Huns: Attila and Bleda

[Richard in Sachsen]

Only two figures out of the lead horde awaiting attention. But I wanted to do a couple of Huns, so I painted up my two generals: Attila and Bleda.

As source material I used Ospery's The Hun: Scourge of God AD 375-565 and Attila and the Nomad Hordes. Particularly Plate B in Hordes for Attila and Plate A in Scourge for Bleda.

Here's how they turned out

Attila

I used a regular Foundry warrior figure for Attila. I recall one of the Roman writers, I don't remember which now, stating that Attila was difficult to discern from the other Huns as he never dressed kingly but rather like every one else. I thought this figure, therefore, would be a nice figure for him.

Secondly, the figure has a sword that may be considered in a command pose as well as a bow. That was important for me as I did want to make him stand out a bit from the horde on the tabletop. The bow in the hand was perfect for that as there was a gilded gold bow found that denoted authority, or so it is thought. The golden bow is in the University of Jakuszowice, I believe. That, I thought, was the perfect way to denote Attila on the tabletop.



I like the shadowed picture here as it is a bit menacing  The horse is branded with a Tamga underneath the tack-strap of the right hindquarter. It just did not come out. It's a black horse and I used some light grey and nipple pink and it just did not work. You can see a faint outline but not much. All of my Hun units will get a different Tamga brand on their horses to discern units since Hun shields seem to be all covered in leather.

For skin tones I used Foundry North African Flesh Shade, then Strong tone ink, then a very thin layer of Foundry Oriental Flesh Shade with a highlight of Oriental Flesh base. Otherwise, I find that the North African flesh has too much red tone but Oriental flesh alone is more appropriate for Chinese or Samurai figures. My ex-wife was half Crimean Tartar (Bashkir to be exact) and half Russian, so I was trying to refer to memory of her golden but not too eastern skin tones. Still not sure if I got it right, though.



Here his face is not so shadowed and you can glimpse where I was attempting to paint on facial scars. I used the battered shield technique using North African Flesh shade for the underline and Nipple Pink for the over line. I doubt that I will do that for the whole horde, though.







Bleda



Here is my Bleda. He is Gripping Beast's Hun warlord figure. His facial scars show up very well in this picture





Here the Tamga showed up on the horse using Foundry's Nipple Pink and Lifecolor's Burned Black.




The Brothers




I hope you like. I needed to do a couple of figures not Roman or Arthurian as a break. I was starting to get the "army painting boredom" syndrome.

[archiduque]

Nice work!

[ayak333]

Im surprised You didn't use Aventine Steppe models for the Huns. Great Stuff as always.

[chema1986]

Ah those lovely Foundry huns...good job on these!    2 years ago I bought a horde deal from Wargames Foundry store... and I started painted some this week!

[Richard in Sachsen]

Thanks, fellas. I spent some time on these two.

Yea, while I bought the Avetine and Gripping Beast Huns direct, I got a great deal on the Foundry Huns from Col. Bill's used minis. I had my doubts at first that Foundry would mix but Stuart at Col. Bill's assured me that they would and he was right. They all work well together but it will be a while before I get to painting the horde.

[GamesPoet]

I like 'em!