Saga - Age of Magic: The Challenge (9)

The Undead Legions

The completed army: (L-R) Titan, Scourge, Warriors and Hearthguard and Warlord

And more of them: (L-R) Black knight (mounted and foot options), Scourge #2, Warriors

My long-waited fifth faction completed for Saga: Age of Magic is at last completed. This faction has gone through various iterations in  preparation since my original concepts, in particular the mounted Hearthguard.

 

I'd originally thought this would be a nice and easy faction to get on the table, as I already had the Revenant army. One play test sorted that out though - no way was an army largely made of the Mindless (despite being possible) likely to work at all well. The list I came up with was:

 

Necromancer (warlord)

Black knight (mounted)

1 x 4 Hearthguard (mounted)

2 x 11 Warriors (skeletons)

2 x 11 Warriors (skeletons, bow)

1 x 20 Mindless

 

To make this, and to allow for variations on a theme, and to add in some optional extras that looked nice, what I ended up putting together was:

 

Necromancer

Black Knight (foot and mounted)

2 x 4 Hearthguard (mounted)

24 x Warriors (skeletons with spear and shield)

24 x Warriors (skeletons with bow)

Titan (giant mummy)

Scourge (wyvern)

Scourge (skeletal dragon)

 

The mindless are Revenants which I already posted about a while ago. I'm not repeating that here.

 

The necromancer

The necromancer warlord is an old Reaper figure previously used for roleplaying that I repainted and rebased.

 

The black knight (on and off his horse)

The foot version of this is what I believe to be an old Asgard miniatures (remember them?) figure which I altered the helmet of long ago. I changed his weapon for a double-headed chain mace duplicating the one used by the mounted chap, made him a cloak from green stuff and added a big sword.

 

The mounted model is a Kings of War revenant figure and horse, with head, weapon, cloak and shield from a Fireforge plastic knight, made good with green stuff. The horse pose was slightly changed and I added some Black Cat miniatures skulls to the base. The shield design was made to mimic the one of the foot version using green stuff.

 

Both figures painted black and highlighted with lighter stages and metallics using Foundry paints.

 

Mounted skeletal Hearthguard

I originally bought the Kings of War mounted revenants with the intent of making them my hearthguard, but the figures didn't sit well alongside the others and even with some head swaps and other conversions I wasn't happy with them. It's interesting how my opinion has changed with time - when I first discussed these I seemed quite happy with the old plan! At Hammerhead earlier this year I came across a chap who was selling some painted mounted skeletons which I suspect are Games Workshop figures - though I have no idea. These looked right and were well priced so I bought them (sadly there were only seven). The eighth one of these is a Eureka figure. He's slightly different but not enough to worry.

 

All figures were completely rebased and repainted. Their weapons were removed and replaced with spears made from brass rod to which I attached some nice spear heads from the Warlord Erehwon skeletons (see below). Some careful drilling was required. Their shields are ones I bought loose from 1st Corps.

 

Skeleton bone colour was made by painting the figure white and washing with sepia. Once that was dry I highlighted carefully with Vallejo Iraquian Sand.

 

The shield designs are transfers, see below.

Skeleton warriors with spear and shield

Skeleton warriors with bows

 

A closer shot of two of the warriors

The bulk of the army comprises skeleton warriors, with spear and shield or archers. After looking around at different manufacturers I opted finally for Warlord Games' Erehwon skeletons, and bought two boxes of them. Now these are lovely figures. But whoever decided that they should be made up of so many different component parts that are so difficult to be assembled together should be put up against the wall. Why are the feet not part of the legs? These are an absolute pain to put together and difficult to repair when they break as well, and despite the fact that they do loo lovely, I would not recommend them to anyone and would never put myself through the pain of assembling them again.

 

Because the feet are a separate component that attaches to the legs, and I intended to base them normally, I alo had to add small pieces of sprue between the bottom of the feet and the base - so one extra part. I based them all on 25mm repair washers to give them a bit more weight and used milliput on each to ensure they were firmly held in place.

 

Spears are made from 1mm brass rod in my usual way (hammer the end flat, trim with clippers, file to shape, cut spear to length). The shields are from 1st Corps. I do not like the shields that come with the Warlord figures. They're probably historically accurate proportions for Greek hoplite shields but they obscure the details of the figures because of their size. I suspect Harryhausen realised this as his skeleton warriors from Jason and the Argonauts and other classic films also have smaller shields - and this is the look I was going for. I realised after I'd bought them that these shields come in two types - one in a hoplon shape and one circular but with a central indent. If I'd known this when I bought them I would have bought two packets so as not to use this second design, although in the end it worked out fine.

 

The smaller shields meant that I had a bit of an issue finding sheild transfers that would fit, but after some trial and error I found that LBMS 1/72 hoplite designs fitted the hoplon shaped shield perfectly, and Xyston 15mm hoplite designs fitted into the indent of the other shield type. The transfers went on easily with the aid of some decal softener.

