Colore ton Monde: MacBeth

This month's Colore ton Monde challenge done and dusted. What better representation of a chief or leader than the Rex Pictorium King of Alba and Mormaer of Moray, MacBeth. This version of him is for the Scots faction for Saga, as produced by North Star.

This guy is certainly imposing enough, he's huge. He is much more in line with my Dystopian Legion 32mm minis than any heroic 28mm figs I have. As can be seen by the fact he doesn't look out of place on a 40mm base. I don't know if this is the way the rest of this range are, or just the leaders.

 

 

I'm very happy with the face. I think the Masterclass has meant that I have levelled up in that regard. The shield was copied from one here. I'm not 100% pleased with the freehand, but it'll look okay at arms length. Lets face it, free hand is not my forte, never mind trying to replicate Celtic knot-work.

There's a great post on MacBeth to be found on the Saga Tapestry Blog. I'm not sure that I'll be buying into Saga in the immediate future, as I'm getting very much into Lion Rampant, but more on that in an upcoming post.

Onwards to my own challenge with the time remaining in January.

Colore ton Monde: January 2015

The results of the December Colore ton Monde challenge have now been posted on the Facebook group for all to marvel at, so with last month's offering now packed away ready to play, it's on with a new challenge for a new year! This month's Colore ton Monde challenge is as follows:





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* Macdonald, et pas le resto ! *
Le 11 janvier est l'anniversaire du père fondateur du Canada, Sir John A. Macdonald. Pour l'occasion, nous vous invitons à peindre un "fondateur", un chef, un leader. Quelqu'un qui dirige, pas un sous-fifre !
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* MacDonald, and not the restaurant! *
The 11th of January is birthday of the founding father of Canada, Sir John A. Macdonald. To mark the occasion, we invite you to paint a 'founder', a chief, a leader. Someone who leads, not an underling!
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Well, as themes go, I really couldn't ask for more to help me off with my Khador 'Caster Challenge. I was also inspired to pull out MacBeth, as, as leaders go, you can't go much higher than a king! When I went to get him out of my bits box and build him up, who else should I find in there in need of some TLC, but eSorscha. The evening was spent carrying out the pinning required to fix both models, I'm now all ready and primed for this month.

Here's hoping I get as much time to devote to the hobby as I have had over the last two long weeks of Christmas break. Okay maybe not, but I should realistically manage two minis, one of whom is 75% chain-mail!

Trip back to the old Country, Part II

Earlier this month, I had a second trip back to the UK in almost as many months, this time for a happier occasion (more weddings, less funerals, but you'll have to look elsewhere for the pics of all the kilts).

I will however use this picture from my visit. It will of course be clear to you all why this Glaswegian relic of a former age has geek cred.

This time, a much shorter time spent in my parents attic, but with more space in my suitcase. Fortunately I had put things in order on the previous visit, so only had to pick up a couple of boxes and stash them. I also found out that there's a new games cafe opened in Edinburgh, right next door to the flat I sold there not a year ago! Why couldn't that have been there at the same time as me? Anyway, on with the haul.

First off, the things I picked up from storage:

Urban War rules (in magazine form). These were too heavy for the last trip, but with all the UW minis I have brought over, I figured it was time to have the rules to hand. Of course, I have access to pdfs (downloads here), but I do prefer paper versions, despite the space they take up.

Void TAV MKIII resin kit. This is more for Void than for UW, but I do so love the mini, and I intend to use it in some fashion for UW even though I don't think vehicle rules for the game exist (I'm sure it won't be too hard to house rule something). The kit i have differs slightly from the one pictured in the link.

Empire Army. Lastly I picked up 2 boxes of old school WFB minis, mostly metal, with a few plastic pikemen in there for good measure. These will be used for my Bretonnians, and/or Empire, in the case of any local WFB gaming. I say army, but really it's all infantry, as I left my few knights and artillery pieces. There will surely be more pictures of these in the near future, especially as there are some nice oldhammer minis amongst them.

Whilst there, on a quick visit to Static, I also bought:

MacBeth. I have had one eye on SAGA for a while, even going so far as to painting up some Vikings, but the release of a Scots faction, with a leader as infamous as MacBeth at the fore could not be passed up. Of course the real MacBeth and the Shakespearean version are not to be confused, as it seems the original version was actually quite good at the king thing.

Napoleonic British Peninsular war Officers. There's always room for more Napoleonics. I'm sure these can be used to back up various of the rank and file figures I already have, be they riflemen or highlanders. Planned for use in Drums and Shakoes or Sharp Practice.

