Andalusian III/34b complete for now

bench update 30 April 2023

Basing! I decided to use a square base for CvGen, featuring all of the command elements, foot as well as mounted.

So III/34b are fully covered. With the proviso that I would borrow the merc Kn and/or 4Cb from their neighbors, the Spanish.

I need three more 2Psjav to cover III/33. Conversely I can loan my Normans an Ax element now from the III/33 collection.

For III/75, a number of Cv and Sp elements need to be created, using the later-pattern shields. Plus the LHGen and (most unlikely - i have a feeling all spare minis are gone) Cm.

bench update 29 April 2023 part 2

Painting... is... finished!

bench update 29 April 2023

More highlights!

Purple: pink highlight

Pink: Red wash

Black: a mix of very pale yellow plus black. Not great.

Wood: mix of tan plus plague brown

Horse bridle, reins, some other harness: mix orange red plus saddle brown, for what I think of as English Buff.

Today: I'll be working through shields, horse hair, horse blankets and maybe horse highlights

bench update 26 April 2023

Highlights! 

Flesh: about 50:50 bronze flesh and a sort of red brown sampler I got from Reaper. Probably Saddle Brown from Vallejo would do the same job.

Green: about 75% Jade Green, 25% Corpse Flesh.

Blue: about 75% Magic Blue, 25% White.

Red: about 75%  Scarlet, 25% Pink. The pink is another Reaper sampler.

I have yet to decide on black and wood.

bench update 25 April 2023

Taking advantage of a 4-day weekend, I've added all the secondary block colors (not on mounts though) plus eyes. Lots and lots of highlights to go!

bench update 23 April 2023

Colors are blocked out, I guess you would say. A good deal of the choices are based on Neldoreth's choices, but muted. 

I'm a bit frustrated about some of the sculptors facial choices, but I'm sure they will look ok en masse and based.

bench update 16 April 2023

Good intentions but very little progress. I found the base varnish left a lot of bare patches, meaning either my detergent wash was not good enough, or the varnish-paint-water balance was wrong, or both. So I lost a good deal of time redoing that. Then I put various grey or brown base across the horses, slapped brown on spears and bows, and ended with some Night Blue on a good proportion of foot.

I have learned a bit more about the difference between iii/34 Andalusian and iii/75 berber. I don't know that it helps me with the HaT products though. I think my main hangup is how so much of the minis' costumes is cloth. And although I praised them for being easy to prep, they do feature very badly sculpted mail hauberks here and there. In summary, there are pitfalls ahead.

Andalusian III/34 project begins 11 April 2023

So far as I can work out, this will be my final book 3 army. Of course I do have that full box of Norman foot, and any number of vaguely Slavic scrubs lying around.

Anyway, for Andalusians I splurged on not only El Cid series HaT Almoravids, but HaT Andalusians. I don't have much in the way of sourcebooks so this could end up quite wrong.

The kits are absolutely top quality, a pleasure to prep. My only quibble is that all horses are the same mixture, be they light or heavy. 

Because they were so clean, I got all the needed minis mounted on paint sticks, and base varnished, in one day. I've included enough options to cover Sicilian Muslims as well, though I'm sure the costumes are wrong. 

I decided to take the radical choice of an indigo wash. It might speed up costume painting!

bench update 09 April 2023

Normans (pretty much) complete!

Sadly, I have run out of the beige grass tufts I've been relying on. 

I have yet to put a couple of gonfalon on lances, too. But for now...

 

bench update 02 April 2023

Good progress on the Normans. The shields are going to be tricky, and I need some color here and there to relieve the brown and metal tones.