Welsh warriors & backstory

With every new project, I like to read up on the armies and era I'm painting.  Saga has given me the perfect opportunity to dig into the Dark Ages, where my knowledge is a bit thin. Admitting that up front, here's a quick overview of the Dark Age Welsh.

A Welsh army was generally made up of lords, retainers and locally raised free men over the age of 14.  Welsh warriors dressed in linen shirts and pants, covered by a wool cloak down to the knees. Hair was kept short and mustaches were common.  Their primary weapons were the spear, axe and bow.  Spearmen could operate in close or loose order as the situation demanded. Javelins were common and a circular shield was often employed. Welsh bows were made of elm and fired at close range as an ambush weapon.  The Welsh longbow would not make an appearance for some hundreds of years.

The Welsh tended to rely on agility and cunning rather than armor.  They relied on ambushes and raids, utilizing the rough and hilly terrain covering much of Wales.  Battle was preferred on marshy or broken ground, which favored the Welsh's mobility.  Their initial charge was a headlong assault accompanied by a storm of javelins.  This might be followed by feigned flight to lead an enemy into a trap, a common tactic for lightly armed and agile troops. Spirits were raised with battle cries and war trumpets. The initial charge was fierce but if it did not break the enemy, the warriors often lost heart.

Based purely on looks, there's slim chance these fine fellows will lose heart on the tabletop battlefield.  Gripping Beast did a fine job with the sculpts.  Short hair, mustaches, woolen cloaks, spears, axes, bows and circular shields.  Check, check, check and check.  Nicely done!  

Over the weekend, I grabbed 3 lines of triad paints by Reaper Miniatures.  They just might be the paints I'm looking for.  Big plus that they come in dropper bottles!  After I get a chance to put them to use, I'll post up on how they compare to Vallejo.

And if that isn't enough to bring you back, it's on to the adorable Welsh ponies and riders.  I'm very pleased to say that Gripping Beast did an outstanding job casting the Welsh horse. Short, stout and almost cuddly!

Coming soon to a Saga event near you

Viking Berserkers, long hafts and all

When I popped these Gripping Beast  Berserkers out of the box, I noticed the axe hafts were very long, with one axe being taller than the figure.  It didn't look right to my eyes so I considered clipping the hafts down.

Fortunately, I didn't do that because the Bayeux tapestry clearly shows axe hafts nearly as long as the axemen.  Plus, there's a theory that a longer haft was reflected social status or ranking.  It will surprise no one that men have been worrying who's longer since at least the Dark Ages!

"A guy on the internet says I can make this longer."

Hurstwic is a wonderful website loaded with background information on all things Viking, including the use of axes in battle.  As it turns out, a long axe was useful for:

• hooking an opponent's ankle, throwing him off balance.
• hooking the shoulder or neck to pull an opponent out of position.
• hooking the edge of a shield, pulling it away from the defender.

The haft can be used to parry and strike, much like a fighting staff. The video HERE shows how an axe-armed Viking might have fought and defeated his sword & shield armed foe.  It's fascinating to watch and once again, shows my imagination is limited by my modern experiences. And here is a YouTube video of a History channel demo of the Danish axe worth a watch as well!

I tried to share my new-found knowledge with my family at the dinner table.  When I asked if anyone knew how to use a two-handed axe, my son replied "With two hands?"   That was pretty much the end of Professor dad's history lecture for the evening.

These Gripping Beasties come with LOADS of character.  I bent the arms on the fellow in the grey wolf cloak so he could wield a 2-handed axe like his mates.  I spent extra time making these shine since they are the killer unit in any Viking warband.  Throwing 4 dice per figure (rather than 2) in melee makes you belle of the ball in a Dark Ages mashup.

I'm loving the Foundry skin triads and mulling over investing in a full set of Foundry paints.  Their system takes the guesswork out of color jumps for 2-tone and triad painting.  I just have to figure out the paint pot versus dropper bottle angle. And the price. It always comes down to money, doesn't it?

Next week, it's back to the Welsh with a post-up of the warriors.  If you look closely,you'll find the Welsh warriors in this picture.  Waaay, way in the back. Farther.  Keep looking...yea, those guys!

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!  

Plastic Norman sergeants

Up next are my Conquest Games Norman Sergeants.  As with all plastics, you're trading fiddly prep and assembly for $ saved.  Conquest Games plastics run $30 for a box of 15 mounted Normans versus $5 a figure for metal.  I'll post a side by side comparison of painted Norman metal and plastic figs before this warband is through.

Lots of options off the sprue with both horse and men gluing up nicely.  I employed a painting "cheat" to speed things up.  I sorted the horse into 4 lots and then hit them with either Army Painter Black, Leather Brown, Bone or Fur Brown primer.  I then worked up the socks, manes and tails before washing.  The cheat worked well with Leather Brown but not so much with Bone.  2 tone highlights were in order for some of the models, while others looked fine with just a colored primer and wash. 

Don't look at me, I'm hideous! 

A close look shows who was primed with what color.  

I managed to squander the time saved with colored primers in my next step!  I've seen some of you make painting stands for mounted troops so I tried to copy that.  I drilled out water bottle caps, clipped out piano wire, drilled holes in the the rider's bottoms (hey now!) and blu tacked them down.  This was a poor idea as the figures kept swiveling about on the piano wire until I blu tacked the feet as well.  HINT! Just glue the damn figures on their mounts and paint away. It's not like we're painting for the Louvre.

I should mention I assembled my milites/hearthguard with teardrop shields while sergeants/warriors got spears and round shields.  That way, everyone can tell at a glance what my warband is made up of.  The bare wooden shields were a lifesaver as it meant I only needed 8 fancy shields and not 12!

