But, I did today finally get the Serpent Guard on foot miniatures painted ... and am I happy with them! They turned out better than I hoped they would. Just as a reminder, here is an image from the Arnold movie that shows the troops I am trying to represent with my little wooden fellows.
So there is Conan with his back to the camera, disguised as a priest, speaking with one of the Serpent Guard troops, actually he is showing him the snake battle standard. The troops are such a cool combination of several real life Dark Age/Early Medieval period soldiers from in particular the Middle and Far East, giving them a distinctive fantasy, but believable, appearance ... not so much with more contemporary attempts where the armor has shoulder pads larger than those of a defensive lineman in the NFL! The armor is thick leather but there are leather scales on the skirt and upper arm coverings, with a definite Saracen looking helmet on the top with samurai neck covering. However, they also wear metal face masks, similar to several elite troops from a number of different armies of this period or earlier in our world. Just a very cool looking troop type I think.
Here is my interpretation of this soldier for my Conan game. I left off the snake imagery just so I could use them in other games, but except for that I tried to remain as true as I could to the image above.
The builds on these guys were pretty complicated in terms of the paper. The belt with the groin cover built in, the samurai-like skirt, the head wrap around the top of the helmet, the shoulder armor all made for a tough build. The painting, though, was pretty straight forward. I didn't paint eyes to give them more of a haunting appearance.
Now a view down the line from each side.
I went with burnt umber, a dark and somewhat faded brown, for the armor. In the movie it looks almost gray in some scenes but in looking at the actual props online when they sold them off at auction it is definitely made out of thick dark brown leather that looks a little gray in the sunlight because the leather is shiny.
Now a shot from the rear.
And a couple of up close shots that are a little fuzzy, but still you can see a little better the details in these pics.
They are now ready to be killed off by the heroes!
Not sure what I will do next, either these guys on horses or the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser or Conan figures. But I hope over the next couple of weeks to post pics of something else wooden that has been constructed already painted up.
Great work, are you going to make some pilgrim figures to get in the way and possibly be a hero in disguise?
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteThey are not a part of the Battle at the Ruins scenario that I am working up, but I would also like to do a variation (with more going on and more options for the players) of the entry into the snake tower where in the movie Conan and Subotai meet up with Valeria for the first time, Conan and Subotai kill the giant snake, Valeria poses as a worshiper, etc. In that scene there are in particular female worshipers that can get in the way, where Valeria could pose as one to avoid detection, etc. Honestly, there are 6 female worshipers and 3 male worshipers on my construction table right now. :-)
I would also like to game the capturing of the princess scene from the movie. There are no worshipers in that scene, not dressed in robes anyway, but there are some other face masked guards that are really cool that I want to make to go in that scene.
Ideally I would like to do three interconnected games, 1) the venture into the tower, 2) capturing the princess, and 3) the battle at the ruins at a convention; the first game in the morning, the second in the afternoon, and the third in the evening. The outcomes of each game affect the strength of the heroes for the next game, sort of a simplified version of the way the LotR Battle Game from GW does their scenario books. I started with the Battle at the Ruins game because it is the most "wargamey" of all the scenarios, and also it has the most figure demands. I figure once I get it done then the other two scenarios in terms of figures is pretty light. High on terrain (the tower is going to be a pain in the neck) but low on figures and really the figures are the things that take the most time, planning, and effort. The scratch built simple "Craftee" terrain I do is really not hard at all.