Matthias Corvinus & his Black Army commanders

4 command stands for my Later Hungarian army command and with this, my Later Hungarian army is finished!  All 15mm Essex figs.  King Corvinus turned out quite nicely, thanks in large part to the great sculpting.

My Later Hungarian army started with great promise, only to go cold out of the gate.  Our Field of Glory group is small and we've been unable to add any new players for some time.  With a Maurice campaign and Saga under way, it's a rare weekend that we get together for Field of Glory.  I'm quite jealous of those of you who get together for weekly games!

I paint a lot of figures but I've avoided becoming a collector.  When the stacks of armies in my closet gets  too high, I'm compelled to move 1 or 2 out. If I can't get these fellows onto a tabletop, they'll be off to the market as well.  I'm fairly careful about choosing my projects so I have to ask, what was I thinking when I decided to paint up the Later Hungarians for a 2nd time?  That's right, I got a bit caught up in redoing them in a darker style.  They are different than my first version but not all that different.  Ah well...

Jonathan of the excellent The Inevitable Spark  posted on the science of painting horses some months ago.  In his post, he shared a link to the Guide to Horse Colors and Patterns.   I have books on horse colors but  it's hard to put them to use with a wet paintbrush.  I did some digging and found the Guide in poster form HERE.  I've had it up on the wall next to my painting table for months now and it's a great reference.  THANKS Jonathan!

Creating Corvinus' Carpathian camp

Sometimes, you just get lucky.  When it happens, it's best to smile and say it all went according to plan.  You can't see it but I'm smiling as I type!

Rummaging  through my hobby supplies, I discovered I didn't have a medieval tent for my Later Hungarian camp but I did find 2 Essex wagons.  I added cardstock and 15mm Baueda ancient supplies to load out the empty wagons.  I then tried to make a supply train with the 2 wagons but even corner to corner, I couldn't fit them both in the footprint of this Field of Glory camp.

As a fallback, I decided to try capturing the flavor of the Carpathian mountains.  I remembered I had a large piece of bark socked away and bark worked well in my last 3 camps.  So, it was back to the bark!  I cut the bark  at a 45 degree angle to created a switchback that allowed both wagons to fit into the camp.  I used Durham's Rock Hard putty to raise up the rear section of bark and hold it all together.

I primed in black and highlighted up with browns but brown failed me at the finish line.  Once I set the brown wagon with brown horses, brown supplies and brown driver on a brown mountain, I knew I had to start over with a different color. Ouch!  Out came the black and I repainted the mountain in 50 Shades of Grey.  My painting adventure bore no resemblance to the trash novel that's a such a hit with bored housewives, or so I'm told.

The 2nd wagon made the camp very crowded so I put it away for another day.  I used Vallejo Burnt Sienna pigment plus a glaze to make the oxidized runoff.

I used to dread making camps for my armies, putting them off until the very end.  The fact that I had fun with this one means I've finally whipped this bugbear. Bark has turned into my "go to" product for camps lately!

36 Knights! - last of the Hungarian heraldry

During the medieval era, armor was sometimes "blackened" in order to protect it from rust.  Blackening consisted of coating the armor with oil and burning it off or boiling the armor in oil until the oil cooked into the steel and then burning off the excess. Armor which is painted or lacquered black gives the same visual and also provides some anti-rust protection as well.

Thanks to a combination of Google and a fellow blogger in Turkey, I found the artwork of Hungarian knights below.  In each instance, the artist chose to show portray Hungarian knights in blackened armor.  It's up to us to guess whether it was painted, lacquered or blackened on!

As I discovered when painting the Royal Banderium, painting black knights in 15mm is a tricky business.  My version consisted of priming the knights black and then painting them with a Vallejo Gunmetal + Black mix.  I then drybrushed lightly with Gunmetal.  I was sorely temped to work up the brightness from there but that would defeat the point of painting black(ish) knights!

Painting heraldry consisted of me clicking through a Hungarian website until I found an icon I could paint.  Then I'd wheel my chair over to the painting table to do paint it, one shield at a time.  Underneath those shields are a few notable failures.  Hats off to you fellows who paint medieval armies and heraldry exclusively!

Once I started basing these up, I discovered that swords and lances covered up the shield of the figures to the right, obscuring a portion of the effort.  Arg!  That would not be a problem with Impetus basing!

All Essex figs.  Commanders and camp to finish this project up and then, it's Saga time!

Heraldry - Szeklers Style!

The Szeklers were a key component of the Hungarian Black Army, providing them with thousands of lance and archer armed horsemen to defend against the encroaching Ottoman Empire.  These superb horsemen were the perfect foil to the Ottoman Akinjis & Timariot horsemen as both sides could employ shoot and scoot tactics.

