Early Northern Song Army - Update on Figures

 

A few weeks ago I posted on Zhao Kuangyin and Peace Through War; an Early Northern Song army - a piece about doing an army that is often seen as a rather poor performer. I commented that I was using figures that were not quite right because "I am not sure anyone does a proper 5 Dynasties/Early Song range anyway.". Well, that prompted me to have a look around and things changed. Read on to find out what ...

So motivated by my own blog post I started looking around to see what I could find in terms of images of soldiers from the 5 Dynasties and early Northern Song period. As I feared the answer was pretty much nothing, however, the ever helpful Duncan Head over on the Society of Ancients forum did point out a few images to me that were probably from the 5 Dynasties period or based on that.

These did rather suggest that whilst there were differences, there was a great deal of continuity from the Tang period - which, of course, comes as no great surprise. Therefore, I felt that it would be entirely suitable to use Tang figures, especially if these were based on sources later in the Tang period.

A search around figure suppliers fairly quickly showed that in 15mm the Khurasan Miniatures Tang range was by far the best based on the criteria. It is clear that they have been based on the right imagery such as these:

Not to mention the picture at the top of this post. No doubt other images were used as well.

I did dither a bit about whether I should order the whole army or whether some of the existing figures were still OK, but in the end (and probably inevitably) I went for buying the whole army again. This was partly to ensure that all the figures would look consistent in size - something you cannot guarantee when mixing ranges. So an order was placed and in due course the figures arrived and painting has started.

First up I decided to do the guard cavalry. As you may recall I was using these figures from Outpost Wargames Services for them:

These are the Khurasan replacements:

I based the colour scheme on illustrations of Song guard cavalry. These are a bit later than the date I field the army but seemed like a good source for inspiration.

I have also done a couple of infantry units so far. First up was a unit of the crossbowmen. The old figures were:

And the new ones are:

One big difference is obviously the shield shape as well as the armour style. The old figures are OK for the very early part of Tang (and the Sui and preceding Northern Dynasties), but the Khurasan figures are way better for the period I am doing.

After this came a unit of the "Vanguard Swordsmen" who, despite their name, also have spears.

Old figures:

New figures:

Much better IMO.

So that is the painting of the replacement figures underway. Will take some time to get them all done, especially as I have other projects on the go as well and tend to skip between them to keep my interest up.

The old figures I am mainly keeping as they are, as noted, suitable for other armies and so I have no need to get rid of them. The exceptions are the old Vanguard Swordsmen figures which I was never really keen on and have no real use for. These have been sold on.