Carolingian Cavalry Artizan Design

        See previous post on the Carolingians for intent and information. All these miniatures are Artizan Design miniatures. 

Gripping Beast middle Artizan figures on the side

Carolingian Cavalry Gripping Beast

   The Carolingian period in my mind is a great one to represent. The enemies are varied that they fought including Vikings, Arabs, Avars, Middle Saxons and Lombards all being some examples. They have a nice look to them with scarlet leggings being popular as contrasted with blue, white and yellow (or ochre) shirts which were all popular clothing colors.  As with my Saxons it is a project that is a slow fuse one. The other challenge and also a positive of building a Carolingian force is the allied contingents that were utilized and I have yet to decide on all the components and size I plan on having. No doubt some Swabian foot infantry along with some Breton mounted will join in as some Saxons themselves(unless campaigning against them). My current aim is to have roughly 72 (or more) mounted Carolingians themselves of which I have 36 based with others currently painted but yet to be based. The two key manufacturers I have gone with are Gripping Beast and Artizan Design. Both ranges are very nice with my only complaint is the open hand figures of the Artizan figures as the javelins are less than ideally glued on. At any rate....I will in the future include some historical notes and campaigns with both the Carolingians and the Byzantine Empire as my personal collection comprises a large selection of this time frame....so historical campaigns and battles can be replicated. The following figures are Gripping Beast with a group shot of Artizan included and some size comparison pics.

Gripping Beast in the middle with Artizan on the wings

Gripping Beast in center Artizan front and back

Carolingian Cavalry Artizan Design

      I have slowly been collecting a large Carolingian army. Due to painting restraints progress has been slow going as commission work has been keeping me busy. I prefer largish type forces and I plan on having around 250 figure force with at least 80-100 of them mounted. For the mounted forces I will using both Artizan Design and gripping beast miniatures with Artizan Design being predominant. I will probably include some Footsore Breton cavalry in there for some of the allied mounted arm. The mounted arm my plan is to have a somewhat even balance (60 percent being armored vs 40 percent unarmored) mainly for visual purposes of variety. Colors choices will be a fair amount of blue, white, yellow/ochre for the tunics and scarlet for the leggings. Naturally, I will use other colors (mostly earth tones) to mix in for variety but my understanding is the colors above where some of the more widely favored choices for the Carolingians. Shields....at least for the Artizan figures keeping it simple with one color only...no fancy designs letting the rivets and spirals remain as a steel color as the only contrast. Even on the Gripping Beast shields which do not have rivets and spirals on them I will use the most basic designs...the few that are known that the Carolingians did use for their shield patterns. Basing going with 60mm wide by 50mm deep...it is a tight fit but when wanting a 100 mounted figures force....it does provide some ease with less bases to move the figures. At any rate.....here are some pics. Side note I seem to have finally found the lighting and colors to use for pics that I am happy with (after 3 years).....I do plan to re photo and post many of the dark age armies I have.