WW II Soviet Infantry

Last year, I took the plunge into painting and playing WW II with Chain of Command and Bolt Action. I enjoyed both rules enough to start a Warlord Games Soviet army. Assembling 60+ plastic figures was a tedious experience that reminded me I'm a painter and not an assembler.  Right after finishing these, Black Tree Design had a 50% off sale on Soviets, making the cost of their metal figures nearly the same as the plastics. D'Oh!  At that price, I bought enough BTD metals to paint up a 2nd Soviet army.

I was looking for shortcuts to get a large Soviet army on the table quickly and after a few tests, I settled on the following:
1. Prime with Plastic Soldier Company's Russian Tank primer (dark green).
2. Block paint in everything but the uniforms
3. Heavy wash with Army Painter Strong tone.
4. Highlights over the top including the uniforms and skin with 2 highlights.  Fast but effective, it got the job done quickly.

  

Tank riders and some odds and ends figures. 

The ZiS-3 looked too boring so I subsequently brought in some railroad ties piled up as cover. 

I was reading about Soviet composer Shostakovitch and his 7th Symphony, composed during the siege of Leningrad. Shosty's story is riveting. After experiencing early success, he was nearly swept up in the purges. It all started when Stalin left one of his performances early.  From there, Pravda denounced his work and other artists were forced to criticize him. Shosty slept on his porch so his family wouldn't see him hauled away in the middle of the night. The war and the 7th Symphony turned things around for him. The symphony was played in Leningrad under the worst of conditions. It remains one of the most famous performances in the history of classical music. 

Since I was doing a Leningrad-themed army, I decided my objective marker would be shout out to Shosty and his Leningrad Symphony.  The piano is by 4Ground.  The cobblestone is roughly done greenstuff.  I used a copy of the 1st page of the 7th Symphony and a picture of Shosty himself.  He's a dead ringer for Harry Potter to boot!

I previously discussed my 2 highlights and a wash technique for painting the Soviet Naval infantry. On the tabletop, I mix the helmet and cap fellows and deploy them as two squads.

Last up is a Warlord Games limited edition female sniper.  I searched high and low for this figure until Rick Davis donated the figure to my army for free.  Thanks Rick!

So how does my Soviet force do on the field of battle?  Well, let's just say I run them about as proficiently as the early war Soviet officers.

Note:  Google + comments  disappeared off my blog this AM for no apparent reason. Troubleshooting this for hours in HTML, I managed to destroy  my blog .  I reinstalled an old template but I've lost my links to everyone's blog.  I've turned on the in blog comments and I'll rebuild my links to all of my fellow bloggers sites in the future.  So sorry!  I'm so tired of this nonsense.  Having a 5 year old blog has caught up with me with lots of crap and errors under the hood.

Forged in Battle Pontics

I'm back to playing ancients with the excellent L'Art de la Guerre rules. ADLG succeeds where Field of Glory (FoG) ancients stumbled.  ADLG creates a fun and decisive 2- 2.5 hour game with lighter figure requirement.  Needing half the figures of FoG, you can paint an army in half the time.  For my first ADLG army, I used Forged in Battle's superb War & Empire figures. They have 30 (!) ancient armies to choose from and many more coming.  FiB sells a Pontic army but I built mine using individual packs. Bonus, the Pontic starter army is 22% off for the month of June. 

So how did the figures paint up? Using "Monty's Method" I finished them in just under two weeks. That's fast by even my standards and a big thumbs up to FiB.  I've used Old Glory 15s almost exclusively for the past 4 years.  With FiB deep bench, variety and crisp detail, I won't be going back to Old Glory.

Conquest Games Medieval Archers

I'm planning to run Normans in a SAGA campaign and needed 24 levy archers to finish my warband. I considered Gripping Beast's archers but with only 4 poses, I took a pass.  I eventually chose Conquest Games medieval plastic archers. You get 28 plastics for about the cost of 12 metal figures.

My experience assembling a Warlord Games Soviet army put me off plastics for a time. This was quite the opposite of that experience. With 4 parts per model, I got them glued up in 2 hours.  I build them generic enough that I can run them in other Dark Age warbands and Frostgrave too.  I moved these from sprue to a game in less than a week. Thanks to Conquest, I've renounced my silly "no plastics" pledge.

I like how Conquest put loads of extras on the sprue and I've now got lots of spares for headswaps. Detail are well molded and the figures painted up nicely, especially the faces.  For variety, you can make left-handed archers and command figures too.  They're well worth a look if you want to create your own Storm of Arrows! Here's a quick summary for Smartphone readers...

