One of those rare occasions where I finally finish painting an army and have something to post on here! In this case a Medieval Thai army I started painting in... February?... I've said it before, I'm a slow painter
However, this one was very much a product of two things - actually, make that three. 1. Having started playing To The Strongest and deciding to paint an army specifically for the TTS rules. 2. Having had half a Timurid army which I then sold off, painted another half of the army on commission to the chap I sold the first half to, and seen excellent pictures of it in providing the inspiration, and 3. having spent time painting lots of cavalry, I wanted to paint something else...
I should also add it took my longer to finish the army as halfway through I decided I needed more elephants, and infantry...
To which end, this post should also be entitled:
"Nothing says get out of the way quite like an elephant"
(Granted, that's not my quote)
As usual my photography isn't awfully great and I'm sure you can spot plenty of flaws in the painting, but I'm still pretty happy with the results.
Everything is based on 40mm square bases, so for TTS I can use three put together for units on 15cm grids, and two bases together for 10cm grids. I will be getting movement trays, not least because the one disadvantage of the figures is how soft the polearms are - every time I even gently brush a spear or such with my hand it gets bent out of shape...
Almost all Khurasan Miniatures, with the exception of the Light Infantry and the 'mob', plus the 'yellow' command stand, who are Grumpys Malay (from Eureka), and the 'blue' command stand which are Irregular. I bought a handful of the Irregular Thai/Burmese, and sadly discarded half of them, but those I used were nice figures.
The Grumpy figures are lovely, as too the Khurusan figures (with the exception of the so-soft-spears - normally I replace with much sturdier spears, but in the case of the Thai figures these have sculpted spearheads and the 'fishhook' style polearms I couldn't find elsewhere)
Elephants, of course
I really enjoyed painting these elephants, they came out, I think, really well. The only shame was a few spots of pitting, which are quite visible close up, something from the moulds I suspect. I figured if I tried to infill or otherwise resolve, though, I'd probably do more damage than good, and it's not a major flaw for a 'playing' army as opposed to a display army, I felt.
I should add it has been pointed out to me that elephants come in many colours, not just the same grey shade... yes, I concede the point!
However, I like to think that a kindly Thai ruler spared a though for future wargamers who might want to paint armies and decided to put together a monochromatic elephant force, just to be helpful...
The command elephants are standard elephants but with general/king crew. The platform on top of one of them was it has to be said rather fiddly to assemble, but possibly because I try to do too much at once.
Infantry - Spearmen and Archers
This is what I suspect for TTS might be the more squishy bit of the army, the spearmen and the bowmen. The TTS lists do allow two guard units, hence why there are two units in brighter colours (the yellows and the blues), accompanied by some more drably attired PBI... I concede some of my colour choices are more fanciful, but I tried to stick with what sources I had insofar as predominating colours being yellows, reds and blues.
The figures were really easy to paint and came out nicely. I suspect a better painter could do much more justice of course. Faces I have difficulty with, but en-masse again I think they work. Now, I know in terms of skin tones Thailand actually has a huge amount of variety and this force is fairly mono - this is again a compromise in favour of getting an army for the table.
These are a mix of Khurasans spearmen, swordsmen and 'guard' infantry with double swords. Under the TTS rules they're all spearmen, but it adds variety (and if I pick a base up by the figure, latching onto a swordsman prevents me bending a spear...)
Light Infantry, 'Mob' and Command
These as I mentioned above are Grumpy Figures from their Malay range. A long time ago I had some of their Portuguese and recalled there were some other useful ranges - I needed some options for 'Other' light infantry (distinguished from the archers by the presence of the odd blowpipe-armed figure), and I do like a good mob of assorted infantry too, sometimes I think units can get a bit too formalised and we forget about the general mass of levies. The figures mix in pretty well and are very characterful, probably enjoyed painting these the most of the whole army.
Lastly, some cavalry
And painted last, the cavalry, who certainly delayed me as I started painting them, lost motivation, refused to allow myself to paint anything else till I'd finished them, and subsequently spent a while with some undercoated horses staring at me saying "paint me, paint me"... I feel like some ill-advised cavalry charges may be occurring soon.
Oh - this is a bit of a cop-out, I should add. The cavalry are actually Nepalese, from Khurasan's Tibetan range. I couldn't find cavalry more suited to the Thai, so I appreciate these are a bit ahistorical, but I think they'll suffice, and blend quite nicely with the rest of the army
I've got just a few bits left to do - namely, the camps to accompany the army. I have some baggage elephants, Baueda tents, and some really nice statues that I got via Etsy which the seller kindly printed at half-size from 28mm scale for me, so one of the camps will be some sort of ceremonial or roadside shrine type of thing, but those are next - for me, the main thing is the army is complete, and gives me enough for a decent size force for TTS both with 12cm and 8cm wide units.
The basing on 40mm squares was also to give me the flexibility to try out ADLG, and potentially also use them for Fantastic Battles. I love the look of units all on one base, but the multi-base in movement trays helps that flexing across rulesets.
As I have previously, I recommend Khurasan's figures, in most cases the soft polearms can be overcome with other sources and it's a very minor quibble in the face of some lovely figures.
Thanks for looking!