Impetus Sudanese/Berber Spearmen/Archers (15mm)

Well it looks like I missed the whole of July, but this was mainly do to catching a nasty summer flu which pretty much sapped all desire to hit the painting table except when I could summon the energy to paint for a little bit. I'm feeling better now, but even after 4 weeks it's still hanging around a little, but fortunately I'm doing much better and can now handle some painting sessions.

I took a look at my 15mm Ayyubid army and decided I wanted to expand it's roll to a more all purpose Arab army to use for several lists (Ayyubids, Fatamids, Rum etc.). For this to happen I need to add more infantry to the collection hence some spearman and archers which can be fielded as a combined units or stand alone.

As the rest of the army I went for a colorful look to help them stand out on the tabletop. The figures are from the wonderful Legio Heroica range and the banners are from LBM.

I intend to start on some Crusaders soon, but first I'd like add some more units to Arabs as a friend of mine already has a Crusader force so the Arabs need to be at 450pts to 500pts before I can make the shift. As a point of info I almost always collect both sides for a period so even if someone else has an opposition army I'll still collect for it in case they are unavailable when needed.

Lots of stuff I want to paint so not sure what's next. I'll just see where the brush takes me!

Thanks for viewing!:-)
Miniature Company- Legio Heroica

Ghulam Lancers

Sliding these 15mm Ghulams in before I miss the complete month of March! Many things have conspired to slow me down to include having to scrap an entire unit of Late Romans that just looked horrible and will now need to be stripped and repainted. Then when almost finished with another unit of AWI Americans I ran out of painting mojo I just started watching way too much TV and reading blogs, books, forums, looking at miniature companies for the next buy. To help me get back on track and have something to post this month I decided to go small and add another unit to my Ayyubid Impetus army.

These Ghulam's are from the wonderful 15mm Legio Heroica range and are a real treat to paint up. All the shields are hand painted, but the banner is from the superb LBM flags and transfers. More Ayubbids will be coming off my desk for sure.

Lately our group has been discussing doing more 15mm in Ancients/Mediaevals and even Naps in an effort to get some more variety into our gaming as the 28mm large army projects take very long to develop and while progress is being made on them a considerable amount of time is still needed on most. We have been doing a lot of 28mm skirmish gaming, but would like a break from that for awhile. So this year I will be doing more army based projects in 15mm along with continuing on with expanding my 28mm collections of course. Not sure of the ratio yet, but hopefully something like 50/50 even split on both scales.

Now, back to those 28mm AWI Americans and finish off the unit so I can clear my desk and decide what I'll do next as that's always a mystery to me!:-)

Thanks for looking!:-)
Miniature Company-Legio Heroica

Fanatic Warriors

I've been a little under the weather lately, but I managed to finish these two stands of Fanatic Warriors for my Ayyubid 15mm Muslim Crusades army.
There were two approaches I could have used in designing these troops. The first could have been a group of warriors in different clothes, weapons and shields to look like the faithful hastily gathered together from different parts to fight the invading Franks. The second option and the one I decided to go with was a more serious and slightly sinister looking discipled  formation of warriors dedicated to crushing the infidels who invaded their holy land. They look much harder then their profile really is in the list, but hopefully they will intimate my opponent enough!:-)
In going with the black I insured to add plenty of colour to the sashes and shields to keep them tied in with the rest of my rather colourful army and so I hope it worked.
The figures are legio Heroica which as I said before are some of the best 15mm out there, but if I did have one small critique I'd say some of the figures can be a bit static, but the sculpting detail more then make up for it. The paints I used were mostly Foundry with some Vallejo and the flag is from LBM.
Thanks for viewing!
Miniature Company- Legio Heroica

Mamluks

Mamluks are the elite of my 15mm Ayyubid army for Impetus. They began as slave soldiers before eventually taking Nobles into their ranks were some even became Sultan! They were not just deadly archers, but were equally hard in close quarter fighting and in a large part defeated both the Crusaders and Mongols to give some perspective of their qualities for those perhaps not familiar with them.

It was tough finishing these figures as cavalry at any scale is taxing for me, but I'm happy I did it in the end.:-)

The army is progressing along at a nice clip and I'm pretty close to 300pts if you include command structure costs which is nice!

Once again wonderful Legio Heroica figures painted up using Foundry paints. The Banner is from the superb LBM with some small added trimming by myself.

Thanks for viewing!

Figure Company- Legio Heroica 

Turkoman Horse Archers

Continuing  on with my Impetus 15mm Ayyubid Muslim army for the Crusades in the form of Turcoman Horse Archers which are a main stay of the army of the period. Their lightning swift hit and run tactics were a constant thorn in the side of Crusaders until they got their own to counter it!

The figures are once again from the fantastic Legio Heroica range and paint up very nicely indeed. I'm really enjoying myself with the army as it gives quite a bit of opportunity to explore colour although painting horses regardless of scale is always a challenge!

Colours are mostly Foundry with some Vallejo.

Thanks for viewing!

Miniature Company- Legio Heroica 

Sudanese Archers

Here are some 15mm Sudanese archers for my Ayyubid Muslim Arab army. The figures are from the fantastic Legio Heroica Muslim Crusade range . The gentleman who makes and sells the figures is a real nice person and a pleasure to deal with and so I highly recommend the brand.

I've been searching for a way to speed up the painting process without losing too much in quality and I think I've found it....Devlan Mud wash from GW! After several attempts with army painter I've come to the conclusion I don't like Army Painter because:

-It's difficult to control where the stain goes.
-I have to repaint most of the figure to get it looking good therefore saving little time.
-It stinks and is sticky to use.
-I have to wait 24hours after application before I can work with it again.
-It's expensive if it drys up which it often does.
-When sealing it often leaves a light grey film over the miniature.

Devlan Mudd wash ignores all the above. I can much easier control the shadow effect by how much water I add to the wash. I simply apply the wash to the recessed areas leaving the raised parts untouched and so no need to go back and repaint anything. I then add one quick highlight and it's finished. In effect it completely replaces one complete painting stage saving time in switching bottles and adding the paint. For me it's much quicker then using AP and gives a better controlled effect without the all negative hassle. I'm a very happy painter at the moment!

Bye bye AP/Varnishes and Helloooo GW washes!! It seems GW does get things right on occasion and considering how little you need and how effective it is I'd say the price is actually very reasonable and quite fair something of an oddity from that company!

Miniature Company-Legio Heroica

Arab Lancers

Sorry about the repeated post on this, but I was having some troubles posting it in correctly.
My first Impetus base finished! I mentioned awhile back that I would be doing a Saladin Ayyubid dynasty army for Impetus and here is my first unit. Sometimes I mention doing projects, but then don't get back to them for a bit and this is one of them.
This unit represents Kurdish, Berber or Syrian Lancers that I group into Arabs for ease of reference. I really enjoyed painting this unit as I got a chance to explore color and look forward to doing some more. The miniatures are 15mm Legio Historica and are really fantastic sculpts and have quite a bit detail that really adds to the painting time, but is worth it in my opinion.
I was going to go straight for a 300pts force, but changed my mind to a Basic Impetus army to start with because of less units to paint, quicker to start gaming our Crusades campaign at the club, and a loosely planned project with SG over at the super Conquering the Lead Mountain blog here. After having a BI force completed then I'll build the army further to 300pts, 400pts. etc for standard Impetus gaming.
Thanks for viewing!
Miniature Company- Legio Historica