On The Painting Desk: Battle of Kadesh - Hittites Muster for Battle

 

The Egyptian army for Kadesh is done.  Now It is time to get working on their adversaries if I want to get this game on the table in 2024.  Since I do want to get it on the table it was a no-brainer to prioritize  painting this force up over my Heroquest project.  

The first step was to sort and organize the force.  One thing I noticed right away was that there was a larger range of poses in these minis than my Egyptian force.  Each strip of 4 and 2 to 4 different poses.  The infantry in particular had a lot of variety and dynamism in the posing.  

Overall, this army looks like it will be similar in base count to my full Egyptian force.  That means 19 bases in this army.  It also has a much larger chariot contingent with 3 units of light chariots and 3 units of the larger chariots as well.  This army also had fewer archers than the Egyptian one I just finished.  

• 3 units of light chariots
• 3 units of heavy chariots
• 1 unit of Auxiliary infantry with bows
• 1 unit of Auxiliary infantry
• 2 units of Levy with Bows
• 3 units of Levy infantry
• 2 units of archers
• 2 units of Irregular infantry
• 2 units of skirmishers with bows

I sorted them out into their respective units and bagged them up for easy organization. I decided what I was going to start with:

• 2 units of Infantry with Bow support
• 2 units of skirmishers
• 2 units of bow armed skirmishers

I glued the strips down on some tongue depressors with white glue and got started.  I undercoated them all with watered down big box acrylic Pavement as an undercoat.  I have found this sets up some great contrasts for 6m miniatures as I paint them.  Then, I started on base coating with basic colors using Armypainter paints.  

I got them all painted up and painted their base strips with Territorial Brown.  This is another cheap acrylic from a big box retailer.  I then prepped my bases the usual way with color-changing drying spackle.  I am using the same 60mm by 60mm bases for this project as my Successors and Egyptians. 

Naturally, once painted up, I based them using the color-change spackle that has served me well for so many bases for the Egyptians and others.  

Then, the last step was to paint up the bases.  Honestly, it is one of my least favorite parts.  Again, a base coat of Territorial Brown with a drybrush of Khaki and the spot application of Green Tone ink.  The colors are from a Big Box retailer and the ink is from Armypainter.  Then, I finished it all off with a GW black around the base edges.  With that, my first models for 2024 and the Hittite army were painted! 

With these 6 bases done, that is about a third of the army.  Off to a good start for 2024.  At this rate, I can hopefully have these done and ready for a summer demo game at the local.  

Until next time!  

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