Yet more Saxons

So, Triples is coming up fast, and I'm getting closer to having the Saxons finished.

First off, I've painted another warlord!

This is another West Wind model - from the Pictish Command pack (although I've used a Saxon head and shield). One comment from the previous warlord I painted was that the cloak looked quite flat - this is probably because I didn't use much beyond ink to shade it. This time I've added a couple of layers of highlights before adding the ink, which brings more light into the cloak - I've done the same with the rest of the clothes on this model as well.

So that covers all the infantry models that I need to have painted for Triples - I do have another 3 models from the Pictish command pack which I'll paint up, but if I don't manage to get that done before Triples, Rich has very helpfully painted up the rest of the Saxon fighters so we'll have all the warriors we'll need.

I've also started on the basing:

The good thing about writing is blog is that I get a lot of free advice! Here I'm taking some from Al, who suggested using coloured filler on the bases. As you can see I've done that here, I'll add some sand and gravel and then paint the lot to get a nice even colour. I'm pretty much planning to do that in one batch, as I have a day off coming up on Friday...

And finally, the ship is well underway now.

I've basecoated the whole thing, and used some magnets to attach the mast - that doesn't work perfectly though, so I might try to wedge it with some tape around the bottom of the mast.

I think that if I somehow don't get chance to do anything else on the ship it would be "passable" for Triples, but I really want to get some highlights on here and add a furled sail.

Watch this space and find out if I succeed...

Finally Back to Posting

Right, that was a long time between posts. Whoops. Still, let's not worry about that now, I have at least been doing something, and now I painted almost all of the Saxons that I need to get done for the game at Triples.

They might be a bit blurred, but there's loads of them and they're painted!

I've still got to base these, and I need to do another lord and paint the ship, but other than that anything I do on these is basically window dressing. So, since I'm pleased with myself, and I've got a shiny new camera, it's time for a bit of gloating.

Might as well start with the warlord:

The first warlord

And from the back

This is from the West Wind "death of Arthur" pack. As with all of the models with shields, I stuck to a simple geometric design, and tried to get some contrasting colours on there to make it stand out. I've given him grey hair in the hope that he'll look experienced and battle-hardened that way, not just old!

For the huscarls, I've used some more West Wind models - armoured Saxon spearmen.

Huscarls

The West Wind models have a lot of good detail which is picked out well so they're easy to paint. I have noticed that the heads tend to be quite large in proportion to the rest of the model with these, but once they're painted up you don't really notice.

All aboard the SS Half Painted

The scenario we're using for Triples calls for a few unarmed Saxons to represent villagers caught off guard by the Viking attack. Since I won't have a lot of use for unarmed warriors after the event, I've tried to build these so that they can be armed later. This has had the minor side effect of making these models look a bit like they're carrying an invisible barrel under each arm, but we'll gloss over that.

Unarmed Saxons

Since these are unarmed you can see how the clothes are painted - I've tried to keep the colours pretty flat as I don't want the common Saxons to stand out too much. By keeping these pretty muted I'm hoping that the lords and huscarls will stand out more.

The archers also count as peasants in the Saga rules that we'll be using, so these are painted in a similar way to the unarmed models.

Archers on the ship

Archers showing the "leader" model

Warriors with shields

As I said earlier, the shields all have simple geometric designs on them, and in most cases I've picked out a line between the different colours to make them stand out.

The "Death of Arthur" pack that I got for the warlord also had (obviously) a casualty piece in it.

"He hasn't painted that bit over there yet, look!"

This is a nice little piece, and hopefully I'll have a use for it at Triples.

There was also a kneeling warrior, which I don't really know what to do with but I've painted it anyway.

Kneeling warrior

As is obvious from many of these photos, the ship needs to be finished. I'm slowly painting it brown, which is a fairly tedious process, and my plan is to drybrush some highlights on after that and add a mast from doweling. Hopefully I can do another post soon to show some more progress on that, and if I cross my fingers really hard, someone might even read it...