Ottomania!

 Just before Christmas (and the "B" word..) I placed an order with Guiseppe of Legio Heroica in Italy for a number of different figures to round out several armies.

The biggest batch were Ottomans, allowing me to transform my existing 15mm "Generic Arabs" into a convincing-enough Ottoman force - and now a mere 5 months later I've managed to get them finished.

These are from the Siege of Vienna range, but other than a few easily-overlooked pistols in holsters on the commanders figures they look just fine to my untrained eye for the Elite Sipahi's of the Ottoman Medieval army

They will be the two units of Impact Bow Elite cavalry in the army list, whether they do technically have an embedded General or not.

As they were the Elites, I painted the lancer figures up in uniform red. 

These are regular Sipahi - these two units are almost totally unarmoured, so can play as Medium Cavalry if asked.  The main colours are done with GW contrast paints for extra depth and a silky-effect.

The spears on all of these are bristles from a brush-head I bought some months ago, having read about it on wargaming forums for decades but never quite believing it. Trust me, it works and is a lot cheaper than buying spears commercially! 

These are all wearing chainmail, so are Heavy Cavalry in ADLG world. 

From the back you can see the distinctive red and white headgear

There's also a base of LH - I really should have bought a couple more, but some Arab horsemen will just have to turn out for the LH troop I suspect. 

 

WiP stuff, and a podcast full of (cheap) Aztecs

 This week has been another eclectic one for painting - and podcasting. 

The only stuff to get finished has been this unit of Arab Clubmen ("Lutyat Macemen") from one of the Arab armies - I forget which one, sadly!

They are pretty niche, but are such nice figures from Legio Heroica I sort of had to add them to my last order!

The padded armour is Skeleton Horde Contrast paint on a white base coat 

The orange turbans and red and blue cloth bits are also contrast paints.

Contrasts also feature in this 10mm WiP of the infantry from the Apocalypse Minis kickstarter 

And more Skeleton Horde on these Mirliton and Essex Medievals - part of a whole army I dipped in Biostrip and am repainting, as the original paint job didn't really do these excellent figures due justice.

Another experimental paint job mixing contrasts and normal paints are these Museum Mini's Persian archers - I have done the linothorax armour in Skeleton Horde, then painted the "white" bits of it with Vallejo Ivory - a tip from Tamsin on the podcast to never paint anything in actual white!

Finally, another Fighting 15's tie-in on the List Building Podcast this week with a MesoAmerican Special in which some of the lists we discuss are not only available to view on the Madaxeman Wiki, they are also available to buy in the form of ready-made, discounted army packs from Fighting 15's!  

Yes, hear the discussion then - if you like what you hear - there's now a simple one-click way for you to pick up 4 of the lists we cover all for under £40 a pop for 128 figures (thats just 31p each for those of you who don't like taking off your socks this early in the year)

The list we cover are:  

• Aztec x2
• Texcallan x2
• Zapotec/Mixtec
• Chinantec
• Mayan x2

You can see the Fighting 15's ADLG Army Packs featuring lists from this Podcast right here on their website, or just browse Fighting 15's Aztecs & Enemies ranges 

Legio Heroica Javelinmen

Lockdown painting has been a bit all over the shop recently, with complete armies getting finished in all sorts of scales as well as some odds and sods being tidied up.

The focus has been 25mm and 10mm, with a bit of 6mm as well however I have still been sneaking in the odd pack of 15mm Ancients into the queue - including these Legio Heroica Arab Javelinmen (packs MUS19 and MUS37) that I picked up at the mini bring and buy at the Avignon ADLG event before Christmas.

They are lovely little figures, true 15mm like all of the Legio Heroica stuff and nicely animated as well.

I painted this lot with mostly Contrast paints and inks, to try and give them a slightly washed out look whilst keeping them colourful, as some of my Arabs are a bit, well, desert-ey in their colour schemes

They also came with separate shields and metal, pointed mini spears - unusual these days for 15mm. The shields are mostly flat-backed so I used a 2-part epoxy glue to stick them firmly on.

For the javelins I had a bit of a go at something I've seen online, giving them some texture by adding bands of brown, with a wider band of dark brown with a narrower band of lighter brown inside them - a bit "bamboo-ey" and slightly more interesting than just a plain brown spear. 

If you look closely you'll see some bubbling of the matt varnish that I brushed on - I was in too much of a hurry to get these finished to wait and spray them with the next large batch of figures and dissapointingly the varnish hasn't calmed down after I applied it.

At tabletop distances this is pretty much impossible to see, but I guess that's the beauty - and downside - of these sorts of extreme close-up macro photos!

The banded spears are more visible in this shot.

They'll be playing as Javelinmen (hence 5 to a base, which I use to differentiate them from Swordsmen and Spearmen) in ADLG once we are all allowed out to play again!

(As of the 22nd April it sounds like Legio Heroica will be on a bit of a hiatus, partly due to lockdown and partly due to a pre-scheduled medical procedure - he'll be back once lockdown ends.)