Fomorian Shields from Hobbycraft

yesterday I popped to Hobbycraft to see if they had any pieces I could use for the new Midgard rules. I couldn't find any goblets but I did track down the beads needed for heroic deeds.

While I was travelling through the bead tray, I saw one that I thought would make a great Celtic shield.

It has a nice wrap around curve to it but more importantly, sports a nice Celtic swirly pattern.

Ancient Irish warriors fight with the sea devils.

It has a good level of detail to make it look well crafted and ornate. Once I sculpt a boss for the centre I think it will look just the ticket. Nice deep grooves that will catch ink and weathering very well. The swirl too is a very Celtic looking design.

 This tub was £4 which is unbelievable for an armies worth of shields. I might end up using these beads as heroic deeds markers too as they won't roll unlike the rounder ones.

You can get a next size up in container to fill with your beads for £8, again for hundreds of shields this isn't bad. The small tub should be enough though.

FIW using Bonnie Blue Flag Rules

Here are the craziest scribblings of a madman. Having selected BBF for my black powder games, I'm now just trying to down scale it for a skirmish type game. Smaller units but still using multi bases for figures. Units of four seem to work as a base number.

 

Here are the unit sizes in Muskets and Tomahawks that are good to see as a guide. All just early days still just throwing ideas around to see if something sticks.

Drilled Vs irregular base.

Update: Right! I've bit the bullet and revised my Indians for the game.

I decided to go with 60x60mm bases to give a more spread out look. Also these Galloping Major figures are quite large for 28mm so it suits them better.

I imagine four bases of Indians to a unit with a base of skirmishers. I just want one rule set for my black powder games and I think BBF is the one, with a few tweaks of course.

My latest thinking is make Indians 'green', so they won't stick around long once the casualties start to mount up. A +10 melee modifier makes them dangerous close up so it's worth trying to get them into hand to hand. They are just too wise to stick around when things go bad. An experienced unit of warriors would be quite imposing with their combat bonus, something to be feared.

I had thought of giving Rangers the same combat bonus but as they will be veterans, a plus 10 would be too much. I think let's class them as Elites with a +5.

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.