Koyote's SAGA Britons, Irish,Late Romans, and Saxons

[Ogrob]

Lovely. Finding your original project thread was one of the main reasons I chose to make an Irish force for SAGA myself.

[Koyote]

I’ve begun to lay the groundwork for a new Irish Hearthguard unit.  In keeping with the theme of an early Viking Age Irish clan that has not yet converted to Christianity, I'm numbering among the nobles and royal household who comprise my warlord's Hearthguard, a woman warrior and a druid.  I've read that there is some evidence of Druids in Ireland as late as the 8th century.  Oxford professor Sir Barry Cunliffe, notes an 8th-century Irish hymn that asks for God’s protection from “the spells of women, blacksmiths, and druids”.

The Druid model is from Victrix's Celt Chariot kit.  It was originally painted as a sorcerer for my Age of Magic Celt Horde warband, but it's such a fun model, I couldn't resist adding it to another warband.  The woman warrior is a shield maiden model made by Brother Vinni.  It too was painted for my AoM Celtic Horde warband.

The remainder of the models are V&V Irish.  V&V models are cast in resin and sculpted at something close to true scale, so the detail is very fine. To my eye, the level of detail makes them look a bit out if place when mixed with plastic or metal models. Also, the tiny detail can be challenging to paint and doesn't show up well when viewed from a distance of only a few feet away.  With this in mind, I cut away the models' tiny pouches and the minuscule straps holding the pouches to the belts.  I also replaced the tiny belt buckles with slightly larger, GS buckles.  Lastly, I replaced couple of the V&V heads with Wargames Atlantic Irish heads, which are easier to paint and will help the models fit in better with the other metal and plastic models in my warband.

[Ranthony]

A short history bite that makes me want to delve deeper into the period.
A theme, conjured in your own mind that makes me want to know where it's going.
A short explanation of how you have and intend to continue kitbashing a unit for it.
A single photo with beautifully brushed figures in varying states of completion that make the viewer want more.

An inspiring post for gamers and non-gamers alike, that I will be watching closely.

Thanks for posting this.

Cheers

Ry

[Koyote]

A new Irish warband deserves a new Irish warlord.

I kitbashed this model using parts from the V&V Miniatures Irish (command) and Irish-4 kits. I used the body from one model, the head from another, and the cloak from still another model.  The body wasn't designed for a cloak, so I had to cut away some of the mail and straps from the top of its shoulders and upper back to get the cloak to fit right.  The shield comes from the Wargames Atlantic Irish kit.  The plastic pouch, which I used to cover up a defect in the casting, comes from an old GW Empire model.  I had to reposition he arms and wrists to wrestle him into the pose I wanted.  I still need to do a bit of GS work to fill in some gaps.

In many warbands, this particular model wouldn't be grand enough to warrant the rank of Warlord, but since it'll be the only model in my warband in mail armor, I think he'll stand out well enough.  Plus, the V&V Irish are a bit taller than the Footsore metal Irish and the Wargames Atlantic plastic Irish, so the model's height will help.  Gold cloak pin and trim around the helmet will also help signal the model's status.




When displaying the model, I will likely reuse my old 40mm insert display base to give the model a bit more gravitas.  The pic below shows Brian Boru occupying the base.  Brian's base fits into the large base via a circular insert, and is held secure by a magnet.

[Mesh]

Great painting and great planning efforts. Really shows you put a lot of thought into your projects. After a few armies that look more like a band of clowns I realized how much an army benefits from some preplanning.

[2010sunburst]

Fantastic modelling and painting there.  Truly inspiring.

[Captain Blood]

Beautiful, brilliantly thought out kitbashing and lovely paintwork. A creative masterclass 

[Koyote]

While I was waiting for a batch of inked models to dry, I began work on a simple 40mm insert display base for my new Irish warlord.

I had considered reusing my old Irish display base.  However, while the reds on the display bases' banner and standard bearer's shield complimented the reds on the shield and clothing of my old Irish warlord and my Brian Boru model, I want my entire my Irish 2.0 warband to adhere a bit more strictly to unifying color themes.  Thus, what I need for my warlord's base is a yellow banner that will tie in with some of the model's yellow clothing and trim, the yellows on their shields, and the yellow flowers on many of the bases.