Pros:
28 figures.
Lots of options to customize.
Price is right at $1 a figure.
Lots of extra heads and bits.
Work well for Frostgrave and other fantasy games.

Cons:
Some assembly but its simple.
I couldn't find a US distributor but I did find a UK eBay seller with affordable international shipping. You can order them straight from Conquest Games too. 

The Curse of Ivo Taillefer

Ivo Taillefer was a Norman minstrel, juggler and knight who earned immortality at the Battle of Hastings. There he asked William for the honor of first strike against the English.  William agreed and Ivo rode out alone. History says Ivo put on a show, juggling his lance and sword while singing the Song of Roland.  An enraged English warrior stepped forward and challenged Ivo to single combat. History doesn't tell us whether he too was a juggler but I suspect as much.  Ivo slew the challenger and took his head for a trophy.  Needing more heads for his next juggling feat, Ivo charged the enemy by himself.  Anyone who thinks this turned out well, raise your hand.  No-one? Quite right, Ivo was pulled from the saddle and hacked to bits.

Ivo's tentmates greased his scabbard to great effect.

After belatedly discovering Ivo, I decided to paint him as a hero for my Norman warband.  I used Gripping Beast's "William the Bastard" figure with a small modification.  I sawed off William's club-armed hand and pinned a sword hand in its place. After all, history doesn't say anything about a juggled club!

My decision to paint Ivo a bannerman activated the Curse of Ivo.  As I was finishing his figure, I knocked over a bottle of Elmer's glue that knocked Ivo right off the table.  I failed to catch it on its way down and the fall sheared his pinned sword hand clean off. Mildly enraged, I redrilled Ivo's stump, repinning & repainthing his hand.

With Ivo and his bannerman complete, I put them on a 60mm base.  Handling this heavy base was tricky and sure enough, the curse kicked in again while I was applying flocking.  I lost the grip on the base, juggled it for a millisecond and lost it again.  This fall broke off the pinned banner and bent Ivo's mount badly.  Many foul oaths were issued and I had to walk away from the painting table.

When I returned, a  few things were clear. First, I'm no Ivo.  I can't juggle a lance, sword or even a 28mm version of our hero.  Also, the 60mm base was too heavy and awkward for the frequent handling in a skirmish game.  Ivo fought and died alone and it seemed his ghost demanded single basing.  I pried the figures off the big base and rebased them, each alone.

The results are not as pleasing as the big base. Still, I'm hoping single basing puts an end to the Curse of Ivo and my poor attempts at juggling.  So far, I've gone 8 hours without dropping him.  I think that means the curse is lifted!  

Now try that with lead figures.  

US Saga Grand Melee

Adepticon's US SAGA Grand Melee is over and what an event it was! We played in a Great Hall on 20 themed tables with matching terrain. Our hall was decked with banners, shields and a slaughter chart covering an entire wall. We had loads of Gripping Beast and Kraken Skulls swag, event T-shirts, SAGA beverage glasses, Viking reenactors and a shieldmaiden too.  Eric Hagen managed the impossible and topped last year's stellar event.

20 teams participated in the Doubles and 38 individuals played in the two day Single events. To a person, everyone I played was a great sport and passionate about the game. My only regret is how quickly the weekend flew by.  Next year, I think I'll take up SAGA after dark.

Doubles was fun tune up for the Singles event.  After a big opening win, Brent and I faced the UK SAGA Grand Melee 1st and 3rd place champs running Irish. My Rus Princes were blockers while Brent's Irish rushed the hoard.  On the last play of the last turn and the last throw of the dice, they knocked us off the hoard. Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat is what champions do. So close, we could've earned bragging rights for at least a week. A wonderful couple and how lucky are they, traveling and playing SAGA together?  I really have to have a talk with my wife. 

I opened the Singles event with 2 crushing victories and Swiss Pairing promptly punished me with Andy again! His Irish featured Brian Boru & Ulf the Quarrelsome. Ulf was made for the Challenge scenario we played. While my warlord got smacked around by Ulf, his Irish camped in forest and rocky ground, winning the game on might points.  I enjoyed the opportunity to play and lose to Andy a second time. And I did get him to laugh which I count as a win of sorts.

Stephen the Viking rolled into the Great Hall with a Viking crew.  Stephen has raised my SAGA IQ in our email discussions about builds and strategies.  I couldn't believe my luck when I drew him for my last game. We laughed, shook hands and threw dice.  His Franks have the most difficult battleboard in the game and I was curious to see them run. Unfortunately, he couldn't throw a shield (a common die) for his battleboard and his combat dice left him entirely. I sent my Druzhina in; charge, melee, rally to the banner, repeat.  It was not clever or subtle but it was enough to steal the game.

