Standard Bearer from Essex miniatures

I came across a great early medieval standard bearer the other day whilst looking through Essex miniatures. He looks the part for Lake Town and so I bought a few. These will really help to add some blue banners into the rabble.

I kept the design very simple, it’s meant to be the Lonely Mountain with a star in the top corner. Most important is the blue colour as mentioned in the Hobbit.

I had to remove a casualty figure to fit him in and actually the central guy isn’t a bad choice for a leader.

I got a bit lazy and started using paper flags of different colours so it’s nice to get some more blue fluttering away.

 

More Archers of Esgaroth

Another batch of archers for the Esgaroth army with enough spare to create a unit of skirmishers.

 These new guys have been created by two new sets of plastic kits. Conqueror games medieval archers and an archer sprue from Fire forge.

The Conqueror set was a little tricky with the forearms being stuck into a sleeve affair, but the results were good enough. The Fire forge set was good with some nice new long bow arms to add to the mix. 

I also bought a sprue from the crew men range from Frost grave after seeing this ship’s hook thingy, very lake town I thought.

The new officer of the group.

Above, the captain of the skirmishers carefully picks his way between the rocks of the Lonely mountain.

The last of the Frost grave soldier bodies gets used up with some Fire forge arms. They have been an excellent piece of kit for this Lake Town project, better than any metal figures I could think of for the part. In fact all of these early Medieval sets have been perfect for the Esgaroth look. I do think the extra green stuff hoods etc have helped though, making each one different and unique.

A skirmisher strikes a pose with a sword.

When in doubt a little hair will do to add some character.

At least five of these new guys will be put on two bases to act as skirmishers. I worked out who these were and made them look a bit like rangers. Hardy men of the hills who can use their cunning to lead the enemy into a trap. 
 

Heavy Warg Riders

The next batch of scary Warg riders appear on the horizon. These will be classed as heavy cavalry and have large shields. They do not carry bows but can charge into an enemy with a stronger attack in Oathmark.

Two of these new riders I thought would make good chieftains, so I’ve started to put together standard bearers for them to mark them out.

All of these were fun to do, combing through my spare bits finding weapons etc for them. There’s a lot of GW stuff in there from eBay.

 

Best I’ve tried!!!

I saw this being talked about on line and so ordered some on eBay. Well I was shocked how good it actually is. My usual Vallejo matt varnish does dry with a slight sheen, which has a charm of its own. However, covering the very glossy Army dip probably doesn’t help.

 Anyway, I put a few drops of this new Ultra matt varnish into a dish and it was really watery. I read on the bottle it is designed for an airbrush. I used my nice soft brush to soak some up and apply to the minis being careful not to swamp them. Any pooling was soaked back up and brushed away.

The results are amazing and lead to me going over my entire Lake town army. They have always had a good sheen to them that was just on the annoying side of okay. Anyway, this new stuff just took it all away. Next up my Wolf riders got a lick and came off looking much better. I didn’t put any on the metal work or weapons which leaves that looking slightly different. A sheen on metal work always looks good in my eyes.

It really improved the look of big flat areas like cloaks and made them look a lot more soft and material like.

The new and the old, the Vallejo stuff is a lot thicker but does leave a slight satin finish. Be warned, the Ammo stuff is very watery even after a good shake but still can be brushed on.

The army of Lake town is now much more matt than before, this is important because most of them are in soft clothes not armour. It’s a real game changer now I’m using Army Painter dip more and more.

 The wooden shields also look better being more drab.

I guess the word ‘Ultra’ in the title should of been a give away.