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Koyote's Britons & other SAGA Stuff


Koyote

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My Footsore truncated teardrop shields have arrived.  Overall, the casts I quite good.  

On the back of each shield is a little nub that I assume is intended to rest against the top of the model's shield hand.  I've tested the fit with the nub in place and I don't like it, so I've clipped off the nubs and used a pin vice to drill a shallow recess into the back of each shield.  The recesses create a ball and socket joint with the shield hand, creating a snugger fit and making it easier to rotate the angle of the shield.

Inspired by illustration in Osprey Publishing's The Moors -The Islamic West 7th-15th Centuries AD, I've decided to replace my cavalry models' current shields with small round shields.   As such, my Footsore order also included an Arab Round Mixed Shield pack for my cavalry.  My favorite shield from this pack is the shield with the four round studs on its surface, but sadly pack included only two of these shields.  

The studded shields are a simple design and have a simple, flat back, so I used Instant Mold and greenstuff to make 6 more.  Below is a photo of the molds and GS shields.  Before snapping this photo I only had time to trim one of the GS shields.  I'll trim the remaining five when I get home from work tonight.

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If you're not familiar with Instant Mold, it's a great product for doing simple greenstuff casting.  I used in the past to make skull icons for Space Marine should pads and to cast giant demon toads (pictured below) for a Frostgrave project.  To use the product you place it hot water until it becomes pliable.  Once the product softens, you remove it from the water and press your master into the product and then let it cool.  After a few minutes you remove your master from the mold and you are ready to start casting.  The product can be used over and over again by reheating, so if your mold doesn't turn out quite right or if you have to destroy the mold to remove the casted model (as pictured below), then you can start over by putting the mold into hot water.

Removing the cast from the mold before the greenstuff hardens will deform your cast, so let your greenstuff cure overnight before removing it from the mold.

I've found that I get the best results if I create small vents in my molds using the point of an xacto blade.  This allows trapped air to escape when you are pressing greenstuff into the mold.

NMGhAY.jpg  xnCEzN.jpg

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My order from Brother Vinni's arrive late last week.  Included in my order is fun magic carpet mini that may replace the Hell Dorado mini as my Desert Nomad's Sorcerer

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I haven't decided if my Desert Nomad Sorcerer will be 'mounted' or 'on-foot', but thanks to some very small magnets, the magic carpet model can be used as both.  Below is the model painted, attached to his 'on-foot' base via a magnet.

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Below is the (yet unpainted) magic carpet itself.  The carpet is cast a bit too thin, so as expected, parts broke off or were damaged when I removed it from the sprue and trimmed it.  I attached the carpet to the 'flight' stand using a magnet attached to the bottom of the carpet.  The magnet that you can see in the photo holds the rider's left foot to the carpet.  The other little metal thing sticking out of the surface of the carpet is a very small length of metal rod that inserts into a hole on the bottom of the rider's right foot.

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One would expect that a model on a flying carpet would have the Flight rule, but unfortunately, this option isn't available to the Lords of the Wild Sorcerers, so it will have to serve as a low level flying carpet -more of a 'hover carpet' than an actual flying carpet. Perhaps the Sorcerer suffers from Acrophobia, and can fly higher but doesn't do so out of a paralyzing fear of heights? Sorcerers are a very strange breed, so anything is possible. 😄

 

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My GS cast shields turned out pretty good.

Also, I've finally selected a model to use as my Moors' Warlord, Fireforge Games' Saladin.  Of course, me being me, I can't leave well enough alone, so I did a head swap and added a shield.  The former was done to make the model look a bit less glitzy and the latter was added to cover up the model's upper left arm, which is positioned in an unnatural looking way.  

The horse is a huge, barrel chested beast that dwarfs the Gripping Beast plastic Arab cavalry horses that I'm using for hearthguards' steeds.  I decreased its height slightly by cutting off the bottom half of each of its hooves.

As I did for the Warlord of my Britons warband, I'll likely create a 3" DIA magnetized display base that I can insert my Moorish Warlord into.

