Drowned Earth: Dinos and Gorillas

 

I’ve finished the Militia starter for Drowned Earth. These three members round out the unit. There’s plenty od diversity at play here.

The human girl, Juchita, has a nice run n’ gun pose (and legs for days). She got the same uniform as the other Militia members, though a few ad hoc pieces of gear reinforce the setting. I made her a redhead to brighten her color scheme.

The next member is a Saurian with a beret. I gave him a deep grey-blue skin tone so his fatigues and red beret would stand out. I like his skulking pose, and of course his Ray Bands.

Last up is the team’s gorilla with a chaingun, a staple of every good setting. It’s pretty well sculpted, giving him a sense of weight and mass. His chaingun got a few washes to show metal fatigue and wear and tear. I went with realistic skin and fur.

Alongside the Militia I finished a pair of Yuttaraptors (sic). These Utahraptors are very well sculpted, with a nice sense of speed and viciousness. The color scheme was done for a sense of realism, with a darker grey skin tone to make the bright red feathers really stand out. I added an area of dark brown stripes down their spines in the vein of big cats.

In one pic, I included a better shot of the basing for the models.

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Saga: Crusaders and Crusadees

 

I’ve added more models to my growing Polish force for Saga: Age of Crusades. The militia were the Levies for the Polish forces, the serfs and city guard of the commoners. They’ll serve a defensive role alongside the strelzcy Men-at-Arms.

Units of Levy are groups of 12, so I’ve done up a dozen soldiers. Each bares the heraldry of their szlatcha masters, found via some research. I like that Polish heraldry has both Western medieval symbols as well as Slavic tamgas (the runic symbols). Like their Warrior counterparts they have a mix of gear, one with a very Eastern armor set leading the unit. Another leader-type is the one wearing the colors of the the Order of Dobrzyń, the Polish military order during the Baltic Crusades (he’s the one in white with the red cross and sword symbol on his shield). While it’s a bit odd that a Levy would be wearing the Order’s colors, he could be a commanding role or a Warrior for other armies.

I love the red squirrel; it’s real I swear.

The spearmen here can also be used in a Crusaders force as Warriors, in which case they get pared down to 8 men.

I’ve also finished 8 Crossbowmen, for use with a Crusaders, Spanish, or Milites Christi force.

Last up are a few fighters for the Pagan Peoples faction. I’m working on those alongside the Polish to give both a proper counterpart enemy. The factions would see fighting during the Baltic Crusades in the 13th Century.

The Pagans here are Balts and Wends, possibly from Latvia, Prussia, Pomerania, etc. I kept it pretty vague, and those areas have less visual references to fall back on. They got duller, darker colors to make them stand out from the brighter Poles/Crusades. I’ve already built enough for a full 8-man Warrior unit, and they can used alongside my Anglo-Saxons models (avoiding the ones with overt Christian imagery obviously). The Pagan models favor older round shields or the small tear drop shields more common to 10th-11th Centuries to represent their ‘backward’ status compared to the Poles.

More to come.

 

By Fire & Sword: Sweden

 

 

I’m putting the finishing touches on the Kingdom of Sweden starter set for By Fire & Sword. There’s only a pair of stands left, to be finished shortly.

The first pic is the Command stand for the skirmish force, representing a Colonel with his company musician and standard bearer. The banner is a sticker (one of several provided). The banner got a bit of spatter while painting, but I felt it helped age it appropriately with battlefield mud. The Colonel gets a white horse to make him stand out. I added a detail of the Colonel’s stand flanked by a pair of Dragoons.

The Dragoons here are the mounted versions. I painted the dismounted versions a while back (see previous post). These men got the same paint schemes as the infantry. There are still a pair of stands to finish.

Last up are the army’s Reiters, the mounted pistoliers. I painted them in the same fashion as the Dragoons, though I allowed for less uniformity to represent their general lack of armor. The pic has them in both in line and tighter ranked formation.

I’m not sure whether or not I’ll be adding to the starter set, but we’ll see. The sculpts still frustrate me, as there is a lot of tiny detail, but the sculpt and/or the casting created very soft edges and weird horse legs. Maybe the next round of sculpts will be cleaner…

Saga: Polish Rycerze

I’ve been working on adding some models to my Saga collection to allow my forces to be used for Age of Crusades scenarios. Using my old 10th Century Anglo-Saxons against Moors looks odd, so I wanted some contemporary models to the 12th-13th Centuries.

With that in mind, I’ve been working on models to represent the Polish forces of the Baltic Crusades. While I do need to add properly armed and armored Levy spear and axemen, I felt the mounted troops needed to be finished first. I lack enough cavalry to field for most armies; either I have Goblins on wolves, or Romano-British models fitting the Age of Invasions era.

