Saga: Anglo-Saxons (Part 24 - Whole army group shot)

So here I present my final post for this Saga project - a group shot of the entire Anglo-Saxon force, complete with shield decals in place. 41 models in total.

This was a very enjoyable project and a pleasant departure from working on GW stuff for me. I'm going to knock out a little warband for Frostgrave next (Pirates! Arrr!) and then get back to some long overdue GW stuff. Thanks to everyone who's taken the time to look in on my little project.

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Saga: Anglo-Saxons (Part 23 - Warriors Unit 2 - Finished!)

Work has completed on my current Saga unit and therefore my current Saga project! Woohoo - another one in the can, as the movie people say.

I did get myself some shield decals and I have to say I think the minis are looking better for them.

They're very fiddly to work with (Little Big Men decals sold through Gripping beast Minis) and need to be individually cut out with a craft knife.

They do, I think, look good, though.

I'll get a group shot of all the models in the whole warband (with their decals!) for my "Family Album" page.

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Saga: Anglo-Saxons (Part 22 - Warriors Unit 2 - Day 4)

And now they have trousers and boots!

That just leaves skin tones and hair to finish them off. I can almost taste the end of this project now.

I think I'm going to get some shield decals for these guys.

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Saga: Anglo-Saxons (Part 21 - Warriors Unit 2 - Day 3)

It's getting exciting now - this project is almost finished and the next one (a small force for Frostgrave) is waiting in the wings. In fact the work is queueing up like a sort of rowdy rabble, jockeying for position.

Some work done on clothing - all the under-armour tunics have been completed.

I'm not sure what will get done next - will it by my "long-overdue" Fantasy Undead? My "steeping in a bucket of Dettol for months" Traitor Marines? My "Woohoo GW are bringing Epic 40K back!" Ultramarines? Or my "Just bought a copy of Ronin" Samurai? Or should I finish my Tau? Should I paint my Imperial Knight? Or should I go back to Saga and do my Strathclyde Welsh or Vikings?

Argh! Too many choices.

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Saga: Anglo-Saxons (Part 20 - Warriors Unit 2 - Day 2)

Some more work done on my last Anglo-Saxon unit - armour drybrushed, leatherwork done.

It ain't much, but it's progress.

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Saga: Anglo-Saxons (Part 19 - Warriors Unit 2 - Day 1)

Work has begun on the final unit of my warband. I'm representing Anglo-Saxon warriors by again using Gripping Beast "Saxon Thegns" with heads taken from the "Dark Age Warriors" sprues. I'm doing that to differentiate between the Warriors and Hearthguard.

So here they are with their bases drybrushed, the metal portions of the shields and weapons drybrushed and the woodwork on the weapons painted.

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Saga: Anglo-Saxons (Part 18 - Hearthguard Unit 3 - Finished!)

My penultimate unit is now complete! Woohoo!

Just one left to go.

So here I proudly present another unit of Gripping Beast Saxon Thegns representing my hearthguard.

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Saga: Anglo-Saxons (Part 17 - Hearthguard Unit 3 - Day 4)

A little more work done on these guys. I got the trousers and boots done, leaving just the skin and hair to finish them off.

I'm approaching the end of this project now and have to say I've thoroughly enjoyed it. It's been a real departure from some of the things I've worked on recently and has given me a very enjoyable break from painting GW Warhammer 40K stuff.

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Saga: Anglo-Saxons (Part 16 - Hearthguard Unit 3 - Day 3)

So here we go with another splosh or two of paint.

I got about 40 mins in this morning and got the tunics done on these guys and all the wooden bits (reverse of shields, spear handles) drybrushed.

Trousers and boots next, then on to the skin/hair.

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Saga: Anglo-Saxons (Part 15 - Hearthguard Unit 3 - Day 2)

I've had a horrible couple of weeks at work and as a result not got much done. There seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel now so hopefully I can start to pick up the pace a bit.

Anyway - I've done a little more work on my Hearthguard unit - they now have some drybrushed armour, some painted leatherwork and the wooden face of the shields are done.

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Saga: Anglo-Saxons (Part 14 - Hearthguard Unit 3 - Day 1)

Paint: another day, another dollop.

I'm still not really back in to a routine in 2016 yet, but I've finally made a start on another unit for my nearly finished Saga Anglo-Saxons.

Another four-man Hearthguard unit. So far all I've done is drybrush the rocky bases, the weapons, helmets and shields and painted a basecoat on the weapon handles.

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Saga: Anglo-Saxons (Part 13 - Levies - Finished!)

Happy New Year to you all!