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Ted, a friend of mine who I introduced to SAGA, just bought his first house.  Normal people give bottles of wine as housewarming gifts.  Gamers give toys. 😀

Ted plays Vikings and plans to use them in AoM as a Horde warband.  He told me that he wants to include in his AoM warband a massive wolf, reminiscent of Fenrir, as a Monster.  With this in mind, for a housewarming gift I ordered him the model pictured below from a 3D printer who sells on Etsy (HQMiniatures).  I bought the base separately from Renedra, Ltd.  The model arrived today.  Its printed in resin and it turned out very nice.  

I posed it next to a ruler and a Victrix 28mm Viking to provide a sense of scale.

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I did some work on my Moorish Warlord's display base.  The Warlord's base rests in a recess and is secured in place by magnets.  The plan is to attach the standard bearer and musician to the base via magnets.  This will make it easier to transport the models in a carrying case.

The standard bearer is from Brother Vinni's Arabia model line.  The musician is made from Gripping Beast plastic components.  The body and head are from the Arab Spearmen kit and the right arm and horn are from the Arab Heavy Cavalry kit.  

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I like the subtle use of the skeleton, the slightly overly large horse, and the hooded head of the warlord. A bunch of little things that move them from being a straight historical representation and into the fantastical... But without going full World of Warcraft on them.

Cannot wait to see them painted! 

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Thanks, Ish.  Yes, that horse is ridiculously massive.  He must have stolen it from Christian Crusader.

 

This model comes from the Victrix Chariot kit sprue.  

My only modification was replacing the original spear shaft metal rod, which is both thicker and more durable.

It will make a terrific druid (Sorcerer) for my AoM Celt Horde warband.

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I did some work on my HG cav and Bedouin Warrior cav.  

The HG cav started out over a year ago as kitbashed Age of Crusades Lithuanian cav.  It’s a mix of the GB Heavy Arab Cav kit and the Fireforge Medieval Russian infantry kit.  To repurpose them I replaced their Russian heads and teardrop shields with Arab heads and shields. Now that they are (hopefully) in their final form, I used GS to fill gaps and add belts, buckles, and veils. I am going to paint the shields separate, so I’m leaving them off for now.

I spent three hours on the Perry Miniatures Bedouins with a hobby knife and GS cleaning up their dreadful casts.  I will definitely think twice before purchasing any more Perry Miniatures’ metals. Yuck.

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  • 2 weeks later...

As I continue to playtest my Moors/Umayyad, I keep going back and forth on the composition of my warband.  

One of the units that I've been vacillating on is my levy.  Crossbow levy hit harder than bow levy, but it's less costly in SAGA dice for bow levy to shoot multiple times per turn.  Additionally, Umayyad levy cannot be armed with crossbows, so if I use bow levy for my Moors and Umayyad warbands, I will paint 12 fewer models.  And finally, I've found only two manufacturers who sell  28mm Moorish/Arab crossbowmen models, Gripping Beast and Artizan Designs, and I don't care for either.

Both GB an Artizan sell only 4 poses, so a levy unit will be comprised of four groups of triplicate poses.  The Gripping Beast sculpts are uninspiring and the quality of the casts is crap.  Instead of sending the GB models back, I tossed them in my box of purchases that I regret, and ordered the Artizan models.  The quality of the Artizan models is better, but the sculpts are kind of thick and clunky, and after additional consideration, I decided that they don't really fit my Tuareg/Bedouin theme.

After a bit of brainstorming, I realized that I still have quite a few unused Gripping Beast Arab bodies and heads, so if I could find some crossbow bits, I could kitbash my own crossbowmen.  The online bits-sellers don't have what I need, so I broke down and ordered Fireforge Games Foot Sergeant kit.

The Foot Sergeant kit is a great deal.  Its 6 sprues have enough bits to build 48 models (which breaks down to 83 cents per model) with plenty of bits to spare.  Each sprue includes enough bits to arm 4 models with crossbow, 6 models with basic hand weapons, and 6 models with spears.  So even after procuring 12 crossbows to arm my Moorish levy, I have enough models and weapons to make a good start on a Crusader warband.

Originally, I had planned to fill in the recesses of the crossbow bits' quilted armor sleeves with GS to match the smooth texture of Arab plastics' robes, but after looking at the assembled models, I decided that I like the contrast between the quilted sleeves and the smooth robes.  