 

The shields were given the effect of age and verdigris using - very sparingly - Citadel technical paint Nihilakh Oxide. A brilliant paint with a name that is really difficult to remember, say and spell. I'll call it Verdigris. Despite their daft names, I'm incredibly impressed with Citadel technical paints. Highly recommended if you can remember what to ask for when you're in the shop.

 

Giant mummy - Titan

This figure was an old and very badly cast figure in my spares box that was looking very sorry for itself. Originally its fist was its raised right hand and in its left it wielded what appeared to be the forearm and claw of some kind of reptile which I suspect it was using as a sort of mace. I made him right handed, adding a more Egyptian style mace made from kebab stick and green stuff to his raised hand (so as to look more like he was taking the archetypal smiting pose of many a pharaoh) and removed the strange mace from his other hand, which I repaired with green stuff. To give the figure a sense of motion I added frayed bandages using strips of paper which I blended as best I could with the ones cast onto the figure. Painting hides many a sin here, but he turned out rather well in the end I think.

 

A pile of skulls, and a claw

The claw was repurposed as some sort of objective token or marker. I've no idea when I'll use it but it was a shame to throw it away. The pile of skulls was bought on impulse from Eureka miniatures. You never know when you will need a pile of skulls.

 

Scourge: wyvern

Another repurposed old role playing figure, repainted and rebased. I suspect this is a Reaper miniature. Very nice casting.

Scourge #2: Skeletal dragon 

I saw this chap online and had to buy him. A beautiful figure from Reaper miniatures.

 

The crypt

 The crypt (model originally from Debris of War) has actually been complete for some time but looking back at previous posts on this theme it seems I never posted a picture of it, so here it is.

 

Looking forward to playing some games now!

Saga: Age of Magic - The Challenge (8)

With all the extra available painting time during lockdown, it still surprises me how long it is taking to get this challenge done, but I'm glad to say that one more faction is now complete. After the Horde come the Masters of the Underearth.

Masters of the Underearth - the army

In my case, this list repurposes a lot of miscellaneous dwarf figures previously used for role playing. Clearly, I had far too many dwarves than anyone would ever need for that, but there you are. In fact, the last time I posted about this faction was - to my shame - just over a year ago. So definitely time to get them finished.

Here then are pictures of the units in the completed army, all ready for play.

C-in-C - front

C-in-C - rear

Some of you might recognise this fine fellow. He's the limited edition free figure that I received back in April 1988 with issue #100 of White Dwarf and represents the White Dwarf himself. I suppose that means he's been waiting to be painted for just over 32 years. Enough said about how long things sit around on the painting table. But that age considered, this really is an astonishingly good figure. Painted in a mix of Vallejo (for me, traditional) and Foundry (for me, new) paints. I am loving Foundry paint.

Sorcerer - front

Sorcerer - rear

The sorcerer is an old figure that just required a little touching up. He's actually supposed to be a gnome but I doubt if anyone will notice.

Gun dwarf #1 - front

Gun dwarf #1 - rear

I gave this West Wind dwarf a sniper's camouflaged cloak, although a blundebuss wouldn't be my choice of sniping weapon.  A particularly stylish figure which I like a lot.

Gun dwarf - front

Gun dwarf - rear

This berserker chap  - another West Wind figure, though converted to weild a pair of double barrelled pistols (scratchbuilt) - has his trousers painted in uniform, half blue of blue check, half red with yellow stripes. Because I wanted to challenge myself with this new Foundry paint. And yes, I actually impressed myself here. 

Crossbow dwarves

This unit of 12 crossbows are painted in the same colours of a mix of blue on blue checks and yellow stripes on red, with the occasional variation where they might have a cloak. The West Wind figures proved themselves beautiful to paint, with more detail on the casting revealed as each colour was applied. Very chunky for dwarves, though, especially alongside the short retro Citadel dwarf amongst them, front far right, who is possibly suffering from dwarf dwarfism (is that a thing?) Anyway, it all adds to the character of the unit.

Dwarves with heavy weapons

Multiple hearthguard with heavy weapons. Apart from one figure (front right), all these required was a little touching up and rebasing.

Dwarves with conventional weapons

And likewise, more hearthguard that required nothing more than a little touching up.

Mr Manticore

They don't need him to make up 8 points but Mr Manticore was a gorgeous old Reaper figure of mine that just deserved to be painted. And what a beautiful result. I may just have to adjust this list to include him now.

Mine entrances

And finally, the mine shafts turned out very well after a bit of work with the chains, painting and dry brushing. 

Overall, despite the time it has taken to get these done, I'm rather pleased with the end result. And hopefully after lockdown ends I'll be able to get them on the gaming table soon!

Saga: Age of Magic - The Challenge (7)

Well this self-imposed challenge is turning out to be more of an ordeal, and a lot more challenging than I had expected. I lost my painting mojo (and blogging mojo too - no posts for a few months) towards the end of last year and it's been a while coming back. But the good news is that (finally) the Horde are completed and ready for battle. Apologies for the quality of the photos, as well - lighting was not great at all - I need to improve my setup on that for sure.

As expected, future posts in this series are now more likely to follow individual armies rather than tackle multiple factions at a time. And given my rate of progress, I'm deliberately not going to count the weeks. That part of this challenge fell by the wayside a long time ago!

