So, working on some Arthurians. Actually, I wanted an (Dumnonian) army commander for straight-up Romano-British forces without the legendary Arthyr. Although Gereint (c.480–c.514) shows up in Welsh folklore and in Arthurian legend (as Sir Gereint), I wanted a petty king and he seemed to be a good choice.
Geraint Llyngesic ab Erbin
Footsore's Galahad figure, but he looked like a good king to me. He's sculpted with some nice Roman kit but I wanted to emphasise the
British in Romano-British, so I let the paint do that. A nice British plaid (my favorite color) with an ermine-line black cloak. Actually, the ermine needs practice: I dry-brushed different subdued reds over blackened umber but it still didn't quite turn out as I had hoped. Anyone have any tips?
The King's Champion of Dumnonia
Since there was so much detail already, I gave him just a lime-washed shield. I was thinking "less is more" and then I go and over-do the mud effects.... go figure!
The King's Standard
Horn Blower
I like how he turned out: dark eyes and pasty face. If I had given him darker hair I could have called him "Mr. Bean blowing a horn."
The Crazy Monk
This guy! Look how his face turned out! That's why I call him the crazy monk. But his face did come out goofy. His seax broke off in the painting process, so I gave him an axe, which makes him crazier still.
The one thing I did do here was experiment with a clear color set that is supposed to be used on model lights, emergency lights, and so forth. It is also good for blood as that tip came from this forum. So he had these big balls on a chain
- his necklace! And I wanted to experiment with making them glass beads. So I undercoated with a bright yellow, red, and green and then put dabs of the clear color over it. I think the effect worked.
Command Stand
Overrun Dead Guy (generic Romano-British casualty marker)If this is your casualty marker, you know your s&*t is weak
Need to get my Dumnonian army finished, half-way there... I hope, then back to Romans
UPDATE: Arthyr's Men: Agravaine and Derfel CadarnMore Dumnonians recently finished up. Actually the Warriors of the Cauldron I finished just before the holidays but the cavalry was finally done last week.
And yes,
most of my legendary 'Arthurians' (as opposed to my more historical Romano-British) are influenced from the Cornwell novels, for better or worse. I have gathered some folks don't care for Cornwell's interpretation on the tabletop, but the banners, decals, and even figures now-a-days seem to be very heavily influenced from the novels and kinda push one's army in that direction. In any case, I enjoyed the novels and enjoyed painting figures based upon them. So here are some figures.
I. Agravaine's VexillatioThis is my Agravaine, one of Arthur's men. I gave him an armoured cavalry unit with swordsmen but also armed with javelins. Since they are Arthur's men, they all come with green cloaks (Foundry,
Storm Green to keep them from being confused with my
Rohirrim in Foundry's
Forest Green cloaks.)
Agravaine's Horsemen.Nothing really special about these guys, they are a "hurry-up-and-get-them-on-the-table" paint job with decals on most of the shields except two, with one supposed to be lime washed and the other red ochre. Lot's of mud, though. As Derfel narrated The Battle of Lugg's Vale:
The banners of the dragon and the bear flew bright and the earth shook beneath those ponderous hooves that slung water and mud high into the air as the big horses gathered speed... Arthur pounded past me on Llamrei, his favorite mare. The skirts of his horse blanket and the ends of his cloak were already soaked in mud.
So that was the look I was going for here and for all my Romano-British, actually
Of course, you may notice a missing rider in the above picture, that's because he was born without a foot!
Or, at least, cast without one. I need to do a "green-stuff" day when I can sit down and do green-stuff jobs on a number of figures like this one.
II. The Warriors of the Cauldron
These guys didn't get mud as they were finished shortly before Christmas and before I got my Vallejo Thick Mud. They got pigment instead. Shields are a bit beat up (decals with
Blackened Umber painted over them) And Derfel gets an Essex Two-Handed sword that works as a bastard sword on a figure his size. I figured
Hywelbane needed to be a bit more than a standard Roman sword.
Hat tip to Big Red Bat for the idea of placing generals' names on their stands. After I saw it done in his rules
To The Strongest, I asked him about it and I think he's right, it does add a bit of character to figures on the table.
I saw someone did something similar to this on google images and it gave me the idea to do it as well, except theirs had a tattered banner and no skull. I had a wolf's skull in the bits box that I put on top and I took two different models of Dire Wolves, made Blu-Stuff moulds of their hind-quarters, and cast the tails in green-stuff. The wolf tails are hanging freely by thread from the ends of the banner's crossbar. And the banner is pigmented for a dusty effect.
I also wanted to vary the weapons a bit. Since these guys were fighting Franks in Armorica, I gave them some franciscas and angons. One guy even has an Essex Rhompeia as I figured it may have been a trophy weapon of some Frank or other mercenary barbarian on the battlefields of Benoic, just for a bit of creative variety.
The obligatory dead guy
And that about wraps it up. Next in line are the repetitious rank-and-file spearmen, archers and skirmishers. Then my Dumnonian army should be done. Hope you like.
Welcome, Guest. Please 
April 27, 2024, 03:03:13 PM
July 14, 2020, 07:23:51 AM