An Army for Byzantium

Byzantine Kitbash

 Since I first saw the Riders of Rohan in the Peter Jackson film "The Two Towers" I was impressed at the depiction of cavalry fighting, during the destruction of Pippim and Merry's captors by Eomer's warband. 

The combination of close fighting and horse archery brought to mind Byzantine practises and the early medieval influences in their clothing and armour worked for that too. (Other scenes such as the charge down a "cliff" at Helms Deep were less inspiring!)

When the Perry sculpted miniatures based on the film came out I bought a few to see how they looked with half a mind towards converting them into a historical force  For various reasons this went nowhere and the idea joined a plethora of similar parked project ideas...

 Recently I found myself reading about Byzantium of various periods and I decided to take another look at the feasibility of a cheap Rohan to Byzantine conversion army.

Do they look like Byzantines?

Well... sortof.  They are equipped with headgear that are a mix of ridge helmets and segmented type that are fairly ubiquitous during the 6th to 10th Centuries. There are some fancy horse themed crests that can be trimmed back to make them less obviously fantasy based. The armour is an appealing mix of scale and what looks like leather. Some of it could also be easily painted as padded cotton which was in widespread use after contact with the Arabs. 

Quite a mixed/scruffy bunch they are, which fits my image of self-equipped regional Byzantine forces. They all wear big cloaks which were certainly a thing in Byzatium, although it is generally thought they would not have worn them during a battle as too encumbering. (Other sources specify a dull coloured cloak as required equipment for keeping out of the notice of enemies in the prevalent raiding and guerilla type of warfare.)

Weapons are bows, straight swords, axes and spear/lance (used overarm.) This is all fine although it  could be argued that not every rider should be equipped with a bow. I can overlook that.

 Overall I think it is close enough. The long viking style hair that a lot of the riders have can be ignored or changed to a hanging neck guard like the illustration above. Carved flat it can be a fabric/leather version or some might get scales or mail sculpted on. The Byzantines ot the 9th to 10th Centuries look like the best match. This is the period when Byzantium was counter-attacking the enemies that surrounded them. The army was formed of regional forces (Themes) backed up by the Emperors guards from the capital (the Tagmata) which makes for an interesting composition of units.

So a positive start but is there usable option for the infantry component that is required?

 

New Painting Desk

 I finally had a chance to reorganise my study and replace the huge clunky computer desk with a separate desk and painting station.

 

 

I went for a pair of Hilver Ikea desktops with a bamboo finish. They are  hardwearing, reasonably sustainable and look quite smart. The most useful part is that they can be matched to adjustable legs (for the desk not me) so that I can have one set at a height that suits me for painting.  For the computer / writing desk I have re-used the base units from the old computer desk that give me a comfortable height for typing and writing, which is about 10cm lower than the painting station.

 

 

I adjusted my rolling drawer unit  a draw lower so that it will fit under the surface. The top drawer has all my small pots and dropper bottles of paint, so it is quite easy to look down onto them and pick out whicher ones I need. The first deep drawer has a bunch of craft paints in 60ml bottles as well as   glues, varnishes and spare 20ml pots. Another draw has all my tools, extra brushed and all the bits and pieces that we seem to accumulate "because it will come in handy one day." 

There is a nice big window facing east, so pretty good light during the day. I might in the future add additional light to augment the three adjustable spots in the ceiling and the lamps. No excuse now but to crack on with getting some toy soldiers painted..

 

Republican Roman Cavalry

 Whilst I am trying to stay focussed on one main project and not more than 3 or 4 side projects (maybe 1 "official" distraction too*)  I do still make time to plan other armies that will some time in the future again be the main focus...

(*Yes I'm a nightmare.)

Sorted through some Republican Roman cavalry that are patiently waiting in the queue and as there was a question about sizes on the Lead Adventure Forum I took the picture below to show a comparison of the cavalry figures that I have. I stuck a plastic Victrix figure alongside as these are a well known size as a benchmark.

Sizewise these are all close enough for me to have in the same army. Mixing within a unit I try to match styles rather than sizes but I am quite tolerant about differences. My daubings will mask a lot of the differences anyway. Horses I am a bit more picky about. I will often try to have the same brand of horses within a unit so that they all look more of less the same species of animal...

 One "successful" conversion of an early 17th Century Tufeci (musketeer)  into a late 17th Century Azab did of course leave me with te conundrum of whether to do the same to the other 14 or so figures that make up a unit? The decision was tipped by the receipt of some of the excellent second batch of command figures from Warfare Figures.

These gave me three figures that could slip into place in the Azab unit with minimal adjustments required. So I gritted my teeth and set to with the epoxy putty to get the whole unit converted.

Just getting rid of the feathers on their hats quite dramatically changes the look off this unit. I decided to do a mixture of baggy trousers, of various lengths, turbans round the hats and a few adjustments to coat lengths. Every figure would get at least one of these and some two.

