My Analogue Hobbies Challenge heroes Theme entry

 So the two-week theme came around again in the Analogue Hobbies Challenge. I was really glad to get this one in as it was touch-an-go whether I would succeed due to a very busy month at work.  The two figures in question are from Gripping Beast's 28mm Romano-British/Arthurian range. They are painted up to represent Artorius himself, plus hero/sidekick Lancelot (he of the mask).

I did enjoy painting them, and even had a go at painting the shield design on the masked figure. The shield pattern is from LBM with a bit of paint to blend it into the shield.  I have to say that I much prefer the cast on shields. I really find that the separate shield you have to glue on for the other Gripping beast figures are poor on detail and do not paint up that well. As with all glue on weapons and shields on wargames figures, they seem to pop off with a certain regularity.

I had intended to do more figures for this round, but as said, time was in short supply. I hope to put up the additional figures over the next week.

Dux Bellorum - Early Saxons

So as one of my new year resolutions I got the ball rolling with my Early Saxons. These fine chaps are intended to be part of a Dark Age army that I’m building for use with the new Dux Bellorum rules. 

I’ll base them to be compatible with Impetus as well. It’s not my intention to play Impetus, it’s just I like the effect of the large bases which give a better visual representation of a formed body. I was of course influenced by the lovely units that you can see over on the Saxon Dog blog.

http://saxondog.blogspot.cz/search/label/Arthurians

 

Now these are all from the Gripping Beast range, and are just excellent: very animated and natural looking, with good features and crisp detail. They paint up well, and the well-cast surfaces are easy on the brushes

 

The casualties and killers set is particularly gory; I think a bit of artistic license was at play here, though they will certainly “liven up” any unit of charging warriors…

This is also my first attempt at more professional figures photos. As you can see I still have some way to go to get the lighting and exposure right, though I think they convey the quality of the figures.

 Once completed the army should consist of 5 bases of ordinary warriors, 2 bases of noble warrior, 1 base of companions and 2 bases of skirmishers with Bows. That’s about 100 figures to paint up, so I’m a third of the way through (2 bases of warriors and 2 of bows almost finished, and 1 base of nobles primed for painting).

Hopefully I’ll have enough figures for a small trial game down at the club in Prague in the next two weeks, and of course more photos to follow.