Below is a WIP shot.

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After a few games with my Lords of the Wild, I've decided to bench my Monster.  I attribute my poor success with the big beastie to my inexperience using it, but also to the fact that I rarely have the SAGA dice that I need to activate a Monster.  Since my Warlord is mounted on a Beast, I don't have a We Obey to fall back on.  And between my best battle board abilities and my Levy, there's too much competition for uncommon and rare SAGA dice for me use them on a Monster.  

With the newly freed up 1 point and an extra four bodies from my Warrior units, I'm going to experiment with a unit of 3 Creatures.  The Lords of the Wild battle board doesn't have the defensive buffs that the Otherworld Creatures enjoy, but it does have some nice melee buffs and access to Animal Prowess spell should help.

Fielding a unit of Creatures also gives me an excuse to use one of my favorite GW Ogre models, the Arabian Maneater.  For a bit of variety, I've added to this unit an Avatars of War Ogre Khan with Great Weapon.  I bought this model a while back to use as an Ogre Bodyguard for my Kislev Warband, but I never got around to painting it.  The AoW Ogre doesn't have a gut-plate.  Instead it has two ridiculous armored hubcaps protecting its nipples, like a backup dancer in a 1990's Madonna music video.  After an hour with a hobby knife, some greenstuff, and an extra gut-plate, I transformed him into a proper Ogre.  

An air bubble in the cast damaged the model's nose, so my Ogre chief also ended up with a nose job.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here's my newest addition to my Age of Magic Horde Celt warband, 3 Quadruped Creatures.  The models come from Games Workshop's Fenrisian Wolf Pack kit.  They are mounted on 40mm Renedra rounds.  I used Apoxie Sculpt to make the rocks and logs.

The prevalence of wolves in ancient and medieval Irish myths and history made them a natural choice for my Celt Horde.  The last wild wolf in Ireland was killed in the late 18th century, but up through the middle ages, wolves were so common in Ireland that it was sometimes referred to as Wolfland.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I backed Fireforge Games' Forgotten World Kickstarter in September of 2018 without any plans on what to use the models for.  All that I knew is that I absolutely loved their Undead models and I had to have them.

I received my models a couple of months ago, but I've been busy with other projects, so until last weekend, my Undead have been neglected.

My theme for this warband is a cursed forest that has fallen under the spell of a malign, enigmatic fae creature who takes the form of a gaunt, impossibly tall manlike creature reminiscent of member of the Wild Hunt from Northern European folklore.  The warband is comprised of the reanimated men, elves, and even a treant, of forest kingdoms decimated by the fae creature's dark magics.

The Warlord is Privateer Press' Lord of the Feast model, which I have long admired, but until now, have never had a use for.  I removed the raven from its extended arm and replaced its sword with a spear.  The model is almost twice as tall as a rank-and-file infantry models in the warband, so I've mounted it on a 40mm base and for game purposes, it will be a counts-as Warlord (or Necromancer) on a Beast.

The Sorcerer and Warriors are from Fireforge's Living Dead model line.  I have on order enough shields with the defoliated tree insignia (see below) to equip all of the warriors.

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The undead Treant and archers represent victims from the forest's elven kingdom.

The Treant (Behemoth) was another model that I purchased without any plans for it.  The manufacturer is Ultraforge Miniatures, but I purchased it for 50% off during the Warstore's going out of business sale.

The archers (Warriors with bows) are Reanimate Archers from Fantasy Flight's Runewars game.  

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Like the Warriors in the first photo, these knights (Hearthguard) are reanimated corpses from the forest's human kingdom.  Their original shield insignia's were transformed by the fae creature's dark magic, from the kingdom's living tree heraldry to the symbol of the fae creature, the cursed tree.

The knights and shields are made by Fireforge Games.  The only thing that I don't like about the Living Dead Knights kit is that the knights' heads are a tad small.  I remedied this by replacing the original heads with heads from Games Workshop's Skeleton Warriors kit.

