Saturday 25 January 2014

Dark Ages Saxons 7

May I present to you the commanders of the Saxon warband: the ætheling Æescwine and his champion Ceowulf, accompanied by the adlings Eadric and Eadbald.

Noble, Lord, Champion and Noble.

These are the final miniatures for my Saxon warband for Dux Britanniarum. The models are all from Gripping Beast and may actually be off by a hundred years or so, more suitable for the 6th century than the 5th. However, I didn't like the look of the ones in the West Wind Miniatures command set, and the characters from Musketeer, while excellent sculpts, look a little too meek for my taste. So I went with these miniatures from good old Gripping Beast – they had just the right look of cold-blooded murderers I was going for, coupled with some excellent arrogant poses. And the Penda model is just so over the top, I had to use it for my warlord.


For the shields, I've used a new approach: the noble's shield is hand painted while the bird on the champion's shield is an overpainted transfer from Little Big Men Studios. It's not perfect by any means (most notably, I didn't manage to blend the edge of the transfer), but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out – especially for a first try – and I definitely plan on using this technique more in the future.


With these miniatures done, the whole warband is now finished. It's always a nice feeling completing a project, but I'm particularly pleased with this one as it took longer than planned. I will do a photo shoot with the whole force when I get the time. Hopefully, I will get to field them in a game soon too, as I think they're eager to steal some cattle and gold – and kick some Briton behind of course.

Thanks for looking!

20 comments:

  1. Hello,
    Nice saxon command !!!
    Nikko

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  2. Excellent work, once again!

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  3. A suitably grim looking bunch indeed! Great paint job.

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  4. You saved your very best for last! I adore your shieldwork, metals and skin tones. I'm looking forward to seeing these cruel fellows in an AAR.

    A man carrying 2 heads is not to be trifled with!

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    1. Thanks Monty! Hopefully they'll be able to live up to their looks ...

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  5. Why isn't that Dalauppror to the right in the first picture? Again I must say I'm impressed by your blending technique when highlighting. Looks fantastic. Nice tip on the overpainted transfer. I'm painting monograms soon, might give this method a try.

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    1. Haha, why not indeed? ;)

      Thanks for your kind words. I spent a little extra time with the blending on these – the colours are more subtle in real life, as the camera and light make the blending look a bit too harsh.

      By the way, the overpainted transfer technique is something I picked up from – you guessed it – Dalauppror ...

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  6. These guys really do look the business Jonas. Great work!

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  7. Greate and very impresive work Jonas !!! They indeed look like stone cold killers.

    Looking forward to see them on the gaming table soon !!!

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    1. Cheers Michael! Hopefully you'll see them on the table soon – just have to finish my surprise first ... :)

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  8. They do indeed look merciless!
    I love the colour themes you have used - very effective

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    1. Thank you Paul! I'm glad you like the colour scheme.

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  9. Some seriously dangerous looking guys and you've done a wonderful job on them!

    Christopher

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    1. Thanks Christopher! Hopefully they'll walk the walk too! ;)

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