Saga - Irish Personalities (WIP)

Who doesn't love the Irish? They're just so...heroic (and bristling with little pointy sticks).

Here's a collection of WIP Irish builds for some of the more dramatic elements of the warband:

Warrior Priest. This bad boy is built off of the Gripping Beast Irish standard bearer and wooo is he BIG. That's a 40mm base and even at the extreme running angle he still stands taller than most of the other Irish lads. The better to put the fear of Jesus into his enemies! And of course he needed a little friend to help spread the gospel.

Next in line are the Curaidh; the clans heroes. These fellows started life as a Welsh standard bearer (left) and a Christian priest (right), both from Gripping Beast. A few javelins and some hairstyling later, we've got this.

Finally the Warlord. I used the Fat King Robert from Darksword Miniatures as the warlord himself, with a standard bearer from Curteys Miniatures and attendants and a dog from Footsore. All-in-all the base will be quite busy, but it should also be impressive. No one gets close to the king!

Cheers!

Saga - Rus Test Model

Nothing too flashy, but here's the first test model for a Pagan Rus/Jomsviking/Viking Saga warband:

 

 

I'm experimenting with zenithal priming (go here for a great explanation) and a quicker technique blending washes and line highlights. The results aren't outstanding, but they're certainly passable, and more than minimum tabletop quality. And as a bonus I think once I really get the hang of it, models painted this way should take about half as long as what I'd done in the past.

The only thing I'm really hung up on is the shields. LBMS transfers are the gold standard for Saga shield designs, but unfortunately they don't make anything that fits the Rus rectangular shields. I had hoped to use one of their larger round designs in the middle of the shield and either fill in the edges or just have it be a design that didn't fill the whole shield, but after getting a painted model and a cut out transfer I just don't think it'll look right. This means I'm going to either:  

- have some models with bare wooden or metal shields

- need to hand paint some fancy-pants designs

Either one could look incongruous against the models with round shields who DO get transfers, so I'm still up in the air. I miiiight order some smaller transfers and see how it looks if the whole design fits as a circle in the middle of a big tower shield, but I'm skeptical that it'd work.

Looking forward to getting this warrior some painted friends though! I need to finish three more by the end of the month to meet my Tale of Saga Painters goal.

Cheers!



Epic - Harlequin Night Spinners

Finished unit of three Night Spinners for my Epic Armageddon Eldar army. I think they convey the harlequin theme pretty well.

 

Next up for the Eldar will be a unit of Shining Spears, but Saga is taking most of my painting time at the moment, so it might be awhile.

Cheers!