Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Medieval Adventures => Topic started by: kuba on May 11, 2018, 04:29:03 PM
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Hello everybody,
first of all, I'm not sure about forum regulations concerning swastika imaginery and if some of the shield designs violate them -if so then I'll modify the post (If admins won't be quicker).
After a long time of reading the forum I decided to share some of my own creations: warband for SAGA made of various plastic sprues and leftover bits from other projects. It's only five points of troops, I use bear miniature from my frostgrave stuff as a champion for 6th point, but I plan to paint some more regular guys -probably another point of hearthguard or steppe nomads mercenaries. I'm still figuring out what'll work best for me, as I only played once (and gained a victory over my brothers anglo-saxons).
Those guys are a little anarchronistic and perhaps closer to fantasy version of slavic warriors, but they'll do for me -probably doubling as baltic pagans for Age of Crusades.
So, here they are, starting from 1pt of hearthguard and leader (with mask):
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/826/42039599811_0fae19a11c_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/273TWop)
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/951/41319133314_425a509f7f_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/25XemNf)
Second point of hearthguard. I used them both as one 8-men unit and I think that's the way I'll field them.
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/974/42039600981_8e1dcd4aaf_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/273TWJz)
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/959/41319133854_6a3a37538c_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/25XemXy)
First unit of warriors:
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/909/40231734930_c4cc752b34_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/24i9a9f)
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/953/42039680821_f059f1248d_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/273Umt8)
and the second one. It seems easy to slavify plastic late romans, normans or other generic looking warriors -just adding some greenstuff loose trousers and painting tablet veawing patterns along the cloth edges makes the trick
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/971/28166296888_9b89df98c6_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/JUXCLq)
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/911/40231735520_8cb9ec64c6_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/24i9ajq)
And last but not least 1 point of levies. I use them as two 6 men units just for generating saga dice. Veawing patterns are simplier here (just one colour over the edge, actually as I look at them I realised I forgot to paint it around the neck of the bald guy on the center-left of the picture):
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/826/28166359718_87b08007f4_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/JUXXrG)
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/949/41995101522_7d36c45a7a_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/26YXSAw)
that's it, time for some games and then completing the 6th point.
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Nice, cool to see one of the new factions.
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Very nice painting, especially the shield designs. :-*
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Good looking collection :-*
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Great creations and paint jobs! I always love seeing eastern pagans!
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They have turned out well :)
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Lovely stuff 8) 8) 8)
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Excellent work!
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Nicely done :)
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Thanks guys :) As I wrote earlier my previous plans were to use them in Age of Crusades, but I just came back from XIII century reenactment tourney amd I seriously consider knights templar or teutonic order... and Saga was supposed to be a quick side project between Ghost Archipelago and Hail Caesar ancients :P
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You've done a lovely job, who makes the figures in your first picture?
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Wookongton, all of them are kitbashed, from left to right:
Gripping Beast late roman body, hands and shield,
Fireforge russian infantry with Victrix shield (samnites or iberians, I'm not sure)
Gripping Beast viking body, Fireforge russians hands, Victrix carthaginians head
Conquest Games norman infantry with Foreforge russians head and sculpted trousers
Fireforge russian infantry with Victrix shield and Perry's archers axe hand (with sculpted glove and scale armour).
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What a great looking bunch on miniatures. Can you sheed some light on the kits that went into them. I see GP drak age warrior and fireforge russians.
Cheers
Erik
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Thanks Erik, I used whatever leftovers I had that seemed more or less suitable plus some single sprues from different kits. Bodies are two sprues of Gripping Beast late romans (with most decoration covered with liquid greenstuff), one sprue of Fireforge russian infantry, two sprues of Gripping Beast dark age warriors, one sprue of Conquest Games norman infantry, some Warlord viking bondi, one Grippomg Beast viking, few Fireforge sergeants. Heads are from those kits listed above plus from Victrix carthaginians (all those heads with cone helmets), unidentified bare heads from Victrix (probably from slinger or greek unarmoured infantry), few Warlord Games celt heads and Northstar Frostgrave soldiers, one of Wargames Factory numidians and Gripping Beast arab infantry. Shields, weapons amd arms are from whatever kit suited -all of listed above and Foreforge mongols. I love plastic miniatures :)
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Great kitbashing, and just goes to show that in creative hands, plastic components, well put together and well painted can amount to a great deal more than the sum of their - often rather average looking - parts.
