Koyote

I typically buy greenstuff from my local game store, Dark Tower Games, which carries Army Painter branded greenstuff. I’ve also purchased it online. I haven’t noticed much of a difference between manufacturers. I use Apoxie Sculpt for larger scale work, such as work on bases and terrain. It’s characteristics make it a poor medium for doing proper sculpting and converting (detail work), but it’s much cheaper than Greenstuff, so it helps your hobby dollars go further when working on large scale projects.

Clever generals (which I am not) use mercenaries to exploit a certain rule or compensate for a warband's particular weakness. I enjoy using mercenaries, mostly for the modeling, painting, and thematic opportunities. Below is a unit of Sailors for my Moors warband. I used Perry Miniatures' Afghan Tribesmen kit to make them. Their garb and head coverings identify them as Muslims, but differs enough from the other models in the warband to clearly indicate that they belong to a different group. And yes, I recognize the irony of using models depicting warriors from a landlocked country as sailors. I still need to do some greenstuff work on them to fill in gaps. I am tempted to add an eye patch to the leader so I can call them pirates. Argh, matey! The kit provides enough pieces to make 36 models, so I have plenty left over. I will likely assemble another group equipped with javelins to serve as a unit of Borderers for my Mutatawwi'a warband.

I did a bit more work on my 4-pack warrior "drum crew". I added the crescent moon banner standard topper to the banner pole, replaced the drummer's head (for the second time), and swapped out the [i]Artizan Designs[/i] swordsman for the [i]Gripping Beast's[/i] Mutatawwi'a Warlord on Foot. I really like the warlord model, and I REALLY want to incorporate the mini into my warband, but I don't need a foot warlord. The plan is to paint him with a grey or white beard. He'll be either an honored veteran who has seen too many summers to serve in the front lines, or an old warrior imam who accompanies the warband.

Sorry. No.

I finished the last four mounted Hearthguard. Below are all 8 Hearthguard together. The lights that I normally use to photograph minis interacts with the blue paint on my Moors to produce photos in which the blues possess a violet hue that you don't see when you look at the models in person, under normal lighting conditions. I tried to correct this by using different lighting. The result is better than the earlier photos, but it's still not quite right.

I painted my Moors as Berber (Tuareg) tribesmen so that they can convincingly be played as any of the Muslim factions that recruited contingents of troops from western North Africa. This includes the Umayyads (Age of Viking), Moors (Age of Crusades), and the Mutatawwi'a (Age of Crusades). An interesting side note, both the Moors and Mutatawwi'a factions include a Legendary Warlord from the Almoravid Dynasty, which was founded in North Africa by uniting the Berber tribes. My research into the Almoravids indicates that they made great use of war drums, which were used to terrify Christians and panic their horses. This makes me think that I need to add some drummers to my collection of painted minis... Since the Mutatawwi'a faction cannot include levies and many of the abilities on the Mutatawwi'a battle board requires the Mutatawwi'a player to lower their unit's armor or remove a model from their own warband, I feel that they would benefit from some large units of Warriors to absorb the self-inflicted casualties and aggressive play style. One of the Mutatawwi'a builds I have in mind includes 3 points of melee warriors divided into two units of 10 warriors and a 4-pack of warriors hanging back in order to secure the extra Saga dice. I figure if this 4-pack is going to be sitting in the rear of the army, it would be fun to properly theme the unit to match its "support" role. My idea is to make it a unit of war drummers and a standard bearer. The 4-pack is comprised of models from Artizan Designs' Moors model line. Two of the models arrived with deformed faces, so I did a bit of greenstuff plastic surgery to make them presentable. The lower half of the standard bearer's robes is flat and mostly featureless, so I used GS to add a belt and some folds. The drummer on the far right had the same issue with flat robes. Also, I don't like that particular drummer's original head and the twin scarf ends hanging down on its chest, so replaced the head and scarf with a plastic GB head and greenstuff. In hindsight, I don't know if I like the replacement head either. I may have to replace the replacement. In addition to the painting the new 4-pack, I need to add 2 more models to each of my existing units of 8 melee Warriors. In keeping with the Almoravid drum theme, each unit will get another spear armed model and a model equipped with a drum.

