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 Macedonian Thureophoroi Re-Based

I originally painted these figures up during the height of the pandemic in 2020. They were based up for Hannibal at the Gates rules. Being a play tester for those rules, I originally painted up more figures than I needed as the rules and associated army lists were evolving as the rules were fine tuned. Three years later, these ten figures are excess as commands ended up being generally reduced in figure count slightly. 

With no prospects of these seeing table time using that basing, I've re-based these for use with both Clash of Spears and Saga age of Alexander. They'll partner up nicely with the Pike I've recently purchased and re-based. These are Warlord Games 'new resin' from their SPQR / Hail Cesar figure ranges. I forget exactly which. Other than being slightly annoying to clean due to them needing to be scraped but not sanded, these are fantastic figures. Great detail, only weapons and shields for assembly and they look great as a unit. 

I painted these as I was learning to use Games Workshop's Contrast paints. I think those type of paints do a good job on helmet plumes and cloaks for Historical figures. This officer and musician are fine examples of this. Since having access to GW Contrast, Army Painter Speed Paints and Vallejo Xpress color, I think my preferred brand for this type of paint is actually Army Painter's Speedpaint line.

Ten figures re-based for my annual totals.

I realized that I never posted photos to this blog of the previously posted 'ready to base' figures based up. Here is a Thureophoroi and Thorakitai 'division' command of four units based for Hannibal at the Gates. It's possible that I never have posted photos of the Thorakitai as they were painted during the pandemic when my life and my blogging were somewhat chaotic.

28mm Macedonian Pike re-based

Just a quick post of 24 Macedonians with sarissa (pike) that I bought off of ebay, touched up and re-based for Clash of Spears. 

24 figures purchased, 24 figures re-based on my annual totals.
 

 

 

 

Roman Re-Basing Project

I recently purchased the figures shown to the left from several Ebay auctions from a single seller. I was looking for a quick start on a Roman army for Saga and Clash of Spears. These figures were well loved, but arrived in good condition, although I wanted to re-base them on circular 25mm bases to be consistent with my other Saga and Clash of Spears figures. Due to transit damage and just normal wear-and-tear, nearly all of the figures had some touch-ups needed to bring them back up to snuff for tabletop use.

First up I tackled the allies. This unit of six Samnite figures also required I hand-paint one shield which was missing, lost in transit I believe. This is a unit for Clash of Spears, or a partial unit for Saga to be combined with figures in the below two units as 'warriors' in eight-figure units.

A second unit of allies, these are Italiotes, Etruscians, Campagnians, etc. A single unit of Warriors for Saga, or a large unit for Clash of Spears.

This unit, a mix of 'allied legion' Italiotes. A full unit for Clash of Spears, combined with Samanites above to complete a unit of eight warriors for Saga.

A unit of Triarii with white shields. Just under two units of hearthguards for Saga, or a large unit for Clash of Spears.

A group of red-shielded Triarii. This would make two and a half hearthguard units in Saga or likely two units in Clash of Spears.

The two mounted figures in this photo I've posted earlier. The four stands of foot officers can be used as warlord figures for Saga or officer figures for Clash of Spears. Clash uses single figures for officers, but the multi-figure bases take the guesswork out of knowing which is the officer and look better in my opinion. For game purposes each base will count as a single figure.

These were thrown in for free in the deal. They look more like Macedonians than Roman allies. Let's call them captured soldiers from Pyrrhus' army pressed into Roman service. They might serve as stand-ins for more Velites or even as filler for an allied legion unit.

Two very lonely Velites. I'll paint up some more from my unpainted lead collection to flesh this unit out.

The bulk of the Hastati and Principes, 15 with white tunics and red shields, 12 with red tunics and red shields, an officer, musician and an odd Triarii that got missed in the lot above. 

Here's a group shot of the above as well as previously posted ancient units for Saga.

Group shot of the bulk of the Roman infantry and officers. 

Project totals: 87 figures re-based, 87 28mm painted figures purchased.

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 Iberian Infantry for Saga

I've had these Warlord 28mm Iberian infantry on my painting table for over a year. Early on in the project I had the figures painted up but the shields were not painted. I took a swing at hand painting the shields, but that was a disaster. I made homemade shield transfers, but those proved impossible to cut-in to the shields that had molded in spines and bosses. Finally I broke down, pried the shields off the figures, filed off the raised detail and applied the homemade transfers. Bob's your uncle. 

These will form two eight figure warrior units in my Iberian army for Saga Age of Hannibal, or two units for Clash of Spears.

These will count as 16 figures for my 2022 painting totals even though they were mostly painted in 2021. I count them only when they're finished, based, and ready for the tabletop! Next up on the painting table are some 28mm crusades era crossbowmen, some AWI figures I'm re-basing and some terrain.

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.

Eastern Princes Hearthguards, Bannerman and Warlords

Eight hearthguard cavalry, two warlords and a bannerman for my Saga Eastern princes force. I've been running larger multi-player games using simplified battle boards lately. I call it 'simple Saga'. I picked these figures up on Ebay to bolster my Eastern Princes force.

These came mounted in two and three figure bases so I had to remove them all from their original bases and re-base for Saga. The figures got hit HARD in shipping. One horse was snapped off at the ankles. Most of the spears were broken off the figures, two riders were dislodged. I replaced all of the spears that were knocked off with steel wire spears. I repaired all of the other damage as well, the most challenging of which was repairing the horse that was snapped off at the ankles. I can say you probably cannot tell which one it was, so I think I did a passable job at that. 

These well-loved figures also needed a LOT of paint touch-ups including re-doing many hands due to the replacement of the spears. Still a good addition to my force at a decent price. I will be counting this as 11 stands re-based in my painting totals for the year. Re-basing always includes some repairs and touch-ups.

February 2022 Northern Conspiracy Game Night

I'm about a week late posting this. Earlier this month the Northern Conspiracy got together for our February game night. We had an excellent turnout. My game was a fill-in game for another from a host that couldn't attend. 

My concept for this game was to make Saga accessible to newer or first-time Saga players. I created a set of generic battle boards. Each had the same six advanced Saga abilities. I chose them from all of the Crusades battle boards. The six abilities were chosen mostly based on how easy to understand they were and how universally useful they were. This would allow each player to learn Saga without being overwhelmed by a full, complex battle board and an opponent's battle board that is also similarly overwhelming. 

The game was Michael and Kevin helping me test out the system. Both received the simplified battle boards well, with some constructive input. Kevin is a newer Saga player, Michael very much an expert. 

Both players played the simplified battle boards well. In the end, Kevin's crossbows in the ruin carried the day for the Eastern Princes.