Dan Becker's Byzantine Horse Archer 28mm Figures

This article describes Byzantine Horse Archer figures from FireForge Games historical line for their Deus Vult miniauture game rules. The 28mm figures are for use as displays, and table top wargaming.

Scroll to read the story and see smaller photos. Click on the photos for a gallery of all the larger images.

Each box of Byzantine Horse Archers come with 12 horses and 12 riders. Six of the horses horses are completely unarmored, and six have armored heads. You can apply optional mail or scale barding on the horses.

Sorry about the simple background and bases. I painted photographed these while away on vacation and did not have access to my usual modeling materials.

The torsos of the riders are separate from the legs. This is quite useful with showing archers in "false retreat", "evade", or "Parthian shot" mode.

These figures were sprayed with black acrylic primer and then white primer from above. The high spots were drybrushed with white. The base coat of the figures was done with Armypainter Speedpaint This was my first time using metallic Speedpaints, and they worked well for armor base coating. However most of the Speedpaint metallics were highlighted with Armypaint Warpaint acrylic afterward.

Byzantine Horse Archers reveresed angled — Byzantine Horse Archers reversed angled

The bases are capsule (rounded rectangle) thin plywood from Litko. Most miniture gamers like 28mm cavalry on 50x100mm bases. I like bases a little smaller, figure size permitting, so these capsules are 40x80mm. Since these are uncommon, I had to request a custom batch. The Litko team are really great at doing custom orders, and they arrived in the same amount of time.

The bases have some lightweight spackle to hide the plastic horse bases. Then I sprinkle some scenic talus or pebbles and finally put on some Woodland Scenics or Armypainter static grass. Some local lychen made the scrawny branches on the bases.

Here are the first 3 light horses with chain mail riders. You can really see the twist in the torso that can be made with two piece bodies.

These Deus Vult miniatures are very good minis. They look a slight bit larger than Gripping Beast and about the same size as Victrix cavalry. From an arm's length, it is nearly impossible to see. All these manufacturers have their plastics produced by Renedra.

Here are the first 3 light horses with chain mail riders from the back side.

Here are the second 3 light horses with chain mail riders.

I love painting horses. The three shown here are a chestnut, a bay, and a dun. In other photos are a reddish roan and a light gray.

Here are the second 3 light horses with chain mail riders from the back.

Byzantine Armored Archers — Byzantine Armored Horse Archers

Here are the first 3 armored horses with chain mail riders. These horses have molded armored heads. The bodies have optional mail barding glues to the harness and bodies.

Byzantine Armored Archers from the back — Byzantine Armored Horse Archers from the back

Here are the first 3 armored horses with chain mail riders from the back.

Second Byzantine Armored Archers — Second Byzantine Armored Horse Archers

Here are the second 3 armored horses with chain mail riders. Here the scale armor was used instead of the mail armor.

Second Byzantine Armored Archers from the back — Second Byzantine Armored Horse Archers from the back

Here are the second 3 armored horses with chain mail riders from the back.

I hope you enjoyed seeing the details of these figures and the photographs. This was my first boxed set from Fireforge and Deus Vult, and I am impressed. Thanks for reading about my latest miniature figures.