I had to leave right after the game to start a 6 hour drive back to the Cities.  Thoroughly exhausted, I wanted as much  daylight driving as I could get.  Shortly after I left, I got a text saying I won Best Sportsman. I earned the moniker "Mr. 11 Minutes" because that's how much I missed the closing ceremonies by.  D'Oh!  My helpful friends Photoshop-ed me back into the event.  Lesson learned, I'll better sort this out next year.  

Rus Princes for SAGA

I painted Mutataww'ia for the US SAGA Grand Melee but the Princes got my attention during my practice games. That plus the Druzhina models I had under way were so lovely I moved them to the front of the queue. The late switch meant practice and painting were a bit rushed but I'm ready for the big show with days to spare! All Gripping Beast figures from their Rus Princes and Alexander Nevsky lines.

Druzhina:  Druzhina make the Rus Princes warband sing, so much so that it's not uncommon to see all Druzhina warbands.  The Princes of Winter ability raises their armor from a 4 to 6 against shooting and Parting Blow lets them shoot once a turn as if armed with bows or javelines-your choice! Druzhina have the same strengths and weaknesses of all mounted troops in SAGA.  They can fly around the battlefield but are weak against shooting (without the Princes of Winter ability) and struggle in terrain.

Levy: These fellows are kitted out nicely for levy. One can only conclude that Kiev had had a very good year.

Warriors:  I buffed my warriors with some Green Stuff fur and a Holy Icon. The snow basing is a mix of PVC glue, white acrylic paint and baking soda (1/3 each).  After spreading the mix  out on the base, I sprinkled baking soda on top where it dried to a dusty finish.  

The Rus religious adviser (in black) is Milites warlord head swapped with a Pagan Rus warrior.  I added a book that looks suspiciously like a bible. 

This was my first crack at painting a paper banner.  I can't freehand so I printed a picture of St. George and painted over it. It was tedious work but effective. I used dark base colors, mid tone and highlights to get the picture to pop.  It's a bit dodgy up close but from 3 feet, it works.  

 

My display board went from desert to winter with some color bits thrown in.  The murder of crows and wolves are Reaper minis and very nice indeed. The casualties are Gripping Beast figs.

I'm out of my head excited about the Grand Melee!  I've seen some of the war bands making the trip and they are stunning. We've got players flying in from both US coasts and the UK too including this year's UK Grand Melee champion.  We'll play in our own SAGA Great hall dressed up with Viking shields, torches and banners.  We'll get cool shirts, gaming swag and the chance to play SAGA over 3 days.  And I'll get to see Stephen the Viking again. I'm so looking forward to making new Sagas!

Making a Display Board

I'm signed up for the US SAGA Grand Melee at Adepticon in April.  This amazing event has 2 painting prizes-a Master of Brushes for the best painted warband and a People's Choice for the crowd favorite.  For such a big event, I want to put my best effort forward so I decided to make a proper display board.

A display board is one component of a painting score at this and other painting competitions. The purpose of the board is to display your figures at their best in an appropriate setting. You can also use your board to move your figures from table to table during the event.  Display boards seem to have roots back to the Warhammer Fantasy and 40K scene.  These guys really know how to rock it, as evidenced by pictures of boards posted here.  For historical gamers, the bar is a bit lower, thankfully! Not for long though because Warhammer players are migrating to SAGA, Bolt action and other historical games, and they're bringing their awesome painting and boarding skills along.

Desert board for my Mutatawwi'a warband 

Step 1 is to find a good board to build off of.  My first try was a cork-board that turned out to be too small and flimsy (below in green trim).  I found a nice selection of bulletin boards at Michaels Craft Store and selected a steel-backed magnetic calendar for under $30.

Brainstorming board, this one was too flimsy.

At Michaels, I also bought a bunch of cork to use for elevation.  Many display boards are flat and I thought some height might help mine stand out.  In retrospect, it would probably have been easier to build elevation using pink insulation foam.  Mine was done with successive layers of cork and hot glue. I worked a bit of a "wave" in to show off my cavalry shields to good effect.

I painted the wood frame to a suitably desert color.  I used Elmer's Wood Filler to fill the cracks and smooth the transitions.  This goes on easy and cleans up with water.

Next, I covered the board with white glue and covered it with Woodland Scenic ballast.  Once dry, I applied a light glue/water wash to seal the flocking.  Once dry, I painted it with a base coat and 2 highlights.

If I were a terrain superstar, I'd work up a mountain backstop to make it look like Rashid al-din (the Old Man of the Mountain) and his Mutatawwia warband are coming down for a spell. And by the way, Rashid is quite angry!

