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.   

Looking back, looking forward

Looking back, I keep a running tally of the figures I paint based on troop type, scale and project. In 2012, I painted 1,453 figures in 15mm. To achieve this mark, I've forsaken almost all of my other hobbies and interests for painting. A man can only serve one Master and he calls me loudest from the painting table!

Impetus 

Mid-Republican army: 217

Pontic army: 162

Gallic army: 206

Maurice
Ottomans: 164

Field of Glory 
Ancient Spanish army: 262

Later Hungarian army v2: 218

Later Hungarian commission: 110
Ancients odds and ends: 90 

Looking forward, I took the Saga plunge.  A fellow was dumping his Saga projects on Bartertown and I snapped them up.  By my count, it's enough Normans and Vikings to paint up 3 warbands for each side.  

Over Christmas break, I started with the plastic GB Vikings.  This is old news for many of you but the Gripping Beast plastic Vikings are fantastic.  Great models, lots of options and a great value with 44 figures costing only $32.

I've limited the color palette and intensity for the first batch of Vikings. I'm going to have to decide whether to use LMBS shield transfers or paint shields from scratch.  I've got 200+ figures to paint so maybe I'll put the time into figures and not shields.  I also grabbed a tin of Army Painter Strong dip.  I've never done AP dip so for one of the warbands, I'll give this a try as well.    

The 4Ground Saxon hovel has been reviewed on other blogs but I thought I'd give this excellent product a quick shout out.  The kit is fully assembled in less than 30 minutes!  I'll be getting a few more of these.  

What new projects have you got under way or queued for 2013?  

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.