Ogrob's medievals for SAGA. V&V and Victrix muslim heavy cav compared 21/9

[frank xerox]

Oh that coloured barding is nice!
I’m going to steal that, sorry, can’t help myself😀

[Ogrob]

Thank you, go for it!

[Ogrob]

While I have pledged to complete my 15th century Perry figures this summer, I ended up making time to complete another set of warrior figures for my Lithuanian force. 12 of these are Lithuanian Axemen by Black Knight miniatures, and the other four are Slavic heavy infantry by Reconquer designs. I used swords and shields from Black Knight so the Reconquer figures would match my Black Knight figures a little better.

[LouieN]

Vert striking.  Well done

[Ogrob]

So as I was planning for a last game before my most regular opponent heads out of town for a few weeks, I happened to read some discussion on the Neopolitan subfaction for the Condotierri in SAGA Age of Chivalry. I have been using my green and yellow Perry figures mostly to play the Florence subfaction, which get pavisiers and the quite strong for SAGA melee weapon levy. The Neopolitans however get the incredibly rare levy on horses, and with a special rule that gives them additional attacks on the charge. I had initially dismissed this as a bit of a meme unit, but it seems I was mistaken. I decided to try them out, and seeing as I have a lot of free time at the moment I also decided that meant painting up all my remaining Perry light cavalry. In 48 hours. For one game, just to try out a unit choice....

Said and done, here they are:


A bit rushed here and there, but honestly I am running out of steam on this project and am happy to have them done.

[Basementboy]

They look good! How'd they perform in the game?

[Ogrob]

Pretty solid, though as a faction the Neopolitans are a little tricky to get to grips with. Very solid cavalry, but a distinct lack of options for dealing with enemies in terrain.

[Ogrob]

Hopping back and forth here between the armies, we return to the Age of Chivalry Spanish who will be getting a host of 3D printed reinforcements.

These are Reconquer Design's spanish hearthguard with dane axes or glaives, so more accurately a 12th or early 13th century offering, but I will use them as Gallowglass mercenaries for Age of Chivalry. I'm just not a fan of any Gallowglass figures out there, plus as already discussed, ordering metal figures from small British manufacturers is too costly unless I am ordering a whole army worth.

These will fit in well stylistically with the rest of the Reconquer sculpts that I already have. Plus, RD sculptor keeps showing new cool Spanish sculpts so I am sure there will be a lot more coming.

[Basementboy]

Great stuff! They fit the Gallowglass aesthetic well, nice thinking there.

[Ogrob]

My 14th century Spanish have been a very organic project for sure, with a lot of "ooh shiny" influencing what I buy and paint. Far less planned than the 15th century project that had a planning document from the get go. I've discussed remaking several units for this army previously, and this post will be a little bit of a look at what I have currently. You will see that it is quite an unbalanced selection of figures

The catalyst of this whole post and me spending some time taking new photos was this gathering of foot knights. I am already working on a few more, and this is simply a ridiculous number that will never be needed in SAGA:


I then decided to break them down by manufacturer. It turned out that the foot knight collection still has a lot of Claymore Castings metals:


But has been reinforced by 3D prints, these from Ezipion Miniatures - his Late Crusaders on foot, Radu of Wallachia and a Lay Knight on foot:


And some of the newer reinforcements, these Foot Knights by Reconquer Design. The hero is by RD as well, but sold by Stronghold Terrain under their brand, in their Camino de Santiago set:


And then we move to the mounted knights, which are now all 3D prints. These are Reconquer figures, plus the same Camino de Santiago character mounted. The two on the far right in gambessons will be fielded as mounted Warriors rather than hearthguard, poorer Hidalgos in less splendid armour:


Then the mounted versions of the Ezipion figures - Late Crusaders and Radu of Wallachia. When I took this photo I felt their yellow was very desaturated and dull compared to everyone else, so I went over the figures and highlighted their yellows with Army Painter Moonbeam Yellow which I have been using a lot since picking it up with the John Blanche sets.

Before:


After:


Then another Claymore holdout, a unit of Pavisiers:


And the surviving Claymore Knights - as these are on horses sans caparisons I think I will repaint their shields to the red with yellow beam design and use them as Foreign Men at Arms mercenaries.


Then my Medbury Miniatures Hobelars - the latest unit finished for this army (not counting the Gallowglass above). Didn't bother with a new picture here:


As you can see, a lot of knights, but a distinct lack of infantry and ranged troops.

[Basementboy]

Really impressive collection, especially considering the detailed paintjobs on each model- the freehand shields are excellent. And nice to see metal sculpts and 3d printed minis coexisting too! Proof that the latter doesn't have to replace the former, but can supplement an existing collection.
Looking forward to seeing where you take the project from here!

[Ogrob]

Thank you! For sure all mediums can coexist, for me it's more important that general proportions are roughly similar. I am pretty sure Medbury intentionally match Claymore quite well.

[Codsticker]

Wonderful painting and I love the thematic photos.

[pixelgeek]

Quite impressive that you picked the two colours that are the most difficult to paint with

[Ogrob]

Thank you! I have tried several recipes for both colours through this project, as it has been a long-running one. I've now found some things that work quite well. I've mentioned the John Blanche colours from Army Painter before, and they are coming to good use for both the red and yellow now. For the red, over a white primer, I use Army Painter Fanatic Fiery Vermillion, then Bloodmoon Red speedpaint, and re-establish highlights with the Fiery Vermillion. For the yellow, again over white, I start with AP Fanatic Sunburst Ochre as a base, and then build up with layers or mixing to Moonbeam Yellow. Most of the time I do a sort of brown/sepia wash as well with Moonbeam Yellow to establish final highlihts after.