The second army to be on the receiving end of my paint brush in the Caucasus project was the Ilkhanids. As any fule kno these are one of the post Mongol invasion successor armies. This one is in the project as they mainly hailed from the area which is now Azerbaijan.
I hadn't been sure at the start of the holiday in the Caucasus that I would do this project, so I wasn't as scrupulous in photographing things in museums and looking out for little buildings for a camp. Of course, if I'd seen a little resin model of this beauty I'd have bought it anyway, project or not.
So the Ilkhanids have a bit of a Mongol/Persian fusion vibe going on. Or should do. The list doesn't have a whole lot of options. Your compulsories are nine Mongol Light Horse, a Cavalry general and some Cavalry guards and then you have an option of some more light horse, a stone thrower, some auxilia and some Frankish Knights. Reckoning I had enough LH and regarding the on-table stone thrower as a bit of a gimmick (and possibly not best suited to a really mobile army) and also not seeing the point of one infantry base, I took the nights. All the figures are Essex 15mm
I have a full on Mongol army in the pipeline which I expect will look a bit dowdy with lots of khaki/yellow/buff colours in the palette. As these are coming out of Persia where they really like their colours I went for something brighter where I could.
Here's the Mongol light horse
en masse. There are a couple of poses in there for a bit of variety:
This is a one piece casting, which I often prefer for cavalry, because you know the rider is going to fit. I think the pony size is quite good. On reflection I think I could have made the kaftans a bit more varied, with some decoration.
These are separate horse and rider. The figures are a bit skinnier, and in a way it is hard to believe they're from the same company. Luckily I had some spares, as a few of the bows lost the lower half in transit. In the OPC above the bow is cast linking to the pony, which makes them stronger.
Here are the heavy mob. General in the middle, flanked by Franks and Guards. I used the shields that came with the armoured bowmen for the General's unit as they looked like they needed them.
I had two or three goes at the shields, as I couldn't hold the brush steady for the geometric designs I wanted. I like the heavy lancer figure. Looks like he means business.
The armoured Guard archers painted up nicely, but I started to have issues with the horses when I came to base them. The cast on bases with a lot of the cavalry horses weren't good, and several of them were completely inadequate. If you have followed me from the beginning you'll know I hot melt glue my figures onto sticks to paint them. The bases were so flimsy I had issues keeping them in shape when I took them off. Not really happy with that.
I wasn't really sure on the heraldry for these, as they aren't listed as "Crusaders", so I veered away from crosses and went for generic blobs. The lances are different lengths, which is irritating, and I should have checked them anyway, as they're too tall for the box standing up. By the time I discovered that I'd already stuck the lance pennons on, otherwise I'd have trimmed them down a bit. The guy on the right is the best pose to work with, and I'd have preferred three of those rather than a mix. I also wonder if they should have more kite shaped shields.
However, they're done now, and they look pretty good when all lined up. For those of you wondering why their bases are green when they come from a sandy, hot area of the world, it's because a lot of the area is actually quite green.
Here's a box update. Still three spaces to fill, but good progress. The Georgians are currently on the desk and all undercoated and I expect I'll get some work done of them over the next fortnight.
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