Strategos and his men

Like a proud dad, I want to show off my new "baby."  I showed this bunch to my neighbors and my parents before boxing them up for  California. Yea, you're probably wishing you were MY neighbor!

I love this warlord figure.  I do wish the horse came in full barding but perhaps this model represents a moment when the Byzantines were short of cash.  Paying the Varangian Guard and bribing invading barbarians to go away has a way of putting a dent in the treasury.

Four of these Saga fatigue markers go out the door with the warband and one goes to my Normans.

With the lovely Gripping Beast figures and bright palette, the Byzantines were my favorite war band to paint to date. I'll come back to them again by book and perhaps, by paintbrush too.  I love  painting Dark Age war bands but I'm also on the lookout for a bigger project in 2014.

B is for Βυζαντινή

If you saw the B word and thought, "it's Greek to me," you're correct! It's Greek for Byzantine. Hopefully you'll also see a tight and bright palette here. All Gripping Beast figs and I should mention the warriors have lots of kit on them! 

TOXATOI: These bow-armed warriors come in handy with the SAGA battleboard abilities Massed Archery (fire over friendly units) and Support Archers (shoot into a melee disregarding friendly units in line of sight).  

KONTARATOI:  Spear-armed warriors.  The "prime white & wash with Burnt Umber ink" is back in play.  

PSILOI:  Javelin-armed levies. Even though levy foot are looked down on in Saga, I've seen them pull off amazing feats.  If nothing else, they soak up lots of missile fire and are a chore to destroy in melee!

My PC is still down, awaiting for a new video card and that's slowed me down.  Here's hoping that when it finally arrives, it fixes the problem.  The good thing about being your own IT is saving $.  The bad thing is making an educated guess and discovering you're wrong!  

Verdigris wrapup

I worked the Iwo Jima statuette over one last time to reduce the mottled look and make it predominately green. I do think this last push did the trick.

Nancy's call on the flag was spot on. She was quite happy with these pictures so with this, her keepsake is complete.

For comparison, here's how it started.  

Nancy's dad put his life on hold during the war years.  The end of WW II meant restarting his civilian life. Those postwar years must have been heady times, full of hope and promise.  For Nancy's dad, it meant returning to the US, marrying his sweetheart and settling down to raise a family together. Nancy shared a wonderful engagement picture of her mom and dad. I do think they're the very model of love and optimism!