Thanks to Google Chrome's translator feature, I was able to find a Hungarian website featuring medieval Szeklers heraldry HERE which were put to use below.

There are a few that didn't turn out well but my rule for painting heraldry is, "if it looks better than a blank shield, move on!"  I did sprinkle in some geometric patters just to keep this from taking all winter.

I primed horse and rider in the horse's base color with Army Painter colored primer.  Then I washed the horse in Devlon Mud and subsequently painted the highlight color onto the horse very neatly, taking care not to slop onto the tack.  That way, I could paint the tack in a highlight color and the shadowing from the Devlon Mud remained intact.  This is much easier than painting the tack in black and then painting a color over the top of the black.  I'll be keeping this trick in my stable!

The number of photos is a bit indulgent but with 48 figures in 4 units of 12, I don't want to rush these fellows out the door. In Field of Glory, 4 units of Superior sword-armed horse archers will be Death in the Saddle.  I can't wait to get them on the table and demonstrate it. Brandt, get rrrready to rrrumble!

In the Saddle-Hungarian Light Horse

The challenge to painting a Later Hungarian army is that once you've finished your foot troops, you've done the easy part.  The cavalry contingent is 100+ strong with shields, heraldry and knights.  The upside is that Essex horse are a joy to paint, even when you get to  #99.

Hungarian Light Horse: Hungarian light horse is nothing special in the Field of Glory Hungarian army list but it is a mandatory pick.   Much like the Union cavalry at the start of the ACW, I suspect these fellows felt the pangs of being second best as the Szeklers light horse teased or even mocked them.

Szeklers Light Horse:  Armed with bow and sword, these superior horsemen will be hard pressed to find their equal.  They'll generally outclass the enemy light horse.  +5 points for the stylish caps with a feather in them!

I think the sand colored ballast helps the horse shine.  I used 4 or 5 shades of brown with these and the light basing lets the various browns shine through.   

Hungarian heraldry-can you spot the fake?

Up next are the Clipeati and Armati.   Clipeati were armored footmen equipped with enormous shields called pavises.  The Clipeati formed a shield wall from which Hungarian infantry could fight or hide behind.  Crossbowmen and handgunners probably operated behind this shield wall.

It helps to have a large flat surface like these pavises when painting heraldry in 15mm.  I used watered down grey or brown to block out the shape of the icon.  Then I filled up the base color and worked up successive highlights.  When the icon was finished, I highlighted the surrounding color one last time to clean up and bring visual interest.  It is a bit of a trial.  You want your paints thinned so that you don't get too much build up but then again, too thin and it runs.  Images with too much detail just doesn't work in this scale.  For example, the severed eagle's leg with an arrow looked great on the web but took forever to paint. Ultimately, it was visually dwarfed by the much simpler egret, goose and goblet heraldry.  I should have just painted all white geese on black shields!

I found my heraldry at a Hungarian website.   Thanks to Chrome's translator, I was able to click through and find what I needed!  I can vouch for the accuracy of the heraldry on the shields above, save one.  As I got to the finish line, I decided to have a bit of fun on one pavise.  +5 points to the first reader who can spot it!

Armati were the armored footmen who fought with the Clipeati. It is not clear what the Armati were armed with but it is assumed they used pole arms for fighting from, over and around the Clipeati pavises.  Overall, I'm pleased with how this mix of figures turned out together.  

Mustering the Lights for Corvinus' Black Army

Santa brought me a new Daylight Triple Bright Lamp,  Despite the absence of sunlight, I can start taking pictures and posting King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary and his Black Army.  This is a major upgrade over the workshop light I've been using.  Here's hoping it'll pay dividends with photography and painting in 2013!  

I pitched into the Later Hungarian army v2 project wanting to change my painting and basing style. Some speculate that the Black Army was given its moniker based on their black armor panoply.   If any readers have an opinion on this point, I'd love to hear it!  I experimented with black but as always, straight black in 15mm is a problem visually. I've settled for working black in as much as possible, including the base coat.  From foot soldier to knight, armor will be very, very dark. 

Archers:  I started with a black and white livery but that wasn't working on account of the fur coats.  The very fine detail on these Essex figures made dry brushing a challenge.  Sharp-eyed readers will note the ballast is a change-up from what I usually use.  It's probably a touch too light but with an army composed of 50% cavalry, it'll pay dividends with the 100+ horses in various shades of brown.  

Handgunners:   When I look at these fellows, I'm thinking "Killer Bees."  It doesn't come through in the photos but the yellow triad pops nicely on the tabletop.  

