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Spring Clean 2021 – Totally historically accurate fantasy Celtic army

Spring Clean 2021 – Totally historically accurate fantasy Celtic army

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Project Blog by danlee Cult of Games Member

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About the Project

Having done a lot of research into the Celts at the start of 2020, I now want to do a Celtic army with a fantasy twist, based on ancient Celt mythology.

This Project is Completed

Final characters

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The druid came from the Warlord characters set. I added a mask with brown stuff then painted him in the same way I painted my other characters.

 

The warp twisted is a Darklands model with a bulging eye sculpted on, again using brown stuff. He was painted in the usual way, except the skin was finished with a watered down glaze of bloodletter.

 

The giantess is a 3D print from Titan Forge’s Wildwood Sanctum range. As the leader of my force she gets a colour unique to her: green. The green was painted waaagh! flesh, washed athonian camoshade, then highlighted with warboss green then nurgling green.

Another unit of javelins

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Another unit of javelins

That’s all the units of infantry done. Just some characters to go.

Archers

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Archers

Nothing new with the paintjob here – just another unit completed.

Dog handlers and characters

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These have been painted in the same way as before, except the characters are entitled to a bit more colour. The horse is magical and so is pure white. The characters want only the best so have fur and feathers from magical animals (i.e. are all white) and when they have the option of extra cloth they choose red, also a colour associated with magical creatures.

 

The whites were painted celestra grey, drybrushed ulthuan grey then highlighted with white scar.

 

The red cloth was painted mephiston red, washed carroburg crimson, then highlighted with evil sunz scarlet followed by wild rider red.

Slingers

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Slingers

Another unit done, painted in exactly the same way as the previous infantry units.

Magical hounds

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Magical hounds

In Celtic mythology magical animals were usually depicted as either pure white, red, or a combination of the two. So to make my unit of hounds mythical all I had to do was change the colour scheme.

 

These models were painted celestra grey and then drybrushed ulthuan grey. They then had a white scar drybrush on the tops of the models.

 

I then selectively applied two coats of bloodletter glaze to make most of the hounds either entirely or partially red.

 

Their tongues were picked out in emperor’s children, their eyes and noses were painted abaddon black, and their collars mournefang brown.

Twelve warriors with swords

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Twelve warriors with swords

These were painted in exactly the same way as the javelin armed warriors I did in the last post.

Unit of javelin warriors done

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It took me a lot longer to paint these eight minis than it normally would. I think it mainly came down to motivation, so I’m going to switch to something totally different next and see if that rekindles my interest. I made a deliberate choice with this project to take my time and not force it through.

 

For this project I’ve gone back to by pre-contrast technique, which is the Games Workshop base, shade, and two highlights approach.

 

The skin was painted rakarth flesh, washed reikland fleshshade, then highlighted flayed one flesh followed by pallid wych flesh.

 

The clothes were painted mournefang brown, washed agrax earthshade, then highlighted skrag brown followed by deathclaw brown.

 

The wood was painted dryad bark, washed agrax eathshade, then highlighted gorthor brown followed by baneblade brown.

 

The metal areas were painted mechanicus standard grey, washed nuln oil, then highlighted dawnsotne followed by administratum grey.

 

The hair was painted tausept ochre, washed seraphim sepia, then highlighted balor brown followed by zamesi desert.

 

The bases were painted stirland mud then covered in a custom basing mix following the technique given in this Gerry Can video: https://www.beastsofwar.com/featured/gerry-can-how-to-make-custom-basing-mix/

 

 

My basing mix consisted of:

 

  • fine sand, which I believe was an old basing product from GW which I bought about 15 years ago
  • green static grass, which again is the leftovers of a GW basing product from about 10 years ago
  • green stuff world’s spring undergrowth
  • green stuff world’s summer 3 colour clump foliage mix
  • woodland scenics green grass fine turf

More masks

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I ended up spending three weeks assembling all the models in the force, milliputting the bases, and sculpting a different type of face mask for each unit.

 

The method for making the masks were all as in my last post, but with a different shape of putty at the start.

 

Overall the scale of the masks is perhaps a bit off, but I’m still happy with them for my first real attempt at sculpting. Let’s see how they turn out after they’re painted.