Finished...or is it?  

Simple Methods for Painting Black

Another SAGA player recently asked me how I paint black.  I sketched out three methods based on my recent painting.  As my email grew longer, I thought I might share it up on the blog.  Spoiler alert, there's nothing new here. 

Each method starts with a black primer coat. Once the figures are thoroughly dry, I go over them completely with Vallejo black paint thinned with a bit of water. This gives you coverage in all the places your primer might have missed.  Plus, Vallejo black dries flatter than the Army Painter black primer I currently use.  

Edging Method: The first method is fast and easy. Pick out the highest points on the figure and edge them with a grey highlight.  I used a Vallejo blue-grey here. The name is worn off the bottle so I don't know what it's called. Your goal is to keep most of the figure black and to do that, use minimal highlights. Less is more! 

Two highlights and a wash Method: This requires more work but it gives you a subtle navy blue to black effect.  I used Vallejo Prussian Blue (dark blue) as my first highlight.  Leave the black intact in the deep crevasses and shadows. I then painted Vallejo Intense Blue in a smaller area on top of the first highlight. Take care to leave some of your first highlight peeking out from under your second highlight. Once thoroughly dry, I applied Games Workshop's Drakenhof Nightshade, a dark blue wash.  I wanted the end result to be very dark so I applied the wash heavily.  If you want your highlights to pop through, cut the wash with water. You might apply a water-thinned wash and check your results once it dries.  If you find you want to go darker still, apply a second thinned wash.

Two highlights, no wash Method:  This method pops nicely at gaming distance.  With no wash used here, you'll need to paint quite neatly.  Don't be too tough on yourself the first time out as it may take some practice to achieve an effect you're satisfied with.  

While you can mix your own grays, I generally paint straight out of the bottle. That way, I can come back to a project months later and match the paint on new figures perfectly.  If you do mix your own, you can try:
Black and Pink for a warm gray.  
Black and Turquoise Blue for a cold grey. 
Black and Green for something different than the first two options.   
I  selected a cold blue gray for my Mutatawwi’a as I figured fanatics are generally not “warm” fellows.  

Apply your first highlight liberally.  Leave black intact  in the deepest recesses and folds.  Then paint a 2^nd brighter gray onto your first highlight. Be neat and leave some of your 1^st highlight showing.  For the 2^nd highlight, I concentrate on places where the sun/light would be hitting.  Remember, each figure doesn't have to be a masterpiece!  Some will look better than others and that's just fine.

This technique leaves you with the least black on your figures.  Don’t freak out when your figure ends up more gray than black.  If that's not a look you like, see #1 and #2 above. 

If you have a tip or trick for painting black, please share it in the the comments section!    

Spanish for SAGA

Spanish are my favorite faction in SAGA, thanks to their cerebral battle board.  It takes time to master their subtle plays and even then, I've just scratched the surface of possibilities this last year. A bonus for running Spanish is you can drive opponent mad with cries of "Iberia!" and "Santiago!" any time you throw the dice.  Guaranteed good times!

I stalled on my way to the finishing his warband due to the number of mounted figures (49). With winter break and some dedication, I just managed to finish them. The Spanish are on my short list for the SAGA Grand Melee at Adepticon in April.

Jinetes: 40 Jinetes (warriors) means I can run a warrior heavy warband.  With an armor of 3 in melee and shooting, you have to work  to keep these lads alive.  They'll shine each time you active them for shooting and during your opponent's turn with Iberia. These are Gripping Beast Norman warriors buffed with greenstuff. You can save yourself the trouble by buying Gripping Beast Spanish, or Perry or Crusader Miniatures Spanish.  All ranked up on the table, 40 mounted warriors is an impressive sight!

Caballeros:  In a balanced build, 2 points of mounted hearthguard gives your Spanish some muscle.

Levy:  Spanish  can take levy bow, javelins or crossbow.  When I take levies, I choose javelins for the ability to move and shoot in the same turn.

Foot warriors/foreign mercenaries:  The Spanish battleboard is made for mounted units, meaning foot warriors are an expensive afterthought.  In some scenarios, you need foot warriors for occupying buildings and terrain, and that's what these fellows were painted for.  They can serve as a Dogs of War Foreign Mercenary unit or simply foot warriors.

Warlord and Bard: You'll notice my warlord has a desert basing scheme.  I had planned to repaint all of my Spanish bases to a desert theme. When I pulled them up to the painting table, I blinked. Instead I'll repaint El Cid's base to match his warband.

I hope you all had a great Christmas holiday.  My son and daughter were home from college and it was great to enjoy Rock Band, family board games and movie night once again. Life is good!