SBH Fantasy Raiders: Some minis and a mini AAR

[keeper]

At the local club I attend, a few of us have started a Fantasy Raiders campaign, which is like Viking Raiders, but with Fantasy Races

We're using the Songs of Blades and Heroes rules from Ganesha Games.  We're also using 1/72 minis, as they're cheap and available and, frankly, most of us have piles of things lying around that can be put to use!

I've finished the the minis I need for my warband of Dwarves - the Ironhead Giants, and I've sealed them with a heavy varnish to protect them.  I want to use a matt layer over the top, but I don't want to waste my precious aerosol Testor's Dullcoat.  I've got some of the brush-on stuff, which seems to have separated into two layers, and I don't know if that still means it is alive or not?  Anyone got any advice?

In the mean time, here are some pretty pics.  I've not tried to go for the best standard of painting I can acheive as they are likely to take some hammer, but I'm pretty pleased with the result anyway.

The Ironhead Giants

The Ironhead Giants first fight of the raiding season
(SBH Warband List, if you're really interested!)

Unfortunately we landed just ahead of a raiding party of Frost Orcs.  However, neither of us wanted to take too many hits this early in the raiding season, so we reached a compromise to beat up the humans (who put up quite a reasonable fight, I must say!) and share the spoils. 

The humans were pretty weird types who were celts that hadn't been painted yet wore white body paint for strange religions reasons.

Here you see us just after breaking the core of the human's warriors, dragging three of subdued humans, including the village chief back to our boat as slaves, whilst the Ver Ironheadssen brothers (the leader and hero of the warband, in cloaks) provide a protection from and deterant to the orcs and humans, allowing the boys to ensure we got our share of the spoils.  Hmmm ... I think the boat could do with a new lick of paint, too, come to think of it!

Here you can see the Frost Orcs assaulting the last of the warriors and villagers in an attempt to take slaves, but mostly doing a bad job and outright killing the humans.  You can still see Sven Ver Ironheadssen providing cover for the last of boys.

Overall we did pretty well, getting away with 16 turnips, 2 cows and 4 slaves, including the village cheif and a warrior.  I think the orcs ended up with more cows, but fewer turnips and slaves, at the end of the day.  Poor old Kort Eikbana, one of our berkerkers, unfortunately got a spear in the jacksie from one of the villagers after slipping on a cow pat in the middle of a fight - but he'll be on his feet again in a couple of days and ready for the fight once more; burning with more than rage next time!

Your comments and feedback and most welcome!

[twrchtrwyth]

Those are Ceaser Dwarves and Orcs aren't they? Nicely painted. Good campaign idea too, looks like a fun game.

[keeper]

Yep.  Caeser 1/72 plastics.  The Dwarves were a lot more fun to paint than I thought they were going to be and I've nearly finished some undead, which have also been enjoyable to paint.

The campaign is based on the Viking Raiders campaign in Featherstone's "Wargame Campaigns", with a few extra bits and tweaks added, which I don't know all of, yet, as I'm not running the campagin

[Super_Gibbon]

Looks fun! I have been meaning to get some of those Ceasar minis for some cheap good times. But get on your friends to paint their forces!

Keep us posted with more campaign details as they come out.

[keeper]

But get on your friends to paint their forces!

Yeah, I know   I'm going to make sure that there are enough civilians for the next game, and the orcs are actually finished but have some snow on their bases, which makes them look a little odd against the primed celts.

Keep us posted with more campaign details as they come out.

Will do   I'm scheduled to play again next week.  I hope someone else doesn't land in the same village as me, this time!

[Super_Gibbon]

If you can, would you let me know how you primed those Caesar plastics? Inspired by your dwarfs I dug out my Caesar Trojans for a little bronze age warband and I was wondering if I should use normal primer or something else.

[Argonor]

Just to throw in my tuppence: I've painted a lot of 1/72 plastics, and after washing the bare figs in hot water with washing up liquid I simply have used GW Skull White spray. If you can get a better (and cheaper) real primer, use that, as 1/72 plastics are most often a little 'bendy', and the better/harder the paint, the fewer 'peel offs' 

[keeper]

If you can, would you let me know how you primed those Caesar plastics? Inspired by your dwarfs I dug out my Caesar Trojans for a little bronze age warband and I was wondering if I should use normal primer or something else.

Hey SG - sorry for the delay, not been online since Friday.  I did almost exactly what Argonor describes, even down to the Skull White spray, except that I am far too lazy to wash off any release agent first.  It might be because of this, but I found I had to be careful not to rub off any paintwork whilst working on them, and as soon as they were done (and dry), I hit them with the heavy varnish to keep the paintwork safe.  However, it wasn't really a big problem, and I had to be more careful of wet paintwork on bendy plastic bending round and touching another part of the mini as I was working.

For the celts I'm working on at the moment, I've used a very cheap white car primer spray instead of GW Skull White, and I'm not noticing a difference as I'm painting them.

Hope that helps

[Super_Gibbon]

That does help! Thanks!