So here are the first point of mounted Polish Men-at-Arms (Warriors). They were built from Fireforge’s Templar Knights kit, with some parts from the Foot Sergeants and Russian Infantry boxes. I wanted a mix of equipment for variety and to show the more ragtag nature of Polish troops (with a mix of Western and Eastern gear).

The rycerce have heraldry I dug out of sources online and in books. I wanted an ‘authentic’ look to make them stand out as Polish rather than Western knights. Some have simple color blocking with traditional symbols for their lords, while others have full heraldry of their lords or themselves, including some with caparison armor for their horses. It was fun to have a good variety of colors, and I even found myself painting checkers again (yellow and red ones to boot, for that extra difficulty).

Finally, alongside the mounted troops, I have finished some of a Crossbowmen unit. These men will be used for a couple different armies, including Crusaders, Milites Christi, Spanish, or even Normans. They wear generic colors, not reflecting any specific heraldry. These come from the same Foot Sergeants kit that I mined for bits for the knights. There will be 12 of the Crossbowmen, allowing me to field them as Levy (12) or Warriors (8).

 

Chaos Wars: Yet More Goblins

 

I’ve been working on a few projects at the same time recently. Here are some more Goblins for a client’s Chaos Wars army. The Spears were posted earlier, but since then I have swapped around the standard and champion over to the other unit and built new ones.

The Spear Champion was simply one of the rear rank spearmen, but his unique pose made him stand out, so I ‘promoted’ him.

The second Goblin unit is armed with assorted hand weapons. The shorter weapons allowed them to have more animation, fitting for the less regimented fighting poses you’d expect from that equipment. The unit is 12-Goblin strong as of now, but will eventually be a full 24 strong.

Next up are some Archers and more hand weapon troops

Drowned Earth: Mad Max with Dinos

I’m working on a small commission of the Drowned Earth skirmish game. It’s a post-apocalyptic game based around small teams of soldiers in ruins and water-logged jungles. I’ll be working on a few of the starter sets of different factions, along with some extra dinosaurs. This game has dinosaurs!

The first group is the Militia starter set. I’m not up on the lore, so to keep it simple I’m following the sample color schemes I’ve found around online. I went for a common uniform color of a deep green with black boots. The ad hoc nature of the setting means their bags, web gear, holsters, etc. could have a variety of finishes.

The sniper, Hove, has a nice dark color scheme, befitting a stealthy fighter. His dark skin and overall darker uniform is offset by his Rambo bandana and a blue shoulder pad for accent.

Forek, apparently some sort of dwarf (or the setting’s equivalent), has a squat body built of pure muscle. He definitely is inspired by Dutch from Predator.

The Oviraptors are nicely sculpted, with some plumage along their tails and arms. I painted them to resemble tropical birds.

A note on their bases- I wanted the bases to the models for the game to look like overgrown jungle terrain, with a mix of flocks, stones, and junk. Some bases got patches of water to represent the rivers and lakes common on the battlefields for the game.

More to come from this game: the rest of the Militia starter and even better, more dinos!

Chaos Wars: Goblins!

I’ve started up a small force of Goblins and Gnolls for a Chaos Wars army. The Goblins minatures are all from the North Star Military Figures Oathmark line, while the Gnolls are from Frostgrave.

This is the first unit, a mob of Goblins with spears and shields. They are arranged in 3 ranks of 4. I’m not familiar with Chaos Wars rules, but I presume the units are much smaller than games like Warhammer 8th ed and Kings of War. The models are all plastic, with plenty of variety of poses, arms, and heads. The Goblins have nice feral designs, and a good mix of gear and armor. They hearken back to a more Tolkeinesque vibe of Orcs and Goblins- squat bodies, bandy legs, and rough gear.

I followed the box art for the Goblins set to a certain extant. I designed them to have no uniform, reflecting their scavenged gear. I picked 6 colors (plus grey and yellow metals), and distributed them at random over each grouping of models. This gave them a little unity of theme, without uniformity of look. Their bases were done in a standard ‘wasteland’ look, with dull brown dirt and scattered dead grass flock.

Their skin was painted to look ‘realistic’ compared to other Goblins I’ve done, so no bright greens. Instead I painted the skin with a base of MSP Dusky Skin, a really dull grey-brown. This then got a wash of Nuln Oil followed by a highlight of Dusky Skin/Rakarth Flesh. Finally they got a glaze of GW Athonian Camoshade to give them a dull green color.

More to come, next time mixed sword/axe/club Goblins.