Categories
normans in the south

Norman Cavalry arrive

So after that quick intermission for some Saxons, more of them in another post, I am back on the horsemen of the dark ages (ok the back end) – the much vaunted Normans. Well you will not get too many couched lances here as strelets 1/72 norman cavalry are a mixed bag and actually lend themselves to Frankish armies generally.

Some were primed with pva which cracked so they like their comrades are in vallejo grey primer followed by blacking out the metallics and then some coat d’arms horse colours which having only recently been discovered have proven their value to me already.
I tend to have quite a few horses with black stockings – more coat d’arms horse colours on show
on the left some PVA cracking overpainted but even so you can see the strelets figures still have some reasonable detail
The horseman on the left corner shown in previous photos is now complete, varnished and based, justing waiting a final ground highlight plus some vegetation
Categories
Carolingians

Carolingian cavalry started

So next up on the painting table are some Carolingian cavalry. Plastic soldier review (http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com) slated the horses but beggars can’t be choosers as they say. Carolingian cavalry are less loved than the infantry and even those have to be nicked off your Saxons somehow.

Here are my primer choices again persisting with PVA versus VJ grey primer on soap washed and scrubbed 1/72 strelets medium plastic.

These Carolingians will double up as Franks as well. I also painted a few Normans (on the left above) into the bargain, again Strelets 1/72, being from some of their original sets.

As you can see the VJ primer shows up the detail straight away which I like.

So first I cleaned the flash – not too bad and then matched the figures as per the photo on the box art, pinning and gluing the horsemen to the horses. After priming and white undercoating, I painted the horses with coat d’arms horse colours – looking good already – followed by blacking out the metallics.