Ogrob's early medievals for SAGA. King of the Britons again 20/8

[Ogrob]

Thank you! Started a little painting today, another eight hearthguard will be recycled from a retired Black Duns unit (one of the projects in my fantasy log), so no conversion pictures there. Once the hearthguard are done I need to built 24 warriors and then I am planning a multi-purpose mercenary unit. I have been meaning to make a unit of javelin armed woodsmen for my Rohan (again, in the fantasy thread) representing Mirkwood woodsmen, but they should also work as some baltic scouts.

[Ogrob]

Right, here we are. Took a couple of weeks but I managed to paint the hearthguard, including their repurposed friends who have previously been Oathmark humans. I've taken some inspiration form V&V minatures' design on their Pagan Rus when converting these, going for some helmet spikes and some feathers. Then I have just gone for some wintery themes with a bit of fur around helmets and shoulders, probably very fantastical but another visual cue that they are not vanilla vikings. The colour scheme is inspired by the Sturgian faction in Mount & Blade: Bannerlord. Warriors will be more gray and less blue.








What do you think?

[commissarmoody]

They look pretty hard to me.

[Grumpy Gnome]

Great work! 👍

[Ogrob]

With the twelve hearthguard built I started on 3 points worth of warriors. There was only a single old Black Duns figure that I wanted to recycle for this project, so I had to build 23 new ones. I've used a majority Dacian bodies, even two of the Bastarnae barechested bodies, plus a few Vikings and a couple of bodies from the Dark Age archer kit, especially the slinger bodies that I had spare anyway. You can make some nice dynamic poses with those.

Because I am using snow on the bases I want the minis to reflect some colder temperatures. I tried to do some scarves as a homage to the Sturgian soldiers and spearmen, but didn't like how they came out, so I've gone with mostly cloaks and some fur. Minis with hats have fur rims added on. In the Osprey volume on russian middle ages there are some pictures of Rus in long open coats, so I sculpted a pair of those as well, but they are a lot of work, so only a few.

I've gone for more old short swords, axes and seaxes as I don't want them to look too professional. For shields, I am thinking a mix of square shields (borrowed from my Oathmark humans) and rounds. Ideally I could split my big warrior units into a round shield unit and a square shield unit on the table.



What do you think?

[Ogrob]

And while I slowly paint the warriors I kitbashed the last component of this force, eight mercenary troops with Javelins. When working for the Pagan Rus they represent baltic woodsmen paid to scout for the main force. In SAGA terms that means they are Guide mercenaries, with javelins.

I've used bodies from Victrix Dark Age archers and Vikings, and heads from those kits plus the Dacians. I went for beards, long hair and if possible bandanas to give them some distinction from my other hairy fellows. For arms and weapons I've used Fireforge's Almughavar kit, with those lovely chopping knives, and supplemented with some javelins and shields from Victrix norman cav and WGA's Irish kit. A real frankenstien to be sure.



What do you think?

[tancrede]

Real frankenstein minis, for sure.
But really good job too ! 

[rumacara]

Very nice kitbashing.

[Ogrob]

Got the Warriors completed. Leaning more towards the quick and dirty, but it will do for gaming. Ended up going with a mix of square oathmark shields and round shield from Victrix. This way I can differentiate units on the table.









And a fairly bad photo of the whole force. Waiting on a sabot base for the warlord, affected by the royal mail mishap unfortunately.


What do you think?

[Tonhel]

Very cool!

The conversions worked great!

[Grumpy Gnome]

Looking good mate! 👍

[Ogrob]

And with my Rhudaur hillmen finished, it is apparently time to embark on SAGA project #3 this year. Could not resist the Victrix late romans, and while I was drawn to the british for modelling reasons, their gameplay in SAGA seemed poor at best, so I went with me second favorite option, the germanic people. Going to be using these as both visigoths and saxons in SAGA.

Here's what I assembled for my first batch to be painted:


What do you think?

[Ogrob]

...and I changed my mind. Inspiration and desire to paint are key to my productivity, I am not a planner. Was not feeling the germanics, so I went back and stripped of some greenstuff, plied off some heads and rebuilt the figures as Romano-British. The Briton force is considered somewhat underpowered in SAGA, but on the other hand, due for a buff when the next FAQ comes out.

So six foot hearthguard from the armoured kit:


And 11 warriors, from both the regular unarmoured sprue and the command sprue in that kit:


What do you think?

[Pattus Magnus]

The figures look great to me! I’m looking forward to seeing the painted versions when you complete them- your colour choices always suit the figures well.

[Codsticker]

Nice work so far- I look forward to seeing them painted. I might have to get a couple of those kits: some as Britons and some as Germanic types.