Koyote

I finished the last four Tribal Hunters. Rather than take a separate group shot of all eight models, I've reposted the orignal photo of four hunters below the photo of my newest additions.

Love the Arcane Engine. The Jade turned out great. 👍

LOL

Many months back I bought this model on a whim. It's the Mutatwawwi'a Warlord from Stronghold Terrain's SAGA Collectibles model line. I didn't have a particular plan for it, but I was shopping for models for my Moors/Umayyad/AoM Desert Nomads project and I liked the model, so I bought it. Last week I watched the newest episode of SAGA Thorsday and learned that the rules for this month's painting contest is to submit one character model and extra points will be given to Old Feud Challenger models. If you've followed the progress of my AoM forest goblin warband, you may remember that in March I converted a couple of extra character models into Challengers for use in the Book of Battles' Old Feud scenario. I'm not putting any paint on my goblins yet, but It'd be nice to have a painted Challenger for my Moors warband, so I pulled the Mutatwawwi'a Warlord out of my box of 'extra Moors' and got to work on it. I told myself that if it turned out good enough, I'd enter it in the SAGA Thorsday painting contest. The sculpt looks pretty cool, but it's a little boring, so I added the severed head to the base (from a Victrix Viking sprue) and bloodied up the blade. Now he looks like he means business. I'm still on the fence as to whether or not this model is good enough for the contest. The paint job is clean, but a bit too basic. I have in mind a much flashier model that would would make a terrific Brute (Challenger), but it's not very "historical", so it may end up as a Challenger for the AoM version of this warband. I'll put some paint on it, and submit the model that turns out the best. Stay tuned.

These are the first four models from my 8-man unit of Tribal Hunters mercenaries. The models are Arab Archers from Footsore Miniatures' Armies of the Caliphates model line. Age of Crusades describes them as hunters from remote regions who "provide precious help to armies thanks to their skill at moving unnoticed through the untamed countryside and the lethal precision with which they use their weapons." Their rules include some nifty benefits, like using an enemies fatigue to gain a bonus to their shooting attack dice and the ability to 'stand and shoot' at charging units. I've decided that they are not Tuaregs, but rather local Arab scouts and trackers from the Iberian peninsula, so I painted their garb and skin tone different. As non-Tuaregs the challenge was to distinguish them from the rest of the army, but to include some similarities so they don't look entirely out of place. To this end I used blues on some of the models and gave every model a headscarf painted in the same tan (Baneblade Brown) that I used on my Tuaregs.

I finally got around to finishing the flying carpet. If I play my desert nomads as Great Kingdoms, it will 'count-as' my Sorcerer's flying mount. Painting a proper design on the carpet was something that I dreaded, so I cheated and used a Little Big Men Islamic banner decal. The banner was narrower than the smooth portion of the carpet, so I painted a red border around the decal. I applied a coat of Vallejo matt varnish to the banner and then used watered down paint to darken the red on the deal to better match the red I used to paint the border. Small magnets and pins to hold the Sorcerer to both its infantry base and the carpet. Here's a WIP shot of the flying carpet, showing the location of the magnet and pin. After this photo was taken I replaced the clear plastic rod with a flying stand taken from a Privateer Press Cryx Carrion Thrall model.

Below are some shots of my Moorish Warlord. In keeping with my humble Tuareg nomad theme, I kept his garb fairly simple, but because he's his tribe's chieftain, I added a few extra decorative elements I don't know if it's my computer screen, my camera's settings, or the lighting I used to take these photos, but the blues appear a bit more indigo than they do in person. I used Army Painter's Deep Blue and mixtures of Deep Blue and Griffon Blue. Weird.

My Moorish Warlord and Tribal Hunters mercenaries are ready for paint.

I don't mind at all. If you post pics of your work, I'd like to see your take on the Britons. The SAGA 2.0 version of Aetius Arthur is supposed to come out this year. I'm eager to see what they do with the Britons.

Except for the flag (I suspect it will be several weeks before my LBM order arrives), my second unit of Warriors is done. I removed the greenstuff aventail that I sculpted on my Moorish Warlord and replaced it with a greenstuff scarf, similar to the ones I added to my second unit of Warriors and my mounted Hearthguard.

I've (almost) finished the first four models of Warrior unit #2. When my LBM transfers arrive, I will add the flag to the standard bearer. I'm quite pleased with the greenstuff neck scarves. I feel that they add a lot to these models. Below is earlier WIP shot of the unit and below the WIP pic is an image I found online, sans GS scarves.