Highlander Missile Troops (bow and musket). From Warlord, these are kind of multi use,

I also bought and had posted to my parents house, some Prussians from the war of 1866, when North Star were selling off their old stock to make way for new sculpts I think. I'm sure I can put them to good use in something Victoriana, for example, as troops for IHMN. The Jaegers from this batch are already prepped and primed and in the process of being painted, so more on them soon.

A visit to WH Smith's meant I picked up the trio of magazines (Wargames Illustrated, WSS and Miniature Wargames). The first two I can get here, eventually, but the third is not an option. I was less impressed with Minature Wargames this issue (I have only read two issues), as it held less of direct interest to me.

To round out the wargaming related purchases, I picked up another book on Churchill at a discount book store (there's not enough of those over here), this time more on his political career than his military career, but it fit with my other current reading. Be on the lookout for a review of Young Titan soon.

My my, the summer just got a whole lot busier with all this stuff to work through!

Valkyrie I

I get easliy distracted. I am almost finished one project, but a 2 week break from the brushes, a box through the post from Heresy miniatures and oops! Shinybloodyitis is a royal pain in the buttocks.

I went with the 2nd from the left

But when this mini arrived from Heresy, I knew it had to be made into a little vignette. The head on a stick just cries out to be placed on a scenic base. I immediately though of the metal dead trees I bought back in June, and a bunch of little crows I have collected from the Old Witch and my Menoth Wracks. I found a tree that was suitably dead, stuck it on a base and covered it with crows. I had initially though to give the tree some Autumn foliage, and go with an autumnal paint scheme on the Valkyrie, but I don't think I have enough branches on the stump to make this so. I may have to sculpt a small branch or two before going any further. 

Heidi Sigrsdotter, with exrta head

What use is she as a gaming model? That's a good question. To be fair, my actual gaming is so limited recently, an excersise in modelling and painting is enough of an excuse to go with, but let's play the 'what if' game. I have based her on a large (40mm) base, and as such she can be used as a hero/warlord in SAGA. This would of course take my miniature count for SAGA to 2, both of whom are worlords, but I feel this is a moot point, as I think both models are nice little vignettes, and both were a joy to work on. This does mean I will be looking out for some regular viking models to complete the warband to a playable state.

The other day, I posted a bunch of links by accident (I have draft posts of links for various subjects). As this post, sparse as it was, garnered at least 1 comment, I shall repost the links I have collected for my hypothetical viking/Saga force here:

CP models Viking Berserkers

CP models Anglo Danes

CP models Skraelings

Bronze Age Miniatures, have a small but perfectly formed range of Vikings and Picts. Including some nice historical (i.e. not half naked) female Vikings.

Colore ton Monde, August: Saga Vikings III

No longer eligible for July's 'Colore ton Monde', but finished just in time for August's (and still eligible, as it's a female model). She may not be wearing a bikini, but she's certainly going suffering from a case of the "non-historics" there with that chainmail.

There's a shield to add to the standard bearer, but I'm not sure if he actually needs it, as it seems to work without. I'll paint it up anyway and see.

As to Freydis's shield, it's finished in the most basic fashion. I may very well go back and redo it. Either in bronze, or with some kind of freehand design and a steel rim.

I'm very happy with the standard. I like the deep red colour with a little bright red to draw the eye. I'm also happy with my experiment in blonde hair. Much more realistic than my earlier yellow efforts.

close up if the standard. Less shiny IRL.

Some WIP shots after the cut.

Colore ton Monde, July: Saga Vikings II

Polyfila and sand, with a bit of water to make the base. Freydis was originally just placed there to make sure the correct size and shape of hole was left for her, with the plan being to remove her for painting. However, the basing agent seems to have stuck her tight, so I waited for it to dry, then gave the whole base a good coating of PVA. The standard bearer still comes off easily, so the two can be separated for undercoating and painting.

As I mentioned previously, the going is slower this month, so I don't know if I'll get this finished in time (we're half way through the month already). I may have to undercoat some of the other single minis I spoke of to make sure I have an entry for July's challenge. A burst of an evening or two should get this one going on the paint though, so fingers crossed.

Colore ton Monde, July: Saga Vikings I

Chop chop chop went the cutting tools, and on we go with this month's challenge: to paint a mini I have yet to play. In this case, I'm going with a game I have yet to play, Saga. As previously mentioned,  I have bought a couple of viking minis, and plan to turn them into a command base.