Someone was arguing on a thread the other day that multiposability of plastics was a myth.
Your work on these puts paid to that little canard :)
Plastics are what you make of them. Metals are what they are.
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Since my pagan rus I finished few other things and started some more -decided to share some of it here, and change the subject of the thread, as my saga rus force is slowly expanding into full Hail Caesar army, and besides russians I finished Lithuanian warband and started some miniatures for Cumans, teutonic knights and poles. For now, just few conversions and kitbashes:
first, the kind of pilgrim that You don't want to start discussion with. Or even stay nearby, as apparently ferociuos devotion is more important for him than such mundane things as hygiene or clean clothes.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49788473698_a38961a891.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iRCWCj)
He will make one of pilgrims for Saga, or christian mystic for one of the book of battles scenario.
Next, some western crossbowmen observing charge of the teutonic knights and cheering for bloodshed:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49788460958_d15370bf1e.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iRCSQE)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49789318762_4a329952e0.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iRHgQo)
those could be western settlers brought to prussia, mercenaries or members of the order -halbbruders. I plan to paint them in neutral colours, with maybe one or two with visible black crosses, so that they could also make for Saga's northern crusader force, or in case of the guy with his foot holding the crossbow -for eastern princes russian crossbow levy.
Now some menace from the steppes: Cuman warlord accompanied by a pack of wolves:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49789327237_1e0e3de921.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iRHjmv)
Iconic Cuman moustaches on the mask are not clearly visible, but hopefully it will change after I paint him. I already made some steppe raiders to accompany him, those will serve as Pechenegs or one of the turkic tribes from Cuman-Kipchak confederation -those would make one division for Hail Caesar or could be used for Saga for variety of different warbands (from age of vikings mercenaries to age of crusades steppe peoples, byzantine bulgar allies or even hungarian warriors -magyars or cumans).
Also from the steppes, or from forest tribes of siberia -shaman, on foot and mounted:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49789009671_dd35ab71f7.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iRFFXe)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49789324652_11281080f8.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iRHizW)
those two were started a long time ago, it's about time to finally paint them, though mounted version still needs some conversion work on the horse to make it look more eastern. Could serve as Saga pagan priests, though when they lost the ability to generate saga die I'm not as tempted to include them in a warband as when I started working on them.
And last but not least, some Rus:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49788998661_5bc3e2621d.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iRFCFp)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49789000131_bdb5ec7b85.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iRFD7K)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49788457533_22164f2d44.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iRCRPB)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49788458838_30da587409.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iRCSd7)
Victrix plastics were too good to ignore, so I bought few sprues of vikings and anglo-saxons. While I like them a lot, they have some drawbacks -the poses are somewhat limiting, as arms have fixed angles to the torsos, also weapons are too fragile for my clumsy hands: I repalced all of the spears after experiencing how delicate they are, I even broke a sword with a brush while painting, one of the guys above have large chip on his blade made while cutting it off sprue. Those few rus are clearly some kind of VIP honchos, apart from them there are some heavy armoured
varangians with more scandinavian equipement and about 40-50 unarmoured warriors, wich would probably look more interesting after painting.
Now, painting... ;D
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These are some great conversions! Can't wait to see them painted up!
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Splendid kitbashing :-*
Can’t wait to see these painted :)
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Wonderful conversions. Looking forward to seeing them painted.
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Great conversion, looking forward to seeing your progress on this.
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I'm really enjoying this 8)
Could you point me in the direction of any visual sources you are using for the Lithuanians and Cumans please?
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These are some great conversions. very well done!
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Thanks for kind words guys :)
Atheling, I will show You what I used for inspiration, though most of it were just pictures from the net and miniatures of other people :)
I have some doubts about sharing some pictures, as I'm sure most of them comes from osprey books, so if my post violates any IP law I have a kind request for the admins to rmeove just the pictures, not whole stuff.