Many years ago, on a business trip to Egypt, I took a day off to and tour the pyramids from the back of a camel. It was an amazing experience, and ever since, I've wanted to play an army that includes camel cavalry. When Age of Crusades was released, I thought that SAGA might be my chance to incorporate camel cavalry into a tabletop army. The Mutatawwi'a faction includes camel cavalry, but I'm not too fond of the Mutatawwi'a battle board, so I initially passed on it. Similarly, I don't care for Legendary Warlords, so I also passed on playing Yusuf Ibn Tashfin, the Moorish Legendary Warlord that unlocks Tuarege Camel Riders for the Moors. Mercenary Scouts mounted on camels is an option, but they aren't a great choice. Plus, as levy, they suck in melee. When Age of Magic was released, I noticed that the AoM rules do not distinguish between horse-sized mounts (e.g., horses, camels, giant wolves, giant spiders, etc.), so I bought Gripping Beast's Mutatawwi'a warlord on camel and two packs of Mutatawwi'a fanatics on camel to use as AoM mounted troops for my Desert Nomads AoM warband. Sadly ,when the models arrived I noticed how ridiculously small the camels' heads are, and how small the camel is overall in comparison to the size of the riders. To me it looks like they put a 28mm scale rider on 20mm scale camel with really long legs. I'm a bit of stickler for scale, so the poorly proportioned camels killed any desire I had to paint the models. Recently, I decided that it might be fun to give the Mutatawwi'a a try, but if I were to give the Muts a go, I'd have to find proper camels for my hearthguard and warlord. After a bit of research, I settled on the camels from Irregular Miniatures' Mamluk model line. The camels come in only one pose. I like the sculpt, but the casting isn't so great. You can see from the photo below, the blankets that hang down the camel's left side look like they've melted together. It's quite different from the blankets on the other side, which are defined and have an obvious fringe. The Irregular Miniatures camels' riders are absolute crap, but that matters little to me because I want to use the Gripping Beast riders, which are quite good. Doing a proper job of matching Irregular Miniatures camels to the GB riders will require me to remove the saddles from the bottom of the GB rider. In the photo below, the GB rider mounted on the Irregular Miniatures is sitting on two saddles. I should be able to bring the rider down by about 1/8th of an inch or more. Fixing the Irregular Miniatures camels' defects is going to take some greenstuff work, but nothing too difficult. GB rider on GB plastic horse (left). GB Mutatawwi'a rider on Irregular Miniatures Camel (middle) GB Mutatawwi'a rider on GB camel (right)

Studio Tomahawk is teasing on its Facebook page the next edition of Age of Invasions. The new edition is rumored to include all the original factions (i.e., Britons, Picts, Saxons, Goths, Romans, and Huns) plus two new full-factions. We know that one of these is Franks. The other remains a mystery. Below is a shot to Tomahawk's FB page, depicting a large scale game of Romans vs Goths and Franks.

A little more greenstuff work on my last four hearthguard.

I've spent the last couple weeks taking stock of the models I've already painted for this warband and fixing some of its aspects that aren't working for me. I started by slightly darkening the shade of blue on their robes and headscarves and adding a bit more shading to the recesses. I also changed the color of their skin tone. I really wanted the models to have a very dark skin tone, more Sub-Saharan (like the Sub-Saharan troops of the Almoravid armies than reinforced the Taifa states in the 11th century) than Saharan, but my painting skills just aren't up the task. My very dark skin tones look okay under good light, but under regular lighting conditions (or the gloom of the Adepticon tournament hall) the facial details get lost quite easily. Instead, I repainted the flesh of almost all my models using Mournfang Brown (instead of Rhinox Brown) as the base, so my Moors skin tones now look like my Tribal Hunters mercenaries (pictured below). I finally got around to adding greenstuff scarves to my kitbashed crossbowmen. The scarves cover the defects in the Gripping Beast plastic Arab heads and gives them that desert nomad feel. Remember, my warband is an contingent of tough, desert dwelling Berbers/Tuaregs, not effete city-dwellers in their silks and Persian slippers. I've added rocks and bones to their bases, so all that's left to do now is to glue texture to their bases and they are ready for paint. Another choice that I regret is the use of the fully veiled Gripping Beast plastic Arab head on my AoM warlord mounted on the giant eagle. The fully veiled was a boring choice, so I dug around for bits boxes for a more interesting head. The model now sports a head from an Artizan Design's Andalusian Noble Cavalry miniature, but it's blank expression is making me have second thoughts... Lastly, I updated my Spinx's base, by replacing some of the rocks with some scattered bricks, adding a few more bones to the base, and putting an arrow shaft into the skelly.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1512883212323934/permalink/2936196379992603/ That's a lot of Sarrisas! Love the pics the author posted.

