Hungarian Lights

Matthias Corvinus' Black Army contained Hungarian Light Horse, Serbian Hussars, Szekely, Cumans, Wallachians and Moldavians.  The two battlegroups below represent Hungarian Light Horse.  Their role was to skirmish and chase away the Ottoman Akinji Light Horse to prevent them from interfering with the deployment and charge of the Hungarian knights. I plan to pair each unit of Light Horse with a unit of Serbian Hussars in my Field of Glory games.  This will give the Hungarians a powerful one-two punch that the Ottomans don't have an answer for.  

These Essex figures are quite lively and I mounted a couple of bases with the "shoot and scoot" scheme of two figures facing in opposite directions.  I think it works but I'll leave it to viewers to decide for themselves.  I think using a limited palette of colors paid dividends here as well. 

 

 

Last up are my Hungarian handgunners.  Medieval gunpowder was very expensive and the firearms of the day were of limited effectiveness due to being inaccurate, slow to load  and sometimes self-exploding. Even so, they  provided a kind of shock and awe on the battlefield.  Corvinus utilized the defensive tactics of the Hussites by placing his  infantry behind  pavises or wagons while his cavalry  harassed the enemy and I plan to do the same when I field these troops.  Handgunners need to operate from behind the safety of a shield wall, wagons or cover.  If they're caught unsupported in open, they'll be obliterated in hand-to-hand fighting.  These figures also appear to be a bit on the plump side so I'm not sure they'll be able to run away from a determined charge!  

Clipeati & Armati heavy infantry

The Clipeati were armored footmen equipped with huge shields known as pavises.  The Clipeati formed a shield wall from which the Hungarian infantry could fight. Crossbowmen and handgunners probably operated behind the safety of their shield wall. 

The Armati were the armored footmen who fought alongside the Clipeati. It is not clear what the Armati were armed with but it is reasonable to assume that they utilized pole arms for fighting from, over and around the Clipeati pavises.

I sometimes think I should paint every army twice.  The first time through would be for researching, profiling, choosing figures and color combinations.  In the second pass, I like to imagine that I’d get just the right figures with the perfect color combinations.  If I were to paint the Clipeati & Armati battlegroup a second time, I’d look for different figures for the 2nd rank.  The first rank looks good with the pavise shields but the second rank would ideally be pole armed figures with no shields.

I'm a little unhappy with the faces on these figures so maybe its time to try a new technique.  My face painting technique is very simple.  I put down brown for the base on skin, then flesh and then bring it down with an Ogryn Flesh wash.  The wash didn't take well here for some reason.  I'll have to give it a 2nd wash and maybe when I finish my knights, I'll change my technique.

64 shields in two battlegroups.  A tough looking bunch but I wonder if they can withstand a charge by knights?  I'll have to answer that question on the field of battle.  And I'm sure Al will be happy to run the other side of that experiment!

There's no place like my workspace

When I returned to miniature painting a few years ago, I didn't have a dedicated workspace. Instead,  I'd have to pull my supplies from a hall closet and set up on the kitchen table every time I wanted to paint. I'd drag my work light up from the basement and then set out my water cups, brushes, paints and miniatures. 20 - 30 minutes would pass and I'd not even wet a brush! Setting up and taking down was so time-consuming that I'd let months pass without painting.  That apparently was why I could only manage to paint 2 Warhammer armies in 2 years. 

The single best recommendation I can make to a new painter is to create a dedicated workspace for your hobby.  My productivity skyrocketed once I dragged an old table up to my bedroom and set up my painting station.  Some nights, I only have an hour to myself but with my dedicated workspace, I can put 2 minutes into prepping and 58 minutes into painting.  By having my paint station next to my bed, painting is sometimes the first AND last thing I do in a day!

A couple of notes:

1.  I need a lot of light to paint, 500-1000 watts via a halogen work light to be specific. I've tried working with other lights but I don't like the results.  The benefit to working with 1000 watts of light is that my room is the warmest place in the house in the winter. Unfortunately, it's also the warmest room in the summer as well.  
2.  To alleviate stiff neck syndrome, I stack a box on the tabletop to create a painting platform that puts the minis closer to eye level.
3.  If you paint with reading glasses, buy a pair that's a couple of steps higher than what you use to read the newspaper.  Last week I bought a pair of 1.75s on a whim and the knights I painted recently looked extra sharp because I could actually see. 
3.  The Robart Hobby paint shaker is a must have for me and my Vallejo paints. 
5.  Lastly, here's proof that I was destined to paint ancients.  It's a lamp my son made for me for Father's Day 2006 in his 6th grade wood shop. That was 3 years before I started painting ancients.  Good boy!  Now if only he had time to game with his old man.