15mm Chinese - Penultimate Entry

15mm Chinese - Part 23 Mounted Infantry [III]

Todays offering is the penultimate entry for my Chinese Army project. Its the last of the Mounted Infantry from Outpost Wargames Services Sui & T'ang Chinese Range. They are Code STC8 Mounted Crossbowmen. I had already painted up two elements as Reg Cv [O] but these are the balance of ten bases to act as Mounted Infantry Crossbowmen. Mounted Infantry appear in a few lists and these are done generically enough to work in the armies I have built. I can use the two other bases to make up a total of twelve bases if needed.

Outpost STC8 Mounted Crossbowmen

Last up because I hate having left over wasted figures I have a few Legio Heroica Mongol cavalry. The figures were incomplete so I had to add shields and lances from my spares box but they will slot in nicely with the Mongol units I already have to use in the Yuan Chinese army. They were a pain to assemble despite being very nice castings.

Legio Heroica MON08 Cavalry

Legio Heroica MON09 Horse Archers

This means I have now virtually completed my Chinese armies. I just have to do four Black Powder Artillery bases for the very end of the Yuan Chinese army date range and base up some leftover but already painted infantry. There are still some Khitan Liao and Mongol Cavalry to be done for allied contingents but it will be good to finally come to the end of this huge project.

I already have a new army project in mind but I might take a break before starting this one to concentrate on completing some other outstanding tasks.

Painting update

This now brings the painting tally for 1st January to 15th May 2021 to:

185 infantry & 4 war drums [63 elements]

154 cavalry [49 elements]

12 Bamboo & Paper Lions [8 elements]

3 elephants [3 elements]

Plus I have rebased

32 elements of Pikes

4 elements of Psiloi

50 mounted elements

Anglo-Norman Generals 15 mm Commission

Final Part of a Recent Commission - Anglo-Norman Generals

Bob's commission finally ends with six Legio Heroica commander figures Code CRU03. These are for his Anglo-Norman army and although the range specifically states that they are designed for the 1150 AD to 1190 AD Crusader era there's nothing wrong with using these figures from 1085 AD onward as long as you do not paint them with heraldry and stick to the Zoomorphic style of shield decoration and the earlier pre-nation state style of flags and banners.

The figures come with separate horses and shields and the spears supplied with them were very thick so I exchanged them for some thinner ones from my conversion store supply.

There's two command groups and I matched then horse pose style and ensured there was a good mix of clothing colours. I started them four days ago and they are unbased as Bob will be basing them up to match his other figures. 

1st Group

2nd Group

Richard the Lionheart 15 mm Commission

Richard the Lionheart Commission

As part of Bob's commission he wanted painted up three figures from Legio Heroica Crusades Range CRU20 King Richard I plus escort. Link here http://www.legio-heroica.com/CRU20.JPG
These are how Legio Heroica decided to paint up their examples on their website.

Legio Heroica CRU20 King Richard I plus escort

This is based on the Osprey Elite 19 Plate E The Crusades. I found a copy of the plate online which was used as the cover of the Del Prado part work, I have reproduced it here as a reference under fair use conditions. Copyright Osprey & Del Prado

There is some doubt as to the arms Richard carried in this period.

The earlier arms could be Gules, Single Lion Rampant Or; Gules, two Lions Combatant Or as per the Osprey Illustration. It is definitely documented that Richard adopted what became known as the Arms of England Gules, three Lions Passant Guardant in Pale Or by 1198 AD. The use of the Flag of St George was also commonly used to represent England by this time period as the cross was widely adopted by knights who had been on the Crusades to show their devotion to God and piety as crusaders.

This is what I chose to use as my guide as it make the element stand out clearly as Bob didn't give me any painting references to follow. The figures are all unbased as Bob will be basing them himself.

Onto the completed figures. First up is King Richard, all the fine detail is hand painted.

Next the Royal Standard bearer. I created the standard myself.

Finally the Royal Herald with silver horn.

In all it took me three days to complete these figures bearing in mind that I only tend to paint for an hour at a time and work on multiple projects between coats drying.