargames table? The trick being able to paint fast enough as to get units ship shape and battle ready on the table at pace, but not to lose too much by way of quality.

Basically my methodology for painting horses as fast as possible has come to this.

1/ A black undercoat over a black primer. Then a medium grey drybrush, then contrast paint, Goregrunta Fur (lol) and for variation, Wyldwood (lol). Both gave a (sort of) oil wiped look to the horses but were perhaps more subtle. I should add, the contrast paint was painted on, but unlike like a wash, rather as an even covering all over the horses. The first time I tried the method was on some plastic Elven Steeds, which gave a very good even subtle finish after just one coat (see below).

The Black Undercoat, Neutral Grey Drybrush, Contrast Paint Method: Plastic Elven Steed

The next step was to try the same technique on a metal horse. unfortunately, the results were not the same as metal castings always have some "pitting" due to the manufacturing process and this showed on the horses. 

For contrast, the Black Undercoat, Neutral Grey Drybrush, Contrast Paint Method:

2/ I was essentially back to square one (I did keep the horses for the second rank of the Equites Scholae Palatinae very much in keeping with painting up the army as fast as possible). I then, quite by accident, heard via a chap on a Facebook forum about the makeup sponge technique for horses. I was (very) unfamiliar with this concept so did a little digging and with the help (and support!) of one of my Facebook friends, Nigel Higgins, I gave it a go with quite astonishing results! 

I will put together a tutorial at some stage as if you are willing to cope with the drop in quality, this is going to save a lot of wargamers a lot of time! They are far from perfect but do look like they have been layered up; good enough for me!

Makeup Sponge Method

So, after waffling on for a good while, without further ado, the unit of Equites Scholae Palatinae for my Late Roman army.

Equites Scholae Palatinae:

Cheers

From DaveD . Another great looking entry . Interesting re the paint techniques. Be interested in the actual time from start to finish .  There is a lot work in your entry so I’m calling it 66 

From DarrelH - Late Roman Cataphracts complete ! 65 pts

Late Roman Cataphracts Complete!

What a month! I'll leave it at that.

Painting time has been slim on the ground of late and varnishing conditions much less so! It's actually rained for more "40 days and 40 nights!". ) One could not make it up. I did manage to get the back rank of my Late Roman Cataphracts finished which, given that I have to spray the last few layers of varnish on, the indifferent rainy conditions, along with other stuff was quite a satisfying achievement. I'm usually much more prolific, but hey ho.....

I hope you enjoy them. They were painted with deliberate rapidity, so are not my finest- but they will certainly do for a game or twenty! I actually do not have very much time to talk/waffle  except to say that I've got another cavalry unit on the way as well as some back rank Archers for a unit (started two years ago but stopped in their tracks by the only disastrous varnishing accident I have had in my life!) It was bad, see quick pic below:

That was the one and only time I have ever strayed from my current varnishing technique! (Ed from DaveD - ooh that’s nasty )

Late Roman Cats:

Unit Finito!

Cheers. Here's to a hopefully more complete post next week!

From DaveD , great to have some work again from you . I hope your real life travails are progressing . Certainly the weather in NE has been too wet ! Let’s call this 65 pts ,

DarrellH, Wrap up of Thematic Byzantine Project.

First off I want to thank everyone who contributed to The Challenge this year and also make a bit of an apology. I didn't manage to make half as many comments this year (still in therapy and that's taking up a lot of time- without denting my pain ting time though!). For that I'm sorry as there was a fine array of beautifully painted miniatures etc on display every day when I took a quick peek. 

I've decided to leave out the incidental items painted to change things up a little as I view my main project as, well erm..... my main project!

The Thematic Byzantines were a lot of fun to paint up- like I have alluded to earlier, they are one of my dream armies that I just never got around to when I was a few years younger.

All the images are "clickable" so will showe up in the Light Box on this blog- if however you want to see the images at full size then just right click and click on "Open Image in New Tab".

Army Arrayed Outside an Outpost in the Balkans- Somewhere Near the Danube:

I will be continuing painting up the army, though I'm about to jump into a Daphne Parade era Seleucid army for a nostalgic trip and a friendly Warhammer Ancient Battles "Classical" tournament run by a mate. A mere 5000 points so I'm going to have to get stuck in!

