Welsh Bonnedig Archers

Quick post up of my progress on the 12 levy archers for the Welsh warband.  I'm using a hot glue gun for all my 28mm basing. A bonus is that the glue smooths out the transition from the base to the miniature.  The color palette here is simple and earthy, given they're a peasant levy.

I'm using Americana Light Cinnamon for the base coat, followed by Cocoa and then Sand for the highlights.   I took extra care in applying my base color to the ballast, given the trouble it took to paint the 10 wee toes.

Half the figures below have a single highlight of Cocoa and half have a 2nd highlight of Sand, popping the texture nicely. Static grass goes down after a protective coating.

I'm really enjoying painting for Saga.  I have to say that it's the most fun I've had painting...ever, really.  The siren song of 28mm skirmish is you don't ever get bored painting the same figure over and over.  Now that the levy troops are complete, it's on to 24 Welsh warriors.  This is where I can stretch my color palette and bring in stripes, checks and the like. Dawnsio ar y dibyn!

A new Saga faction-the Undead Warband 

Mustering a Welsh warband!

Tuesday night, I got a package of Gripping Beast minis with the makings of a 9 point Welsh warband.  53 foot figures, 13 mounted and loads of variety and poses.  I'm shelving my Vikings and Normans to dive into the Welsh.  New love is like that-overboard with the old, in with the new!

I'm going to try something new with this project.  I almost always wait till my figures are complete before posting up pics.  This time, I'll post as I go including more work in progress pics.  I've been finding WIP posts very helpful to understand how my fellow bloggers got from "A" to "Z" results.  The only downside is I'm relying on my cellphone camera so until I break out my real camera, the photos will be decent but not great.

Being addicted to painting, I immediately set about prepping all 24 of the Welsh levy figures.  I primed white and followed with an acrylic ink wash (Umber Brown).  You could prime brown and work up but I really like the effect of working up from the inked mini.  The ink settles darkest into the low spots, giving a nice smokey shadow to work with.  The ink wash is fairly quick and the only downside I can think of is that you do tend to get one very brown hand.  

These fellows are the javelin-armed Strathclyde levy. Being peasants, I kept the palette very limited for these lads.  Once I get to the Welsh warriors and hearthguard, I can loosen up a bit!

When I block paint, I paint neatly to keep the brown shadow in place around the belts, edges of clothes, folds, fingers and toes.  I follow this with a wash of GW Agrax Earthsade.  I've shelved the Army Painter dip/brush on technique for the time being.  More on that later.

Highlights over the wash. I'm painting the eyes for this lot.  They're quite small on the GB figures but the white does pop nicely off of the Umber Brown.

Here I've skipped a bunch of steps on account of forgetting to take photos while in the heat of the battle.  Thank goodness I'm not a war correspondent.  A quick shot of the PVC/ballast step.

Near the finish line.  I still need to put down a protective coat, hit with anti-matt, give the base 2 steps of progressively lighter drybrushing followed by static grass.

Pupils round 1

Round 2-bigger, better

These Welsh sculpts are fantastic.  They're the best Gripping Beast figures I've painted to date.  Very crisp detail, very lively and full of character.  Honestly, they're a bit like crack When I'm not painting, I'm thinking about painting and when oh when can I paint again?  Is there a 12 step acrylic program for folks like us?

Norman Milites for Saga

Here is the 2nd and final round of my Conquest Games plastic Normans.  To distinguish my milites/hearthguards from the sergeants/warriors, the milites are all chainmail clad and kitted with teardrop shields.

The Norman battleboard in Saga is built for mounted and shooty troops.  Mounted move 12" while foot troops creep along at 6".  Throw in a double move and these boys can  fly across the battlefield!  Just as Superman has his kryptonite,  mounted troops suffer a -1 to armor when shot at so you must hide them from javelins and archers. This tends to make the Normans a finesse warband.

My friend Hugh suggests the Normans shine brightest when employed with the Muhammad Ali strategy. Hunker down against the ropes, er, the back line of the tabletop and let your opponent come to you.  Play rope-a-dope by covering your mounted troops with your archers & crossbowmen.  Jab with missile fire until your opponent charges into your screening shooty troops.  THATS when you unleash a punishing barrage of uppercuts with your mounted troops and drop him to the canvas.

It's pronounced Mil-Eets, sucker!