Saga - Norman archers and crossbow

First up for my Norman warband are my shooty guys.  The Normans have good shooting abilities on the Saga battleboard.  Massed Volley lets bow units shoot at twice as their normal range.  Even better, Storm of Arrows activates ALL ranged weapon units to shoot with no fatigue. Being able to shoot archers and crossbow twice in a turn with no fatigue is a big bonus.

Crossbow units reduce the armor value of their target by 1.  Unfortunately, they suffer a -1 to their armor value in melee due to their cumbersome equipment.  I'll greatly enjoy turning enemy units into pincushions as they approach and then I'll be quite sad when they get sucked into melee.  Crossbow count as warriors so they're easier to activate than levy archers, they generate a Saga die (levy archers don't) and they get more dice per figure for shooting.  They seem like an obvious first choice for any Norman warband!

I painted 8 but count only 7 in the pic.   Hellooooo?

Queue Monty Python's "How Not to be Seen."

Levy bow are my second shooty unit.  The question is, do I take 2 units of levy bow or 1 crossbow and 1 levy bow?  2 units of levy bow kills you in the Saga dice generation phase so it's a tough call.  I may paint up a 2nd unit of bow so I have options. I can see Burkhard shaking his head "NO!" at the idea.

All Gripping Beast figures. Army Painter Strong Tone painted on, not dipped.  I put a coat of Future polish over the top over the highlights for protection, followed by Liquitex Matte Medium to take the shine off.  Basing is Woodland Scenic ballast- 50% Fine, 50% Medium.  And since these metal figures are prone to tumbling around in the box I'm storing them in, I ordered up Litko magnetic bases for the 25mm disks.

Next week, I'll get my Vikings on the tabletop at a small local Con, followed by food and beers with my friends.  I'm thinking the whole event will look something like the picture below. Ah, life is good!

Viking Warlord Egil Skallagrimsson

By any measure, Egil Skallagrimsson was a badass.  Really, I hear you ask, how bad was he?  According to Egil's Saga, Egil was playing with a some of other kids when an older boy threw him to the ground. The  kids laughed and Egil got pissed.  He went home, grabbed an ax and used it to split the boy's skull to the teeth.  The two households came to blows and seven men were killed. Egil's father was unhappy but his mother thought he had the makings of a real Viking. He was 7 at the time! Egil was a boy you did NOT invite over for birthday parties, playdates or sleepovers.    

The detailing on this Gripping Beast figure was superb.  At times, I was guessing at what I was painting. Hopefully, it's not obvious!

Once again, bark found its way into another project!  I'm very pleased with how my warlord turned out.

The positive painting mojo carried over from the workbench to the gaming table in my first game of Saga.  We played A Feast for Crows with a Viking -Viking - Anglo-Danish mashup.  I had Egil up front because I didn't know better and half way through, my warlord went in side by side with my berserkers.  They cut the opposing Viking warlord to pieces.  Late in the game, the Anglo-Danish set on Egil with 6 Hearthguard armed with the deadly Dane axe.  To demonstrate the long odds against me, our host dropped 2 headstones on the tabletop before I threw my dice.  One for Egil and one for his last Hird. Egil smote 4 of the Danes and the survivors fell back in fear.  

My Viking opponent sent his last warriors at Egil.  Insults were thrown. parentage was questioned and finally, dice were thrown.  When it was over, every Viking warrior was dead, as was my warlord.  With his dying breath, Egil was heard to whisper, "We won on on points!" Epic and hilarious!  The Saga fire is lit and now onto my Norman warband.  

Gravestones at the ready.  

Looks like you'll be needing two more headstones, fellas!

A dip with Viking archers

There's some debate among Saga players on whether levy archers are a wise choice for the Viking warband.    I figure they can screen my lads as they madly rush crossbow, javelin or archer-armed foe. Even if I don't use levy archers regularly with this warband, just having them painted up gives me the chance to mix things up a bit.

My go-to method in 15mm is to block paint, wash with Devlon Mud and highlight to finish.  Sadly, I've used up all my Mud.  Agrax Earthshade is supposed to be the new Devlan Mud but it isn't.  I recently tried mixing up my own washes but I can't quite match the color/shading of Devlon Mud. I've seen the great work many of you do with Army Painter Strong Tone dip so I figured I'd give it a go.

Boring!  

$29 for a tin-is there a genie or leprechaun at the bottom?  

Having done this all of one time, I've declared myself something of an expert on the subject.  Here are my thoughts.

What works? Great coverage, good shading, very good consistency in that it sticks to the figure well without all running down to the base like my Future mixes do.  AP puts a protective coat over your painting, which is especially handy with skirmish figures.  The shading is quite nice once it cures.  

What doesn't?  Good lord it stinks!  I can't dip with an open window because its winter.  This is a challenge for anyone who lives as far north of the equator as the Vikings once did.  When I dip, I have to do it quickly and then shut the door to my painting room.   Also, I have to keep mineral spirits on my painting table to clean my dipping brush and to be honest, I'd much rather work with water-based products for the easy clean up and no smell.  

Gripping Beast figs dipped and highlighted.  Once again, I kept a limited Dark Age palette.  I'm pleased with the results but I'll go a bit lighter on some of my base colors the next time.

Up next  is my Viking warlord  pictured in his Saga below.  If you can name the man in the floppy black hat, I'll spot you +20 Viking history points.  Well, anyone other than Michael of the excellent Dalauppror blog as he'll know this on sight.  Sorry, Michael!

Viking poet, warrior, farmer...and stone cold killer.