Avars by Gripping Beast

 

          These figures all by Gripping Beast. Earlier in a previous post I showed some comparison pics of these figures and wondered if I would retain them due to the largeness of their size? Well I have decided I would keep them and their lighter arm cousins would be posted soon. The figures are nice being represented  with various types of armor capturing an accurate rendering of how much of the heavier equipped Avars would appear. The Avars fielded semi large armies for their time with their subjugated allies [the Hunnic confederation of forces that preceded them would still have been even larger in numbers] and combined the formidable combination of both using bows as a range weapon and yet armed adequately for combat in closed quarters. I suppose the appeal of all these factors and having historical opponents like the Byzantines and Carolingian Franks is what draws me too them.

comparison G.P. byzantines of the left

comparison G.P. byzantines on the left

Byzantine thematic cavalry

     These figures all by Gripping Beast and are meant to comprise a thematic unit. I used a simple hand painted shied design to unify it as an unit and kept a non uniform mix of colors. I prefer [for no specific reason] to have them in units of 12 figures with 4 of them represented by being bow armed capturing the historical approach of byzantine cavalry of utilizing both bows and lances in combat. 

Russ

     Hand full of Russ recently painted for someone and an army I will some day add to my dark age collection of figures. I have been asked many times to paint both Vikings and Russ figures and they seem to almost rival each other in popularity.