Baby Steps

Just a brief check-in amidst the puppy chaos and pre-Christmas workload.

At last managing to get through some work on the shieldwall, although only by snatching 30 mins here and there so it's not speedy work!

The pics below show progress to date, the guys at the back (furthest from camera) are the elite troops (nobles) in white and red, with armour, the rest are the rank and file. I've tried to get a 'uniform' feel whilst having a mix of colours, hard to tell if it's worked until basing time, but fingers crossed!

Just helmets, shields, and final touch-up (my OCD won't allow me to skip that!) and then onto the javelin and archer support and standards.
Hopefully a fuller update soon...

Missing In Action

Just a quick post to report on, erm, negative progress.
Yes, the opposite of progress has occurred. Originally it was little to no progress, due to the arrival of a new dog in the house, Summer.
Painting time has temporarily given way to dog training time, so no progress was being made other than plans being formulated for future armies whilst engaged in various Summer related activities.

So things were proceeding slowly, or not at all, but I wasn't too unhappy until a Grendel type attack on my Shieldwall by the beast!

Before and after pictures of the unprovoked attack on my brave troops can be seen below...



The shieldwall awaiting further painting.

The aftermath of the attack...

The bodies you can see were the only ones I found, four of their comrades are still missing, presumed, erm, eaten...Where is Beowulf when you need him?!

The beast, dreaming of another attack...

Signs Of Progress

Ok, I haven't exactly started painting, but I have made some progress - honestly!

Since returning from Malta I've spent a happy hour or two (Ok, maybe three or four. Five, tops) clipping and converting and getting ready to undercoat. From talking to fellow Generals I often get the feeling I spend longer than 'normal' on this sort of thing for such small figures, but I figure they're going to be fighting for years so I'm happy to spend a few hours now getting them to look how I want - even if no-one else notices!

The troops are 'blu-tacked' to wooden sticks (huge bag of these sticks is only £2 from Hobbycraft, and they never wear out) and ready for spraying.

Close-ups and H&R figure codes shown below, including comments where I've modified units.

Command Figures (from MAR28)

These are actually the command figures from the light infantry pack, the heavy infantry come with standards but no specific command figures. I like the pose of these guys and fortunately I ended up with 4 of them so I can use one on each Shieldwall base. One of them lost his sword (careless) so I'm going to have to do something creative with him before painting!

Bowmen (MAR9)

Originally the bowmen had small plumes on their helmets, which Stanley and I removed, followed by some brief filing so hopefully they look less Roman and more Briton now!

Shieldwall 1 (MAR10)

These are the rank and file Shieldwall, spear armed infantry. As with the bowmen, I've removed helmet crests from most of these guys, and hopefully this gives them a more 'irregular' and less Roman look.

Shieldwall 1 (MAR10)

The standard version of the Shiledwall spearmen, helmets intact!

Shieldwall 2 (MAR13)

These lads are going to form the majority of the front row of the Shieldwall as they seem keen to confront the enemy (good lads!). Again, helmet crests removed to give the 'Briton look'.

Shieldwall 2 (MAR13)

I've left some helmets with crests, and I figure I'll dot these randomly along the front line and cluster them around the standard and command grouping on each Shieldwall base.

Skirmishers (MAR28)

Foot Skirmishers - nicely animated figures, although an extra pose or two would have been good.



Standards (4 per pack)

Standard bearers. 4 figures per infantry pack, nicely detailed. The standard bearers on the right are from the Light Infantry pack and are correspondingly less armoured - I'm probably going to use these for the Tribal Militia bases.

Shieldwall On Parade!

The shieldwall troops arrayed! Approximately 250 Heavy Infantry that are only going to make 4 units with the dense basing I plan to use, but just from this pic I'm confident that this is the way to go - even if it's trebled my painting time!

 

That's all for now - I'm off to spray! Have a good weekend!