15 mm Khitan Generals and Attendants (Ten Kingdoms)

Here're my latest command bases for my Mongol ADLG armies. They are digital designs from Ten Kingdoms, printed for me by Mick Hood using the super tough TGM-7 resin.

These figures were well up to the standard set by the light infantry I painted recently.

Painting notes

The foot figures painted as easily as I expected, but the mounted figures were altogether different. Firstly, there's much more detail to paint. Secondly, the figure is astride a horse and accessing the detail is that much harder.

One thing of note, I found the fur detail on the general's hat and cloak a little tricky. The detail is small, shallow and rounded; very unlike a metal figure. Dry brushing didn't work. I ended up creating the impression of fur with paint rather than exactly following the details of the model. I suspect this will be fine in 28 mm, where using a wash (or contrast paint) would be ideal.

On the plus side the horse is well sculpted and very easy to paint; even if they are more stallions than steppe ponies. Both the details of the mane and tail are very prominent and I was able to paint them rather than dry brushing.

Finally, the eagle was a joy to paint. A little Internet research yielded a very useful colour guide for Asian Eagles:

Figure review

I liked these figures and enjoyed painting them.

The foot attendants had zero printing defects. I replaced the lance with one made of brass rod, because the printed spear wasn't straight from all angles. I suspect it could have been straightened with hot water but I didn't want to take the risk of it "re-warping" later.

Initially, I intended to have a command base of three attendants and two mounted figures, but there isn't enough room on a 40 mm round base. So, I ordered another general to make a second command base.

You may want to bear this in mind if you plan on placing an order, but don't worry you can easily get three mounted on a standard 40 by 30 mm base. Anyway, I ended up with two mounted generals and one mounted falconer.

Unlike the foot figures the mounted had a few minor issues:

• One general was perfect. The second was missing a small bauble on the chest harness of the horse.
• The falconer (squire) had three defects: the fletching on one arrow hadn't printed well; likewise with the sword hilt; and finally the eagle was missing a lower leg! Thanks to the delights of digital photography, the missing leg is clearly visible on the left in the image below.

I only noticed the lower leg defect during painting: my finest brush swept through the leg. It's not a problem: the bird is quite stable and no one (unless they have read this post) will ever notice it's missing. All the other defects were fixed with tiny amounts of greenstuff.