Thanks for kind words guys
Atheling, I will show You what I used for inspiration, though most of it were just pictures from the net and miniatures of other people
I have some doubts about sharing some pictures, as I'm sure most of them comes from osprey books, so if my post violates any IP law I have a kind request for the admins to rmeove just the pictures, not whole stuff.
Starting with Cumans:
I don't have any osprey book specifically about steppe nomads, there is some about Cumans in "Kalka River 1223", as they played a large role in the clash. The illustrations in the books depicts elite, wich of course wear brightly coloured and decorated clothing. That style really captures my imagination and makes all eastern turkic tribes even more cool, but I'm not sure it could be safely applied to regular nomads, also typical riders probably didn't wear too much armour. For the hearthguard I went with gripping beast heavy arab cavalry with fireforge russian helmets and hands, adding some mustached masks here and there and horsehair plumes from fireforge mongols -they look as "typical" heavy armoured medieval eastern rider, with lammelar armout and helmets covering faces. What I didn't make but I definitely should, are the distinct harnesses worn by the armoured cumans with round metal plates covering their breasts -It sceams "Cuman" almost as loud as those mustached helmets, but I'm afraid I won't be able to sculpt it right. There are also few things that I should change but I realised it when it was too late, like gloves on the fireforge russian hands (horse archers wouldn't use gloves) and length of armour (GB arabs lamellar ends just on the waist line, but there should be some mail covering the thighs.
For regular warriors are mix of gripping beast dark ages cavalry and arab light cavalry, with few parts from fireforge mongols (mongol fur caps). I added greenstuff high turkic caps and high felt boots with stirrups for those dak ages bodies (though I forgot about harnesses supporting the boots, that is visible on many cuman statues). That gave me a mix of tunics with different length and differently styled warriors -as Cuman-Kipchak confederation were a gathering of many tribes, and as I plan to use miniatures whenever possible so I aimed for generic nomad style. When it comes to painting I decided to use darker colours for hair, but there are some theories that Cumans were actually bright haired as their name in few languages suggests. Unfortunately, I won't post yet any pictures of my own, as they are mostly unfinished and are waiting in line to get done.
Here are the pictures that inspired my Cumans:
Pecheng woman and man:
Cuman noble:
Cuman warrior:
and another one:
On the left: Cuman noble, on the bottom right: Cuman Khan:
Badass steppe huntress:
Sabre, mail and helmet found in Ukraine:
Later Cuman mercenary:
And probably the only piece of visual evidence left from cuman themselves: Cuman stautes:
If You look close enough they have visible lines representing (probably) those distinct harnesses.
They also make perfect Saga objective markers:
I made mine with a drinking horn, to use also as an objective marker for pagans of prussia -those poeple also left quite a few of statues, called: "prussian baba"
and ling to some polish reenactmnet group's blog, they show some pretty cool headwear:
https://dregowia.blogspot.com/search/label/Po%C5%82owcy?fbclid=IwAR2kRTE4CAm1JqOlxE6arhgr1uu0ptSLwn59rO-1C4PoCY3RQA6HSCyy60YAnd pictures that inspired my lithuanians -because Saga lithuanian variant of eastern princes have very similar unit composition as pagan peoples, I aimed to make a force that could convincingly pass as XIII century lithuanians of Mindaugas and as some prussian tribe. The most common motiffs are shorter mails, that doesn't cover legs or forearms, lamellars armour, small pavises and ruthenian/simple norman style helmets for balts or pointy kettle hats for lithuanians.
The promised pictures:
later (XIV century) lithuanian knight:
probably polish knights from Mazovia, those used more eastern equipement inspired by their lithuanian and ruthenian nieghbours:
Baltic pagans:
Probably too saturated pagans, balts or lithuanians (though the kneeling guy looks quite western):
Barely visible pagans, couldn't find those pictures in better resolution:
Some more barely visible baltic warriors:
The kite shield is based on Gniezno Doors, which depicts scenes from the life and death of Adalbert of Prague, who tried to christianize prussians, so the shield is more suited for prussians than lithuanians. It's also debatable if the diagonal lines are metal reinforcemnet or just painted pattern:
again, some baltic pagans (with baba on the left):
and some more:
For shield patterns I googled belarusian and lithuanian folk symbols, like these:
I have some pictures of finished lithuanian cavalry based on conquest games norman knights:
and some closeups:
Leader:
Hearthguard:
back of the models - I hacked some of the bodies without mail and glued the torsos from Gripping beast heavy arab cavalry, the lower part with aketon was painted as metal to look like lamellar armour:
Thats it, some day I'll show the cumans too.
Welcome, Guest. Please 
April 29, 2024, 04:18:38 PM
