Pictish Terrain

A hut and a Pictish stone

Having painted some Picts for Pillage, it only seemed proper to make some terrain to accompany them.

So I made five roundhouses and three Pictish stones. This will go very well with the rest of my Pillage terrain, but give it a more Pictish flavour.

The completed models

The Huts

I cut a section of card from a whisky bottle tube as a former for each hut and glued it to a base made from 3mm MDF. This seemed like a good diea at the time but turned out to cause some problems later as discussed below. 

A Pictish hut

The walls of the huts are made from DAS clay, which was wrapped around the card former, trimmed at the top, and indented with the point of a screwdriver to make the stonework pattern. This was then left to dry. My mistake was trying to remove the card former after it had dried. DAS sticks to card, so I ended up breaking some of the walls and having to repair them later, whicb I could have avoided.

I made a cone of paper for each roof and built DAS clay roofs on top of this. The thatch detail is marked in with the tip of a modelling knife. It's very easy, fairly quick, and in the end reasonably effective. I am not a fan of teddy bear fur thatch! Each roof has a central hole to let the smoke out from the fire that would typically be inside to keep those Picts warm on cold nights.

Finally, the bases were textured and the models painted. Stonework painted in Foundry Granite 31A-C, while (after a certain amount of trial and error) thatched roofs were painted Humbrol Acrylic 63 (Sand?), washed with Army Painter Strong Tone, and finally highlighted with a light dry brush of Citadel Terminatus Stone. This is more a result of what was available to me than a precise guide to painting thatch, but it worked perfectly well.

The Stones

Sacred stones

These are based on the many Pictish stones that occur in the North, though favouring style over accuracy in the detail. They are made from appropriately shaped and sized stones that I found (!) glued to 3mm MDF bases. I built around their bases with Milliput to make them look a bit more stable, and then rubbed a thin layer of milliput over one side to flatten some of the natural surface to make it easier to paint on the designs. 

After texturing and painting the bases I then found myself ironically painting stones to look like stone. Firstly, this was done with Foundry Granite 31A-B. I then painted Pictish style designs in white, and finally highlighted the surrounding stone with Foundry Granite 31C.

Huts and stones are all painted essentially for games of Pillage, but will work for plenty of other games and settings as well and are going to be very handy additional terrian items for the gaming table.

 

Picts for Pillage

I've always wanted some Picts and the opportunity to assemble a small force for Pillage convinced me to buy a box of Gripping Beast plastic Picts and get on with it. I already have various Dark Age Irish and Norse Gael models which can provide some alternative figures (and Dane Axes) so really just needed some unarmoured, shielded spearmen, a couple of dog handlers, some crossbowmen and a Warlord. 

Photos below of the finished figures.

four crossbowmen

I realise I can probvably have up to five crossbowmen, so will probably paint another one - or another eight if I want to expand this force to play Saga.

ten spearmen

I painted all of my Picts so as to appear dressed in coarse woven material and this seems generally to have worked well. The shield designs are my own, based very approximately on pictish or celtic styles and painted freehand.

dogs and their handler

My dog handler is simply armed with a spear so that he can give support to his pack when they attack. No idea how this will work in practice but had to include him simply for the flavour.

warlord from various angles

The warlord is the only model with armour - very expensive for Picts. His torso is a Conquest plastic Norman infantryman and the cloak, belt and chest plate are (not particularly well) made from green stuff.

alternative warlord

I couldn't decide whether or not my warlord should be equipped with javelins or not - so made a similar model with added javelins. Again this was made from a plastic Norman and green stuff and I've kept the colour scheme the same.

pigs

sheep

With a need for things to pillage, I also painted up some Gripping Beast dark age pigs, and some Foundry sheep. Excellent figures all.

beehives

And finally, using a little left over Milliput and oddments from the bit box, I made some beehoves. These will be useful as scatter terrain but also for the new optional rules in the Pillage Sheep and Beehives supplement.

Three (or so) Retinues for Ruckus

Having played a few games of Ruckus, the skirmish relative of Wargames Illustrated's late medieval game Never Mind the Billhooks, the time was right to paint my own retinue. The figures I've used are a real mixed bag, made up from old fantasy figures from ages ago, some newer metal figures from Gripping Beast, and a selection constructed from Perry Miniatures WR1 Wars of the Roses infantry and WR20 Mercenaries European Infantry 1450-1500 plastic box sets. In the end, I have assembled far more figures than needed for one (or even two) retinues, but that of course allows the makeup of the retinue to be varied.

Each retinue is distinguished by its colour scheme, and heraldry. The sheld designs used are all my own made up ones, each illustration generated using Drawshield and labelled with its blazon. 

Retinue #1

first retinue

The first (and largest) of the three retinues has a colour scheme loosely based on an original shield illustration from a medieval mauscript. As far as I am aware this is original so if I have inadvertently used someone's real arms without knowing this was entiely unintended.

per pale gules and azure, a lion rampant argent armed, langued and ducally crowned or

The captain, accompanied by three squires and a herald. Yes, too many squires, I know. Perhaps my subconscious is telling me to paint another retinue...

Retinue handgunner and crossbowmen, with the arms on their pavises. They're by no means perfect but I'm still very pleased with how they turned out. As above all are Perry plastic Eurpoean Infantry.

Four retinue archers, all Perry plastic Wars of the Roses figures. I love the way the arrows in the ground have been made as separate parts.

Retinue billmen. Almost all of these are old fantasy figures and consequently are quite short and look a bit weedy against the plastics (compare the chap on the far right) and the metal figures. I'm pleased to have painted them, but might well paint up some more plastic billmen for this retinue as in my opinion they don't quite work. if I do that I will probably repurpose the fantasy figures for Frostgrave.

