A Carolingian Army, step by step

[Lluis of Minairons]

As already explained here a few weeks ago, I've been commissioned to paint a Carolingian Army. Ever before I had painted a Dark Ages army, but I eagerly took the challenge out of genuine curiosity.

Unfamiliar with the period, after some reading I decided to give a first try to the lightest troops in that army; with the aim to get familiarized with the figures' style as well as to extract some lessons and a suitable colour palette.



So I started painting a unit of 16 archers in open order, placed in 8 regular stands. As the army of my commissioner did include a dozen or so different spare figures (not forming part of any unit, but with a defined purpose nonetheless) and there were a few stadard bearers in that lot, I replaced one of the archers by one such standard bearer. In my humble opinion, even a humble archer unit deserves a standard to be proud of - and it adds a lot of colour to the ensemble!



As for clothing, I tried to simulate as much variegation as possible with a limited set of paints; no more than six, all of them in mild shades: 70.904 Bluegrey pale, 70.967 Olive green, 70.879 Green brown, 70.983 Flat earth, 70.873 US Field drab and 70.976 Buff (Vallejo range) . For accessories, on the other hand, I've used a single majority color, tringy to reflect a homogenous equipment source: this way, quivers, belts, sandals and weapon holsters are essentially 70.816 Red leather. And with regard to hair shades, there are four or five variants ranging from black to blonde.



Some last words abut the standard itself, which has been designed by myself on my home computer; using tools as simple as MS Paint or XnView, on the basis of drawings and patterns found at Internet.



Cheers,
Lluís

[Colonel Kilgore]

Very nice, Lluis.

And I'm glad to hear of your colour palette approach - I always find this the toughest thing when starting on a new force. I agree that pale but varied colours, and a good degree of uniformity in equipment colours, is the way to go!

Simon

[Stewart 46A]

Thanks Lluis
They look absolutely fantastic,  really excellent work.

Stewart

[martin goddard]

Well, turned out well.


martin

[Sean Clark]

Lovely stuff.

May I ask, are they for a forum member?

[martin goddard]

If they were, surely a man of outstanding taste and quality. So that is me out for one.


martin

[mellis1644]

They look great... The standard is cool nice as well. I would have 'borrowed'. a image from the net as making it from scratch needs a real artist.

[Leman (Andy)]

That's a great looking start to that army, and I agree about the standard. Good standards, flags, shield designs and basing can really set off an ancient or medieval army.

[Lluis of Minairons]

Right after the archers, I plunged into building a unit of Carolingian foot levies; which, according to the instructions received, was to be mounted on six 30mm square bases, at a rate of 5 figures per base. The result is a dense and tight unit, quite photogenic in my opinion.



I've kept the color schema first applied to the archers above, albeit with a limited number of variations - essentially, trying to replace some color that wasn't quite weighing on me. So tunics and breeches have been painted using 70.903 Intermediate blue, 70.967 Olive green, 70.921 English uniform, 70.983 Flat earth, 70.880 Khaki grey, 70.837 Pale sand and a mixture of red and neutral grey, that gives a sort of dull purple or "musk".



This time I've changed the color applied to leather accessories. Since the one previously used (70.816 Red leather) had too much of a raw leather effect to my taste, I've replaced it with 70.940 Saddle brown, more reminiscent to me of treated leather colour. As for hair, there are again four or five variants.



By the way, while watching the pictures just taken, I've noticed some odd glowing dots on black hairs that shouldn't be there, because of having matt varnished the whole. I've realised this odd effect is due to having touched up these hairs afterwards. Later I shall fix the mistake, matt varnishing again these heads by brush.



Shields are following a predefined palette of their own too, consisting of always alternating a pale background color (70.918 Ivory , 70.912 Tan yellow or 70.906 Pale blue) with another more intense one (70.967 Olive green , 70.964 Field blue , 70.995 German grey , 70.908 Carmine red or 70.810 Royal purple). In a couple of cases I've applied three colors there, instead of just two.



Just some last words about the unit's standard, drawn up on my PC from illustrations found on the Internet referring to common Carolingian iconography.

Cheers,
Lluís

[martin goddard]

Very lovely.
They might not stand up to my Viking warriors though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDs7t26nnd8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gays7kImkT4




martin

[Lluis of Minairons]

Don't get overconfident face to these poor levies, while the Carolingian Horse quietly flanks you

[Stewart 46A]

They look fantastic Lluis,

Stewart

[Colonel Kilgore]

Very nice, Lluis. I think your approach to painting these is spot-on.

Simon

[Leman (Andy)]

I see that the levies do have an experienced looking commander to boost their confidence. They do indeed look very good as an advancing crowd.

[Sean Clark]

Splendid and a useful resource for those of us planning on painting some Carolingians in the future!