Sculpting creepy cult masks

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I wanted to make my warriors unique, but as these are the most “basic” infantry I didn’t wanted to do too much on them. Also, I’m not very experienced sculptor so wanted to start with a simple change for these models.

 

I decided a creepy wooden mask would do the job.

 

I used brown stuff (kneadite brown/aluminium putty) as it is less sticky than greenstuff and supposedly works better for sculpting hard objects.

 

I started with a small lump that I squashed between my fingers to make a roughly face shaped and sized irregular oval.

 

I then pressed it on to the models face and used a sculpting tool to press it down. This also had the secondary effect of adding a wood texture to the mask.

 

I then used the end of the sculpting tool to bore out two eye holes.

 

Overall I’m very happy with the result. These celts now look far more menacing simply by hiding their faces behind a featureless wooden mask.

First unit underway

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First unit underway

This will form the “canvas” for my first unit. 20 assembled Gaul warriors from SPQR. Next I’ll break up the epoxy putties to sculpt on some unique fantasy elements.

Spring cleaning 2021

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It’s been nearly a year since I touched this project and the spring cleaning challenge is the perfect excuse to resurrect it. I’m not going to necessarily try to finish it during the challenge, but just do units as inspiration takes me. Overall I want to ensure I take my time with each unit to avoid burn out.

 

First up is a unit of Gaul Warriors that I will convert to be a generic Celtic warband.

Spring cleaning 2021

Reference images

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A selection of images found on the internet both “historical” and fantasy.

Review: The Celtic Myths - Chapters 8 and 9

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Review: The Celtic Myths - Chapters 8 and 9

The last two chapters of the book covered mythical aspects of the land and water, and then concepts of the Otherworld. To be honest by this point in the book there was little new content that I had not read or touched upon elsewhere.

The Celts regarded some trees as sacred, particularly the oak – which is presumably because that would have been the tallest or oldest elements of the landscape.

With that my latest book under review has been finished. I get the feeling now that I would learn little new material by reading another book on the Celts. As I am interested in Iron Age Celts there is very little material to work with so the content of the three books I have read has become repetitive. I could perhaps learn more by reading direct translations of the Irish and Welsh Celtic myths, but to be honest I’m not interested in going that far.

Review: The Celtic Myths - Chapters 6 and 7

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Blodeuwedd was a magical women created from flowers.Blodeuwedd was a magical women created from flowers.
Fidelma was a mythical warrior figure who also gave propheciesFidelma was a mythical warrior figure who also gave prophecies

Chapter’s six and seven cover mythical animals/monsters and women, respectively.

 

A main theme here is shape shifting, with human-animal hybrids occurring often. Half stag-human hybrids are mentioned, as are cat people. Boers, bulls and ravens are also important animals.

 

In latter Celtic mythology women aren’t particularly portrayed well. Although there are some interesting descriptions of mythical women/goddesses in chapter six (see pictures above). Celtic myth is appears to the origin of Witches, with magical shape shifting women, who could change between crone, maiden, and raven shape as well as make prophecies.

Review: The Celtic Myths - Chapter 5

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Warp spasm!Warp spasm!

This chapter focused on the heroes for Celtic mythology. A common theme in the stories of heroes is communal feasting and drinking, and the fact that the champion is given a place of honour along with the best piece of meat available (pork was regarded as a high grade meat).

The most interesting thing in this chapter is the story of Cu Chulainn and his warp spasms. During these spasms “the hero’s body became distorted and revolved in its skin; his hair stood on end, with a nimbus of light surrounding his head; his muscles swelled as though they would burst from his body; one eye bulged from his face while the other sank deep into the skull; his lips curled so far back that his throat was clearly visible; his great war-cry summoned up the spirits, who all howled with him and drove his enemies mad with fear.” That sounds like a very interesting conversion opportunity.

Review: The Celtic Myths - Chapter 4

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Celtic zombies?Celtic zombies?

This chapter covers Welsh Celtic mythology. The Welsh mythology has been more influenced by Christianity. Most of the polytheistic gods have been relegated to Nobility, good versus evil (with good usually winning) is a stronger theme, and women tend to be relegated to secondary characters (or are the embodiment of evil). This Christian influence appears to me to have modernised a lot of the mythology away from the Iron age period that I am interested in. There are still some ideas to be gleaned though.

