15 mm Byzantine Infantry Archers (Donnington & Museum Minatures)

Introduction

This is the third in a series of "cheap" purchases, or should I say bargain buys? Last year, at 2025's "The Other Partizan", I bought three second hand bags of Museum Miniatures' Byzantine light infantry bow (BZ10), from those nice people at Instant Armies.

The bags contained twenty five figures, which is a lot for me, but later on I realised that if I bought three command figures I could make two light infantry units for ADLG (4 figures), two medium bow units (12) and four bases of three archers (12).

I'm glad to say all 28 figures have been painted and based. Not just those shown above.

I plan to use the four bases of three archers in two ways. Option one is to combine them to form further medium bow units. Option two is to use them as the rear ranks of mixed bow & spear units (once I've painted the spear that is).

Ideally, the archers should be armoured for the mixed units, but I'm treating this as a "fantasy" project so historical accuracy is very much a secondary concern.

Figure review

The archers were great figures with characterful faces and the hands are easy to paint too. They required little cleaning and preparation prior to painting.

The command figures are from the Donnington Originals range (RBF01 & 02). I've used these before and, as usual, they require a little work with scalpel and file, but nothing excessive. The Draco standard fits in perfectly with the fantasy nature of the army as it's almost certainly anachronistic for the early medieval Byzantine period.

The two ranges mix well with one another. They are both nearer to 18 mm than 15 mm in "scale". The Donnington figures have slightly more "heft" but, being cloaked, it's not really noticeable.

Painting notes

I enjoyed painting these figures. They suit my cartoonish style which compliments the sculpting styles. The detail was easy to pick out and highlighting the tunics, cloaks & armour was a pleasure. I dry brushed the Draco standard and didn't have to do much more to bring out the detail.

The only issues I had was how to vary the tunic colours and what shield patterns to use. For the former I did batches of four or five in earth tones. For the latter I vacillated.

I started with plain shields in a mixture of muted browns, then switched to a simple pattern also in browns, then switched again to a pattern of buff and either blue or green. The latter was a late decision made when I realised I wanted a more uniform look for the mixed bow & spear units.

In all instances I deliberately chose a desaturated palette and decided therefore decided not to paint metallic shield rims. I also chose the latter because, no matter how well I paint the rims, I find it can detract from the shield pattern on certain figures; especially these figures.

Closing remarks.

Overall I'm glad to have finished these. Painting twenty five single pose figures was a bit tedious. I'm just glad they were so well sculpted and cast.

You will be seeing more of these when I finish the spear for the mixed bow & spear units I have in the painting queue.

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