Starting with Cumans:
I don't have any osprey book specifically about steppe nomads, there is some about Cumans in "Kalka River 1223", as they played a large role in the clash. The illustrations in the books depicts elite, wich of course wear brightly coloured and decorated clothing. That style really captures my imagination and makes all eastern turkic tribes even more cool, but I'm not sure it could be safely applied to regular nomads, also typical riders probably didn't wear too much armour. For the hearthguard I went with gripping beast heavy arab cavalry with fireforge russian helmets and hands, adding some mustached masks here and there and horsehair plumes from fireforge mongols -they look as "typical" heavy armoured medieval eastern rider, with lammelar armout and helmets covering faces. What I didn't make but I definitely should, are the distinct harnesses worn by the armoured cumans with round metal plates covering their breasts -It sceams "Cuman" almost as loud as those mustached helmets, but I'm afraid I won't be able to sculpt it right. There are also few things that I should change but I realised it when it was too late, like gloves on the fireforge russian hands (horse archers wouldn't use gloves) and length of armour (GB arabs lamellar ends just on the waist line, but there should be some mail covering the thighs.
For regular warriors are mix of gripping beast dark ages cavalry and arab light cavalry, with few parts from fireforge mongols (mongol fur caps). I added greenstuff high turkic caps and high felt boots with stirrups for those dak ages bodies (though I forgot about harnesses supporting the boots, that is visible on many cuman statues). That gave me a mix of tunics with different length and differently styled warriors -as Cuman-Kipchak confederation were a gathering of many tribes, and as I plan to use miniatures whenever possible so I aimed for generic nomad style. When it comes to painting I decided to use darker colours for hair, but there are some theories that Cumans were actually bright haired as their name in few languages suggests. Unfortunately, I won't post yet any pictures of my own, as they are mostly unfinished and are waiting in line to get done.
Here are the pictures that inspired my Cumans:
Pecheng woman and man:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49792327193_86b87deb88.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iRYG8T)
Cuman noble:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49793131322_07e40d079d.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iS3Pbb)
Cuman warrior:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49793136012_124c7fb653.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iS3Qz3)
and another one:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49792857996_1bdbeed6c4.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iS2pVE)
On the left: Cuman noble, on the bottom right: Cuman Khan:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49792315923_7a5443201a.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iRYCMz)
Badass steppe huntress:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49793180687_6c15dfb686.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iS44Ri)
Sabre, mail and helmet found in Ukraine:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49792343628_2aff979e33.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iRYM2f)
Later Cuman mercenary:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49793203952_6b879d78a8.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iS4bLq)
And probably the only piece of visual evidence left from cuman themselves: Cuman stautes:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49792892731_1073698059.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iS2Afx)
If You look close enough they have visible lines representing (probably) those distinct harnesses.
They also make perfect Saga objective markers:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49792889427_1c90cc7b30.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iS2zgz)
I made mine with a drinking horn, to use also as an objective marker for pagans of prussia -those poeple also left quite a few of statues, called: "prussian baba"
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49792888211_d37efa487b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iS2yUB)
and ling to some polish reenactmnet group's blog, they show some pretty cool headwear:
https://dregowia.blogspot.com/search/label/Po%C5%82owcy?fbclid=IwAR2kRTE4CAm1JqOlxE6arhgr1uu0ptSLwn59rO-1C4PoCY3RQA6HSCyy60Y
And pictures that inspired my lithuanians -because Saga lithuanian variant of eastern princes have very similar unit composition as pagan peoples, I aimed to make a force that could convincingly pass as XIII century lithuanians of Mindaugas and as some prussian tribe. The most common motiffs are shorter mails, that doesn't cover legs or forearms, lamellars armour, small pavises and ruthenian/simple norman style helmets for balts or pointy kettle hats for lithuanians.
