Terrain: Rocky Crag Pass

Hello Everyone! On display today is my recently created difficult ground rock terrain.

The terrain piece was created using 1/4 inch thick wood from my craft store (it has slightly warped, hardboard is superior to wood).  The rocks are simply made by stripping pieces of bark from a pine tree. Sand was added followed by a coat of black spray paint.  Next step is successive layers of dry brushing increasingly lighter grey (I did 2 grey colors). brown for the dirt with a tan/white drybrush to bring the detail out.  Lastly the ever important ingredient static grass.

For those hobbyists who do not know how to properly drybrush here are a few pointers! The brush selected should never be a thin or fine detail brush.  It should either be thick or flat, with the size depending upon the area on which you are drybrushing.  Once a generous amount of paint is applied to the brush, take a piece of wood or plastic that you don't mind covering in paint.  Stroke using all sides of the brush until it does not seem like any paint is being applied.  You are now ready to drybrush.  Lightly stroke the desired area to highlight the raised details!  Repeat the process when it seems the highlights are dulling.

Here are some action shots of the Rocky Crag Pass!

28mm Dark age/Medieval Scale Comparisons

For those of you interested in wargaming these periods and have been living under a rock here are my two pictures regarding miniature lines and scale.

In order: Gripping Beast Jomsviking(metal), Gripping Beast Plastic Hirdmen, Wargames factory ancient german, and a Bretonnian Men at arms.  All of the miniatures are in my humble opinion compatible.  The heights are all relatively the same.  However, Wargames factory sculpts tend to run on  the thinner side.  Gripping beast has done a good job of making heads and hands larger making for better miniatures for both ease of painting and aesthetic appeal.  Some of the wargames factory heads' have details that are far to small making the miniature look slightly awkward. 

In order: Bretonnian Knight of the realm, Fireforge Teutonic Knight, wargames factory celtic cavalry, and a games workshop standard horse model. The wargames factory horse is by far the smallest.  Which  is appropriate for certain applications.  Steppe horses were smaller than western european horses, and ancient horses were smaller then the warhorses of medieval europe (both are more akin to ponies).  GW models are always more heroic in scale, the standard GW horse less so than the Bretonnian warhorse.  The fireforge horse offers a good size for historical 28mm gaming.  

Terrain: Viking/Baltic Great Hall, WIP

These guys were made from Birdhouses, found at my local craft store, and popsicle sticks for the details.  

I have terry cloths ready for the roofing.  More details need to be added first before the terry cloth thatch roofing.

I also need to figure out whether I should base the buildings.

A little conversion work

I recently converted this hearth guard to a Dane Axe wielding warrior.  Now the entire Dane axe unit is properly equipped!

Here is what he looked like previously (middle right)

Converting metal figures can be a daunting task. This was simple! I simply cut his hand off and adjusted the wrist positioning horizontally to match the opposite hand. Sadly, I am not well versed in green stuff.  None was used.  Hopefully one day that will change.

My first post!

Hello everyone and welcome to my wargaming blog.  This is the maiden post! On display here are my Gripping Beast's Jomsvikings, (in my opinion the nicest models for any northern/eastern barbarian army)

So far these pagan warriors have tasted battle in 3 games of SAGA, once as Jomsvikings, once as Vikings, and once as Anglo-Danes.

All Have been 6 point saga battles (my astute readers will have realized that I only have 4 points pictured.  They are what's painted, the other 2 points used are warhammer kislev models for the time being.)

This is a WIP shot. In recent years I have switched over to white spray paint.  I've found it helps my otherwise severely bad painting with Black primer.  And I am happy with my results.  My limited painting advice: Good painting comes from the knowledge of paint thickness and its application to the model. Proper application of washes inks and foundation paints has helped my painting, and I believe it will help yours as well.

 I use GW paints (gasp...dont no where to get vallejo state side).  A light metallic color is used for the chain mail and then is washed with badab black.  For skin I simply use ogryn flesh wash, it gets the job done in one layer!

 The transfers are from http://www.hourofwolves.org/ and they were free!  I simply printed them on normal paper and used the craft supply rubber cement to apply the images to the shields.  A revolving hole puncher type device wear also used to remove the blank shield boss section. (it might have been for piercing leather, but it had revolving sizes so it worked!)

 These woad wearing warriors are a mix of wargames factory Bits with ancient german bodies and Viking/ German heads.  The woad was a blue foundation paint.

 here we have a group shot with warlord included! He is not based yet due to the reason that I am in the market for casualty miniatures for his base.

Once Im done with this SAGA force I will be working on a Sword Brother/Teutonic army for SAGA using the Norman board.  Both armies will hopefully be fleshed out to have WAB battles for my favorite part of history the 13th century Northern Crusades.  

The Teutonic/Livonian army will be comprised of Fireforge Games fantastic range.  And my Native Pagan Balts will be a combination of everything I can muster since there isn't a range that covers them sufficiently, especially for the 13th century.  However, I am thinking WF german and celtic cavalry for light cavalry, and some conversion work on the conquest normans for noble cavalry.  The Jomsvikings are perfect for foot nobles and warriors.

I was sad when fireforge revealed the mongols as the next army range.  Hopefully the supplement will have Pagan Balts.  If it does I'm grabbing a copy of the Deus Vult Ruleset!