"Collecting Slav Warriors - Period 500 to 700 AD." Topic

I have recently been playing an online campaign with some friends set in the year 715 AD. I volunteered to play the Slavs, who fired up my interest in that period and army. Reading up about the Slavs also got me involved in reading about the Avars, Lombards, Alemanni, Goths and Merovingian Franks in the preceding century/centuries.

But it appears the miniature offerings for the Slavs are slim pickings. I did locate some bags at Old Glory, more with Gripping Beast, plus a few others here and there like Essex and Minifig. Army books seem to be few in number too, I find mentions of the Slavs through reading about other nations and their armies mostly. The various Byzantine authors give good snippets about the Slavs over the centuries.

Specifically I was trying to locate more information for the period 620 through 658 AD, when Samo led the Slavs to independence. The Battle of Wogastisburg does not have much information about it at all, where Samo beat the Franks under Dagobert I. What little I read there is from the Chronicle of Fredegar.

I would like to go through my figure collection for figures which could be used as Slavs, and also go through various manufacturers for figures which could also be used as Slavs. Germans and Goths seem close in appearance but I'm not sure they would be a 100% match, I am striving to get as close as possible, but I realize I may have to include other figures. The Slavs did fight in tribal groups, so most would have very close matching clothing especially among their tribe/family.

I would welcome any help locating more information about this period from you ladies and gentlemen, as well as precise painting guides so I can properly paint up my army (I did post a related post in the painting section). I would prefer 25mm figures, 28mm would fit also. Those are what I started with years ago, right now I have some old Garrison, Hinchcliffe and Minifigs that seem to be Slavs, or are close enough.

Thanks!

If they didn't have enough metal smiths in their culture who specialized in making unique armor, they probably looked like and were armed just like their neighbors.

Never underestimate the value of good armor found in the field after battle. :)

Dan

Exactly Dan!

Seems like they relied a lot on spoils of war, their neighbors did send them arms from what I'm reading, to bribe them to attack yet another "neighbor"……

Lots of bushwhacking going on back then!

As you say, Slavs are a bit thin on the ground. Maybe look at Russ or fairly generic Dark Ages figures?

There must be something on this list that is suitable…

link

Hey Cerdic!

Agreed with the slim pickings, I may have to do some shield swapping, weapon swaps too maybe, and then do a really good paint job on them. I love drilling and pinning figures anyway, so they hold together better. Going through these I see Goths (several varieties!), Saxons, Rus, several more!

Time to sell some old stuff on Ebay!

Thanks!!!

For your lower classes, the basic clothing would be sheep-colored. Not all sheep are white or off-white, so you'd have various shades of clothing. These folks were clever enough not to pile all the wool and spin it together so the whole tribe was in the same color. They could also make brown or black stripes on whitish clothing, which would look fancy.
If our Slavs had a little more money, they could dye the cloth . . .
Still, my Slavs are all painted light, sheep colors.

Grelber

Got any pictures posted somewhere Grelber?

Would love to see your bad boys!!!

I put an order in with Footsore Miniatures, I think I can make some of the Goths fit in, the ones without the topknots but with the wild wavy hair and beards. The better equipped ones can be used for foes, Franks and maybe Lombards. Or, better equipped Slavs!

Going to try a NOVEL approach for me, I'm going to paint what I get, THEN buy more figs! Usually it is buy figures, let them sit, buy more figures……….

:)