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Author Topic: Atheling's Early Byzantines- Made the Cover of "Slingshot"- Page 31. 23-04-2023  (Read 62622 times)

Offline Atheling

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Cheers guys :)

Really great work, best I've seen in a very long time

They are very kind words indeed!  :)

On the subject of shields and transfers the smaller shield was produced as an afterthought to fit Footsore minis transfers as Steve at LBM was too overwhelmed with work to produce a set for our main Byzantine shield, what is now our 'middle sized' shield with darts behind.

I've got plenty of the medium sized shields but like you say, the Footsore ones fit the smaller resized shields so I just went with what is available. It's taken me long enough to paint the mini's without having to worry about painting the shields too. The irony is, I always used to insist on painting every shield in every army I had! Example of a Norman shield below:


I have been working to resize some of the Gripping Beast transfers to fit the wider shield with some success but it does require some of the design to be repainted, not everyones cup of tea. Perhaps things will ease up a bit and Steve can resize some designs for us.
Keep up the good work and I can't wait to see the cavalry! Adam

I think I'll have a minor seizure if Steve does! I don't relish the thought of having to re do all of the shields  lol

I have one Cavalry unit pencilled in after the next Unarmoured Skutatoi unit but I might just try to plough ahead and get another Armoured Shieldwall in place. The theory being I may be more reluctant to continue with the infantry if I start on the cavalry!  o_o

Offline Smithy

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Know what you mean regarding doing more infantry when the cavalry arrive!
There is no right size or wrong size shield for this period as all we have is really based on the shields from Dura Europus, for actual measurements, and the artwork from the period. Period illustartions show a wide variety of shapes and sizes, none of which can be confirmed. We hope the range can also represent the period just before Justinian but after the traditional date of the Fall of the West.
Stick with the shields you have, I know they are transfers but I also know they don't look as good as yours without a lot of extra graft. Still blown away by your work.
In future ranges I hope I can link all the periods we do together so those shields will come in pretty handy  ;)
'I see lead people'

Offline Atheling

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Know what you mean regarding doing more infantry when the cavalry arrive!
There is no right size or wrong size shield for this period as all we have is really based on the shields from Dura Europus, for actual measurements, and the artwork from the period. Period illustartions show a wide variety of shapes and sizes, none of which can be confirmed. We hope the range can also represent the period just before Justinian but after the traditional date of the Fall of the West.
Stick with the shields you have, I know they are transfers but I also know they don't look as good as yours without a lot of extra graft. Still blown away by your work.

Thanks Adam. The sculpting has made the painting possible. lovely clean lines etc. Just too juicy not to put a lot of effort into :)

In future ranges I hope I can link all the periods we do together so those shields will come in pretty handy  ;)

 lol Keith did just send me some IR images so I suggest we make it a bet  lol

Offline Bravo Six

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Great brushwork Darrell. This thread is something to be proud of for certain.

Offline Atheling

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Great brushwork Darrell. This thread is something to be proud of for certain.

Cheers Bravo Six. I'm hoping to get some group shots of the army at some point. Due to being a lazy so and so I didn't clean out the greater part of the studio prior to Covid and now I'm stuck in the house with nowhere to put all the rubbish before setting up my table  lol. Typical me  lol And there is a lot of rubbish  >:(

Offline Atheling

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Just a very quick post to say that, as I promised in my last post of the Unarmoured Early Byzantine Skutatoi Unit Complete I managed to find some time to take some close ups of the bases.

And why not?

My preference for basing the miniatures in large units to have a degree of synergy and interaction between figures goes back quite a while to when the Perry twins first produced their Agincourt to Orleans range in metal. The sculpts in that particular range were so dynamic, so suspenseful so full of life they just screamed out "vignette style basing" to me. To help illustrate my point, here are a few quick pictures taken by David Imrie (Saxon Dog to many) of the Perry HYW stuff completed many a moon ago:











I have tried to achieve something similar with my Aventine Miniatures Early Byzantines; but in a more uniform manner. I think the more regimented look of the units just says Eastern Roman/Byzantine discipline a little more then the "all out scrum" look of my HYW English. With the Byzantines I have made an effort to try to get the Command Models to look as though there is a high degree of interaction and a sense of suspense whilst the rank and file are either, depending on the units, standing their ground, fighting or, in some cases, just milling around waiting for action.

Here they are, "Warts and all":























« Last Edit: March 28, 2021, 07:20:04 PM by Atheling »

Offline Hu Rhu

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Gorgeous.  :-* :-* :-*

Offline Atheling

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Thanks Hu Rhu  :)

Offline Roo

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Simply stunning

Offline Lord Raglan

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Such lovely rich colours, genesis!!!

Offline Atheling

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I doff my hat with thanks to both Roo and Gareth  8)

Offline Atheling

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There are more images of the unit  from various angles on my just Add Water Blog here:
https://justaddwater-bedford.blogspot.com/2021/04/second-unarmoured-early-byzantine.html


Happily I now have the second unit of Unarmoured Early Byzantine Skutatoi complete. I decided to stick with the test models with the green and yellow from my earlier Unarmoured Skutatoi Unit Two- Experiment with Different Colour Schemes post for the basics on the tunics and trousers, though it was suggested that there was a striking resemblance to Norwich City's football kit! I'm not much of a soccer aficionado so I can assure you that any resemblance is purely coincidental! As a life long native of the North, be that Scotland or the NE of England it did make me chuckle!
The miniatures are, like the rest of my Justinian era army thus far, all from mighty Aventine Miniatures.

I has some problems with the varnish. I tried a tin of Humbrol Gloss Enamel Spray to see if it could help speed up the varnishing process but after leaving the unit for the requisite week for the gloss to fully go off, when it came to matting down with the usual Windsor and Newton Artists Professional Matt Varnish there an unusual interaction between the two opposite layers. Disappointing as I tend to be very anal about these things but not to the extent where I was particularly worried about the unit making an (eventual!) appearance on the wargames table. I'm not sure if I got a bad batch of the Humbrol Gloss or whether it is best to avoid using a gloss spray altogether in the future thus I would be very interested in hearing what experiences any of you may have had. I may yet just return to the brush on version but if I have missed a trick it would be interesting to find out what that might be(?). I intend to take some close ups of the bases so if anyone has any ideas about how the two layers of varnish might have interacted the annoying results will be clearer in those pictures. Probably in my next post.

As the army has now reached 108 miniatures, not including commands and war machines, I am hoping to get some  shots of the army in its entirety in the very near future. I still have not managed to get my damn wargames table put up yet. It is still buried under a whole heap of stuff, most of which needs chucking away. I really need to pull my finger out!

So, without further ado, here are a few sample pics of the completed unit:







« Last Edit: April 19, 2021, 09:23:55 AM by Atheling »

Offline Hu Rhu

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Absolutely cracking.  :-* :-* :-*

Offline Tonhel

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I love how you do your units. Very inspirational!

Offline armchairgeneral

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They look amazing.

Any chance of an army shot? All units done to date?

 

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