Recurring themes that may be of use or magical cauldrons (again), but this has now expanded to magical bowls, dishes, and drinking cups. In Welsh myth there is another cauldron that brings back the dead, but in this story they come back as mindless zombies that just fight on in the war. I was not expecting to come across Celtic Zombies but that could be an interesting modelling project.

Welsh myth may be more Christian but it has stronger elements of magic in terms of enchantments, magic staves and wands. Many characters are described as magicians. Perhaps this will allow me to go beyond just including druids?

The number three and multiples of three is again significant. Arhturian legend and the Holy Grail also comes into it, but again its too late to interest me in this project.

Review: The Celtic Myths - Chapter 3

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FomorianFomorian

Chapter 3 focuses on the Irish myths which retained stronger pagan elements compared to Welsh mythology.

Their creation myth (in a nutshell) was that in the beginning the land was occupied by the Fir Bholg. They were defeated by the Tuatha De Danann (the People of the Goddess Danu). These people were the gods, and in turn were invaded by the Formorians, which were giants. Their king was Balor of the Baleful Eye. His gaze had the power to kill people instantly. The Formorians were defeated, and then there was another invasion by the Gaels/Celts which the Tuatha De Danann were not able to defeat. The Tuatha De Danann retreated underground and to the Otherworld.

A common theme in other myths was love triangles. In these stories typically an old man is engaged to a young maiden who falls in love with a younger man. What I found interesting is that these stories are considered to be metaphors for sovereignty and replacing old kings with younger ones which is better for the kingdom. The older man represents the old king, the woman represents the Goddess of Sovereignty, and the younger lover represents a new potential king. These stories were told to encourage people to accept the idea of replacing older kings with younger, more lively ones.

Review: The Celtic Myths - Chapter 2

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Review: The Celtic Myths - Chapter 2

This chapter mainly focused on how oral tradition eventually gave away to written myths. The Christian monks that wrote down the stories were motivated to either adapt the stories to promote Christian ideals, or as a way of mocking old Pagan beliefs. This led to the myths being changed subtly, but never the less the written stories are all we have to go on.

There were a couple of things that came up in this chapter that were interesting. Above you can see an illustration of an encounter with a siren, which looks very much like me to a mermaid. Another nugget of information is that creatures from the Otherworld are often depicted with either red or red and white colouration. This should be useful to know if I decide to paint up a creature from the Otherworld.

Review: The Celtic Myths by Miranda Aldhouse-Green - Chapter 1

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Review: The Celtic Myths by Miranda Aldhouse-Green - Chapter 1

This was another book that I found while browsing the shelves in my local Waterstones. It cost £14.95.

Rather than read and review the entire book, I’ve decided to cover the book chapter by chapter as I read it.

This book is mainly focused on medieval Celtic myths from Wales and Ireland. This is because the Iron Age Celts left very few records for us to piece together their myths from. However there is evidence to support the theory that Iron Age mythology will have influenced medieval mythology, so studying the later mythology is going to be the best we can do.

The first chapter covers some of the key concepts in Cetlic mythology. Monsters that are a hybrid of various animals or animals and humans are common. This could provide plenty of modelling opportunities for monsters in my project.

Another recurring theme is magical cauldrons. Stories of cauldrons that can provide magical healing or even reanimate the dead feature in Celtic mythology and may be the source of various legends of healing drinks (Holy Grail?) and the stereotypical witch’s cauldron and magic potions. This is another great modelling possibility for my project.

Three was considered a holy number in Celtic mythology, with many gods having three separate incarnations. There are also archaeological findings of three faced stone heads that could have been involved in communing with spirits.

I believe I have already touched on decapitated talking heads in a previous book review. The Celts believed that the spirit lived in the head and there are several myths that involve talking decapitated heads or characters using decapitated heads.

Another interesting aspect of Celtic mythology is the prevalence of characters being placed under prohibitions and curses. This often takes the form of a character in a myth being cursed, with the curse triggering in the even that they do some prohibited action. Not really something that can be incorporated into a modelling project, but it could form the backstory for a character.

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