Fortunately, I already have painted standard bearer model holding an impressive yellow and black banner, so this model will get a quick "facelift" to update its flesh tones and smooth out its highlighting, and then it will removed from its current 25mm base and added to my 40mm display base. 



A mock up (you see below) revealed that the Footsore standard bearer looks quite small in comparison to my V&V warlord. I will correct this some by building up that part of the base that the standard bearer will stand on. The scale between the two models will remain "off" but the added height will help conceal it.




Making the insert base is quite simple. I set the smaller base on top of the larger base and drilled a hole through both bases. Next, I inserted magnets to hold the two bases together, and then used Apoxie Sculpt to build up around the smaller base.  In this instance, the height of the Apoxie Sculpt was thicker (higher) on that portion of the base where the standard bearer will stand. Some of the Apoxie Sculpt spilled over onto the smaller base.  This is fine. Once it cured, I trimmed away the extra Apoxie Sculpt.




The next morning I carefully removed the smaller base by popping out the magnets and carving around the outline of the smaller base. Then I reinserted the magnets and glued them in place.




I used the hobby knife and sandpaper to carefully shave the smooth sides of the insert.  It's important that you create a small gap between the smaller base and the walls of the insert.  This is done to ensure that the small base still fits in the insert once both are primered, painted, and sealed with matte varnish.  Varnishing the sides of the smaller base and the walls of the insert is important. Inserting and removing the smaller base will likely result in the two rubbing together, causing the paint to chip or wear over time. Varnish will help protect against this.

[Ogrob]

Nice, always cool to see your process.

[Koyote]

I can check another item off of my Adepticon 2022 to-do list.  I finished refurbishing a unit of 12 levy slingers that I originally built and painted in 2016.

Except for the logs and large rocks, I stripped all of the bases down to the plastic and applied new texture and paint.  I also repainted the slings, scabbards, and a few sets of shoes a red brown (GW's Doombull Brown), so they differ from the dark brown belts, straps and satchels. I repainted all of the models' flesh, smoothed out highlights, and repainted other bits here and there.



When I assembled these slingers, Footsore Miniatures hadn't yet released its metal Irish slinger models. If the Footsore Irish were available at the time, I don't think I would have bothered making my own.

I assembled these models mostly from parts from Gripping Beast's Dark Age Warriors kit. This kit's per-model price is low (75 cents each), plus it includes an ok selection of melee weapons, and the models are easy to assemble.  This makes it a pretty good kit for beginners, but for more advanced hobbyists, the quality of the sculpts, chunky spear shafts, and limited poses leaves a lot to be desired.  My favorite thing about this kit is that it includes FOUR sling hands on each sprue. 

To make the most out of these models, I added sheathed daggers and greenstuff sling stone satchels.  For variety, I put daggers in the hands of a few models, and included a horn-blower model.  I also converted a few models into women by using greenstuff to add breasts and adding long braided hair to beardless head from a Warlord Games' Celts sprue.

Below are some old WIP shots. You can find more on Page 19 of this thread.
 

[Grumpy Gnome]

Great work as usual, thank you for sharing your techniques. I have learned so much from you.

[RedRowan]

Great work on these, this is such a fascinating thread.

Steve

[Koyote]

Pictured below are the first two of my new V&V Hearthguard, posed alongside the unit's druid and shield maiden.  These two fellas are the ones I kitbashed using bitz from Wargames Atlantic's Irish kit.



The inclusion of the shield maiden miniature in this units makes her a bit of an oddball.  Gender aside, her fantasy-Viking panoply really makes her the odd (wo)man out. To better connect her to the other models in the unit, aside from the Druid (another oddball), I've elected to equip all of the models in this unit with similar shields -all painted in yellow and black.

Below is an old picture of the shield maiden's shield.  I have since lightened the yellows to better match the yellow on the other hearthguard's shields.



The downside of this choice is that the shields' irregular surface means that I cannot use transfers.  In general, I prefer transfers.  Hand painting shield designs is very time consuming and can be quite difficult to do well. 

I used the Irish LBM transfers as inspiration for my designs. By sticking to some fairly basic designs, I managed to knock out a couple of okay shields.

[2010sunburst]

Really nice paintwork on those guys.  The shields are more than OK, I would say they are the stand out items on the bunch.

[Grumpy Gnome]

Stunningly brilliant work mate! They all look gorgeous. Your freehand painting on those shields is excellent.