I compared what a three figure vs. four figure stand would look like. There is no comparison, the four figure stand for infantry in a shield wall like the Normans would typically be in looks infinitely better than the three figures. Plus, I may want to use the three figure bases to indicate differences in quality of the unit. Anyway, I attached the four figures to the base before painting them. Then glued on everything (arms, weapnos, etc.) except for the shields. I also did not paint the flat side of the arm where the shield would eventually be glued to, and in fact if I got paint on that part of the arm I immediately wiped it off.
I painted the figures fully on the stand, after they were totally constructed except for gluing their shields onto their arms. This turned out easier than I thought it would be, even though they are pretty close together. I then painted the back side of the shield piece and glued the shield onto the figures. Then I painted the front side of the shields, with the details, after the glue had dried.
I only took one picture of them, but this is enough to get the idea.
These are awesome. I look forward to seeing some Norman knights. What rules are you thinking of using? Arrayed for Battle?
ReplyDeleteThanks! I am building on my fantasy figure constructions to make better Dark Ages/Medieval historical guys I think. The milk bottle base construction with the paper “skirt” for the mail coats really works visually for these guys, along with the nasal helm construction technique.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure what rules I will use, but probably an Arrayed for Battle variant. I will do what I always do when I put on games that are based on an actual battle, I will throw some rules in that are specific to that battle (like for Hastings I’ll work out some mechanic for the Saxons in terms of the players actually having to do something to keep units from pursuing the “fleeing” Normans down the hill which would break up the Saxon’s battle line/shield wall, and for the Normans some mechanic about how to successfully do a feigned retreat instead of just producing a rout of the army, etc.). Arrayed for Battle needs a little work for this period, though, IMO anyway. It does a great job (again IMO) for the classical BC ancients period, but I’m not sure it will have the right feel for this period without a little tweaking. The basic mechanics can probably stay more or less the same, but it will need some tweaking. Sort of like what I did to tweak the Punic Wars Romans in terms of how their lines were more easily reinforced than other armies of the time. So I’ll need some shield wall mechanic in there, for example, for Hastings and battles around this time.
But, given I’m doing four base units, I could also use Neil Thomas’s Ancients rules as well. I like those quite a lot, actually, and he has a nice version for this period.