Faithful readers, I continue my saga of batch-painting 60 models for my Late Roman Vandal army. That is 40 infantry, and 10 Cavalry models being painted all.....at....once......! The progress has been steady as I crank along on this project. Of course, over summer painting time diminished, but it is time to get back on that horse!
We left off with all the Vandal having pants! Therefore, today we would mostly be focused on armoring up! However, before we got that far I needed to get the Cavalry caught up! I could not paint their pants until their horses armored up first! Therefore, they were a bit behind everyone else!
 |
| Honey, have you seen my pants? |
I started by painting up the barding on the horses. I used Hoplite Gold, Horde Bronze, Polished Silver, Broadsword Silver, and Enchanted Steel. Pretty much each color was used on two horses. I kind of wanted to see what the difference was in these colors for later usage too. I also used alternating colors on their head gear versus their main bodies to give them some variety. I left off the straps, bridle and other parts for now. I would paint those when I did belts and such for everyone else.
Once the barding was done, the riders needed their pants! They were the only guys without any! I used the same basic approach of Cruasder Skin, Pallid Bone, and Holy White for leggings. Then, the basic colors of Absolution Green, Orc Skin, Fire Giant Orange, Slaughter Red, and Highland Blue for the pants. Then I alternated the colors up and painted their tunics too.
The cavalry had now caught up to the infantry! Therefore, it was time to armor up! I looked at the horses and decided to drop Enchanted Steel and Horde Bronze from my list of armor colors for the troopers. I stuck with Polished Silver, Broadsword Silver, Hoplite Gold. I also added in some Runic Grey and Graveyard Grey elements as well.
The bulk of the cavalry and heavy infantry used chain mail and helmet so these were the focus of this session. I had used extra Gothic Elite rider heads on one of the units to represent the Elites. These guys and the cavalry had somewhat more detailed helmets with plumes, so I gave them some extra work too. This included using some different colors for the plumes on their helmets.
At this point, it took some discipline to keep batch painting. I was tempted to just split off and finish the archers and militia types. However, I pressed onward in the batch! I went on and painted up the weapons next. It is always amazing how finishing the weapons can really make models look much more finished! The bows were painted in Sand Golem, the hafts of weapons are Harden Leather or Sand Golem. Blades were Broadsword Silver, Runic Grey, Polished Silver, with the occasional bit of Graveyard Grey.
Hilts and Guards for the Elites were in Hoplite Bronze while the Regulars were in Polished Silver. The keen eyed will also not that the Elite Foot also was only equipped with swords, while the regulars had some axes mixed in. The Elites also had a standard, cloaked champion, and musician while the Regulars had a spear man for standard and a commander model. Combined with the Goth heads, this was intended to make the Elites visually distinct on the battlefield especially from the Regulars.
For the last step today, I went and painted all the hair for the models. I made at least three guys in each unit have Blonde hair and one with Fire Giant Orange hair. These are Vandal Barbarians after all! Then I used Graveyard Grey, Dark Wood, and Sand Golem for the rest. A few I left as simply base coated and trusted the wash would make it look like an older man's beard and hair.
 |
| Cavalry |
The last thing I had to do was paint the reins and some armor detail on the Cavalry red. With that, the base coats for all the Vandals were done! I split them up into groups and took pictures of each unit with their basecoats on.
 |
| Archers |
 |
| Militia Unit |
 |
| Regulars |
 |
| Elites |
With that, I called it a day. All that is left now if finishing steps. That includes a wash, basing, and shields. Finishing may have some issues as I maybe out of Light Tone wash, almost out of moss for bases, and I did not bring enough shields for the whole army. The rest are still at my home base! Woops! That will make it hard to finish these guys off!
Until next time!
