15 mm Medieval Cavalry (Essex)

Towards the end of November I began a period of "finishing things".  I realised I had a lot of small projects that were well over 80% complete and that needed finishing.  I kidded myself that if I painted just a few more figures I could really clear the decks ready for 2021.

The first to benefit were my ACW command and then some more retinue men-at-arms for my War of the Roses army.  The latter haven't been photographed yet but I now have twelve bases: more than enough for ADLG, FOG etc.

Next to benefit from this approach were some "hostage and prisoners or war" to be driven ahead of my Timurid army but they are still in the process of being based and will be posted next year.  In the meantime I found, and painted, a couple of medieval medium cavalry figures to complete this base:

Although only one base it means I now have six bases of these and they are suitable for most of the 14th & 15th century.  Plus, when combined with six bases of light horse (using the same figures) and four bases of late mounted longbow, they provide most options when I require medieval medium cavalry.

Of course the most recent figures differ slightly from the others because my painting style and technique has evolved.  One of the perils of being a slow painter I suppose.  In an attempt to show this the following has the newest base flanked by two older bases:

I'm not sure the picture achieves what I wanted it to.  There are differences they just don't really jump out at you.

The older figures have a black base coat for the flesh where as I now use Plaka Red Brown and the newer figures use a coloured base coat for each colour whereas the older ones tended to use black and so the fine details are much more prominent. This may better illustrate the differences:

One thing the picture does show is how my basing has changed.  The older bases use static grass whilst the newer one uses tufts and fine foam scatter.  The top left base has a strong coloured base highlight too; from what I suppose I should call it my "High Contrast" period.  The light horse and centre base highlights are much closer.