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Hi all,

In 2023, I want to paint much more regularly, and now that I have finished my MSc and got a proper job, I should be able to spend a little more time and money on the hobby - so I thought I'd start a project log to keep me accountable. I should have some more photos tomorrow, but for now, enjoy these Gripping Beast Cataphracts, painted on Christmas Day after a very large Christmas dinner!

The strange blue flashes on the barding I can only attribute to the light from the tree, as I can't work out where else they came from!

Well, I have been able to spend more time painting, but not by much - work keeps me very busy, and I tend to work weekends, hence my time off today. I painted these horsemen in about two days, after having them stored in a box for years being too intimidated to get started on them. Gripping Beast Plastic Arab Horsemen, for enquiring minds. I'm really not very happy with them - I made a hash of the detail on the tunics - but from across the board I won't notice and badly-painted beats primed every day of the week.







I'm moving out soon, to a house with the games room I dreamed of as a lad - hopefulyl to finally get regular games in! I've next got some of Fireforge's Byzantine Spearmen to paint, once a friend of mine finishes their banners, and I will also be getting some of the auxiliairies to fill their back rank with bowmen.

As is often the case, I get started and then go a bit bananas - I've made a start on these Byzantine spears, and halfway through I decided I'd rather split them into two units, after I'd already placed some red down on them. This is a WIP shot, and I'm hoping by the end of tomorrow to have all the blues and reds sorted out. There's the little raised bit of detail on the hem of the tunics which should really be yellow or white, based on some of the art I've seen, but I've decided after those horsemen to try and cut down on the details I've got to paint that won't add much to the overall model.



The blue will be a simple Macragge Blue -> Drakenhof Nightshade -> Lothern Blue edge highlight.



The red is again simple Mephiston Red -> Carroburg Crimson -> Evil Sunz Scarlet edge highlight.

All the leather will be Rhinox Hide -> Mournfang Brown - I don't think the leather really benefits from a wash, and it's another step which I can avoid. The fiddliest bit is getting the tiny bit of cloth around the necks, and next time I'll just spray them blue or red from the start to get that base layer covered, wash and highlight, get the faces, hands and necks done so that they're out of the way and I don't have to reach over other details with a fine brush and risk ruining them, and then apply the metal, Zandri Dust and leather layers and get that all done with one big wash and highlight job. I want to get these guys done, based and onto a battlefield so simplicity is the key! A lot of the detail will get covered by their shields when they're finally applied so I don't want to waste time.

I've also got a friend doing some detail work on the banners, looking forward to showing those off...

Oh, and as a bonus, some vikings - using these as Varangians or Rus mercenaries in the list, they're slightly out of period and they have Thor's hammers hanging from their necks, but we can just say that the crucifix shrunk in the wash or something



I've got some fully painted which I'll show off at a later stage - these guys really only need some skin, the leather straps and maybe a few highlights before I can call them completed. I love that Gripping Beast's plastic box comes with so many vikings (44 in one box, for twenty quid!) but that's a lot of paint to apply!

There's also some of the unarmoured Thralls I've used as a peasant militia before, or some cheap mercenaries (the Byzantines loved a good mercenary bargain) but once these are painted I think I'd have enough for a complete opposing force.

Can anyone recommend good unit fillers? I'm not short on models but if I stretch them across multiple units, I do like to have some sort of bulker-upper to help them go a little further - plus, caravans, pack animals and boxes of weapons held in the rear help make an army feel more alive.

Good progress.

I always paint big units to the "Arm's Length" rule. If they look good enough at arm's length, then they are good enough to hit the table!

 Easy E wrote:
Good progress.

I always paint big units to the "Arm's Length" rule. If they look good enough at arm's length, then they are good enough to hit the table!

I quite agree - the infantry have little swirly bits on the bottom of their tunics, which in the official art should be a different colour, but I'll probably just leave them the same block colour - I doubt it'll make that much difference!

I'm trying to get better at calling models done and making the schemes easy enough to get through. I've got these lads plus the auxiliaries to get done so I'll have to learn to get it done quicker!

I don't know if it's the unseasonable heat, or if my penchant for doing nothing for years on end and then cramming in tonnes of painting in a two-week binge, but I got a lot of progress made on these spearmen tonight - from about 7PM until 1AM with the dog and the Olympic highlights in the background.





I'm not very happy with the orange highlight on this shield - I had hoped it would dry a little redder, so I think I will go back over it with Mephiston Red to cover up. All the shields will eventually have unit symbols painted on them so a small highlight at the top would probably do.

The officer models are really fun - the detail on the cloak is well-captured. I wish I'd filed off the little stubs on the spears, but from across the table I won't notice that, and they're coming together pretty well. Right now they look a bit ugly as I've not done the tidying-up that happens right at the end, so I'm going to push through the ugly phase.

Tomorrow, the dangly leather bits on the shoulders (called ptreuges, don't you know?) and on the tunics and various other leather bits. On the box art, and in a lot of byzantine art, the 'shoes' seem to be the same colour as the trousers, so I'll leave those the same and just wash them, and then pick out the little raised bands in Rhinox Hide, with maybe a TINY dot to highlight.