These minis are both random AND awesome. They match this thread's title, perfectly.

Yup. That's who the model reminds me of.

Here's my third Biped Creature. The big, gold sword clearly identifies him as the leader of my Araby Ogres. If you look closely, you will see a big brown blob of paint on the sword's cross-guard. I didn't notice it until after I had cropped and resized the photo. I have no idea where it came from. I suspect that my 7 year old may be the culprit. I have since repainted that portion of the cross-guard, but I'm too lazy to get out my lights and reshoot the model, so I'm posting the photo as-is, blob and all. 🙂

I noticed a paragraph that I missed during my first read through. It states that the other two supplements for the SAGA Universes of Antiquity series will be Age of Alexander and Age of the Caesars. It also states that all the factions in Universes of Antiquity "can battle each other without any concerns over balance". Studio Tomahawk's plan for a 3-Book Universes of Antiquity series may explain why Age of Hannibal as only 6 factions when, excluding Age of Magic, the previously published supplements (Universes) each have 10+ factions.

Thanks guys. I'm not too happy with how the wood grain turned out. It's too dark and too thick. After I posted the photo, glazed all the wood parts with a thin glaze of Army Painter's Soft Tone. That darkened the highlights so the contrast between the wood grain and the surrounding wood isn't so stark. I'm still not thrilled with the final product, but it is what it is. My Atlantis Miniatures' Sphinx arrived the same day as the Westfalia ogre runt. I am very please with the quality of the cast and the sharpness of the details. I only hope that my painting skills can do this model justice.

Static War Machine

The problem is not only the model’s height, but all of its proportions. Lengthening the legs and broadening the chest would still leave the model with skinny arms and undersized hands, feet, and head. Correcting everything would essentially leave the entire model encased in green stuff with small bits of the original resin poking through here and there. Unfortunately, this fella is going into one of my many boxes of unpainted minis and the Avatars of War ogre khan gets to rejoin his Araby ogre buddies

I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is that my order from Westfalia Miniatures arrived lightning quick -six days from my order date. Also, the quality of the miniature is excellent. I will certainly be buying from Westfalia again. The bad news is that the model is not suitable for my planned purpose. As you can see, in comparison to the GW and Avatars of War ogres, the Westfalia ogre looks like the runt of the Araby ogre litter. Such a shame. I really do like this mini.

Here's the second Biped Creature. As I mentioned above, I'm going to hold off on the third Biped Creature until my Westfalia Saracen Ogre arrives. In the meantime, it's time to get to work on my Static Warmachine.

I've started on the second GW Araby Maneater model, which, because I lack imagination, will be painted in an identical color scheme as the first. I've also been taking a good look at the third ogre in order to plan out how I want to paint it. I originally purchased the model, Avatars of War Ogre Khan, to use as an Ogre Bodyguard for my Mordheim Kislev warband (pictured below), and later decided to use it for AoM Moors because it was a model that I had on hand and it looks vaguely "Eastern". This morning, I was doing a Google image search and I stumbled upon this model. It's Westfalia Miniatures' Saracen Ogre. Wow. If the Saracen Ogre scales well against the Ogre Araby Maneater models, the Ogre Khan model is getting sent back to Mordheim to hang out with my Kislevs. However, since orders from Westfalia Miniatures can take up to seven f'ing weeks to arrive, it may be some time before I know the Ogre Khan's fate. While I wait I'll set the Ogre Khan aside. After Ogre Maneater #2 is done, I'll move on to my static warmachine, and then maybe the warlord.

