Hi folks. This one's been a bit of a slow burner. Essentially, I'm a bit pushed for space at home, so if I want to play a massed battle game at 28mm I need to drive over to my mate's (which does have the advantage of him also owning loads of lovely scenery). So the object here is to paint up a couple of early medieval armies at a smaller scale that will be able to duke it out on a rather long but quite narrow kitchen table.
The obvious solution would have been DBA-style basing, but 3-4 guys stood in a line just doesn't do it for me. I thought maybe I could fill up a 40x20mm base with 10mm minis instead to get that 'warband' look, but having bought some packs of the lovely Pendraken Late Romans I realised my eyes just couldn't take it. Damn!
Plan B was to increase the base size and go with 15mm. 60x30mm bases is definitely the upper limit of what will work in the space I have, but at least I'd be able to cram the minis in. I bought a couple of packs of the Forged in Battle Saxons to get me started: WE-GX01 noble infantry, who look suitable for late C4th feoderati types onwards, and WE-GX05 armoured raiders, who are a fair bit heftier than the nobles and look useful for C6th-C8th. I painted the base on the left around December 2021 and then instantly got sidetracked kit-bashing goblins for the next 12 months. I finally got around to painting the base on the right over Xmas 2022.
As I hadn't left room for a die holder, I painted up the lad with the draco to use as a cohesion marker for one of the bases.
Now that I was clearly on a roll I could totally justify picking up a sample pack of Wiglaf minis. I really like the FiB minis, but the Wiglaf sculpts are just incredible. I'm not sure I'll ever fully do them justice. The banner is from LBM. I half wondered if the design might be a bit anachronistic for the C7th (I honestly don't know), but as the Sutton Hoo and Staffordshire horde gear is covered in squiggly beasts I'm happy that it's at least plausible.
The issue I have now is that the 18mm Wiglaf chaps are noticeably larger than the FiB lads. I'd like to say that I'm going to split them up into two separate armies, using FiB as Early Saxons. That's certainly the plan, but given the rate of progress to date we'll have to see how we go.
Next up will be some more Wiglafs: unarmoured/ordinary warriors. Hopefully before next winter...
As ever, advice, top tips and constructive criticism are most welcome.
06 June 2012, 04:22:37 PM
