Massive Horde (well 8...) 28mm Dark Age Cavalry

    8 Gripping Beast Dark Ages cavalry from the "Mounted Welsh reinforcements box"

Through the years, my "batch size" has morphed. When I first started painting 15mm Ancients, it was "all of a certain troop type" -- heavy infantry, skirmishers, etc. Then, once I realized how a never-ending run of painting flesh or leather can kill motivation, the batch size began to shrink. It settled on roughly a dozen or so at the end stages of my painting 15mm troops. The same thing has happened as I adopted 28mm for pretty much everything except my 20mm moderns. For 28's, I have settled on a batch size of about six -- sometimes one or two more if foot, or less if mounted.

    A look at the 28mm mounted figs from the side so you can see the horse coloring clearly

So, when I decided to paint up a Gripping Beast reinforcements box containing 8 Dark Age Welsh cavalry, I went back and forth whether to break it over two batches. Finally, I decided that I would try to paint it all at once. After the experience, I now remember why I'd gone with smaller batches! This group of eight miniatures seemed to take forever! I honestly believe that I have been working on them for more than two weeks. Why Dark Age cavalry, in the first place? Well, when we did our six-player Lion Rampant game the other Sunday evening, that was the one troop type I ran short on. So, it was obvious that I -- and we all use this word -- needed more! I believe that I'd won this Gripping Beast box in a tournament. The figures are relatively generic for Dark Ages, too, so it was a natural fit.

    The clothes and equipment is relatively generic so they can be used as other nations of the Dark Ages

Except the batch size was way too big! I am telling myself (but will I remember it?) to never do that again. For these figures, I first had to glue the weapons and shields to the riders. I had decided to paint the horses without the riders on them first, so it would be easier to get to all of the spots. So, when I brushed primed the horses, I left the saddle blanket area bare. I painted the horses first, using a variety of colors and styles that I admit have become somewhat routine for me. After painting my 28mm Mongol Saga army, I definitely experimented a lot with horse colors, so kind of innately know which ones should look nice. I try to make the overall effect brown, as that seems to be the most common horse color. I want some variety, too, so thus you see blacks and duns and such.

    The horse with the rider with the cross on his shield is probably my favorite of the batch

Once the horses were done and the weapons and shields glued on, it was time to epoxy the riders to the saddle blankets. Now that I have found another decent source for two part, 5-minute hobby epoxy, I have gone back to using that in preference over super glue. The hardware store epoxy I had bought, back when all the hobby and craft stores seemed to be out of stock, stinks to high heaven! It will literally smell up the house for the entire day, which doesn't make me the most popular person around here...ha, ha! I took to going out in the garage to epoxy things, using our giant green trash can as my "desk." As you can imagine, that wasn't the best solution. So, I was happy when I saw some 5-minute epoxy in Hobby Lobby a month or so ago and snatched up a package (I would have bought two if they had another in stock).

    I switched out the spears on four of the figs, giving them axes and swords instead

I did kind of make a mistake when putting the shields on the arms of the riders, though. The reinforcements box came with larger and smaller shields. I used the bigger ones because these are meant to be heavier cavalry -- not light skirmishers, necessarily. However, there was a problem. The shield sometimes got in the way of the rider sitting flush on the saddle blanket. Oops! There are four poses of horses, so I played around some mixing and matching the riders to the horse poses for the best fit. It really came down to only two riders who sit somewhat awkwardly on their mount. See if you can pick them out in the pictures! I think it is fairly obvious, but it may not be.

    A look at the cloak border patterns that I did for the 5 figures that had cloaks over their tunics

For the colors of tunics and cloaks, I went with paler and duller hues. I always assume Dark Age dyes aren't exactly colorfast, and that many items of clothing fade in color over time. So, faded yellows, blues, greens, and reds. I probably need to make a trip to the craft store and pick out more variety in my faded colors, one of these days. I am tending to use the same half dozen ones on lots of figures -- especially my Dark Ages ones. Of course, my paint rack is overflowing now, which means I will either need (there's that word again) another rack, or I need to purge colors I am not using. For example, I have WAY too many shades of blue and probably don't use 3-4 of them with any regularity. I probably have one or two more grays than I need, and I think almost never use the palest of my yellows. So, yeah, if I bring more colors online I will likely purge some I don't use.

    The one with the red cloak is the only one with chainmail and an almost Late Roman uniform

One thing that is different about painting 28mm miniatures over 15's, is pretty much every article of clothing gets a dry brush highlight in addition to its base coat. So, this means my day's painting typically begins with dry brushing yesterday's base coat and then adding a new base coat or two. So, if it is a big batch (like, say, EIGHT mounted), each step takes that much longer. These Gripping Beast riders were wearing a lot of steps, so to speak: tunic, cloak, trousers, shoes, and leather belts and sundry. I usually try to make the highlight a very light version of the base coat color. So, I have a very, very light blue, an almost straw color for yellow, and so on. I was recently reading a thread about how some painters struggle to highlight red. I typically use a salmon color. 

    Another look at the whole batch, slightly from above - I am 'so-so' about the shield patterns I did

For the inside of the shields, I use a dark brown with Camo Brown dry brush. Weapons are done in Iron Wind Metal Steel and a silver highlight (or Bronze, for metal parts that would be made of bronze). I gave them hair and mustaches in a variety of colors from black to brown to blond. Although I know it is not that common of a color, at least nowadays, I love how an auburn hair looks on a miniature -- particularly Celtic types, like the Welsh. I use a Red Brown base coat and Howard Hues Middle East Flesh for that. 

The last stages were to do the patterned trim on the cloaks and the shields. I Googled Dark Age Welsh shield patterns, but most were a little too Roman looking for me. So, I tried to go with a theme of crosses and variety. Remember -- these are not mean to strictly be Welsh, but any generic Dark Ages cavalry. I'm so-so on how the shield patterns came out. Some worked better than others. I probably should have dug out my painted up Dark Age mounted warriors and looked them over for ideas that worked first, then execute them in different colors. I was definitely suffering from "get these guys done!" fatigue, by that stage, though. 

    The trees in the background are the ones I just bought from 'A Critical Hit' at Cincycon 2025

Prior to flocking, the last thing I do is a dark brown wash on flesh tones and whites, yellows, and tans. I do a black wash on everything else. I am thinking I need to remix my black vehicle wash, though, and water it down even further. Right now, I believe it is about 50%, but I still think it makes certain colors too dark. There has been some discussion on Lead Adventure Forum (home of figures painters better than I...) about brightening miniatures back up. Too much realistic dust, dirt, and grime makes them look like dark blobs on the tabletop, and actually detracts from your painting. I don't want to go back to my 15mm days when I didn't do a wash at all, but perhaps my miniatures need some lightening up? I'd be curious to hear your opinions!

    The 3-D printed trees from above - I did end up repainting them with base coat, dry brush, & wash

So, what else is on my desktop? The next two things I paint will be terrain/scatter. I have my two buildings I converted from Reaper shipping containers. I also have three sets of clothes lines from Miniature Building Authority. They are clothes lines all primed up and ready, while the shipping container buildings have their base coat completed. Stay tuned to see how they turn out...!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 100
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 31 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 10
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 14

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 51
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 26