This army dogged my steps since I did my 15mm Early Russian DBA army back in 2008. I had actually bought the Russians for a Mongol conquest based campaign theme deal... The Project never got off the ground though. Still, I enjoyed the Russians, and planned to face them off against the Vikings mostly. Then it turned out that my buddy Sean was planning to run another Samurai-themed tournament at a local convention and I needed a project... I had done Samurai and was never satisfied with them. Then the very same buddy posted a blog about a Mongolian music group that got me hooked... Ultan Ureg. Great stuff.
It was a pleasure to paint, and the figures are very nice if lacking variation. This was the first army that I painted and also wrote a project article for: Mongol DBA Army Project. I enjoyed putting that together. Stay tuned for some battle reports with this army as well! In the mean time, check out the collected images of the army below.
15mm Mongol Conquest - Posted: August 30, 2010 - Manufacturer: Navwar Naismith Designs
The whole army assembled. There are a lot of riders in this army. It's pretty impressive, and will
be a very fast army to fight with. I'm looking forward to running circles around my enemies, even if that's
all I do until my horse are shot down in the rough going!
15mm Mongol Conquest - Posted: August 30, 2010 - Manufacturer: Navwar Naismith Designs
The general of the Mongol Conquest army. This is likely meant to be Temigun himself, the great Genghis Khan.
Apparently there was no 'G' or 'K' sound in Mongolian, so it would be Jengis Han. In any case, it's suitably
cool looking, since the figures are all distinct and quite snazzy. I went with the limits of colour on these figures
because they would be the wealthiest and also they need to stand out in a sea of mounted figures. I am pretty happy
with how they turned out as well.
15mm Mongol Conquest - Posted: August 30, 2010 - Manufacturer: Navwar Naismith Designs
The first element of heavy cavalry turned out well. I stuck with mostly black because I like the look
of the black painted armour. Well, it could be black paint or unpolished iron. Notice though that the figure
on the far left of the element is actually painted in metallics. It's hardly noticable, and I figured the
black looked better, so that's the only metallic armour I painted, besides the helmets. I went with mostly black
body armour, with yellow or red highights on the edges of the aventail (back of the head and neck armour). I like
the effect, and it definitely makes them less like other similarily armoured cultures during the period.
15mm Mongol Conquest - Posted: August 30, 2010 - Manufacturer: Navwar Naismith Designs
More of the same as the previous element... The one drawback to this line from Navwar is that they only have a single
heavy cavalry pose... I like the uniformity in this case though, so it's not terrible. However, even though having more of
these would make hte army more powerful, it would also make it less visually appealing! These horses are likely my
favourite pose and execution to date though... Too bad there's only a single pose... Despite that though, I mixed up the
facial hair to give them a litte more distinction from each other.
15mm Mongol Conquest - Posted: August 30, 2010 - Manufacturer: Navwar Naismith Designs
A picture of the heavy cavalry together, looking very nice and uniform, which is suiting since Genghis would
have kept them in solid, structured lines! It is a bit comical though that the cavalry elements are all looking
left, while the general's guard are looking right... Still, not too bad.
15mm Mongol Conquest - Posted: August 23, 2010 - Manufacturer: Navwar Naismith Designs
This is the forst of three elements making up the second batch of figs I did for this army.
At this point, the elements are going together very quickly since I have a good colour scheme for
the army and that the figure variation is minimal. The drawback is that there is a lot of repetition;
with only two figures, that means that with nine elements there are nine of the same figures! Still,
I had a little fun with the design on the quiver and the yellow horse hair helmet tassle on this element.
15mm Mongol Conquest - Posted: August 23, 2010 - Manufacturer: Navwar Naismith Designs
Some more light horse. Again with the blues amd yellows and reds.
15mm Mongol Conquest - Posted: August 23, 2010 - Manufacturer: Navwar Naismith Designs
More yellow tassled helmet flourish action! Fun to do, and I could likely paint up another 20 of
these figures without too much problem. They are fun to paint.
15mm Mongol Conquest - Posted: August 16, 2010 - Manufacturer: Navwar Naismith Designs
The first of the Mongols that I finished, this element is one of six that I did in a
single batch. It took me a bit more time than I had hoped, but overall it turned out very
well. I used the first six elements as a test batch, and so it took some time deciding on
colour schemes. The above element represents some of the wealthier non-leader types. It had been
a successful winter of raiding apparently... those poor Tatars...
