28mm Carthaginian Veteran Spearmen

These Carthaginian African veteran spearmen are Old Glory figures. I've painted them up based individually for Clash of Spears or Saga Age of Hannibal. I'm running a game of the former this upcoming Friday at our club's monthly game night as a way to drum up some excitement for the rules which I like a lot. Since our group also plays quite a bit of Saga, these are great for that faction in Age of Hannibal as well. 

Nobody makes Carthaginian transfers for Old Glory shields that I could find, so I created some myself using my laser printer and decal paper. The process is fairly simple, but it is laborious. To be completely honest, I'd rather buy transfers than make them. If they are available I typically just buy them. In this case, necessity was the mother of invention.

This group comprises 18 more figures for this year's painting totals. Next up on the painting table are a bunch of built-up areas for 15mm gaming, particularly WWII using "O" Group rules. Come to think of it, I owe the blog a post of the "O" Group game I hosted a couple of weekends ago!

28mm Roman Velites

Twelve Roman velites based individually for either Saga age of Hannibal or Clash of Spears. Truthfully the latter was the primary motivation to paint up these figures. I likely have plenty of Velites for Saga having already painted up one unit of twelve figures previously. 

These are more Old Glory figures pulled from my 'dead lead' collection. Previously purchased for my Roman Hannibal at the Gates army, I had purchased way more than I needed. Luckily for me I held on to them as now I'm happy to have been able to pull them from the pile of shame and get them painted up!

 Where the previous unit was painted using traditional methods, other than the metallic paints, these were painted exclusively with 'contrast' paints - primarily Army Painter SpeedPaints (version 1). I have to say, I'm happy with how they came out and the speed at which I was able to paint them up. Twelve more 28mm figures for this year's painting totals.

28mm Roman Velites

Twelve 28mm Roman Velites for Clash of Spears of Saga age of Hannibal. These are Old Glory figures that I rescued from my 'dead lead' box and painted up to match the red-shielded Romans I recently purchased and re-based. 

I've kept these pretty generic as far as shield markings go. Some of the hastati and princeps in the rest of the command had unadorned red shields, so I went with that for these for expedience and because I didn't have appropriate matching shield transfers.

I've mostly painted these with traditional paints and techniques. I used contrast paints for the wolf skins, but in the end my Zenethil priming was too dark so I had to dry-brush the grey streaks to make it all work. Lesson learned. I'm still happy with how they came out. These will be a full unit of levies for Saga, or two small units for Clash or Spears. Likely for the latter I'll use eight figures as a single command while four figures remain as extras. 

Twelve figures closer to evening out my painted vs. purchased figures. Next up on the painting table, a couple of vehicles for my Finnish army.

28mm Crusader Crossbowmen

These are the last figures that I plan to paint for my Saga Crusader army. I didn't need two more units of crossbowmen, but I had the figures, and I'm going to start running some lager multi-player games so I thought it would be nice to be able to field multiple four-point armies for those. 

These figures are a mix from two different bags of Old Glory figures. My uncle and I split two bags to give us each some additional variance in poses, etc. His are fielded in his Templar army, mine in my Crusader army. Old Glory figure have several great qualities: they're good serviceable figures with good pose variation, they're lead which I prefer over plastic or resin, and with the Old Glory club card, these run $0.60 USD per figure. That's a deal you can't feel as an old boss of mine always used to say. 

These were painted in two groups of eight to represent 'warriors' in Saga, but they are just as likely to be fielded in a single unit of twelve as levy so I kept both units consistent with each other. The buff coats are an experiment. Some were painted using traditional methods, some were contrast paints, some were SpeedPaints, and some were a mix. To be honest, all of them came out fine and mix well. I think my techniques with the transparent contrast and SpeedPaints is slowly improving. 

This will add sixteen more figures to this year's painting totals. Each year I strive to paint as many figures as I buy pre-painted. This year I'm not likely to achieve that goal, but these will help get me a step closer.  Next up on the painting table are some terrain projects and a return to my 28mm Finnish WWII Continuation War / Lapland war force. Returning to the Finns should help boost my productivity as WWII figures are pretty quick to paint up and I'm very motivated to work on that army so that I can start running games with it.

28mm Crusader Heavy Cavalry #3

My recent foray into larger multi-player Saga games has put a slight strain on my figure collection. This has required me to press into service several mercenary units, with their more complicated rules. This is not what I want for a beginner-friendly multi-player game, therefore I decided to rummage around in the 'dead lead' box and start painting up the rest of the crusades figures I had in there. These nine cavalry are the first batch of that effort. There are two 'Warlord' figures on circular stands and seven 'Hearthguard' or 'Warrior' mounted figures. With an additional extra figure I already have painted up these will make either a single eight-man warrior unit or two four-man hearthguard units. 

Here are the two warlord figures. The Old Glory figure packs come with a few sword-armed figures. I figured these were the most appropriate poses for a warlord. The transfers are from Little Big Man Studios (LBMS). Although they're made for Gripping Beast shields, I was able to make them work with appropriate trimming. 