I need to make a few more yatagahan swords from plastic hoplite swords as only a few of these militia types would have access to / preference for a posh scimitar. The command figure waving a rare scimitar was given a  musket from the Perry box of plastic Afghans which comes with qute a few useful bits like this. Although these will probably be graded as low quality regulars, they are probably going to be brigaded often with Bosniaks, Albanians and similar irregulars. They'll make an interesting contrast to the others.

Ottoman Azab

I've never liked Tufecki infantry. Always thought they looked weird and not very Turkish. Every miniatures range seems to have them (Warfare, Old Glory, TAG...) but  I have never been able to find a reliable reference for them beyond the early 17th Century. I was interested then to see them illustrated in the Bruno Mugnai book (just published by Helion,) plate F, and labelled as a "European Azab". Azabs are described as being a well organised local militia who are able to take on garrison duties or fight in the field as a part of the regular army. It makes a lot of sense that their dress should look similar to Croats and other Balkans soldiers if this were the case.

In the same colour plate is an illustration of a European Azab from the end of the 17th Century.  This figure has done away with the shonky feathers in his hat, he has very voluminous trousers and a slightly longer kaftan. A rather more fine figure of a man to my eye!

So I decided to have a crack at converting one of my 28mm Warfare figures to match.  Here is the result.

I  much prefer the look of him now. I might try another with a longer coat next. I also gave this chap a yatagan style sword, made from a trimmed down Victrix Greek kopis. You can only see the hilt from this side. I decided that a militia man would be very unlikely to have a nice scimitar like the one that is supplied with the figure.

Xebecs, Farsands of 'em!

Well two anyway... I finished up the second Brig conversion. Pretty much the same except I succeeded in giving the Mark 2 more of the tilted up prow and stern effect that I was aiming for. I also did the masts slightly longer  but the overall look does not change much. 

The sails are slightly different sizes and shapes just to avoid the two ships being too uniform. 

I am not messing about with rigging as the cost / benefit calculation doesn't work for me and there is always the chance I will make more of a mess than an improvement!

I now have the ships I need to play the scenario in Wordtwister Publishing's scenario package and the nucleus of a Barbary Corsair fleet to put the willies up the Europeans that I have!

Building Xebecs II

Not a sequel, this just carries on from the last post. I was at the stage of putting together the rigging for the Xebec, so I went back to the reference pictures I had scoured before starting the model. (More accurately I just jumped in and started making the sails and then went back and looked at how they should be!) There seemed to be some disagreement between paintings/ drawings / models as to whether the Xebec sails were attached at the top of the masts or only part way up. The latter allowed room for flags at the top of the mast (which is always good) but did mean my masts were perhaps a bit too short. 

I eventually realised that the reason is that the spar from which the sail hangs is raised and lowered, unlike those of a square rigged ship, so in fact both states are possibly correct. I decided that the Mark 2 Xebec  model would have taller masts to allow for either set of sails. It also occurred to me that is battle the Xebec possibly lowered their sail and mainly used oars for greater manoeuvrability. I like the look of the big lateen sails, so I was going to stick with them anyway. I glued the spars straight onto the plastic sails for simplicity and durability but I am aware that this was not how it would be done in real life...

I had seen quite a few models with vertically striped sails, which does look good and differentiates the Mediterranean corsairs from their boring European opponents. Painting neat stripes should not be too hard? The Airfix plastic sails I am using,luckily have the vertical stripes moulded in but after a large G&T even just following those lines was a horrible disaster! If I was using paper sails it couldn't be easier as I could print out the stripes and then cut out the right shape. Job done! I think a compromise of just the foresail stripy might be the best bet for me.

Remembering my keep it simple, it's a game piece mantra, from waaay back  in the last post, the paint job was a basic mid-brown for the ship's hull and a dark wash (Army Painter Strong tone) to bring out the detail. My instinct was to go colourful with the painting of the hull too but I restrained my self and just added a smart red stripe to the sides. The decks I did a pale colour but the same as the rest is just as plausible as I suspect that Corsairs do not holystone the decks to a perfect sheen every day! 

Flags were knocked together with inspiration from pictures on the Interwebs of Corsair ships in action. I made up some teeny triangles and rectangles on photoshop and added images of crescents and swords that looked sort of similar. Again simple designs suit the scale and the talent levels available!

So here is the A model quickly finished to get the general impression. I am pretty happy with that.  I will finish off the B model with different colours and flags, so that I will have the start of a  Corsair fleet. I am pleased that I was able to throw this together from the bits box (vindicated!) The priciest bit of my ones are probably the Fenris resin bases,which can obviously be replaced by all m,anner of choices (or non.) Next I will start to think about a galley to provide some more hitting power...