Hengist and Horsa

Today's post is a quick bit of fun that turned out nicely! These are Gripping Beast's "Penda the Pagan" and his second.  I based them up separately to run them as Hengist and Horsa for my early Saxons. The fellow with the spear was a bit boring until I dug up my "Murder of Crows" from Zombicide. Now I've got the "Raven Whisperer." The Viking Runestones are from Fenris Games. The Odin Berserker is an Isle of Lewis chesspiece from Etsy with an eye carved out. All in all, a nice bit of color.

Mutatawwwi'a for Saga

This project started with 48 Footsore Arabs in my painting queue. I was looking for a way to put them on the table and looking through Saga's Age of Crusades book, I saw the Mutatawwi'a got a much-improved battleboard. I painted the warriors using the Andrea Color Black Set of 6 dropper bottles starting with black and 5 progressively brighter highlights. You don't have to use all 5 highlights.  I used a black base and 2-3 highlights and highly recommend this set.

The 48 warriors in the center are all Footsore. I asked them for a specific mix of shield types in my order which they sorted at no cost. The shields are shield transfers by Little Big Man Studio. I originally painted the spears in a dark red but the monochromatic effect was bland.  I repainted them with a bright red to give the army some pop. I had a bit of trouble photographing this bunch due to all the black. Take a look at how different they look under different lighting.

The 8 slightly large Hearthguard fellows in the front rank are Gripping Beast (GB) Mutatawwi'a.  The warlord on foot is Footsore and the mounted warlord is Perry.

These 24 archers can be used as warrior archers or as 2 levy archer units for my Moors.  They're a mix of GB Mutatawwi'a metals and their plastic Arabs. I greenstuffed face coverings to the metals here and elsewhere to keep a consistent, fanatical look.

GB Mutatawwi'a camel riders. In keeping with "taking the black," I did the saddle/pillow rugs in black.  I do love the look of camels so after painting these, I bought some more. 

Warlord Games Roman Imperial camel riders modified for the Crusader era. I dremeled away the Scutums and added appropriate Crusader-era shields.

12 hearthguard on camels plus a warlord too makes for a unique look for these Mutts. And I already got them on the table! Here at the finish line, I'm burned out on painting black and looking forward to my next project, Komnenian Byzantines.

More Bolt Action

Early this year, I sold off a chunk of my Soviet Bolt Action army. I didn't play the game often and when I did, I didn't play it well. Then Jason Meyers (of the Der Feldmarschall blog) started running quarterly Bolt Action events. His superb events and the great players who turn up for them have lit a fire.  I recently finished a Trenchworx T-28, White Scout car, and a twin turreted T-26.  Every one was a superb model so bravo, Trenchworx! Bonus, I'm finally getting the hang of my Badger airbrush. I also painted up Warlord Games Scouts and Engineers because...why not?

My Soviets have been in heavy rotation since summer.  I've used them in What a Tanker, 2 Chain of Command campaigns and 3 Bolt Action tournaments.  In the tournaments, I landed Best Overall General, Best Painted, and Best Allied General. Enough bragging.  I'll finish with a few pictures from my Bolt Action games.