Here is a close up of the troopers - positioned to give a better look at the LBMS shield transfers. I have to admit, the transfers really make what are essentially speed-painted figures look a lot better than they have a right to. Well worth the money. I often make my own transfers, but these shields with round bosses in the middle make that very painful. The LBMS transfers come with the boss area already cut out in the decal. What a luxury!

The complete eight man unit with a reinforcement from the figure collection. This is how it will be used on the tabletop. 

Nine mounted figures, which I will count as 18 in the annual painting totals. Next up I'm hoping to finish some 28mm Iberian infantry that I've pushed to the back of the painting table for way too long. It's time I finish them up.

28mm Roman Mounted Officers

These are six mounted Roman officers that I've recently completed. Four are mounted to be used with my Hannibal at the Gates Republican Roman army and two will be used with the Saga Age of Hannibal rules. In all honesty I probably could have mounted them all the same way and used any for either set of rules as all are on two inch circular bases. 

These are Old Glory figures. Usually Old Glory figures have good facial expressions, but several of these figures have very rough facial features. Either the casting is too soft, or they were sculpted to look quite ape-like. Either way I've done my best to make them look as human as possible considering the sculpts.

These two will be used for Saga Age of Hannibal. I'm particularly happy with how the fur came out on the cape. This was done with several different applications of various shades of GW Contrast paints. Quick, easy and looks great.

 

 

 

 

 

Two of the Hannibal at the Gates figures.

The final two figures.

28mm Samnite 'Colorful Legion' Mercenaries for Saga Age of Hannibal

Eight Samnite 'Colorful Legion' warriors. These will be a mercenary unit for Saga Age of Hannibal. 

Old Glory figures. I'm still experimenting with contrast paints on tunics and larger areas with mixed results. 

Eight figures to add to the 2021 totals. Next up on the painting table are twelve 28mm Gaul Archers to start my Carthaginian force for Saga Age of Hannibal.

 

28mm 'Romanized' Samnites

Ten Old Glory 28mm Samnites. These will be artillery train guard 'soldier' stands in Hannibal At the Gates. Each stand will be five figure groups as shown. I've equipped these with Roman scutum shields and more uniform tunics while retaining their traditional Samnite helmets. 

I experimented with contrast paints on the tunics with results I'm not thrilled with. The helmet feathers are also contrast paints and I'm thrilled with how they look. The rest of the work on the figures used traditional techniques.  Ten figures, to start the year's painting progress off. Next up on the painting table are eight more Samnites. These next ones will be Samnite 'colorful legion' warriors to be used as mercenaries in Saga Age of Hannibal games.

One note: I'm still working on my new studio space, so my laser cutter/engraver is currently out of service, so basing many of the figures I've painted this year will be a big project for later this year.

28mm Ligurians for Saga Age of Hannibal

These are eight Old Glory Ligurians. I still have to base them up, but the painting is complete. Shield transfers are LBMS. 

I've painted these up as mercenaries for Saga age of Hannibal. I'm not entirely sure which army I'm going to paint up, so I decided to start with some decent mercenary units instead of picking core troops to work on.

Eight figures for the 2020 painting totals.

Next up on the painting table, some more Saga Age of Hannibal mercenaries: Baleric Slingers.

28mm Thracian Peltasts and Psoli

These four stands represent a Thracian division in Hannibal at the gates. The front two stands are skirmishers or psoli and the rear two are soldiers or peltasts. The shield transfers are from Little Big Man Studios. The figures are from Old Glory.

I anguished a bit about doing freehand patterns on the cloaks of these figures to match the historic pottery showing very complex geometric patterns. In the end I opted for simplicity allowing the shields to convey that theme. I wasn't confident I could execute the complex freehand in a way that wouldn't make the figures look worse than omitting it. Even without the patterns, I think the rhomphaia swords, sica knives and patterned shields give them a suitably Thracian look.

This adds sixteen figures to my annual totals bringing my year-to-date total to 138. This matches last year's production and it's only early April. Following a painting schedule because of my Twitch.tv streams has really ramped up my painting output. Even if you don't stream, making some regular time to paint really helps you get things done. During the current global COVID-19 epidemic it's a great time to set aside some scheduled hobby time.

28mm Republican Roman Infantry Command

I've had these figures finished for about a week, but I've been busy painting other figures and neglected to base these up. I finally got some time to get them based this past weekend. These are mostly Old Glory figures, except for the Titus Pullo character figure and the Warlord 'Blood Sacrifice' figure which came free with the purchase of their SPQR rule book.

The two round stands are infantry command stands. the yellow shield stand completes my third infantry legion. The green-shielded stand starts my fourth legion.

28mm Roman Cavalry (2)

Two units of 28mm Roman cavalry for my 'tan shield' allied legion. Old glory figures based up for Hanibal at the Gates rules.

These were painted on my Twitch.tv stream over the better part of three streams. I'm counting this as twelve figures in my annual painting totals: six riders and six horses.  Next up on the painting table are some command figures to finish up this legion and start the 4th and final legion.

Trying out my new photography turntable. Probably a silly gimmick, but what the heck right?