15 mm Khitan Light Infantry (Ten Kingdoms)

Introduction

I have a large Mongol army. I've had it so long I've replaced almost all of it at least once. Nonetheless, I occasionally buy more, but there's method in my madness.

If an army has the same type of troops in two or more commands, I like to differentiate between the commands by using figures from different manufacturers; especially when I can't use different coloured units. This makes a big difference in the latter stages of a game of Art de la Guerre (ADLG) when the commands are often fragmented and the boundaries between commands blur.

With Mongol armies this approach is particularly helpful for troops like light infantry and light horse. This is why I've recently finished a batch of the former. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Figure review

I bought these from Mick Hood in Rotherham. He runs a shop on eBay (Mick's Bits) and has licensed all the Ten Kingdoms ranges which are available in both 15 & 28 mm.

The figures are printed using TGM-7 resin which is designed to be durable and to withstand the rigours of tabletop warfare. I certainly had no problems with things snapping during painting. It's too early to say how long they last in use, but I'm optimistic.

My order was defect free and Mick had removed all of the printing supports; which is as it should be. Even so, I soon got into the habit of double checking the figures for tiny stubs of supports that would interfere with painting. The few I found were easily removed with a sharp blade.

In general, the detail on these figures is excellent and easy to paint. I've only painted a few printed resin figures so far, but I've learnt that the boundaries between elements of the figure (coat, bow case etc.) are usually clearly defined and it is this that makes painting them so much quicker.

As with any new range, I was concerned how they would match my existing units in both size and heft (bulk). Unpainted I felt they were a touch on the tall side; a view confirmed during painting. However, once finished they are in fact no more than 0.5 mm taller than my Donnington Mongol light infantry; hardly noticeable. I don't know why basing made such a difference. I suspect it's because they are much more realistically proportioned (tall & slim).

Overall I was impressed by both the figures and the service from Mick.

This way madness lies

This photo shows my first attempt at a variation on edge highlighting. The figure on the left has simple layered highlights: my standard method. The edge highlighted figure is on the right. The difference is quite striking. The photos don't really do it justice.

Anyway, I blame Sonic Sledgehammer for tempting me into this madness. As my wife says, I like to watch paint dry on the Sonic Sledgehammer Studios' YouTube channel. This is one of his simple, but effective, techniques. Although he mainly paints larger figures, I thought I'd try it at a smaller scale. How hard can it be?

At the moment I only seem to have worked out the mixes for blue highlights. My attempts with the other colours didn't turn out well at all. More practice required.

Closing remarks

It's been a nice break tackling these figures and trying a new technique.

I have some mounted Khitans in the painting queue and I'm half way through a couple of command stands using the same range.

I really enjoyed painting these. Shame I've got enough Mongols already: I've no excuse to buy any more.