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.

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.

    

Numidians for Saga: Age of Hannibal

The completed army

With a wave of enthusiasm following the release of Saga: Age of Hannibal I rushed out and bought a whole load of figures to make up several different armies. I finished the Gauls first (see my post from December last year), but while the Numidians were actually started before the Gauls it has taken me six months to get them finished. This was partly because I ended up buying a few more figures than intended - although following actual experience of playing with this universe on Tabletop Simulator I realise I'm going to need at least another elephant...
- Warlord
- 1 x Elephant
- 2 x Levy
- 6 x Warriors

This then is a short post with images of the completed army.

I find I have made up 9 points of troops as follows:

All figures are from  the excellent Victrix plastic figures range with the exception of the warlord. I replaced all the plastic spears with ones made from brass rod (method described here). In my view, Victrix spears are way too fragile for gaming without a lot of breakages happening. 

Basing was done by the usual method I use for desert terrain - textured with a mixture of filler, sharp sand, PVA glue and water, sprinkled over with very small stones followed by Chinchilla dust. Painted Crown Brown Sugar, highlighted Crown Biscuit - but with the addition of patches of War World Scenics Army Coarse Sand and some appropriate tufts from Gamers Grass. All figures are painted with Foundry paints.

Warlord, appropriately from Warlord Games

The warlord is the figure of Juba I of Numidia, appropriately from Warlord Miniatures. I would have converted one of the Victrix figures but this would have left me one man short of another unit! His horse is a bit thin compared to those from Victrix but even so this is a very nice figure. He's depicted with javelins (Numidian Warlords in Saga don't have javelins, but never mind). I gave him a plastic Victrix shield so tht he would better match the other troops, and replaced the javelin in his right hand with one made from brass rod, again to match the rest of the army.

One elephant (need one more...)

The elephant is a lovely model from Victrix. I added weight by filling the elephant body with plasticine on assembly. Shields added to the outside of the howdah were ones left over from a purchase of separate shields for use with my Iberians (still awaiting painting), bought from 1st Corps. 

Levy #1

Levy #2

While you can't beat transfers for shield designs, I wanted my figures to be similar enough to look good together, yet easily distinguished if separated into smaller units, so all the shields in the army are hand painted following some formulaic designs and a narrow range of colours. Using this method I have four designs for the levy (making up to four groups of six men), twelve for the warriors (allowing for twelve groups of four), and separate designs for the elephant crew and the warlord. Painting smaller numbers of the same design I have found also to be easier and quicker than bigger painting batches.

Warriors #1

Warriors #2

Warriors #3

Warriors #4

Warriors #5

Warriors #6

Victrix have done something really clever with these Numidian warriors which you probably won't notice until you put them beside other Victrix cavalry. These horses are smaller ponies, whihc in my opinion look spot on. Horse colours were chosen randomly based on advice on colours and expected proportions from reference books. I find if I am left to decide horse colours by myself I will get things wrong, so use Excel to help, with paint colours as advised by Kevin Dalimore in his excellent Foundry Painting and Modelling Guide book. This is particularly handy if like me you are colourblind. I intend to write a blog article about how I do this at some time in the future.

Looking forward to getting these chaps on the table soon!

Gauls for Saga: Age of Hannibal

Finally, my first faction for Saga: Age of Hannibal is completed. This is a very short post to show some pictures of the completed models. All are Foundry Miniatures painted with Foundry paints. 

General and two chariots

Six mounted hearthguard

Another six mounted hearthguard

Levy archers

Foot warriors

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!