The mini in its original form



I started off with the standard bearer. As he is going to be on the base with the leader.I felt his winged helmet was too much. I felt it would draw the eye away from the leader and onto himself. I want the focus on this model to be the standard, not the man. I think it makes him a little more historically accurate too. Also, I feel the knife he was holding was a bit of a rubbish weapon for a viking, so off it came too, to be replaced eventually with a shield. As this left him essentially armless, I added the belt knife that came with the miniature I intend to use for the leader (Freydis). Again, I don't want her to be too busy a miniature with all the little odds and sods that work on a single mini being too much for the vignette.

The plasticard for his base was a kind donation from Guillaume. A little polyfilla and sand will be added once I decide on the placing for Freydis. I did think to use some green stuff to cover the rest of his legs in fur, as I'm not a fan of the peddle-pushers look he's got going on.

I also got some shields from the bits box of my FLGS. The dwarf shields I picked up, although blank, were too small for these guys. There was one larger orc shield, and a chaos shield that seemed the right size. the insert in the orc shield is, I think, from the LoTR Rohan minis. I have seen a few of these minis turn up in Saga blog posts, as they are more historical/dark age in their look than a lot of GWs other stuff. The boss is just a done of green stuff to fill the hole. The other shield, on the left, is a chaos shield. I liked the torn cloth look, although the spike is a bit too much, and if i go with this one, I'll round that off.

What do you guys think? Which one to use?

I think, in the end, the Freydis will not be going through as much of a conversion, and may keep her current shield, unless I find a good way of separating her arm from the shield it is now attached to.

L'été, l'été, l'été c'est fait pour jouer!

The results of Club Chaos's June's challenge can be found here. There are some really great paint jobs on show there, and once again, I'm glad this is a draw, and not a painting skills contest. In the same post, July's gauntlet has been thrown, and is as follows:


Colore ton monde, Juillet 2012.

L'été, l'été, l'été c'est fait pour jouer

Pour juillet, ce mois idéal pour jouez dehors, nous vous invitons à peindre un modèle que vous n'avez pas encore jouer dans une partie.

Summer, summer, summer is made ​​to play

For July, the perfect month to play outside, we invite you to paint a model that you have not yet played in a game.

For this, I should be fine, as my recent gaming time is so low, that I have shelves full of minis that I have not yet played. In fact, I could go back and finish off Saxon Orrik from May's challenge if I felt so inclined (although that may be cheating, as I've already started him). However, I think I can go further and say I'll be painting minis for a game I have never played!

This plays right into my scheme to make and paint the mini diorama for Saga, although it may also mean I paint Misaki, as at least there will be no modelling involved there. or even the free TAG mini who is all prepped and ready to be painted. I think I'll get a head start on the diarama, whilst painting at least one of the other two, that way if I don't get my conversion done in time, I still have an entry.

Saga

Sculpt by Werner Klocke

In a direct response to this post, and a wander down to one of the other gaming stores in town who have a large selection of Reaper miniatures, I selected myself some completely historically inaccurate vikings. The first was this little lady, who could depict Freydis Eiriksdottir. The second was this standard bearer, with whom I will complete a little vignette to act as the chief of a viking horde. Yes, they are rather fantastical representations of Vikings, but to my mind Saga, or at least the sagas on which the game is based, are not entirely historical accurate renditions. They tell a story, and as such, I feel there is some leeway in how I chose to represent my band.

A search online suggests that there are no hard and fast rules for basing Saga minis, but that leaders seem to be on 40mm round bases as a general rule. I was kind of hoping it would be 50mm bases as a, I have some of those, and b, they alow for more space to arrange the figures, but 40mm it shall be.

Not a round shield.

I think the first and major changes to both minis will have to be the shields. Ingrid's shield is a nice shape, but from all I can see, the Viking shields were round. I'm not entirely sure how easy that will be to change, as the left arm is firmly fixed to the current shield. Unless I find some shields that come attached to arms, it may have to stay.

On the Standard bearer, I feel the small knife he's holding in his left hand is really out of place. It kind of unbalances the mini, and really, why would you bother with a knife, if you're the standard bearer, you're looking to be holding a shield to get a bit more cover, to at least keep that flag flying, or maybe to cover the chief.  I kind of like the idea that he's resting the shield on the ground, but that will mean finding a large shield.

I like the dragon head.

Also, I'm not sure I can keep the horns. The wings, I'm kind of okay with, as he's the standard bearer, he's flashy and stands out, but the horns are so cliched. I know by fielding these minis I am already quite far off the historically accurate track, but even so, I think the horned helm may have to go. A shame really.

As to the diorama, I plan it to be really simple, just a placing of the two minis on the appropriate base once these simple changes are made.

Off to source some local viking shields, or at least plasticard to make my own.