Koyote's SAGA Age of Crusades and Age of Chivalry

[Little Odo]

They look awesome. A great looking warband.

[mikedemana]

They look great! Keep them coming...

Mike Demana
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/

[Koyote]

In my Mutatawaii'a warband, the warlord will be mounted on a camel as well as a single unit of 4 hearthguard.

As I posted earlier, I struggle to find dark age or medieval camel and rider models that are well sculpted, properly proportioned, and well casted. I've purchased camel models from Gripping Beast, Perry Miniatures, eBob  Miniatures, Irregular Miniatures, and even an Aussie company called Castaway Arts. I've looked online at what's available from Eureka Minaitures, Black Tree Design, Warlord Game, Wargames Foundry, Essex Miniatures, Alternative Armies, and others.  In my opinion, all of the models are either too small (most companies), hideous and too small (e.g. Black Tree Design and Alternative Armies), poorly proportioned and too small (e.g., Gripping Beast), and/or casted poorly.  I've come to the conclusion, that models fitting this description simply don't exist, so I am going to have to make due with what's out there.

The camels from Irregular Miniatures are the correct size and except for their feet, are well proportioned.  The quality of the sculpts is meh and the quality of the casts ranges from poor to absolute crap.  Nevertheless, equipped with a rotary tool and greenstuff, and fueled by my peculiar form of modeling OCD, I'm confident that I can make the Irregular Miniature camels presentable.

Below, for purposes of comparison, is shot of the Gripping Beast camel, a WIP Irregular Miniature camel (I still need to fix the defects on the legs and sculpt proper feet), and a second Irregular Miniature camel.   The sculptor of the Irregular Miniature camel added patches of long hair to the model's head, top of the hump, and to its left fore flank, but oddly enough, not on the right fore flank. The patches of hair aren't especially well sculpted and thanks to the quality of the cast, much of the detail has been lost. Rather than try to repair the lost detail, I used my rotary tool to file away the patches of hair on the body.  I then used  greenstuff to cover up the file marks, fill in holes and cracks created by the poor casting, and better portray some of the camel's musculature.

BTW, the Irregular Miniature on the right is an example of one of the best casts I received. the tassels on the bottom of saddle blanket are deformed and mostly missing, but at least cast of the blankets are sharp enough to distinguish between the upper and lower blankets. On half of the models I received the tassels are completely gone and the two blankets look like they've melted into one blurred mess dripping down the camel's side.  I continue to be amazed that manufacturers will allow such crap casts to leave their factory (or in the case of home casters, their garage).  Personally, I'd be ashamed to charge full price for such crap casting.

[Breazer]

I feel for you sir!

But as usual you will give this the attention and care to make it work. I'm curious how the end result will be.

[Koyote]

Camel's feet are big and wide to keep the camel from sinking into loose and shifting sands, and the webbing between the toes unites them into a single surface to further resist sinking.



As you can see from the picture below, the feet of the Irregular Miniature's camels falls far short of proper camel feet (they look more like deer hooves), so I made my own. 

I also used greenstuff to repair the tail tuft, which was deformed by the model's poor casting. 

[Tonhel]

That looks very cool!

[Codsticker]

As you can see from the picture below, the feet of the Irregular Miniature's camels falls far short of proper camel feet (they look more like deer hooves), so I made my own. 

That... is attention to detail.

[Koyote]

Now that I’m satisfied with my prototype, it’s time to start shearing camels.

[Atheling]

Watch those digits!!

[Koyote]

Watch those digits!!

Thanks. I have yet to be bitten by my rotary tool, but as all long time modelers know, these things are only a matter of time...


The camels have been shorn and based.  They are now ready for greenstuff.

[Atheling]

Thanks. I have yet to be bitten by my rotary tool, but as all long time modelers know, these things are only a matter of time...

Good luck with that. I once cut into my thumb so badly it took the doctor in the hospital five hours to stop the bleeding! In the end he had to get the silver nitrate out!!  I missed the main nerve in my thumb my less then 1mm!!!

From that moment onwards, whenever I have to force anything with a Dremel or a scalpel/modelling knife I put Kevlar gloves on!

[Koyote]

Good luck with that. I once cut into my thumb so badly it took the doctor in the hospital five hours to stop the bleeding! In the end he had to get the silver nitrate out!!  I missed the main nerve in my thumb my less then 1mm!!!

From that moment onwards, whenever I have to force anything with a Dremel or a scalpel/modelling knife I put Kevlar gloves on!

I’ve cut my fingers countless time over the years, but nothing nearly as bad as that. Yikes!

My weirdest hobby injury involved a xacto blade.  I was holding my knife and model up, just below eye level. When the blade slipped from my grasp, I was afraid that it’d land point down in my lap, so I made a grab at it. My clumsy swipe at it made contact, but instead of knocking the hobby knife away, it did the opposite. I remember looking down at an xacto blade sticking out of my chest. The tip went into the costal cartilage just to the left of my sternum.  It didn’t hurt or bleed too much, but it  was a weird experience pulling a xacto blade out of my chest.

I remember saying to myself: “What a dumb ass.”
 
I paused my audiobook, cleaned the wound, put a bandaid on it, took two Tylenol, and then went back to work on my models. I still have the t-shirt with the half inch slit in it, just to the left of my sternum.

[Atheling]

I’ve cut my fingers countless time over the years, but nothing nearly as bad as that. Yikes!

My weirdest hobby injury involved a xacto blade.  I was holding my knife and model up, just below eye level. When the blade slipped from my grasp, I was afraid that it’d land point down in my lap, so I made a grab at it. My clumsy swipe at it made contact, but instead of knocking the hobby knife away, it did the opposite. I remember looking down at an xacto blade sticking out of my chest. The tip went into the costal cartilage just to the left of my sternum.  It didn’t hurt or bleed too much, but it  was a weird experience pulling a xacto blade out of my chest.

I remember saying to myself: “What a dumb ass.”
 
I paused my audiobook, cleaned the wound, put a bandaid on it, took two Tylenol, and then went back to work on my models. I still have the t-shirt with the half inch slit in it, just to the left of my sternum.

Holy &$#*. That must have been an extremely worrying moment seeing the knife sticking out of your chest like that! 

[Koyote]

Aside from sorting out the reins and adding a forward saddle horn, I'm almost done with the camels. 

Some of their feet are a bit too big, so I will have to trim them with a hobby knife.

Each model had a loop of rope around it's neck from which hung a tassel.  The tassels and ropes were severely deformed by the poor castings, so I removed them altogether, and covered up the scars left by their removal with greenstuff. 



As for the riders, I'm going to use two Gripping Beast camel riders and 3 Footsore Miniatures minis from their Arab Heavy Cavalry kits.

The model on the far right will most likely be my Warlord. It's pose is quite static, but its the most heavily armored and thus the most impressive of the five.

[Little Odo]

Excellent repair work on those camels. The feet look OK size-wise to me. Your choice of riders is also very inspired. Looking forward to seeing them painted up.