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.

Stones, Shrines and Alters of Erin

Here are the finished standing stones from Alternative Armies amongst others.

I've added a few extra skulls to the base once flocked.

A bear hide has been left as an offering too.

Battle shine, again extra weapons have been added to the base. The rocks form a sacred circle in which to knee and offer your items.

Paper ferns were added to this base. I'm not sure how they will last as they are fragile. Being hard up against the stone will help them.

This place must be strong in fey magic because flowers have sprung up around the stones. Flowers are a nice way to show the affinity of a place. Flowers equal a nice holy area, where dead and dying grass says the opposite.

The great fertility rock with it's comfy furs to lie on. I wanted to give this the impression of a giant lady in a fur cloak. The cloak is made from moss and ivy.

Ancient pillar, I added some ivy to this to weather it in. Also putting flock to act as moss up one side helped to age it. Moss normally grows on the north side of trees, so I added this trick to a lot of the stones.

This is a miniature from Reaper Bones, I think it's called 'Evil tower'. I thought it would make a good Fomorian piece or maybe something older and darker. What ever it is, it has been thrust up from the ground and killed the surrounding grass. It must be cursed...

Ivy again helps weather these small stones. This isn't a bad place as flowers grow around the mound, new life from old.

I've rediscovered Celtos as a figure range that might be useful for this growing project.

 

It's time to dig out the old stones and compare them. A lot of these previous models had a greenstuff carving in them.

The two weapon shrines. One is a place of worship, the other, sacrifices.

The two stones of the dead. These could be used for any undead project.

Recently I thought about making more of an effort to photograph my miniatures. I have seen other people use backdrops and so thought I'd play around with the idea. By using a photo from a book as a background, the results can be quite different. Rather than a cluttered work table full of detail taking away from an image, the background actual enhances and compliments it. This simple book set up has really improved these stone pictures and it's something I'll do again for sure.

Ancient Erin

I saw these new ancient Irish scenary pieces from Alternative Armies last week. I thought they looked good so bought a few. These will be added to with more skulls and blades once the glue is dry.

It'll be nice to cover these in grass to give them an ancient look and feel.

This one will look great with some extra swords laying across the new rocks. Fantasy stuff really gets the creativity flowing and is so rewarding.

This is a pebble I found and thought it had an interesting shape. Taken back through the mists of time, it is now a huge fertility alter. I can't tell you what happens here, you have to use your imagination.

The great fertility stone looks very different in the moonlight. Some have said to see it move...and take on the shape of a giant woman.

 A Fomorian checks out the smell of new resin on the table.

Update: I've added some greenstuff furs on some of the alters. 

A few extra swords from the bits box help to finish off this weapon shrine.

Update: The next step is to dry brush them with three tones of grey. The last one is almost a white, to really bring out the details.

After the greys are dry I started playing around with watered down Contrast paint from GW. I leave the Contrast paint darker around the base of the rocks, this helps to weather them.

This is the fun part where you can add loads of subtle colours to the stones.

For this sort of scenery work I find a small make up brush is perfect. Just make sure you put it back when you're finished.