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This last model, may or may not make it into my warband as a Lieutenant -Black Knight.  It too was part of the Fireforge Kickstarter, and like the knights, its head seems a tad small, so I replaced it with a bit from an old GW wood elf kit. The bit, a horned skull wrapped in vines, was intended to decorate a base. I used a hobby knife to cut away the vines, and voila, I have an (over-the-top) horned skull helmet.  And since this fella is dead and likely a skeleton himself, its a skull helmet sitting on top of another fleshless skull.  Double skull, FTW!

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  • 4 weeks later...

My Necromancer (Warlord) was mounted on a 40mm base and stands taller than my hearthguard cavalry, but it felt a bit wimpy to be a counts-as Necromancer on a Beast, so I transferred the model to a larger base and gave him a "pet".  The model is still no Dieter Helsnicht (old school Warhammer fans may get that reference), but I feel that the larger base and zombie bear better represent the model's improved stat line and stays true to my 'cursed forest' theme.

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The zombie bear is the Haunted Bear from Great Escape Games' Dead Man's Hand model line.  Below is a shot of the Haunted Bearl from a different angle.

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13 minutes ago, Koyote said:

The model is still no Dieter Helsnicht (old school Warhammer fans may get that reference), but I feel that the larger base and zombie bear better represent the model's improved stat line and stays true to my 'cursed forest' theme.

Might make a decent "counts as" for Drachenfels. (You want old school, I'll give you old school!)

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  • 3 weeks later...

My first tabletop army was fully painted 2nd Edition WFB Orc and Goblin army.  Over time, a small contingent of forest goblins made its way into this army, likely somewhere around 4th Edition.  That army, and all but two of its models, are now long gone, but I still have a soft spot in my heart for the Greenskins, and in particular, for the Forest Goblins, so in February of 2019 when I saw Shieldwolf Miniatures' Forest Goblin Kickstarter, I knew I had to have a box.  

My initial plan was to buy a single box and use the minis for a Forest Goblin Mordheim Warband, but once SAGA: Age of Magic was released, I realized that I could do bigger and better things with the diminutive greenskin savages.  The obvious choice of factions for AoM greenskins is the Horde, but I already have a painted, AoM Horde army (my Celts).   I may use the Forest Goblins as a Horde warband, using GW's enormous Arachnarok spider model as The War Monster legendary unit, but I want to use them primarily as a Masters of the Underearth warband.  

Unlike many of their goblin cousins, Forest Goblins aren't subterranean dwellers, so to satisfy my need to create a backstory for each of my warbands, I need to connect forest dwelling greenskins to the troglodytic labyrinths of the under-earth.  

Clearly, the Forest Goblins particular style of primitive dress and stone weapons was inspired, at least in part, by Mesoamerican cultures (e.g. Mayans, Toltecs, Aztecs, etc.).  When I was in Belize, I went cave river-tubing into a massive limestone cavern.  Our guide told us that the ancient Mayans believed that these caves and others like them were entrances to the underworld where they could commune with their gods and beseech them for good harvests and rain.  

So, by pulling together the strands of GW fantasy fiction and Mayan history, I've decided that this particular tribe of Forest Goblins dwells within a massive limestone cavern in the heart of a tropical forest.  They do spend a good deal of time in the forests, hunting, raiding, and getting up no-good, but the limestone caves serve as their village-fortress and sanctuary.

Below is what I've assembled so far.  I still have a lot of models to assemble before I can test-play the warband, but since I'm simultaneous working on my Desert Nomads and Undead, I'm in no rush.

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The trolls are GW's Fellwater Troggoths.  I've incorporated these models into the warband because they are some of my favorite GW models, and I wan to experiment using them as a Mutant Aberration legendary unit.

The giant spider is a 3D printed resin model that I purchased from a seller on Etsy.  It's called a Dread Spider.  It and its rider will be a Warlord on a beast.

Except for the blowguns, the rest of the models and bits are from the Shieldwolf Forest Goblin Kickstarter.  The off-white resin models are stretch goal extras from the Kickstarter.

The Masters of the Undearth battleboard has this great ability called Experimental Techniques.  It's a shooting ability that causes any modified roll of 6 to count as 2 hits instead of 1.  Crossbows add 1 to the result of a shooting attack die roll, so crossbows make this ability even better.  Understandably, the Shieldwolf Forest Goblin sprues do not include crossbows, so I needed a counts-as alternative that goes with my Mesoamerican goblin theme.  I chose blowpipes and poisoned darts.   I sourced the blowguns from some GW plastic Skinks that I bought on eBay.  The Skink arms are a bit skinny and have only 3 fingers instead of 4, but this should be easy enough to fix with some greenstuff.