Then, it's just faces, beards, and bases! I've really enjoyed these models, and I've got the auxiliaries who will make up the back ranks in a box waiting to be built. A lot of them are unarmoured, and I was umming and aahing about historical accuracy over whether they should be mostly tan or brown rather than in regimental colours, but then decided life's too short to have boring minis!



The box contains enough archers to build twenty, with five left on the frame as javelins or slingers. I think those spare five I would probably try to make up as rear-area troops and caravan guards, which could be used as objective markers or set dressing. I've only ever seen one set of rules (DBA) which made use of caravans or camps on the board, but it's nice to have the option - watching over a few mules they might look the business, it just depends on whether they can be posed in a 'static' manner.



Camp guards or skirmishers, either way they've got some dodgy hats. Any advice on making these look a little more static would be appreciated!

Weirdly, the website lists the box as containing thirty models - this must be an oversight, or they're changed the box contents at some point and not updated the webpage. Shame, I'd have loved some more of these! Fireforge are definitely a bit of a dark horse in 28mm, and more people should buy their kits!

I find the hardest part of painting is starting. Once I start, it can be hard to stop!

Unfortunately I wasn't quite able to finish before I had to leave for a weekend seminar in Guildford, currently underwater (thanks British summer) but I got 90% of the way there with most of these guys.



I'm not thrilled with the shields, but it was better than leaving them plain flat surfaces.



It's weird how your eyes completely miss issues like that red spot on the shield boss that seem absolutely massive in a photo! I try not to look at too many photos of my own models for exactly that reason, I always get wound up over tiny errors that I don't see in-person. I'll neaten that spot up, and then it's a case of a dark wash on their trousers, a drybrush of a light bone colour if I'm feeling generous (I might just edge highlight it, but that seems like a lot of work for the part of the model nobody looks at!) and then there's a few little details like the leather strap across the body and the gold detailing on the clasp and the scabbards.

After that, neaten up the faces with a little extra tanned flesh and highlight the leather and beards, and then I'm going to call these guys ready for basing!

I do find the painting process a drag sometimes, and I know that I am a very mediocre painter, but there's nothing quite like a block of freshly-painted miniatures marching across the board - usually to inevitable defeat, given the curse of the fresh paint job!

Once I'm back home after this weekend I'll get these skutatoi done, then try to get a big picture with the whole army once I'm moved in to the new house and there's a decent table for them. Then, the rear-rank bowmen!

Oh, I really liked the shields.

The models are finally done!







I briefly tried doing eyes, and quickly found that I don't have the dexterity for it - I've been told to try painting a sideways stripe across the eye, but I can't hack it, and at tabletop distance I'll never see them anyway!

All that remains now is to do their shields, wait for the banners to be done (I'm very much looking forward to those!) and the bases. I'm torn between my current method (Rhinox Hide -> PVA -> Grass) or instead using Stirland Mud to create a thicker loam, and then apply the static grass on the bases.

Quite pleased with them really - from an arm's reach they look the business, and in all from when I started with most of them half-based on Wednesday, they've probably taken about twenty hours in all. Not a bad timeframe for 31 models!

Next up, bases and sheilds, and then the auxiliaries! I'm moving house next week, so I might be delayed for a while until I'm settled in, but once that's done I can get a photo of the whole army on parade!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
As a bit of a bonus, I decided to get the basing done, and since I had some PVA left over, I also based some of the auxiliaries/opposing force I had already painted! These guys are the Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors, and can cover almost anything from any period from the campaigns of Caesar through to some angry villagers from the 15th century, if you squint a bit!



Painting the patterns was a fun distraction from the job I had at the time when I did these guys, but these days I think I'd stick to simple geometric patterns. I've got some heraldic shields to do for my crusaders at some point which I'm not looking forward to!



Mysteriously, I have 57 of these guys. I remember buying one box of, er...40. I'm sure I never bought two boxes, so I have no idea how I got to this number! There must be more floating around somewhere or other than I forgot about.





Sadly the panorama view didn't quite work, and the file is too big to upload.

Next up, the shields - they're already primed red and blue, and it looks like the inner wooden layer is practically invisible anyway so they may just get a quick drybrush so I can spend a bit more time on the front.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
One of the things I've realised is that almost nothing shows up underneath the grass, so I can spend much less time on the next set of bases! I usually never get around to these but it really does make a difference when you put the effort in to get bases done properly.

And now, finally, the finished spearmen with shields!



Alexandros, your shield is upside-down! Don't worry, I fixed this after taking the photo.



I'm not 100% happy with the shields, but from across the room, I reckon they look the business - they were based on the Palaiologid flag and I think I did an alright enough job.



This is the limited run Harold Godwinson that Gripping Beast did, and he's been sitting in a desk with the rest of these Varangians/huscarls for more than a decade. About time I got him done, I think!



These huscarls are mostly Gripping Beast, with their awkward long axes and the hands you have to drill through - I'm glad we have such good quality plastics now instead. That chap on the right is a 1985 Games Workshop Jarl, and is one of the few models my Dad painted that I still have left. I certainly won't paint over him, but I will hope to field him in a game soon. It's nice to be able to touch something and feel that connection to someone who's no longer here. Funny how these little tin soldiers can affect a chap!

Tomorrow after some Battletech I'll be building and priming the auxilia, and on Tuesday the freshly painted Byzantines are off for a game of Warhammer Ancients!