Izaygian Veterans of Bremetennacum: 28mm

[Richard in Sachsen]

Like a lot of folks here, I've recently been motivated to work on a few Arthurians. Which is a good thing, since they've been sitting half-painted in a box since 2012. Two works inspired me for this particular unit. The first being Gillian Bradshaw's wonderful historical novel Island of Ghosts. The second is more academic: From Scythia to Camelot by C. Scott Littleton and Linda A. Malcor. From this source I based my unit on the grounding of their evidence-based theories.

There may be some skepticism of Sarmatian warriors in fifth century Britain, but there is evidence as well. Littleton and Malcor point to the Sarmatian types of artefacts found at Ribchester and conclude that "... the whole impression is that of a stable ethnic enclave, one that endured long after the original veterans were dead and buried..." and "... the community's close association with the Roman military establishment - as in other veteran's communities sons of soldiers were strongly motivated to follow their fathers' footsteps, as by doing so they could become citizens - probably helped it to maintain its ethnic identity and to resist total assimilation into the indigenous Celtic population. In any event, as Sulimirski points out, the Sarmatian veterans' settlement at Bremetennacum was still in existence "in the early fifth century"..." (Littleton & Mayor, 19-23) - [see also Sulimirski, Tadeuz. 1970. The Sarmatians. New York: McGraw-Hill.]

So, the unit, or Dragon as Ms. Bradshaw called them.

Commander Ariantes (who else?)





The painted shield design is taken from a google search of Sarmatian imagery and symbology. Of course the dragon is most associated with the Sarmatians but I wanted something unique. So I chose another mythological creature of theirs: the goat-horned steppe gryfon from a scabbard (cf. From the Lands of the Scythians: Ancient Treasures from the Museums of the USSR, 3000 BC-100BC, Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Vol 32, no. 5, 1975.). I added the Chi-Ro to reflect their "Romanisation" and assimilation.

Standard-bearer





Horsemen





By now, many might notice the bows and quivers with a wince and a grimace. But I am figuring, that if an enclosed ethnic enclave kept their identity by passing down grandma's lentil soup recipe, why not grandpa's bow? Why not his way of fighting on horseback that was the mainstay of the Sarmatian warrior identity? The whole point of their community was war-fighting on behalf of the Romans in their own ethnic style and after the reading, I find myself skeptical that they would lose that integral part of their culture in two or three generations.

So I gave them bows and quivers as horse archers as well as lancers.

The Dragon





It was a fun and creative unit to paint. And after all, if we're talking about Arthurians, we're really just playing fantasy anyway.

Hope you liked

Note and lesson learned: never again will I skimp and buy cheap hardware store primer! You may have noticed the draco and bows and quivers have a funny texture to them - that is cheap 7.99 Euro white primer from big-box hardware store Obi. Never again! The texture is horrible and it doesn't take to the paint very well. Ill shell out the extra five euros for Army Painter spray primer, I guess there is a reason that it's made specifically for miniatures and the accessories I sprayed with the cheap stuff shows why. So my advice, go ahead and shell out the extra for miniatures and use the cheap stuff for terrain. That's my lesson-learned

[Totleben]

I love these shields 

[Ragnar]

I do like!

[Richard in Sachsen]

Thanks Guys.

[Mithridates1]

Richard

Excellent job and commentary - brings the unit to life.

Life is too short for cheap undercoats!!!!   I have switched to good quality gesso, I mix it with a suitable artist's acrylic and it dries dead flat, leaving all the detail intact.   I always let it dry for 24 hours before applying paint.

Keep them coming.

Garry

[Emporium]

Wow , lovely hand painted shields, mine will never be even close to yours!

[Richard in Sachsen]

@ Mith: thanks Mith, appreciate it. Yea, I find a little bit of research will yield some details that enhances the painting. In this instance, the steppe gryphon on the shields and the horse archery capability that one doesn't usually find with Romano-British cavalry and with good reason. But it also adds a bit of story behind the unit and as the painter I find that I appreciate them a bit more than just painting up a unit willy-nilly.

@Emporium, thank you very much. It's really not that hard and I think the trick is getting them to pop. What I did here was to paint the shields a dark scarlet tone. Then I painted a very rough design with dark umber. Then I begin to work the design from rough to detail. In this case I started with a dark yellow tone but I found that inside the design the umber gave too much contrast so I switched to a tan inside the umber outline which I think works better with yellow. Then I worked the detail with smaller and smaller lines but importantly also with lighter shades within the darker shades (using Foundry's tricolour system of shade-base colour-light highlight). Once that is done, the outline in umber is still a mess, so I work it closer to the design with the shield's field base colour (in this case scarlet shade.) Then I go once more on the field this time with scarlet base and bring it closer to the deep scarlet outline. Finally I use a highlight on the rim, etc. That gets the borders to "pop."

The Chi-Ro was done the same way but with dark umber and artic grey/white. Finally there was a dry-brush of a landscaping paint from Lifecolor called Deposited Dust. However, I'm not sure I'm happy with that and I've been moving to using umber and Vallejo's splash and thick mud.

It does take time, though. The rest of the figures, except Ariantes, were painted rather quickly in a "just-get-them-on-the-table" fashion, so there is nothing spectacular about the figures themselves. But as the few comments I've gotten so far seem to agree, the shields are the focal point and tell the story of the unit.

Thank you again for the kind words.

[Irregular Wars Nic]

Very nice. I do love those goat-gryphons!

[Richard in Sachsen]

Thank you very much, Nic.

[ayak333]

I buy the cheap primer, and "dusting/sanding" the miniatures is a real threat. But, don't think that the army painter wont do that as well, it can. Outdoor weather conditions, namely humidity and heat here in New York, can cause that dusted effect. Next time it happens, you can buy cleaner products such as simple green to strip the primer (simple green is fine for plastic and metal not sure about resin though). Let the model sit in the simple green for a few days and then take a tooth brush to strip more primer off.  The faster the newly primed model goes into the cleaner the better. I live in fear of the dust every time I prime! Maybe I'll have to move toward army painter as well, as it might happen less frequently but I'm not sure.

[WuZhuiQiu]

Very nice work! Where had you sourced the bowcases and quivers?

[Richard in Sachsen]

@Ayak: Thanks for the tip. I think Simply Green over here in Germany is called Frosch (Frog), but I'm not sure it's the same product. May try it, though.

@WuZhuiQiu: Thank you. To answer your question, if you meant where the bows and quivers come from, they're plastic FireForge from the steppe warriors set.

If you meant academic sources and evidence. Well, evidence is lacking. Nevertheless, the scholars cited above make a good argument, using archeological evidence, for the Sarmatian enclave holding onto their cultural identity well into the fifth century by both their own traditions and the tradition of every generation entering into Roman service. I'm speculating, but I think it is very plausible, that they held onto their defining war fighting technique: fighting with bow and lance. I can't imagine such an important cultural trait being lost in a generation or two after the Romans left.

The authors have also suggested that Riothamus took them to Armorica when he invaded in ca. 470 AD. When Riothamus was betrayed to the Visigoths, it's quite likely that the Izaygian veterans found themselves fighting their Alan cousins.

I think it is a very versatile unit either as Numeri on the Wall or early Sub-Roman.

[WuZhuiQiu]

Thanks, yes, I meant the source for the model bows and quivers. And it does seem fairly plausible.