Kings of War: Kingdoms of Men - Speedpainting Oathmark Humans 3 - Mounted Scouts

With a regiment of Spear Phalanx done it's time to move on to something a little different. Bodvoc gave me a box of the Oathmark Human Cavalry for my birthday recently (we don't usually do this, but it was a landmark anniversary), so I decided to get the troop of Mounted Scouts done. 

I chose the least well armoured cavalry bodies since Mounted Scouts only have a Defence of 3+.  As with the infantry, the cavalry go together well, though I always seem to struggle a bit with minis that require both arms to be holding something, like the chap about to fire an arrow (Enforcers are a classic example, as are Space Marines).  One oddity that others have mentioned is the dynamic pose of the horses and the relatively static pose of the riders.  As the unit is just a scout unit I only used three models to a troop and I avoided any obvious command minis, though the middle archer has a sword raised, presumably issuing orders.

The minis were all given a zenithal prime, then the metals were painted using Vallejo Game Color Chainmail Silver.   

I knew I'd need a greater range of paints for this unit, mostly for the horses, so I ordered some extra colours now they are available in single bottles.

The bulk of the riders have the same paint scheme as the Spearmen.  Two of the heads have hoods, and I wanted these to look faded, so I mixed equal parts Army Painter Speedpaint Highlord Blue and Runic Grey.  I think I'll use this for all the hoods in future, there will be quite a few when I do the Bowmen regiment.

For the horses I first painted in socks and blazes in VGC Off White.  I didn't want any 'bleed' from Speedpaint reactivation when I painted the coats.  The leather straps were APS Hardened Leather and the saddles were APS Dark Wood.  This gave the metals a nice brass look.  The bay horse was equal parts APS Dark Wood and Grim Black with Grim Black mane and tail. The black horse was equal parts APS Gravelord Grey and Grim Black (it looks darker in real life), again with Grim Black mane and tail. The dun horse was APS Sand Golem with Pallid Bone mane and tail.

Bay, black and dun horses

Whilst I'm happy with the end results there are a few bits I'll change next time I do similar minis.  I'm not sure how effective my zenithal priming is.  I went for a darker shade than the Spear Phalanx, starting with Vallejo Surface Primer Black over everything, then VSP Gray from the side and finally white from above.  This gave much darker shadows, and there are places where this has affected the final colour considerably.  The yellow leggings of the minis are a good example of this, and the flesh tones are a bit dark, especially on the hooded heads.  Mind you, I do like the effect on the belly of the dun horse.  

I may try just white in future, which means only one coat, or go back to the grey rather than black as the first coat.  I was having issues with the white primer splattering as well.  Some spots of white can be seen, especially on the dun; it's actually a really interesting result and bears further investigation for some sort of piebald effect.  I wish I'd painted the quivers a pale linen colour rather than APS Gravelord Grey and they aren't positioned well; roughly horizontally across the lower back is, apparently, a more accurate way to carry arrows when mounted.

Interestingly, the APS Sand Golem on the dun horse is so close to the leather jerkin colour I mixed that I think I'll stick with it for future units.  I'll need to find something different for horses though, I don't like to have the horse skin colour the same as the armour (yuk).

So that's 220 points done, so in theory close to half way there.  All that remains is the regiment of Bowmen, a Hero and another Spear Phalanx.  In fact I've been painting the Hero while I painted these scouts and I'm already prepping the Bowmen.  I may well try just a white priming coat for the next regiment to see what difference it makes.