The Masters of the Underearth's lieutenant is called an Alchemist.  The Alchemist has a multi-shot ranged attack that has the potential of inflicting an additional fatigue on its targets.  The goblin firing the three arrows (Legolas style) will be my Alchemist,  Instead of tossing chemicals or explosives at his enemies, he uses a bow and a fast acting poisons that causes a quick, horrific death that demoralizes his foes.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've assembled another unit of gobbos.  This will be a unit of 10 Warriors armed with heavy weapons.  

With the exception of the meat shank that I attached to the banner (which is from GW's 40K Kroot kit), all of these models are 'out of the box'.  I used small greenstuff wedges to reposition some of the arms, and a hobby knife and glue to straighten many of the model's left wrists, which are bent slightly to accept a shield.

The resin model is the Master Butcher mini from the Kickstarter.   He'll be the unit leader, which like the standard and musician has no in-game effect in SAGA: Age of Magic, but I'm an old-time WFB player, and old habits die hard. Plus, adding these types of models to a unit gives one an opportunity and the inspiration to personalize a unit.  Here, the presence of the Butcher in the unit gave me the idea to add the meat shank to the standard (the "Butcher's Banner").  And now it's not just another mob of generic greenskins, it's the 'Butcher's Boys'.

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For as long as anyone in The Tribe can remember, there has been a fierce rivalry, bordering on hatred,  between the Bashas and the Slashas clans.  The primary point of contention is what's the best way to kill prey (there is no word for "foe" or "enemy" in the language of the Tribe -anything that must be killed, for any reason, is "prey").  The Bashas contend that the best way to bring down prey is to bash it with a blunt weapon, like a club or mallet.  Conversely, the Slashas contend that the cutting blade is the only way to go.  

With the exception of the drum and horn and the extra bits I hung from each banner, all of these bits are from the Forest Goblin kit. In a few instances, I used greestuff wedges in the models' armpits to reposition the arms.  My next step will be to revisit all the goblin infantry models and use greenstuff to fill in gaps and re-sculpt the blowgun models' right biceps.

Bashas
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Slashas
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I finished most of the greenstuff-work on my forest goblins, just in time for my first game with them tomorrow.

Below you can see my work on the unit of gobbos armed with blowguns (counts-as crossbows),  Each model's right arm comes from GW's Skink kit.  Skink arms are much skinnier than goblin arms, so I used greenstuff to bulk-up the Skink arms.  Skinks have only three fingers, so my original plan was to add a fourth finger to the hands holding the blowguns, but instead, I'll name this unit the Three-Finger Clan and call it good.  

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The champions and musicians of Bashas and Slashas clans also needed some greenstuff-work.

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Now that I've finished assembly and gs-work, it's time to get to work on the bases.

 For a while now I've had my eye on Citadel's Barbed Bracken kit, but until now, I've not had a project that called for this kind of foliage.  I'll use the bracken either in addition to or in lieu of the grass clumps that I normally add to my bases.

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For the larger models, like my giant spider and troggoths, I've purchased some resin stumps from Green Stuff World.

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The Barbed Bracken comes in two basic shapes: 1) a multi-stemmed, multi-leafed cluster that looks like an entire fern plant, and 2) a single-stemmed, multi-leafed cluster that looks like a young plant or a single branch of an older plant.   The former are too big for models on 25mm bases and the latter, by itself, looks like a sad, Charlie Brown Christmas Tree fern. However, by drilling a hole in the base I can insert 2 or 3 of the 'branches' and the result looks like a complete, albeit small, fern.

The overall plan is to texture the bases with fine sand/ballast, and after painting, add Army Painter woodland grass tufts to the mix of ferns, mushrooms, stumps, and (of course) skulls.  

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Below you see the giant spider removed from the base so you can get a better look at my work on the base.  

The little critter on the Sorcerer's base is an old, GW squig familiar from the early 1990s.

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