Men Of The North

So the Dark Ages project is off to a good start. This terrifies me, frankly, as it means something is going to go horrible wrong somewhere along the line.

In any case, the Saxons are really a sideshow. The core of the project is enough Normans to refight the rebellions of the 1070s and that is going well with the arrival of this box from the magnificent Dice Bag Lady. Fantastic service, a couple of lollies for the kids and great communication. If you haven't ordered from her, you really should.

So the box arrived.

They went together very easily - there's not a huge amount of variation in the poses, but given the cheapness and the ease of converting plastic I'm not going to quibble. Basically, I would recommend the conquest plastics as a great way to build a force swiftly.

As you can see, they paint up very well.

I also converted one of the horses into a more dynamic pose for the lord commander of the Knights.

As previously mentioned, I'm enjoying the latitude allowed by the colours and sigils of the Norman period, so I was able to have a bit of fun with these shields as well.

And I couldn't really resist having a look to see what a charge at a shield wall would look like.

So the next step will be another six Norman knights. Then a few more Saxons; if I have a bit of time left I might do a few Vikings as well. Then next month a big old load of Norman foot troops.

For Wodens Day

I've completed my first Dark Ages chaps. These Anglo-Saxons were basically an experiment in trying to produce a slightly darker palette than the medieval forces a produced last year. The darker overall look was created by heavy shading and washes with a highlight of the base colour only, so the whole thing was brought back up to mid tones rather than my usual method of using bleached bone to warm and lighten the highlights. 

They wouldn't be Anglo-Saxons without a shieldwall: 

The biggest surprise for me was the range of colours available in the early medieval period, which is certainly going to inform my painting of the Normans which will be the centrepiece of this project. Anyone interested in this should definitely check out this fascinating article about the colours and methods of production. 

Overall very happy with these; my first experience of Gripping Beast plastics and they paint up very, very well. Only took a few hours to get sorted. The new project is starting suspiciously well...