Wild West Posse 2 WIP

Here are a couple of WIP shots of the next posse for the Wild West project. Actually "WIP" is stretching it a bit as they are all but finished: they just need a quick "dusty" drybrush to dirty them down a bit, some varnishing and finally have a tuft or two added to their bases before they are done. 

As I wrote in the comments to the last post I didn't feel very motivated to paint these up. But thanks to your encouraging words, dear readers, I soldiered on and in the end they turned out quite nice I think. However, I couldn't be bothered to come up with paint schemes for them, and so I more or less copied the ones on the Foundy site. Also, there are some areas that I'm less than happy with and which I planned to go back and redo, but to be honest I will probably leave them as they are.

To the right are some close-ups of the models (click for bigger pictures). The more astute of you have of course noticed that the outlaws have been infiltrated by a sheriff!

All models are once again from Foundry, except the sheriff which is from Black Scorpion – he's a bit taller than the others, and slightly thinner, but I think he fits in quite OK.

I tried a new thing with these models which worked out pretty well: I always find it a bit boring to have the bases left to do after I've finished the models themselves. So instead of saving the bases to last, this time I started with them. It was actually a quite nice little trick to boost the painting morale, and I think I will use it in all my projects from now on.

When these are finished I will post some pictures of all the Wild West models in action. After that, it's back to the Dark Ages.

Thanks for looking!

Wild West Posse 1

First of all a warm welcome to my new followers: Anibal Invictus, DFlynSqrl, laughingferret, Philip Wright, The Angry Lurker and Ubique Matt. Don't hesitate to drop a question or comment or two!

On to today's business then: As some of you may remember I bought the big starter pack for Foundry's The Rules with No Name way back in January, with the intent to get som Legends of the Old West games going. I managed to finish the first of the two posses, apart from the bases and varnishing, sometime in March or April (can't remember exactly when). The plan was to paint up the other posse as well, before finishing off the bases and so on.

As it happened, I only got the second batch primed and the first layer of their skin painted before this whole dark ages business got in the way during the late spring. Since then they have been put aside, patiently awaiting my return. This whole time I've been determined to finish the project before the end of the year, even though I don't think I will get any games going in the immediate future as my interest in this period has dipped quite a bit to be honest.

Anyway, with the first stage of the Welsh project finished, it's now time to revisit these fellas. Finishing the first posse was easy: A couple of quick and sloppy drybrushes on the bases to make them look suitably dusty, some varnishing, some tufts and they were done. Nice and fast.

Here they are in all their righteous glory, ready to bring the outlaws to justice (i.e. the gallows). The miniatures are all Foundry – nice enough, with a lot of character for sure, but nothing that justifies their (still) exorbitant prices.

Now on to the second posse – the outlaws! I started them last week but time was short as I was away for the weekend. There's a bit more work left on this posse, and I won't get much painting done over this coming weekend either. However, hopefully they will be done before then.

Dark Ages Welsh 7

Well, today I finished the final miniatures for my Welsh starter force for Dux Britanniarum. My, that feels good! As usual it consists of: 3 units of 6 levies/pagenes, 2 units of 6 warriors/combrogi, one unit of 6 elites/teulus, one unit of 4 archers, 2 big men/lesser lords and a lord and his champion.

I couldn't resist mounting them on their movement trays and arrange them for a quick snap, although the archers are missing in the picture above. As usual, the image quality isn't the best (to say the least) but I'll try to get some better shots later. For now, here's a close-up of the lord and his champion (love that model by the way), flanked by the big men.

Actually I have a couple of more miniatures finished, and at the moment the standing for this "multi game project" is as follows (SAGA/Dux Brit/Dux Bell):

Teulu 4/6/18 – 10 done, 8 remaining
Combrogi 16/12/18 – 18 done
Combrogi, mounted 0/0/6 – 0 done, 6 remaining
Pagenes w bows 12/4/0 – 4 done, 8 remaining
Pagenes w spears 0/18/6 – 18 done


To sum it up, what remains to be painted are 8 teulus, 6 mounted combrogi and 8 archers. However, as I also want to be able to field the mounted combrogi in SAGA I will paint another 2 for a total of 8.

As I'm now getting a bit tired of the Welsh, and as a reward for myself, I will take a break from them for the rest of the month and paint some other bits and bobs I have laying around. I'll be sure to post some WIPs later.

Thanks for reading!

Anglo-Saxon Reinforcements

Last night I attended the second round of the SAGA league at Dalauppror's club. As my decision to participate came rather late last week, I found myself once again having to reprioritize the painting: From the last two Welsh miniatures in my Dux Britanniarum force to the final seven Anglo-Saxons that would bring my warband up to six points.

A few days of frantic painting saw me finishing the miniatures a couple of hours before the games would start. All in all I'm quite happy with these, but as I was in a hurry they are a bit sloppy as there were some misstakes I didn't go back and correct. Not that you could tell because of the bad photo ... The miniatures are all Gripping Beast and the excellent flags are from Little Big Men Studios.

My first game in the league (and my second game of SAGA ever) was against Ulf and his Vikings. Some crappy tactics, further worsened by abysmal dice-rolls, saw me thoroughly thrashed. In the end, after six rounds, all that remained of my force was four levies – the rest, including the Warlord, had been wiped out. The final score was something like 26-12. Ouch.

I'm still learning the game, and also find the Anglo-Saxons a bit tricky to use. But then maybe my force composition is not the best. Last night i used 2x4 hearthguards, 2x12 warriors and 1x12 levies with spears. Next time I think I will field the hearthguards as one unit of eight instead, to make them less brittle, and later on maybe swap them both for warriors and/or (missile) levies. Or maybe not! The league allows you to change faction for each game if you wish (and have the miniatures of course), and I'm close to having six points of Welsh which is rather tempting to use. Also, I have four points of Vikings, and it should be an easy thing to paint up another two units.

In next week's round I will probably face Björn and his dreaded Jomsvikings. I watched one of his games last night, and it looks like I'm in for another thrashing. Well, better to have it over with I guess!

Oh, and about the Welsh: As I said there are only two miniatures left in the Dux Britanniarum starter force, the Lord and his Champion, and they are nearly finished. All that remains are varnishing and finishing off their bases with tufts etc. I didn't make my deadline of October 8th, but they should be done by tomorrow evening which is OK by me.