I have another unit of Tagmatic Kavalarioi half finished (it was a very close thing with that unit, nearly making the cut for AHPC, but in the end real life got in the way!) and a unit of 28 Skutatoi and Toxatoi (spearmen and with aback row of archers) who are glued to corks and have had their armour painted so those little fellows will have to be completed before moving onto the Seleucid project.

Tagmatic Kavalarioi:

Thematic Light Kavalarioi:

Tagmatic Kataphractoi:

Tagmatic Varangoi:

I suppose all that remains now is to thank everyone who took part. There were so many excellent posts- I just wish I had the time to keep up with them all and to leave a reply.

'Til next year then!

From DarrellH Byzantine,Tagmatic (Nikephorian) Kataphractoi (170 points)

Almost certainly the most attractive of all the units in an early 10th CE Thematic Byzantine army are, of course, the Kataphractoi. Fully enclosed in many layers of armour, invincible like a middle ages version of the battle tank. Well, not quite but that is certainly the impression they were meant to have on the enemy. One Arab soldier poet described the Byzantine horses as having no legs! 

The soldier would first place a peristhethidion (padded armour) over his torso and down to his waist and elbows with metal splints added to his legs. Next would come the kremasmata (padded skits faced with mail or lamellar/scale armour). A klivanion (lamellar/scale armour "vest") over the peristhethidion (padded armour) followed by manikella (upper arms splints of mail). Splints would be added to the lower arms and finally a padded helmet with a 360 degree aventail was placed over the head. All of this covered with a final layer of padded armour in the form of the epilorikion. The soldiers horse would be similarly armoured; the two making a truly fearsome unit.

The main armament of the Kataphractoi was the matzouka (heavy mace). This weapon was significantly heavier than most hand weapons and clearly designed for smashing armour, crushing bones and devastating the soft tissues of the human body. Each soldier would also carry a parmerion (curved sword) and a heavy spathion (sword) as well as number of back up matzouka (heavy maces) attached around his waist. Contrary to popular belief the Kontarion (a lighter version of the earlier Kontos) was not used by most in the wedge and only by those on the flanks. It makes sense, the whole idea of the Kataphractoi and the Blunt Noses Wedge formation was impact. Also, the aim was to spread as much terror and confusion into any enemy formation unlucky enough to get in the way.

I have modelled the miniatures in the unit as two ranks and in the Blunt nosed Wedge formation. Much ink has been spilled out into the pages of the Byzantine military manuals (which I have read) on the subject of the the Blunt Nosed Wedge formation and I will not attempt to go into any detail here except to say two things; i/ that the formation was designed to deliver maximum impact at a certain point on the enemy line which could then be exploited by the Kataphractoi or the accompanying cavalry units and ii/ archers were placed in the center of the formation and arrows would be loosed as they cantered into combat. The archers were less well protected than their fully armoured compatriots (a necessity if one wants to be able to loose a bow unencumbered).

These formations were extremely expensive to maintain and were actually only used in relatively small numbers.

Regarding the painting. I have attempted to make all of the units in this army quite uniform. This certainly would not have been the case with units from the Themes but, given that the Tagmata units were armed and equipped centrally by the State a degree of uniformity is least possible, but certainly forgivable. I have attempted to give the bards in each unit different patterns. This, I think has come out well enough though I have to admit to sweating it out when painting the very first unit! 

Hopefully I have captured some of what it would have been, en masse, the equivalent of a medieval tank!

The Single Mini's and Bases:

So, that's 16 Cavalry models at 10 points a piece = 160 points? 170 for all the extra work on armour and details.

Saved this for the last!  More amazing work on these Kataphractoi Darrell.  The colour choices are really striking and the amount of detail that you include unbelievable.  I hadn't realized that the brain crushing mace was preferred over the Kontos at this time, but the sheer wight of man, horse and armour must have been enough on its own.

I've really enjoyed your Early Medieval projects this year Darrell.  Sounds like you have plans to get these on table during 2023 and I'd be really interested in seeing an AAR.