The promised pictures:
later (XIV century) lithuanian knight:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49792862211_d39d8237eb.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iS2rbk)
probably polish knights from Mazovia, those used more eastern equipement inspired by their lithuanian and ruthenian nieghbours:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49792858971_618e5c96db.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iS2qdt)
Baltic pagans:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49792287388_776e68da67.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iRYuiA)
Probably too saturated pagans, balts or lithuanians (though the kneeling guy looks quite western):
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49792277803_8ca402ae25.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iRYrsk)
Barely visible pagans, couldn't find those pictures in better resolution:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49792860101_7e3f3a5f9b_n.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iS2qxX)
Some more barely visible baltic warriors:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49792328203_0c84e48502_n.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iRYGri)
The kite shield is based on Gniezno Doors, which depicts scenes from the life and death of Adalbert of Prague, who tried to christianize prussians, so the shield is more suited for prussians than lithuanians. It's also debatable if the diagonal lines are metal reinforcemnet or just painted pattern:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49793273402_a4ae56ed1d.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iS4xpQ)
again, some baltic pagans (with baba on the left):
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49792866006_59a143493c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iS2siL)
and some more:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49792317933_fe8a581a8f.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iRYDoe)
For shield patterns I googled belarusian and lithuanian folk symbols, like these:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49792877501_aaf99e46f6.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iS2vHX)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49793169142_26b132cfb8.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iS41qf)
I have some pictures of finished lithuanian cavalry based on conquest games norman knights:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49793176537_7fdbc50713.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iS43BK)
and some closeups:
Leader:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49792582441_8f4cce9d5c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iS111H)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49792887547_9a847b807d.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iS2yHa)
Hearthguard:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49792021273_dd2f2fcc96.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iRX8cp)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49792020318_627efe3caa.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iRX7UW)
back of the models - I hacked some of the bodies without mail and glued the torsos from Gripping beast heavy arab cavalry, the lower part with aketon was painted as metal to look like lamellar armour:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49792871597_98965199b2.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iS2tYa)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49792867352_368a4d0b28.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iS2sGY)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49792010643_0e6fd6424c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iRX538)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49792862632_a8bb77da5c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iS2riA)
Thats it, some day I'll show the cumans too.
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Wow!!! :o
Thank you so much for going out of your way and taking the time to post up the pics.
It's a battle that I've always had an interest in but it's almost impossible to buy miniatures for apart from the Rus- so Kudos for doing the conversions which have turned out so well.
Appreciated 8)
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1st corps sells some good lookinf eastern europe medievals:
https://1stcorps.co.uk/product-category/medieval/early-medieval-crusades/medieval-europe-eastern-europe/medieval-europe-eastern-europe-supplement-packs/
Drabant Miniatures from Russia makes excellent steppe nomads (including Cumans), but there are just two models per tribe (pair of Pechenegs, Alans and Cumans):
https://www.oldgloryuk.com/28mm-dark-ages-range/53/224/536/554
I was looking forward to see fireforge pechenegs, that were one of the goals of their last kickstarter with byzantine miniatures, but sadly kickstarter barely reached first goal, and nomads were promised as one of the last goals, so we won't see them in nearby future (if ever).
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1st corps sells some good lookinf eastern europe medievals:
https://1stcorps.co.uk/product-category/medieval/early-medieval-crusades/medieval-europe-eastern-europe/medieval-europe-eastern-europe-supplement-packs/
Yeah, I know the Curtey's/1st Corp guys very well and they do produce some really nice miniatures. If I'm honest i do find the posing of these particular models quite static or I would have snapped them up.
Drabant Miniatures from Russia makes excellent steppe nomads (including Cumans), but there are just two models per tribe (pair of Pechenegs, Alans and Cumans):
https://www.oldgloryuk.com/28mm-dark-ages-range/53/224/536/554e won't see them in nearby future (if ever).
Andy gave me a number of their Anglo Saxons when they were first released through OG and they are lovely models. As you say the range is limited and they are quite large when put next to say the 1st Corp stuff.
If I go for it I think I'm going to go the way of converting the mini's as you have done so well.
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Brilliant work, quite inspirational!
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Oh wow! Thanks so much for such a thorough explanation! And again, stellar work with the conversions!
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Really interesting stuff, and you have done a great job on the conversions.
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Great brushwork on the pagans!
Cheers
Matt