Norman Mounted Knights

A batch of Norman heavy cavalry. Horses were painted using the oil wash method described elsewhere on this blog. Riders painted seperately - undercoated  black, metal work given a light dry brush of Vallejo Oily Steel and painted up from there.

On future batches I will use very different shield colours and designs so that when based there will be much greater differentiation between shields. It makes it easier/ quicker to use similar colour schemes when doing batches.

As I intend to sell these not sure about whether to base individually, say for Saga, or in pairs for larger games where moving pieces is easier with fewer bases!!

More Norman Spearmen

Another batch of Norman spearmen complete.

The Norman Army so far (based or ready for basing!)

I've been spending time preparing and undercoating more Norman spearmen and preparing the cavalry. I'm looking forward to painting the Norman heavy cavalry as for me this is what a Norman army is all about!

Norman Spearmen

The first batch of painted Norman spearmen. The repetative use of some colours here is intentional - it makes painting the figures easier/ a little quicker. When the figs are distributed amongst the different units they should look more random!

 

Norman armoured archers on the table:

Some Saxons in action:

Archers on the hill

Unarmoured 'lesser' fyrd supporting armoured thegns and huscarls

Archers screening the advancing armoured thegns

Norman Foot - Crossbows and Swordsmen

Norman Crossbowmen

The Norman crossbowmen are now painted and are awaiting basing.

Some more crossbowsmen painted.

A few sample Norman axemen in the background

This completes the unpainted crossbowmen I have. I will probably base them up like the armoured archers as one unit to keep the theme (3 to a base.) Another option is to base them seperately so they can either be used in the 'Saga' game or grouped on a movement tray for use as a larger unit in a typical wargame.


Norman Swordsmen

I've also managed to complete 2 packs (16 figs) of Norman swordsmen. These (along with the axemen) will be added to the foot units of spearmen to make them nore varied. Some of the shields have the LBM Studios transfers on them the rest are hand painted.

I'm enjoying painting the Normans. Although each figure is generally different (from a painting point of view) it allows me to use paints I've not used for a while/ ever and allows me to experiment with different colours and colour combinations. My aim is to make figures that are generally clad in mail look a little more colourful and interesting.

Norman Axemen

It's now on to 2 packs of axemen - they are all primed and ready to go (16 figs.)

Axemen primed

Sample axemen completed

Saxons

Some pics of the completed Saxons to balance the bias towards Normans at this point! More of the Saxons later.

One in the eye for Harold

Some pictures of the Norman archers completed and ready for action.

Saxons beware! Shield your eyes from the hail of arrows!

Harold and his Huscarls

A slight deviation from the Sedgemoor stuff while I get the next unit ready!

Crusader Miniatures Saxons. Part of a Saxon Army (1066) I have been working on. In my 'metal mountain' I have loads of Normans and I will be doing a Norman Army to match these using Crusader Miniatures and Gripping Beast Normans.

These were painted using a black undercoat – more of that later – this is just a ‘taster’ for now. Shields painted by hand with occasional LBM transfer (which I highly recommend!)

Crusader Miniatures are a pleasure to paint and much of the inspiration for painting these came from Tom Weiss – a truely remarkable painter!