Crossbowmen:  The camera shows all sins and I see I forgot to put a highlight on the quiver case!  D'oh! I do like these Essex poses though.

Next week, I'll post on the heaven and hell that is painting heraldry in 15mm.  With  persistence and some luck, I managed to find a website with medieval Szekler heraldry.  

Hungarian project - old dog, meet new tricks

For my Black Army of Hungary project, I'm changing things up.  I've got a system for basing and painting that I use faithfully on every army.  This time, I've decided to look for ways to do things differently. Experiment.  Change it up.  Right out of the gates, I'm having doubts. I've suppressed them by telling myself I can't judge the changes until it all comes together at the finish line.  But I judge. And worry. After all, I'm an old dog.  

Please lord, don't let the red devil kill me in my sleep.  

I've got 100+ foot and 100+ mounted figures to paint.  Almost half of the figures have shields. To scratch-paint heraldry on this many shields, I've got to find ways to save time.

Glue Gun:  First up is a trick I learned from Lurkio, 15mm modeler and painter extraordinaire.  I dug up an old glue gun and I'm hot gluing the cavalry to popsicle sticks. If you've painted Essex horse, you know how much time this'll save. Essex horses are exquisite, my favorite in 15mm, but their bases are easily bent or twisted.  That makes it nearly impossible to put a spot of PVA glue down and call it good.  The trick with the glue gun is to have the figure in hand and press hard  right after the glue goes down. One press and no fiddling to make the bases flat and figures stand up straight.

Army Painter colored primer:  Though quite pricey, I grabbed a bunch of Army Painter colored primers which I'll use to full effect. By priming a strip of mounted figures with a variety of browns,  black or grey, I'll have eliminated the step of blocking in the primary color of the horse.  I'll use a heavy wash over the blocked color and work detail and a highlight in when I paint the tack.  The beauty of this technique is that you get shadowing similar to black lining without the difficulty of painting over blackened tack.

Glue Man to Horse:  I've always painted riders separately from their mount but this time, I'm gluing the figure to the horse prior to priming to save time.  For many poses, Essex has already done this for me!  I don't want to work up from a variety of basecoat colors so I'll go over all riders with black.  The black shadows the hard-to-paint places between the rider and his mount.  And it'll lend itself to a darker effect that I'm looking for in my Black Army.

Since I'm using black on all the riders, I'll  paint faces with black plus flesh combo.  At 3 feet + viewing , it looks quite good in 15mm.

Army Painter colored primer in action.  

Flock it all:  I'm also changing up my flocking.  I once made the mistake of using too dark a color in my basing, which resulted in my cavalry being swallowed up by the color of the bases.  I found a very light colored Woodland Scenic ballast called Buff.  It is so light it's kind of freaking me out.  I'm going to stick with it because it should pay out with all of the cavalry & the variations of brown I'll use in painting them. I've had to remind myself that the point of basing is to showcase the figures. If the point of the basing was to realistically display ground cover, I'd use the "all green"  flocking method.  This one has a serious downside if I hate it at the finish line.

Accept feedback:  For me, painting is a quiet, solitary experience.  Some of you fellows belong to painting clubs and for you, painting is a social event. I've even heard of painters who paint via webcam just to get conversation and feedback as they go.  When I mentioned this idea to my family, they thought webcam painting was a little over the top.  I should point out that my kids are teens and thus, my very exsistence is a bit of an embarrasment to them!

For now, I'll settle for sharing photos.  My friend Gilles already pointed out some of my work was a bit dark.  I knew it to be true but I needed to hear it from someone else before going back and redoing highlights a tone higher. In 15mm, as in life, you just can't be subtle!

Royal Banderium meets AC/DC

The Royal Banderium were the finest troops in Matthhias Corvinus’ Hungarian Black Army.  They were composed of nobles, exceptional mercenaries and high ranking members of other bandieras.  Inspired by the picture below, I painted the Royal Banderium in black.  I did work them up a bit as straight black left them looking like they were primed and waiting for paint.

The Royal Banderium, "Back in Black" version:

I recently had an opportunity to get in on a large Essex Miniature buy.  Having sold off my Hungarians over the summer, I was looking for a new medieval army. After studying the Field of Glory army lists, I decided to buy and paint a new Medieval Hungarian army. Yea, that's kind of embarrassing...

What sucked me back down this road are some ideas for painting version 2.  True to their name, I plan on using black as a reoccurring color throughout the units.  Mind you, I won't paint them all black as that'd be boring.  In my mind's eye, this will be a 15th century armored badass meets AC/DC.  The Black Army, "Back in Black."