The model needs another layer or two of highlights, but I’m done fussing with him for now, so I’m moving on the Biped Creature number two.

I made some progress. I textured the bases of the big guys, and did some prep and clean up work on the crossbowmen. The crossbowmen are a simple kitbash that combines pieces of the Gripping Beast's Arab Infantry kit and the Fireforge Games' Foot Sergeant kit. The Foot Sergeant kit don't include quivers. The quivers in the Arab Infantry kit includes quivers, but they are too long. I fixed this by simply removing about a 1/8" section from the bottom of the quiver and reattaching the very bottom of the quiver. The arrows/quarrels don't have nocks, so I made my own by attaching slices of thin greenstuff dowel to the tops of the fletchings. I still need to do some greenstuff work on the crossbowmen's neck areas. The models in the Arab Infantry kit fit together pretty good, with the exception of the heads. Simply gluing the heads to the bodies leaves visible gaps. In the past I covered these gaps up with greenstuff scarves attached to the helmets of my Moorish spearmen and HG. I don't think I will do that with this group, so I'll need to fill in those gaps and smooth out their necks. Just in case I decide to add a static warmachine. Just in case... 🙂 It's a Shieldwolf Miniatures' Shieldmaiden Ballista minus the maidens. I replaced the original ballista ammo with spears from [i]Fireforge Games[/i]. It's difficult to see this in the photos, but I added fletchings made from clear plastic to both the loaded spear and the spear held by the crewman. I believe that the crew are both random Footsore Miniatures models. The model holding up his hand was missing his feet ("Umm. Excuse me sir. I seem to have left my feet in my tent."), so I sculpted him a pair.

Last October I decided to set down my brush for a while to focus on a game design project. The project kept me busy until a month or so ago when my desire to write or do pretty much anything left me. Not doing anything creative or hobby-related has been very bad for my mental health, so it's time to pull myself up by my boot straps and get back to it. I think I will start out slow(ish) by picking up where I left off with my AOM desert warband. This will let me start small with a single unit, but that single unit will contribute a much larger existing project that is already two-thirds complete. The original plan was to use them as Lords of the Wild, but since my forest goblins make a more obvious LotW warband, I'll use my Moors as the foundation for a Great Kingdoms warband. Warlord -beast (flight) Paladin -winged mount 3 Biped Creatures 1 Scourge 8 Warriors -no equipment 8 Warriors -no equipment 8 Warriors -mounted 12 Levy -bows 12 Levy -crossbows I have already painted 16 Moor warriors (no equipment), 8 Moor warriors (mounted), and 12 Moor Levy (bows), so with the exception of one more unit of 12 Levy (crossbows) which I can use in Age of Crusades as well, all that I have left to paint for my Great Kingdoms warband are the fun units, like characters and beasties. I'm not a fan of the domains of Energy and Light, so I think I'll skip the sorcerer and spend the points elsewhere. In my Great Kingdoms warband, my painted wizard on a magic carpet will be used as Paladin on a Winged Mount. The model doesn't have the fierce expression or menacing expression as you'd expect on the face of a monster slaying hero, so I am going to dub him Ali the 'Pensive Paladin'. The first new unit I'm going to tackle is this unit of Biped Creatures. Two of these big guys are my favorite GW Ogre models, the Araby Maneater. The third is a converted Avatars of War Ogre Khan. After that I will tackle the remaining 3 units. Warlord on Flying Beast Levy with Crossbows And finally, I just ordered this beauty. It's Atlantis Miniatures' Sphinx. I will use it as a Scourge. One of the problems you can get into with flying creatures is that if you are too aggressive with them they can get stuck out on their own, without support. With 3 flying units, the flyers in my warband can be used to support one another.