Forged in Battle Byzantine Cavalry - Part 1

With my rather tired and aged Essex Byzantine cavalry having been succesfully eBay'ed in the middle of last year I had been in the market for some new spiffy Byzantine cavalry for some time, and so at the Warfare show in November I picked up a load of packs of Forged in Battle Byzantines of various types. 

My aim was to create a set of cavalry which would cover the "lance and bow" options for most of the huge span of Byzantine history, adding to the two dozen horsemen from the FiB ranges that I already had painted up some time before (Early Byantine lancers painted last year, and some even earlier Late Roman lancers painted in 2023), and the 18 refurbished/reshielded "kite shield" cavalry for the Middle and Late period which had survived my Essex cull as well.

This would mean taking a few liberties with shield sizes and the like, but my theory is always that the armour and equipment of these sorts of guys would not quite be as regimented or consistent as some of us may like to think, so using stuff slightly out of period is not really that bad as long as the vibe is correct.  

I also fired up this new 10" Puluz LED Light Box, which I ordered off of eBay after my old cheap one collapsed!

It seems really good so far, much more robust than my old one, and so if you fancy one yourself and order via this link eBay will even pay me a few pennies in commission - which I guess is better that all this nonsense going behind a paywall!

This combination of new figures and new photographic kit has delivered up a large number of sets of photos, which I'll endeavour to post up over the next couple of weeks when I get a chance.

To start with, here are some cavalry made up mostly from Forged in Battle's WE-BE02 Early Byzantine (Justinian) - Boukellarioi Heavy Cavalry set, with a few archer figures mixed in from WE-BE04 Early Byzantine (Justinian) - Kavallarioi Bow.

These have mostly been done in Contrast paints, with a mix of GW and Warlord Games flavours on display. 

From memory the paints are:

• The horses are Aggaros Dunes, Snakebite Leather, Black Templar,Skeleton Horde (all GW) plus some Holy White (Warlord). The straps are all Warlord Hardened Leather. 
• Blazes and socks were added to the horses using a "Flat White" AK paint pen, which was very good for these sorts of additions, whilst not being as good for really fine detail as I had originally hoped. 
• I also used the pen to touch up some of the white clothing on these guys, which otherwise was done with Warlord's new Fanatic range Matt White.
• Armour was an experiment using Warlord's Enchanted Steel contrast (Speedpaint) on a white undercoat. It did come out a bit inconsistent in hue over the various painting sessions for these, which suggests it needs to be really well shaken before use.
• I then did some post-varnish drybrushing with Warlord Fanatic Gunmetal to give them a bit of shine on the chainmail and spear points, as the Enchanted Steel is quite grey on its own. 
• Spears and bows are my go-to colour of Vallejo 70.856 Ochre Brown
• The red clothing is Warlord Speedpaint Blood Red, or GW Blood Angels Red - they are essentially the same I think, especially at 15mm scale. 
• The blue on the serpent banner will be Frostheart, a GW contrast paint that is really striking. 
• The green shields are Mantis Warrior Green (GW). The contrasts generate a lot of depth and interest on these small flat surfaces I find.
• The more boring green quivers are Militarum Green (GW), with some in Frostheart with bits picked out in Vallejo Violet 70.960. 
• It's a bit OTT for quivers and bowcases, but going big on these bits it makes an otherwise dull view of the model a bit more interesting - and as I hope to mostly see them from the back as they advance and crush my opponents I feel justified in going a bit off-piste on the rear view of the figures from time to time!

More cavalry to come soon..