Hearthguard

As the hearthguard are the army's elite, I opted to give them a sort of uniform , so they are painted with red and white designs where they are carrying shields or wearing tabards. The green-skinned look seemed to suit them.

Three creatures

The Champion

Sorcerer (left) and Warlord (right)

The sorcerer was the only figure here that wasn't already at least partially painted, so most of these just required touching up damage and tidying up details.

Eight Warriors

Another eight Warriors

About a third of these needed painting completely and the rest needed quite a few repairs and touching up damage and details. They don't have any particular uniform being less well organised than the hearthguard, and are well suited to warriors owing to their smaller size.

Sacred ground

The sacrificial stone was painted in grey and detail dry brushed.

Chariot

This was the major speed bump in my painting progress. Unpainted, it didn't look very good to me at all and I couldn't see how to make it stand out. My logic with the reins and tackle on the boars is that the chariot would be controlled by way of reins attached to nose rings on each of the boars.

The nose rings are made of metal rings used for jewellery, bought from Hobbycraft. They were attached with glue and strengthened with green stuff moulded in such a way as to enlarge the noses of each boar. The reins are made from thin strips of paper.

The whole was assembled before painting. In hindsight, I could have made it much easier for myself by painting most of the components before assembly. I stuck to the red and white colour theme with the main orc's jacket, the shields on the chariot sides, and the reins. I'm really pleased with the way this turned out; the painting has hidden a lot of imperfections!

Raaar!!

As far as the challenge goes, I'm deliberately slowing down, so it's likely to be a while before I blog again about this topic. In the meantime hopefully I'll be able to blog some reports of games!

Saga: Age of Magic - The Challenge (6)

Saga: Age of Magic - some figures finally get to the tabletop

6. End of Week 15

I can't believe it is already September, and how little progress I have made on this project since the last blog post on this theme. Travel for work, holidays and actually playing games and stuff like that have really got in the way.

So this post will summarise the very little that I have actually done and briefly report in very bad photographs the first Saga: Age of Magic battle played with these figures.

I've only worked on two of the factions during this time, and only the few figures I needed to be able to field both armies.

Great Kingdoms

Fireforge Pegasus Knight

The pegasus from Fireforge proved a delight to paint. I inserted a magnet into the underside of the mount so that it could be easily attached and removed from any suitable flight stand - the one I have used is actually designed for a Flames of War aircraft.

Sacred monument

Not a lot to do here. I just added flock and grass tufts to compete this model.

Sorcerer with 70s moustache in dramatic spellcasting pose

Nice to see this chap back on the gaming table; he has an uncanny resemblance to one of my old English teachers from school, and I have fond memories of using this figure for D&D years ago! No idea what the manufacturer is. He's benefited from a little touching up of paint damage and some highlights, and a couple of coats of matt varnish, as well as a nice new base.

There's lovely

Without doubt my favourite model for this army is this dragon which really did come up a treat when painted. It's a beautiful figure and works well with an extremely simple paint scheme mainly consisting of progressively lighter highlights of red. It's also going to work very nicely with a Saga Welsh army played using Age of Magic.

Lords of the Wild

The lizardmen are still waiting patiently in their box. For the time being, the main troops of this army will be my Skraelings, which actually suit it very nicely. I'll get round to the lizardmen eventually.

Rarrr!

The T-Rex just needed his base finishing. This is a toy bought from Wilko for a couple of quid some months ago, and painted. About the right size for 28mm. Just a shame I didn't sort out that obvious joint line above his waist, but too late now.

This model also has enormous potential for use with 7TV2 at some point as well. Yes, I do have a plan.

Primitive totem

With the tree painted and highlighted the snake (which may or may not be an actual creature or just a carving - you decide) the primitive totem was finished off nicely.

It's green

A simple lizardy green paint scheme here. In the photo it looks even more green than in real life, probably not helped by the green background. Anyway, I think it works.

Rise of the Spirits

I'm particularly pleased with the terrain feature titan for use with the Rise of the Spirits ability. I think he looks surprisingly effective bursting out through the ground like this. And the cheapest figure of the lot as well.

To Battle!

And so with two armies ready (Great Kingdoms largely build from Russ Princes and Franks and Lords of the Wild from Skraelings) Pete was gently coerced into playing.  He took the Great Kingdom, and battle duly commenced. Here are some pictures (apologies for the quality - the room we played in was very poorly lit). Thanks Pete for taking some of these too!

The generals face each other across the table

Lords of the Wild: dinosaurs on the left flank

And on the right flank, more dinosaurs

The Spirits Rise and hold the enemy back on the right

The dragon advances

And on the right flank, attacks

A mighty battle ensues

Lizard on lizard action

Mounted hearthguard charge in on the far flank to support

It could go either way...

But the dragon is slain. The Pegasus flies to the rescue, but too late.

It was an excellent game and this supplement genuinely adds a new dimension to the Saga game. Our game also attracted quite a lot of attention by people who thought they were watching something historical until they spotted the dinosaurs!

Looking forward to more games in the future. Now, back to the painting table to sort out those other armies...