I've been dragging my heels with respect to blogging over the Christmas/New Year period. I've been busy (after a fashion) painting but haven't bothered taking any WIP snaps of this unit so I'm just presenting them as a finished unit.

So what we have here is a unit of 12 x Gripping Beast "Dark Age Warriors" representing the Levies in my Saga Anglo-Saxon force.

That leaves me just 12 models left to finish this army! Woohoo!

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Saga: Anglo-Saxons (Part 12 - Warriors Unit 1 - Finished!)

For my last update before Christmas I've completed work on my first unit of Anglo-Saxon Warriors.

I'm going to have a short break before staring work on my next unit (some Levies) so until my next post I'd like to wish all of you that celebrate at this time of year happiness and peace (apart from on the table-top, which should be running with the imaginary blood of your enemies!!).

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Saga: Anglo-Saxons (Part 11 - Warriors Unit 1, Day 2)

I've done a bit more work on the Warriors unit - I've highlighted the leatherwork put a base colour on the flesh parts and started adding some colour so some of the fabric:

I'll finish off the fabric before I tackle the flesh-proper, I think.

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Saga: Anglo-Saxons (Part 10 - Warriors Unit 1, Day 1)

Back to the foot troops!


So I'm tackling my biggest Saga unit to date - 8 models!


This is one of the things I like about this game - units are generally very small. Your entire force for a 6-point army (which is considered "large") can be as small as just 25 models. Brilliant.


Anyway - some Anglo-Saxon Warriors are being worked on at the moment. For these fellows I've used the same models as I used for my first Hearthguard infantry unit, but I've used un-helmeted heads from the sprues I've built my Levies from (which I will be working on next).


At this stage, they're just sprayed black, drybrushed in a metallic colour and have had a first layer of dark brown added to the wood and leather parts (and a couple of heads).

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Saga: Anglo-Saxons (Part 9 - Hearthguard Unit 2, Finished!)

The dislike has abated. Somewhat.

I've finished these guys now to a standard I'm happy enough with. As often happens when I bumble my way to the end of a paintjob I find myself liking the end result more than I thought I would. But only a bit :-)

I'll cheer myself up with a unit of Warriors next.

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Saga: Anglo-Saxons (Part 8 - Hearthguard Unit 2, Day 2)

I decided I was unhappy with the paintjob on the horses so I've updated them a bit here and there. The drybrushing was a bit clumsier than even my normal standard so I've tidied it up a bit.

Aside from the basing, I'm considering the horses to be pretty much complete.

I've still got a lot of work to do on the riders. I'm very tempted to overpaint the green bits - I really don't like them at all. And obviously all the skin and hair needs doing, as will as some pick-me-up drybrushing on the wooden bits.

Still really disliking these models.

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Saga: Anglo-Saxons (Part 7 - Hearthguard Unit 2, Day 1)

Work is underway on my second unit of Hearthguard for the Anglo-Saxons.

These models (the whole army, in fact) was given to me by my good friend Mike. I got boxes of stuff from him not all of which was Anglo-Saxon, but on the theory that "one dark age warrior is much like another" I've decided to use these "Wargames Factory Germans" with Saxon Warrior heads and Shields to represent my Anglo-Saxon mounted Hearthguard.

It's purely down to availability of models - I'm actually not particularly fond of these models at all - the horses are really small and the riders are oddly misshapen. But they're here and they're free.

More news as it comes in.

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Saga: Anglo-Saxons (Part 6 - Hearthguard Unit 1, Finished)

My first full unit is completed! It's only four models, but I'm still counting it as a milestone.

This took about another hour on from my previous post so all told I spent in the region of 2.5 hours on these guys.

I'm currently working on two more units - a unit of Warriors and a unit of Mounted Hearthguard.

Stay tuned!

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Saga: Anglo-Saxons (Part 5 - Hearthguard Unit 1, Day 2)

Another pleasant evening's painting allowed me to get some detail on these models.

Now I found myself looking at these models after I'd finished work last night thinking "now why did I do that?"

"What?" you ask yourself?

Well, I have a more-or-less golden rule when painting. I do sometimes stray from it a little, but never this much. The rule is: start at the deepest recesses of the model first. Normally, that's flesh and skintight cloth. The idea is it's easy to ruin protruding details when poking your brush into recesses so avoid it by painting the recesses first.

So, howcome (I wonder) did I leave the skin until last this time?

No idea at all :-)

So, fabric all done, some snow on the bases, drybrushng complete on the woodwork, leather highlighted.

This took another 45 minutes so I'm 90 minutes in on these guys so far. Still having fun!

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