I decided that the original flag toppers were a bit too large and generic, so I replaced them with simple crescent moon flag toppers that I carved out of a greenstuff dowel. As I mentioned before, if I mix too much GS I roll the leftover GS into dowels of various thicknesses for use later. I made the crescent shape by drilling a hole into one of these dowels, lengthwise, using a pin vise. Then I cut thin slices from the dowel, like you'd cut a salami. Next, I used a xacto blade to widen the hole in the center of GS salami slice and finish shaping the crescent. I used a 'salami slice' of a thinner dowel to make the base that the crescent sits on. My Umayyad and Moors will each include 2 points of Warriors on foot and 2 points of Hearthguard mounted. Each will also include 1 point of Levy, but my Umayyad Levy will be armed with bows and my Moorish Levy will be armed with crossbows. This leaves me with 1 point to play with. Right now the plan is for the Umayyad to use this point on a 1 point of Warriors mounted (Perry Miniatures Bedouins), and my Moors will use the point to purchase a unit of Tribal Hunters mercenaries (Footsore Miniatures' Arab Archers). To lead my Tribal Hunters I converted a Brother Vinni's Arabia standard bearer. I repositioned the model's right arm and replaced his banner pole with bow. I used GS to repair the parts damaged by cutting away the banner pole. The model is a bit much for a tribal hunter, but I REALLY like this model, so I'm going to say that he's the hunters' chieftain/sheik -hence the fancy clothes and equipment. The different versions of the warbands will also have different Warlords. The mounted model pictured below is Gripping Beast's Moor Warlord Mounted. The model is pretty good as is, but there are some small things about it that bug me. For starters, the position of its shoulders and head look unnatural and it has no neck. I used a pair of snips, a hobby knife, and some GS to fix both of these problems. Also, I don't care for the model's mace/scepter, so I replaced it with the hand and sword from Fireforge's Richard the Lionheart model. Richard's hand is covered in a chainmail gauntlet, so I used a bit GS to add some chainmail to the model's shield hand.

I finally got around to painting another unit of Umayyads/Moors. Whether I'm playing them as Umayyads or Moors, the warband will include at least two units of 8 Warriors on foot. Since both units will be armed with spears and painted using the same palette of colors, I will use their kaffiyehs to distinguish them from one another. The models in the unit pictured below have their kaffiyehs covering most of their faces. The second unit will have their faces exposed. In SAGA, units can't intermix with one another, but on occasion they can get bunched up, so its useful to be able to easily identify which models belong to which unit. This warband represents a contingent of Tuareg Berbers. Unlike their Andalusian cousins who dress in a rainbow of bright colors and patterns like peacocks, my Tuareg are practical, hard-bitten nomad warriors who prefer simple garb made from solid colors. In keeping with this theme, I chose LBM shield transfers with simple patterns (mostly solid backgrounds) in browns and blacks. The darkest shields had a purple hue, so I darkened them with a black wash. The unit leader's shield was off-white, so I darkened it with a watered down wash of Agrax Earthshade.

I thought the same thing until I realized that the goblins were looking through the mask’s mouth.

I present to you, the Frog Lickers. The model comes in only one pose, so I left one model in its original pose and re-positioned the arms of the other three. These little fellas can serve as counts-as Shapeshifters for a LotW warband or as a small unit of foot hearthguard. I also did a little bit of work on my Bruiser and Soldier. You can't see it well in the photo, but the severed head now has its tongue lolling out.

I ordered two sets of these little critters from Mortal Arrow Miniatures (the goblin is present for purposes of size comparison). I'm going to use the small ones to decorate some of my forest goblins' bases and the warband's Sacred Ground terrain. I may use the larger ones and groups of the smaller ones to make Swarm levies for Lords of the Wild version of the warband. The legs on the little ones lie flat, but it's not difficult to bend them so that look more like proper crouching spiders.