15mm Mongol Conquest - Posted: August 16, 2010 - Manufacturer: Navwar Naismith Designs
The Navwar figures are old but very nice. Unfortunately they have only two light horsemen poses and
two different horse poses. Still, the poses are nice and historically accurate. The horses are actually
pretty small, but the riders are true 15mm and so even smaller, thus the large-horse appearance. Still,
I like the figures and am happy with the way they turned out.
15mm Mongol Conquest - Posted: August 16, 2010 - Manufacturer: Navwar Naismith Designs
Blue is commonly used in illustrations of Mongols, so I incorporated it in this as well as other elements.
I tried for a rich pale blue and I am happy with the way it turned out. Since there are a lot of earth
tones in this army, some colour certainly adds to the overall look.
15mm Mongol Conquest - Posted: August 16, 2010 - Manufacturer: Navwar Naismith Designs
Red was a common colour, and so I added that as well to the army. Again, with the undyed colours
the brighter ones add a lot of character to the army. Also with this army, I switched up my basing style.
It's been years since I used pretty much the same basing style (with different colours, etc) on all of
my projects. This time I attempted to actually copy the steppe, and the success was not too bad.
15mm Mongol Conquest - Posted: August 16, 2010 - Manufacturer: Navwar Naismith Designs
Another couple. The two poses are enough variation for a single element, but when you stack two
poses into six elements, there's a lot of repitition that painting can only do so much with. Still, I'm
happy with it :)
15mm Mongol Conquest - Posted: August 16, 2010 - Manufacturer: Navwar Naismith Designs
I have seen some examples of patterned dels (the tunic type thing they wear), and gave one a try.
Naturally only the wealthy would have them, so I only did one in the first six elements. Overall, it turned
out well, although I am not too happy with it; I think I might not attempt another one; it looks too
Middle-eastern to me. Of course, the Mongolians were all over the Middle-east, so it's not terribly innacurate.
15mm Mongol Conquest - Posted: August 16, 2010 - Manufacturer: Navwar Naismith Designs
The obligatory group shot here shows that even with only two poses, the army looks
pretty snazzy when assembled. With nine elements out of 12 being light horse, it will be a
fun, fast army to play, even if it is difficult to win with! I have the sky god on my side,
so it should be a breeze ;)
15mm DBA camp - Posted: August 23, 2010 - Manufacturer: Scratch Built 15mm Mongol ger - not a yurt - by Neldoreth
I came across an image of a Mongol ger (not a yurt, which is the Turkic name for the dwelling)
that was on a large wooden platform with huge wheels being pulled by droves of oxen. I dismissed it naturally.
Then later I saw a real reproduction of the structure. It was huge, but not quite as over the top as the
first illustration I saw. I still dismissed it... Then when I went to build a camp for my Mongols I
figured it might make an interesting project!
15mm DBA camp - Posted: August 23, 2010 - Manufacturer: Scratch Built 15mm Mongol ger - not a yurt - by Neldoreth
I consider this a mobile home in medieval times... I can't imagine the thought process that
lead to the construction of this thing... Perhaps Temugin wanted a permanent dwelling, but
still wanted to travel around with it? In any case, it was a blast to make.
15mm DBA camp - Posted: August 23, 2010 - Manufacturer: Scratch Built 15mm Mongol ger - not a yurt - by Neldoreth
The back of the mobile ger. The wheels on this beast are from irregular miniatures, although
I could have used card to make the bulky wheels.
15mm DBA camp - Posted: August 23, 2010 - Manufacturer: Scratch Built 15mm Mongol ger - not a yurt - by Neldoreth
This was the test ger that I did before I decided to leap in to the mobile ger project
in the previous images. I finished it so that it could actually be used. Overall I think it is
good, but there is a bit too much of a weave pattern in the fabric; it should be a felt with
no such weave.
15mm DBA camp - Posted: August 23, 2010 - Manufacturer: Scratch Built 15mm Mongol ger - not a yurt - by Neldoreth
Another image of the test ger. Overall I think it's as good as the other one easily.
15mm DBA camp - Posted: August 23, 2010 - Manufacturer: Scratch Built 15mm Mongol ger - not a yurt - by Neldoreth
The back of the ger for your reference!