Retinue #2

second retinue

argent, a chevron gules between three bats displayed sable

So this (according to the admittedly limited family tree research I have done) is the coat of arms associated with my surname. If it ever existed (which I doubt) it is highly unlikely that I am entitled to actually use it. But that doesn't stop me assigning it to my toys.

The captain and his squires, however, are so thoroughly bedecked in armour plating that they don't actually bear the relevant arms, and could therefore be from any retinue of choice. 

The arms do make themselves very evident on the retinue handgunner and crossbows, though, as they have pavises to hide behind. In hindsight I realise this is not an easy design to paint freehand and perhaps there might have been a wiser choice. All figures are Perry plastic Eurpoean Infantry.

Two retinue archers largely dressed in white. One of them bears the arms (or at least something approximating them) on his surcoat. Gripping Beast figures.

The white theme continues on the three billmen.

Retinue #3

third retinue

Vert a fret argent

This retinue accordingly has a generally green and white theme.

The captain is accompanied by two squires and a herald.

The captain of this (small) retinue is  Wargames Foundry's Scots Noble from the Hundred Years War. His model can equally well serve as a mercenary in other retinues. 

The green and white theme is echoed in the retinue's three bowmen. Gripping Beast figures.

The three billmen of the retinue are Perry plastic European Infantry. Most of the figures in this set are holding their weapons on their shoulders, in marching order, which is OK but I prefer a more active pose.

To make up the numbers this retinue includes some figures that might equally be fielded as mercenaries.

And finally there's always a few odd ones. These are fantasy figures I painted before settling on the themes above, but they can serve to make up the numbers in any of these or future retinues.

n total, 49 figures painted for Ruckus. More than enough to field at least two sides with plenty of options available to both. I'm looking forward to getting them on the gaming table soon.

Mounted Normans

Normans freshly painted and ready for games of Saga, Midgard or Pillage.  

These are Conquest Miniatures plastics. Nice models, easy to assemble and convert, with a wide variety of heads, weapons etc.

Spear armed cavalry

There are a rather inconvenient 15 models in a box, so I've assembled 13 altogether to make two groups of six and one warlord. This will work well for units in both Saga and Midgard.

Spears are made from 1mm brass rod, which replace the plastic cast spears and are attached by drilling a hole in the rider's hand. Shield designs are essentially my inventions around a theme and are painted freehand.

You might have noticed that the shields on these models have a central boss. These are not the shields provided in the Mounted Norman box but are spares taken from a box of Conquest's Norman Foot soldiers. I did this mainly because I like the kite shields with raised rims around the edge but there aren't enough of these in the Mounted Norman box for all the models. Because none of the shields provided in that box have bosses, though, I did wonder whether Norman mouted might have had bosses on their sheilds. A quick check of (amongst other sources) the Bayeux Tapestry confirms that yes mounted did have shield bosses and also that the shield size is not consistent either, so the small variability of shield size of foot and mounted models is fine, not that anyone would notice.

Confirmation of bosses on cavalry kite shields 

The sword-armed cavalry were a little easier to assemble, although the sword hilts modelled onto the riders needed removal. Sword hilts were cut off carefully with a modelling knife and I tried to restore the chainmail detail with the knife point afterwards. this turned out not to be at all easy, so in the end I painted small dots to mimic the chainmail in these small areas on the figures. This is fine as long as you don't examine the figure too closely!

Sword-wielding mounted warriors

Horse colours draw from advice in Ian Heath's Armies of Feudal Europe (link to free pdf here). It might be from 1989 but it's still an excellent reference. Basically, any and all horse colours are fine. 

I've been a fan of Wargames Foundry paints for some years and am also a great admirer of the painting skills of Kevin Dallimore (whose talant far exceeds my own!) Kevin wrote a painting guide book and I use the horse painting guide from this for all my horse painting. This is partly due to being colourblind, and the guide is great to get the colours correct and realistic - and in my case to avoid blue and green horses. I've actually taken this to a truly anal level by putting this information along with details of the relative proportions of different coloured horses into an Excel spreadsheet, which will output individual painting guides for each horse which I can follow. More detail on that in a future blog post, so if you're reading this and want more details please let me know.

Some people leave basing until the last stage of preparing models but I find that this is easier and gives a better finish if done right at the start. After assembling the model and attaching to its base, I apply the base texture, spray prime the model, and then paint the base. This rarely needs more than the tiniest touch-up and addition of tufts and the model is done.

Warlord

Their commander, in common with my Saga Warlords is on a 40mm round base to set him apart from the others. Even though not specified for games like Pillage, this ensures that he is distinct from the rank and file.

I'm particularly pleased with the way the dapple grey turned out. This is not a horse colour I would typically choose to do but every now and again I do fancy a challenge.

Overall, they've come out better than I had expected and I'm looking forward to getting them on the table soon.

    

New Year, New Resolutions...

I've been extremely neglectful of my blog for the last few years (I'm blaming work) but am resolved to post a bit more frequently about things game related in future. I appreciate not many people will read this but if nothing else it is interesting for me to reflect on things, and a useful resource for photos, even if I do end up taking to myself!

So as a brief review, last year (2025) I painted 176 figures and made 189 items of terrain - none of which, to my shame, made it to this Blog. I might revisit some of these. The vast majority were completed pre-April and post-November, with only 22 figures painted March-October. Got to improve on that!

I'm hoping 2026 is going to be more productive, and have more gaming as well. We shall see!