Some catch-up work

Spring is in the air, the light is changing, and I'm on leave, so I'm turning my hand to work I got under way a year ago then had to pack away. It's been sitting on shelves in my man-cave. First up is this HaT half-dozen of Roman Auxiliary Cavalry. They make a good option for both my Impy Romans and Mary Romans. These are professional-looking troops with no glitter, just practical uniform helmets, tunics, shields and mail shirts.

I nearly despaired of getting this much fancier group of Vezda Roman Equites. They are beautiful and deserve better than my skill. Finally a few more touches of paint and suddenly they looked finished.

For both sets of cavalry I used the Magic Wash technique to minimise lining-out work. My Marian Roman foot use a black basecoat so they won't look mismatched with those.

The next group are foot, and are seven Strelets crossbowmen (from the box of crossbowmen - a great idea for a troop type that is hard to find in 1:72) and some Medieval Russian foot of various types. The spears will replace the lamest of my existing Medieval Russian spears.

With these I used a technique that relies on the varnish deepening colour applied, so for example light green and blue with even lighter highlights, but with no darker colour wash. The varnish itself provides the illusion of deeper colour folds and also lines out borders between areas. It's cheap and cheerful and not a great strain on my limited fitness.