Been very busy with work of late, haven't got to do much painting. But I did finally get my first unit of Saxon Fyrd finished. Here they are.
They are similar to the Normans, except that I wanted them to have beards and hair visible so I just used the rounded top as the helmet. Also, obviously, they have round shields. The shields are a little too big for my taste, but I'm going to stick with them. The heads and shields are the most interesting part of these figures, so they should be the most prominent features when viewing them from on the table top.
From the side.
You can see the hair and beards a bit better here. Also, few of them are wearing armor, but you can see that even better from the rear shot.
It takes a while longer to paint this many different colors on them, but it's worth it. Let's be honest, guys with the same helmet wearing the same basic tunic need some help to look interesting and different from one another, and color of the tunic and hair color is the easiest way to do that.
I've got a unit of Saxon slingers, and another unit of Saxon Fyrd unpainted on my painting table, as well as a test Norman cavalry figure. I need to make another Norman cavalry figure or two so I can put them on a base and do a whole base of test figures. Not sure what I will do next, but probably not another unit of Fyrd. I need to paint something different.
Superb...and so cute, love the shields...
ReplyDeleteFor me, the nasal guard really makes the piece, as it is so iconic of helmets of the period. It is interesting how such little bits can make such a difference. Looking closer at the arms, too, shows how you have evolved them over time. Your new style allows for a much larger range of arm and hand positions.
ReplyDeleteThe use of the round shield for the Saxons, while the Normans will use the teardrop, will make distinguishing these two main bodies much easier.
Thanks guys!
ReplyDeleteI agree 100%, Dale, although I am sure that in reality the Saxons used round and tear drop shaped shields, by having the Saxons, especially the Fyrd, use only round shields, it will make it easier to differentiate the Saxons from the Normans on the table top from 3-5 feet wargaming distance. For the Saxon Housecarls, I will probably use tear dropped shields, or a mixture of tear dropped and round, but I will also paint the hair and beards on them, so even for them, it shouldn't be too difficult to distinguish the Normans from the Saxon Housecarls.
Yeah, I think do all those player character individual fantasy rpg figures taught me that I can be more flexible in terms of things like arm positioning and that it isn't that hard to do very diverse arm positions on these figures with the tile spacers. And now, doing the different arm positions on these wargaming figures has taught me that this approach is not just for individual figures, but can be mass produced for wargaming figures as well.