Ogrob's medievals for SAGA. Assembling and kitbashing 15/1

[Ogrob]

Not nearly as quick a turnaround on this batch. Several weekends occupied by other business meant they sat 95% finished for like two weeks.

Warlord:




Knights:


Last six are on the table, and I have started building some infantry for this force. I may also have started several other projects.....

[Hitman]

Those look rather spectacular!! Well done. They will look great in battle on the tabletop.
Thanks for sharing.
Regards
Hitman
😎

[Little Odo]

That warlord is amazing. I really like the freehand leaf work on the horse's barding/caparison.

[Ogrob]

I've spent most of the weekend building and bashing figures.

For Polish warriors I decided to go with Victrix Normans as base. I might need these for a tournament and can't chance waiting for Victrix or WGA to release 13th century sergeants. We've not even seen previews of mounted sergeants yet. Instead I decided for a maybe slightly more archaic look, but good enough for me. As I also grabbed Victrix Pagan Rus set I used some of the heads from that set to give an eastern flair to these.




Why do I have a Pagan Rus set then? Well, as I was contemplating expanding the polish collection to something playable (and being tempted by various sales) it did occur to me that a single set of the Rus would allow me to kitbash a full infantry army. I already have a set of kitbashed Pagan Rus for SAGA, and don't particularly enjoy playing them so no sense rebuilding that faction. A faction that I do like though is the Age of Crusades Pagan People, a faction that represents the various baltic pagan tribes that resist the northern crusades. The Rus kit is definitely close enough to build some of these. However, the faction does need a lot of bow warriors, so I had to dig into the bitbox. Fortunately I had some dark age archer sprues with plenty of arms left. I also scavenged a few other bodies to increase the number of figures without mail to better work for SAGA.



Warlord is a Victrix viking commander with Rus head and arms:


Hearthguard are mostly straight Rus, with one spare Viking:


Warriors with shields:


And 2x12 warriors with bows:



What do you think so far?

[Mikai]

A very well kitbashed force! I like the concentration on axes and spears as primary weapon. It seems like you are missing some quivers at the archers or are they just at the back of the bodies? And not sure if some other kind of bow would have fitted better to them, like the one by the Late Roman Archers. I am however not versed well enough with history to say if those are a good historical fit. And you have had probably just the Dark Age Archers at hand.

Has the new Rus set been "easy" to kitbash with the DarK Age archer arms or did you find it difficult to get natural looking poses with them?

[Ogrob]

A very well kitbashed force! I like the concentration on axes and spears as primary weapon. It seems like you are missing some quivers at the archers or are they just at the back of the bodies? And not sure if some other kind of bow would have fitted better to them, like the one by the Late Roman Archers. I am however not versed well enough with history to say if those are a good historical fit. And you have had probably just the Dark Age Archers at hand.

Has the new Rus set been "easy" to kitbash with the Dark Age archer arms or did you find it difficult to get natural looking poses with them?

Thank you! The axes and spears are indeed a deliberate choice. The archers all have quivers, plus daggers and axes in their belts. As they are warrior-class in SAGA, I've made sure they are a bit more kitted out than normal levy archers.

Good question on the bows, but I'm sure either style would be appropriate depending on how far east or west these particular pagans live.

Kitbashing the Rus and DA archers is a medium difficulty I'd say. Some arms and poses are very straight forward, others require some greenstuff. Having cured dowels on greenstuff in various thickness from which to cut wedges is very handy as some arms need to be adjusted in length to look natural.

[Ogrob]

The third army in this Eastern European mega-project will be Lithuanians. Unlike the poles and the pagans, this army will to a large extent be 3D printed. I've not received the prints yet, so will have to wait to show those. Instead this is the last (for now) kitbashing post and a bit of a homage to the sprue of bits.

When I decided on the Lithuanians, or Eastern Princes as SAGA calls them, the 3D options were missing suitable ranged levy figures. The Eastern Princes have two variants, Lithuanians who can only field bow levy, and Russians, who can also field crossbows. Even though my figures will mostly be Lithuanian, I decided to also build some crossbows.

For bodies for these I ordered Fireforge Game's Russian City Militia. I had seen Captain Blood kitbash some of these years ago and the sculpts look nice. You have to be prepared for Fireforge roughness however, and I am unsure if the resin will take primer well. I have washed them twice in two different soaps and will try the varnish trick before priming. On my shelf I had half a set worth of Victrix Norman Crossbows, and being Victrix there are plenty of crossbows in there. I used these, plus some Rus and Viking heads to kitbash these figures. These also needed the most extensive greenstuff work out of all conversions.


And for the bow levy I went for something a little simpler. I had a few sprues of Wargames Atlantic goths left, and these have incredibly versatile generic bodies. Mikai's comment on bows reminded me I should have some Late Roman bow arms left, but could only find a single sprue. I was able to supplement with some bow arms from the Dacian kit as well. Again, heads are mostly Rus, but I also used two late roman heads with fur hats.


What do you think?

[Mikai]

My absolute favourite is the a little bit fat guy with crossbow. Gives the whole warband some better touch if there also some well-fed persons beneath them. I assume you did it already, I hope they have all some handweapon at their back, axes and clubs and such ^^

It's interesting to see how well one can kitbash everything together with some more greenstuff at hand. The little pelt fur parts are a nice addition. I think a little touch more of those would improve it (the fat guy has enough money to eat, surely he can afford something here ).
Personally I somehow dislike to work with resin models. I have only a few ones for special characters (two trolls, some few dogs) but avoid them at my standard troops. It's the feeling like I break them when I try to work at them. And having bought some Fireforge Dwarf Wizard for my brother also made me realise that they are a bit a pain at gluing the parts together.

