Byzantine Officers

   A small batch of Byzantine leaders with a mix of Aventine and Gripping beast miniatures painted on behalf of another of individual. I settled for an  uniform appearance for these figures with a lighter red tunic and brownish ochre cloak. 

Varangian Guard (Medbury Miniatures)

    These figures are done by Medbury Miniatures and very nice they are! The owner of these asked me to paint them up as Varangians hence the scarlet colored cloaks and red shields. I chose to vary the tunics and leggings in limited colors as mauve and purple would apply to known Varangian colors with paler cream or white trousers. Medbury Miniatures is worthy to investigate for those who enjoy the dark ages and I plan to add some Carolingian Franks to my hordes from this manufacture as I was really impressed. On a side note the cloaks were painted solely by TT combat paints as I have found both their range of reds (and blues) to be very nice paints that thin down very nicely to layer colors very effectively. They are a brand of paints worth trying that I do recommend.

Byzantine light Infantry

    These have been painted for someone else and I'm not certain who the manufacturers are. The figure themselves comprise archers, slingers and infantry armed with Greek fire throwing devices. Colors were over a wide spectrum per the individual request.

 

Byzantine command

   Here just a few pics of some Gripping Beast Byzantines. I painted the command figures based off my personal taste but the two archers was off the owners specification for colors for reddish armor and shield appearance. Naturally, the owner will provide the basing. The shields are not attached to the figures as they will be sent back unattached...why they are missing

Varangian Guard

    These pics nothing special.....I have a unit of crusader Varangians that I am painting up for myself and I also painted up a few Gripping Beast Varangians for another person. I thought I would post some comparison pics of the two lines for any one who might be interested. The Crusader figures are the static at attention pose while the Gripping Beast are the more active ones. I did choose to go with an uniform purple coat for all the miniatures while the unit I am painting up for myself will have a variety of tunic colors while  the Gripping Beast figures I went with a scarlet tunic for all of them. Whether the Varangian Guard had an uniform appearance or not is debatable....no doubt protecting the Emperor would of granted them first choice from the Byzantine armories it is no surprise they would of been well equipped with plenty of armor protection. Would this include uniforms? I personally have opted for a semi uniform look....the historical sources do record Varangians wearing scarlet tunics....why the Gripping Beast have been painted as such. I will include more thoughts when I finally finish my own unit of Varangians and have them based. 

Byzantine Skutatoi Infantry

     

   I have been wanting to get to some of the Byzantines posted for quite a long time. The center piece of my dark age collection will always be around them....as the Bulgars/Avars, Russ, Franks, Arabs, Sassanian Persians etc...all make for terrific opponents. And needless to say they are always a popular choice for wargamers. Couple notes: I have went with Crusader Miniatures for these with one substitution and that is with the shields. My aim is to represent a later time frame circa 800-1000AD a period in which some uniforms would not be out of place and for the heavy infantry the shields would be largely circular not the kite/teardrop that became more common after 1000AD. For this purpose I simply substituted Gripping Beast oval shields in place of the crusader ones. I also went with 32 figure infantry units mostly for authentic appearances. Byzantine heavier infantry (Skutatoi) would often deploy in ranks of 16 and by using 32 figure unit 8 wide and 4 deep would look appropriate. Also, roughly 25 percent would be armed with bows....so a 32 figure unit with 8 bow figures comes out to 25 percent. Lastly, I went for an uniform color for these with a common shield design....later Byzantine would have the capacity for this and it simply looks nice. For this unit I chose a scarlet red (red was a common color for the bzyantines to use) and the shield design is hypothetical. I often do not use shield transfers and for ease of painting I prefer not an intricate design that consumes too much time (after all 24 of them require to be painted) but must have enough color to cause some pop for visual attractiveness. 

Crusader Byzantine Cavalry (for sale)

   I have a bunch of Byzantine Miniatures that I intend to paint through and post for sale.
If any one like this period....and is need of painted miniatures please let me know I
would to have someone to pass some of these on to. For starter I'm posting 12
of these I would unbase before shipping. 4 of the 12 figures are bow armed which is  roughly how the Byzantine mounted arm was deployed in lance to bow armed proportion.
145 dollars includes shipping to the lower 48.

28mm Byzantine Cavalry (new range of miniatures)

     The following are some miniatures that were kindly sent to me by Perris Cooley.
A quick back ground he was the individual who sculpted Old Glory's 15mm Franco
Prussian range of miniatures. Like myself he has a deep interest in the Byzantine
period and has begun sculpting some 28mm Byzantines. He sent me his first 12
mounted figures he had done. They included 4 Kataphraktoi on fully armored horse,
4 thematic/tagmatic front rank lance figures & 4 rear rank bow armed figures. I know he has
plans to add command figures and infantry as well. His plan is to sell them publicly
at some point and I imagine when that happens there be some type of announcement
probably on TMP when that takes place. As a side note his brother is sculpting a line
of 28mm Franco-Prussian figures which will be marketed as well. The miniatures are
quite nice, take paint easily and the Kataphraktoi horse armor is very well done. They
have closed hands which require to be drilled out which I prefer providing a solid
hold of the weapon. The casting themselves included plenty of variety. I have included
plenty of side and rear angle pics and did a couple comparison pics with both Gripping
Beast and Crusader miniatures for a size comparison. 

                    Gripping Beast on the left, Crusader on the right

                   Gripping Beast on the left, Crusader on the right.