Saga: Age of Magic - The Challenge (3)

3. End of the First Week 

One week on and I am still waiting for delivery of the figures I ordered, and (typically) I've ordered some more since then as well (details below).

The main progress made is that all the figures that I do have are now based, with their bases textured and painted. Those that were not already painted have at least been undercoated. 

Great Kingdoms

Not a lot of progress on the figures, but the sorcerer has been based and the dragon has been based and undercoated, and looks much better for just that.

Sorcerer

Undercoated dragon

While searching for the crypt I came across a resin Celtic cross originally bought for Saga, but which I never got around to sorting out. This is ideal for the monument that will be the sacred ground for this faction, so I will put it together with the addition of a base and some milliput, and a pedestal made of balsa wood.

Essential components of the monument

Lords of the Wild

I finished my conversion of the lamia sorcerer by plaiting some dressmaker's wire and winding it around her staff, to make it look both more ornate and a bit larger. This was finished, and a few holes filled, with a very small amount of green stuff. You can't see it on the photo but I also added a pouch and a shoulder strap for it. She already has a shoulder strap on the front for the quiver on the original figure.

The lamia sorceress

I cut a round base from MDF for the Rise of the Spirits giant lizard, because my model wasn't going to fit on a 75mm round base. I textured the edge of this, and in an effort to make this look like the lizard was bursting out of the ground, constructed the area inside with fragments of broken, dried, DAS clay. 

And then (while doing the gardening) I had what I thought was a brilliant idea that changed everything. This is supposed to be a titan made from the terrain - so what if it was a dragon/lizard-like creature but made of earth and undergrowth? So with ambitious thoughts of making something similar to those brilliant driftwood sculptures in the back of my mind, I had a go at constructing something appropriate. I began to build this out of small pieces of dead wood glued together and strengthened it gradually with milliput. It turned out to be easier to construct this directly onto the base. I'm quite pleased with the end result, but it needs a bit more work to make it look a bit more lizardy and less like a horse.

The terrain dragon poses

Needs work to make it look more like a lizard than a horse

The Horde

The Warlord, Champion, Sorcerer, Creatures, Hearthguard and Warriors have all now had their bases textured and painted, and unpainted figures have been undercoated ready to go. I realised while doing this that four of the Hearthguard figures were supposed to have shields (they have holes in which to add them) and so I found four matching shields of an appropriate size to equip them with. These are almost certainly not the ones the models came with, but that doesn't matter.

Warlord

The champion

I've had a bit of a rethink of the list, and rather than the chimera, it seems a better fit to the army to add a war chariot. With that in mind I had a good look around at available figures; there are some, but most of the good ones seem to be currently either out of production or hideously expensive (or both). A lot are also in multiple packs, but I only want one. The answer I came up with was to buy some suitable beasts to pull it and a warrior to ride on board, and scratch-build the chariot myself. So I ordered a pair of boars and an appropriately aggressive orc figure from Warmonger miniatures.

In the meantime I've made a start on building the chariot body out of kebab sticks, coffee stirrers and green stuff. The wheels started life as a pair of small slot bases, to which I added green stuff, milliput and bits of coffee stirrers. I also found an old orc figure that with a bit of work will do nicely as a chariot driver. I now need to wait for the the boar figures to arrive before I can really progress this further.

Some of the starting elements of the war chariot

Legions of the Undead 

After another play test I've decided that a unit of four mounted Hearthguard instead of the behemoth makes a lot of sense. It won't stop me finishing the behemoth off but I suspect I am unlikely to use it much. The Necromancer will benefit from some bodyguards too, and the army could use a mobile reserve, so this is all the more useful. I also think the Black Knight could do with a bit more mobility so I'd like him to be mounted as well. So (and somehow I suspect this was inevitable) I have put in an order for a few more figures.

The Necromancer and Black Knight (on foot) are now based and primed.

The necromancer

Black Knight on foot - needing a bit of touching up

Also after a search through some boxes I found a nice crypt (from Debris of War) which I will use for this faction's sacred ground.

The crypt

Masters of the Underearth

As with the other factions, the figures are now all on painted and textured bases, and those needing to be fully painted have been undercoated.

Warlord

This splendid warlord is the "white dwarf" figure associated with the magazine of that name which I believe is a bit of rarity now as it was a limited edition a very long time ago. It's great to have an excuse to put him to use and hopefully my painting will do him justice in the end.

It's  clear that this list would significantly benefit from some troops with ranged weapons, so I have decided to drop the Manticore and four of the Hearthguard and add in 12 Levy crossbowmen and two Destruction Teams instead. On that basis I ordered some figures from West Wind and Warmonger miniatures.

In the meantime I textured and painted the bases of the mine entrances, and added some more detail in the form of belts for the winch pulleys (made from a cut rubber band).

Belt added to the pulley mechanism

...and the same on the other entrance

So far, so good. Let's see if I can keep the momentum up for another week!