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.