Second Batch of Mounted Carolingian Nobles

    My latest batch of 28mm Gripping Beast Carolingian mounted nobles

I'm onto the second half of painting my Carolingian army. Not counting the warlord, I plan on fielding two units each of mounted hearthguard, foot warriors, and foot bowmen. With this batch of mounted nobles completed, I over the hump, so to speak, and hopefully cruising downhill on finishing this army. The plan is to start playing it at our monthly Saga game days in preparation for this fall's Saga tournament at Cincycon 2021, Oct. 23. 

    Two of the riders had cloaks and two of them were just in chainmail, tunic, and pants

These four mounted spearmen were all armored in chainmail, while the first batch had scale armor. Two of the riders wore cloaks and the other two were more simple. All four looked like they would paint up quickly, having a minimum of equipment festooned on them. As usual, though, I started with the horses. I pulled out my horse painting chart and picked four of the colors and patterns. I was really happy with how they turned out, my favorite being the red dun horse. The gray turned out particularly nice, too. The black wash I put over him at the end really gave it a depth of tones from gray to white. 

    A good look at the four horse patterns/colors that I did with this second batch of mounted nobles

Since these were nobles, I added splashes of detail here and there, including borders and patterns on the saddle cloths. I go back and forth, though, on whether I like 28mm horses with eyes painted or not. These I painted black with a couple dots of brown. I'm not necessarily sure I like these any better than the eye sockets just given depth with the wash. Horses have different looking eyes than people, and though I have seen miniature painters paint them like human eyes, I always find that startling looking. Almost cartoonish, so I am still experimenting.

    The clothing of the nobles is painted in richer colors -- blues, reds, and greens

When it came to the riders, I used brighter and richer colors than I tend to do on the rank and file in the army. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I'm trying to go with a theme color combo of red and green with this army. So, most figures have some green or some red on either their tunic, sleeves, or somewhere in their equipment. I added in borders and designs on the rider's clothes, too. I was really happy with how the borders on their cloaks came out. 

    Once again, I hand-painted the shield patterns. I think they came out good - not stunning, but okay

As also mentioned in earlier blog entries about my Carolingians, I had made the commitment to hand-painting the shield patterns for this army, too. I keep threatening to try out shield decals, but it won't be on this army. I've swtiched over the years from obtaining source materials -- Osprey books and the like -- to simply making Google searches. It is really surprising how often commercially available shield decals show up in my searches. So, I use them as inspiration as well as other "hits" that appear. I usually simplify the shield pattern for more complicated ones, or jazz up ones I feel are too simply for nobles. Nothing too incredibly fancy on this batch, but I think they came out solidly, and give the proper effect of Carolingians Franks.

    I was happy with the cloak borders and the how the patterns of tiny dots came out

One thing I have started doing with my last handful of batches of miniatures is doing a final, brush-on matte finish. Even my favorite Testors Dullcoate seems to have a satiny sheen, nowadays. So, I have begun painting on Vallejo clear matte after the final spray coat. This gives a truly matte finish that Testors used to give. As I was painting that last step on the miniature, the next batch -- Carolingian foot spearmen -- had just received their base flesh tone. They'll be my next batch, and give me five of my six Saga army points for this army. After that, its eight more archer, and then the warlord's command stand. So, the army of Count Drogo gets closer and closer to the tabletop!

    A good closeup of the "Red Dun" horse colors - definitely one of my favorites from this batch

    I like my brown or black wash at the end gives the horse colors a more mottled look

    Count Drogo's Carolingian forces is now up to 4 points of Saga troops - 3 more batches to go!