I did a little bit of work on the gobbos last night. I added magnets to my foot-Warlord and his weapons so I can swap between heavy weapon and hand weapon. I also sculpted the bottom of the Dire Bat riding Warlord's feet. Lastly, I put the finishing touches on two more models that I will use when I play the Old Feud scenario from the Book of Battles. In this scenario, each player selects a character from a list of six archetypes (i.e. The Brute, The Counselor, The Traitor, The Soldier, The Princess, and The Mystic). Each character has different stats, abilities, and equipment. Each player's goal is to eliminate his opponent's character and to protect their own character. The "First Player" selects a character first and his opponent selects a character from the five remaining options. Each character provides different advantages and disadvantages, but I suspect that most players would agree that The Brute and The Soldier are the strongest choices. The model with the big axe is from the Shieldwolf Miniatures forest goblin Kickstarter. Compared to Shieldwolf's plastic forest goblins, this model is huge, which makes it ideal to serve as The Brute. The model's arms come from the Avatars of War Dwarf Rangers kit. The axe blade comes from the Frostgrave plastic Gnoll kit. The axe haft is a spear shaft from forest goblin kit. The model holding the severed head is Shieldwolf Miniatures' Goblin Hero B. This model will serve as The Soldier. To make the model look a bit more like a forest goblin, I removed the spikes from the shoulder and knee pads. I also removed the axe from its right hand and clipped the sickle shaped blade from the top of the weapon held in his right hand. You can't see it from this angle, but I added a pouch, a sheathed knife, and some feathers to rear of the model.

Batgob is goblin wearing hollowed out log as a helmet, yet still he makes a far better Batman than Robert Pattinson.

Lords of the Wild Warlord on flying Beast

Below are some WIP photos of my Dire Bat rider. I started with a forest goblin from the Shieldwolf kit. I removed the models legs at the upper thighs and used my hobby knife to carve out the model's groin area. I used bent pieces of metal rod (leftovers from metal spears) to serve as the skeleton for the model's new legs and to reposition the angle of the feet. I glued a magnet to its butt to keep the model on the bat. Next, I used greenstuff to sculpt the calves and the outer part of the thigh. Once the GS had been given a little bit of time to set up, I applied water to the inside of the legs and then sat the model on the bat's back. This shaped the inside of legs to match the contours of the bat's back. The combination of letting the GS set up and the water kept the GS from sticking to the bat's back. Once the legs were dry, I realized that there was still a big gap between the inner thighs and crotch of the goblin and the bat's back, so I used greenstuff to bulk out the thighs, extend the rectangular belly plate, and add a skirt. The extended belly plate and skirt also hid the magnet. Lastly, I gave the little fella a bit of gear by adding a sheathed knife and a small satchel. Both bits are from the Frostgrave Barbarian plastic kit. Eventually, the model will be equipped with a shield from the Shielfwolf forest goblin kit. The last bit of work I need to do is to use greenstuff to fill in the cracks where the shoulders meets the torso, extend the foot wrappings to the bottom of the feet, and to sculpt the bottom of the feet and toes.

This giant bat, the Bloodhunter Dire Bat, is another resin 3D printed model from an Etsy seller. The print turned out quite good. I'm going to use it as a Monster (Scourge) or, if I play my goblins as Lords of the Wild, as a flying Beast mount. As with my mounted Hearthguard, my motivation for adding the bat is to give my forest goblin warband a bit more mobility and speed. For a Monster, it's a tad small, so I used some greenstuff and a resin log to add another half inch to its height. The first photo is a size comparison pic. The other three show the Dire Bat from different angles. I inserted a magnet into its back to hold a rider in place, and covered the magnet with greenstuff to conceal it.

Looky what Studio Tomahawk posted on it's Facebook page.

I want to have several equipment options for my Warlord, so I purchased Shieldwolf Miniatures Goblin Hero with 2 Handed Weapon to serve as my Warlord on foot. The axe blade is absurdly large, but for me that's part of this model's ridiculous charm. To accentuate the massive overhead blow this fellow is about to deliver to some hapless foe, I mounted the Warlord on a stump. Equipping a Warlord with a heavy weapon is a gamble, as it reduces its melee armor to 4 and prevents the Warlord from Closing Ranks. With this in mind, I converted a spear from bits found in the GW Spider Rider kit, so that the Warlord can be equipped with a regular hand weapon (i.e. "no equipment). The plan is to insert small magnets into the wrists and hands so that I can swap out weapons. The model still needs some greenstuff work to make him look more like a proper forest goblin.

I'm glad that I decided to stick with the original riders. They have so much character and fun little details. I still need to to some greenstuff work on them, but they are in good enough shape for play testing the unit. In my current build, these mounted Hearthguard will provide me with a seventh SAGA die and give me the speed to tackle objectives. In games without objectives, they will serve as a mobile reserve.

Of course, we shouldn't confuse forest goblin spider jockeys with the other variety of spider jockey.