Koyote's Britons & other SAGA Stuff

[Koyote]

Lords of the Wild Warlord on flying Beast

 

[Koyote]

5 hours ago, Ish said:

Nana-nana. Nana-nana. Batgob! (Batgob!)

 

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

 

[Ish]

The greatest missed opportunity in cinematic history is that Kevin Conroy never got cast as the Batman in a live-action film. 

Here’s a screen shot of him from his brief supporting bit part on Dynasty in ‘86. Compare it to these iconic images of Bruce Wayne by Alex Ross, Neal Adams, or Bruce Timm:

We all know that Conroy can absolutely nail the multifaceted characterization of “Bruce Wayne, Millionaire Playboy Persona,” “The Batman,” and “Real Bruce Wayne.”  But he’s also 6’2” (which just so happens to be the Batman’s canonical height) and was pretty buff back in the day.

 

[Koyote]

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.

 

[Koyote]

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.

 

[Romans832]

Wicked!
Looks like swarms!

[Koyote]

On 2/26/2020 at 1:15 PM, Koyote said:

My tiki-mask goblin minis have arrived.  

...

One idea is to use them as counts-as Shapeshifters for a forest goblin Lords of the Wild warband.  I have a friend who has as dwarven Masters of the Underearth warband, so when I play against him, I intend to use my forest goblins as a LotW warband.  In my desert nomads LotW warband, I use assassins as counts-as Shapeshifters. I can do something similar with my forest goblins.  Instead of assassins, my counts-as Shapeshifters will be fanatics who, by licking the skin of poisonous tree frogs, enter into a nigh unstoppable frenzy when battle is joined.  

These fanatics are recruited into the Cult of the Frog Lickers as adolescents (who are generally too young and dumb to know better). Sadly, because the cult's activities involve two very dangerous pastimes, imbibing poisonous hallucinogens and frenzied hand-to-hand combat, few of the cult's warriors ever make it to adulthood.

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.

[Ish]

You might want to drill some holes into the eyes of the Froglickers’ magic tiki masks. 

[Koyote]

2 hours ago, Ish said:

You might want to drill some holes into the eyes of the Froglickers’ magic tiki masks. 

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

[Ish]

Oh... I see that now. Nevermind.

[Koyote]

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.

 

[Koyote]

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.

 

[Koyote]

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.

[Ish]

I never cease to be impressed by your ability to make the tinniest of tweaks and change a miniature from average to outstanding. You’ve got a great eye for these details and excellent sculpting skills.

I’m a big believer in the “less is more” school of aesthetics and you always add just enough without going over the top.

[Deez]

Hey,  I've only just discovered this wonderful diary of projects!  You have both excellent skill in conversion and painting, but what I love the most is the inspirational reasons for your themes and model selections.

I have a Briton Warband, also based on Mordred, so was chuffed to see another, I love the footsore miniatures also.  I have been looking for some way to convert a  mounted Mordred, and you'v given me much inspiration.  I hope you don't mind me using your ideas also :)

Keep up the excellent work!

T

[Koyote]

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.

[Koyote]

On 4/7/2020 at 6:48 PM, Deez said:

Hey,  I've only just discovered this wonderful diary of projects!  You have both excellent skill in conversion and painting, but what I love the most is the inspirational reasons for your themes and model selections.

I have a Briton Warband, also based on Mordred, so was chuffed to see another, I love the footsore miniatures also.  I have been looking for some way to convert a  mounted Mordred, and you'v given me much inspiration.  I hope you don't mind me using your ideas also 🙂

Keep up the excellent work!

T

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.

 

[Koyote]

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

 

 

[Koyote]

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.

[Koyote]

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.

[Koyote]

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.

[Koyote]

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.

[Ish]

Less is Moor More.

[Koyote]

LOL

[dalmer]

That one fella with the scimitar in Raiders of the Lost Ark was flashy... and look what it got him.  I agree with Ish.