Dark Age Irish

Here is a small warband of Dark age Irishmen.  They are meant to be the Black shield Irish from the Winter King books. I struggled with just painting black shields as I wanted to paint some designs. I got around this by painting some fancy shields, then painting them black then rubbing off the paint.

This represents the warband painting over their war shields with black. After some heavy campaigning and harsh weather, not to mention dips in the sea, some of the black paint has started to wear off.

There's enough Celtic design underneath to show through.

Not many more to do now, just the druid and four skirmishers.

These are a mix of Crusader, Gripping beast plastic and Wargames Atlantic plastics. They have been very enjoyable to paint too.

 

The new rock pools are a perfect setting for Raiding Black shields.

Dark age Irish

I have to say after the mad month of painting for the Partizan show, my painting mojo is well and truly fried. So I thought I would ease back into things with some gentle building and sculpting.

These figures are a One Hour Wargames Rules campaign set in the age of Arthur. I was picked for the Black shield Irish and so bought a couple of plastic boxes.
 

Skirmishers.

I thought a few Celtic blankets and cloaks wouldn't go a miss. The kits come with some cloaks, but I thought I'd have a go at making my own.

The leader and hero figure from Crusader miniatures. The Druid was a purchase from eBay.

These are a mixture of plastic kits from Gripping Beast and Wargames Atlantic. It's always nice to have more heads etc to create variety in the units.

15mm Early Saxons

I was taken with the new range of 15mm from West wind 'war and Empire', so I thought I would buy a bag. This bag was a bit of a tester really just to see what the sculpts are like. Well, they turned out to be very nice indeed.

The detail on the little figures was good and there was a good variety in the pack too. This pack is the raiding early Saxons.

Of course this puts me in a dilemma, for I have been collecting 28mm Arthurian forces for a future project. If I paint up a 15mm army will I still want to go there in 28mm?

I wonder if painting 24, 15mm is the same time as painting 12, 28mm. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. I suppose I had better give it a go and find out.

I suppose the advantage of 15mm is you can just do base colours then give them a wash and jobs done.

Here is a line up of 28mm figures. Artisan, West wind 15mm, Foundry and a Conquest Norman/Elf.

 The Fellowship of the ring sets out from Rivendell.

Games Day

Rupert's Blew coats got together again today for another day of gaming. I was very pleased because after years of hearing about it, I finally got to play a game of Dux Belorum. 

I enjoyed it very much and the rules really seemed to make sense and reflect a true Dark Age battle. The mechanic of placing tokens on units to aid them really was fun and made you plan ahead.

I did like how the shield walls twisted and kicked across the battlefield. A nice set of rules I thought and one I can finally tick off my bucket list.

The epic battle came down to basically an even match right at the end, with two units of levy fighting eachother. I lost of course, but even that gave my bard a good story to sing about. 

The other game I got to play was a large Donny Brook battle, with different players with a unit each.

The Spanish fort bustling with activity.

My corn and wheat fields got another outing and this time acted as jungle undergrowth. Best half an hour I ever spent cutting up that plastic door mat. I must pick up another when I see one. Here they can be seen trampling through a wheat field made by Two Sheds Fred. These too are worth they're weight in gold and always get used somewhere in the day's events.

Royal Scots approach the monastery and push on through the gardens.

My trusty unit of red coats open fire onto the Spanish fort.

Early Saxon Reference 2

 I took these beautiful images from a Dark ages Facebook page for reference latter on with painting. Thank you Jack Sarge for posting them.

Arthur takes a break

The Warlord Arthur takes a break and enjoys a squirrel lunch, times are hard...