The Wargames Atlantic Goth set is an unexpted but well made choice for the bowmen. My problem with products by different companies is always the look of the mail because they are all doing it slightly differently. Using the "just wearing cloth" sets to mix up the troop range is a good idea. And the Goths work well for your purpose.

I was able to supplement with some bow arms from the Dacian kit as well.

That's another good fit which hasn't come into my mind although I have some leftover bits of the Dacian kit around here too. Gives a bit more variety to them since it's a longer bow. Gave me also the idea to rework some archers of them to do that switch, good thing you mentioned it!

[...] and being Victrix there are plenty of crossbows in there. [...]

Now if any of the plastic miniature companies would do sprues just with the bodies, so that I can kitbash all my leftover arms and heads, that would be nice 

[anevilgiraffe]

Now if any of the plastic miniature companies would do sprues just with the bodies, so that I can kitbash all my leftover arms and heads, that would be nice 

tell me about it, I have so many Renaissance Ogre arms and heads...

[Ogrob]

I really should get on with painting, but I did some more kitbashing instead. Just as I had initially planned on using some medieval sergeants for polish warriors, I had planned on picking up WGA's peasant levy for well, levy. The polish are one of few SAGA factions that get spear and shield levy, which can be very cost effective and thus dangerous. They will not kill much, but they will kill more points than they lose.

However, it occurred to me that I had a box of Oathmark light human infantry on the shelf that could work just as well. I built a test figure, and then quickly set about assembling a full unit. I kitbashed them with various Victrix spear arms, mostly Saxon and Rus. Heads and belt daggers come from the Oathmark kit. One of their nicest I must say.



What do you think? What shields should they get? I have plenty of Norman kite shields, and of course the square ones that come with the set. Or simple round dark age shields?

[WorkShy]

Nice.I agree that the Oathmark Human Light Infantry are very useful for kitbashing. The quality of the plastic sprues, in terms of the sharpness of detail, seems to have really improved over their earlier releases. The sculpts are pretty nice. The hooded heads have been really useful for a number of my kitbashes. They also seem broadly compatible with Victrix arms.

Kitbashing is so much fun these days with all the plastic sprues that are now available for these historic periods. I've also got some WA Peasant levy on order!

[Rossco2]

What do you think? What shields should they get? I have plenty of Norman kite shields, and of course the square ones that come with the set. Or simple round dark age shields?

Excellent work there, well done! I would give them dark age round shields, as then they could fit in with a number of SAGA forces if you needed some extra warriors.

[Mikai]

What do you think? What shields should they get? I have plenty of Norman kite shields, and of course the square ones that come with the set. Or simple round dark age shields?

While I agree with Rossco2 that Dark Age round shields would give you the option to let them fit into various different factions if needed I would either go with some teardrop/Norman kite shields to fit your polish levy visually a little bit to your polish knights or alternatively go with the square ones to fit them with your other polish warriors (at least I understood it such that your Rus kitbash resembles polish warriors). Any choice fits though, difficult to go wrong here 

For a levy group I would give them more axes and maces as secondary weapons to their belts. Otherwise a fine kitbash!

[Ogrob]

I received a long awaited parcel of 3D prints today which has allowed to me to finish assembling all the figures and units for the Eastern European mega project.

To reiterate, this will be three separate armies for SAGA Age of Crusades, but as they will share some bits and pieces and I will also base them the same.

Polish with the green knight theme, these are built from the Victrix medieval knights kit, plus the Victrix Norman-based kitbashed heavy weapon and horse warriors, and the Oathmark light human kitbashed levy. They may also need a unit of archers, in which case I will build them from Oathmark light humans as well.

Pagan people, a faction that can represent various Baltic, Finnish or maybe even Sami pagan tribes. These are built almost entirely from Victrix Pagan Rus kit, plus some other Victrix bits like bow arms and the odd Saxon and Viking body.

And then the main event today: Lithuanians, or rather as SAGA calls them Eastern Princes. This faction is divided into a Lithuanian and a Russian subfaction. By model choice I am going to Lithuanians, but may field them as Russians as well because it allows slightly different equipment options in game. Previously I have shown a unit or archers, built from WGA goths, and a unit of crossbows, built from Fireforge Russian militia.

Today I received a number of prints, as said, mostly by Black Knight miniatures. 12 mounted nobles, 12 Samogitian axemen, 12 soldiers with hand axe and shield (well, 11 unfortunately, one body was missing) and some tanners to make objective markers. Also a Slavic commander by Reconquer designs, and a medieval wagon by Northern Crusades.

After a couple of hours of assembly, the Lithuanian host looks like this on my paint desk:


I am currently working on adding details, a driver and baggage, to the wagon. Everything else is pretty much ready for primer.

[Ogrob]

I keep telling myself (and others) that I don't need to do any more building before I get on with painting. However, while painting is under way, the weather had other plans. I can't go outside to varnish or prime anything else at the moment, so I have allowed myself a bit of kitbashing. In fact, I have one update per army in the triple project.

For the Lithuanians, progress on their Wagon. In SAGA terms, this is a baggage wagon that serves as a bit of distraction for the enemy and protection for your troops. I've bashed together a TerrainCrate horse with a 3D print wagon, two WGA goths and some greenstuff to make this:


Then for the Polish, a simple job of some levy archers. These are straight up Oathmark light humans. Since I will have a unit of levy in the army list, I thought I may as well build the bow option too. I will probably use these less than the spear and shield levy, but useful in the right matchup.


And for the Pagan People, the biggest job, six kitbashed hearthguard on horses with javelins. I had to rummage through all my sprues and bits boxes to find legs, bodies and horses for these. Bit of green stuff fur to pagan-ify them.



What do you think?