Raiding the Dusty Wastes

I heard the term “swish” relating to my work thus far and got all chuffed thinking that my effort was not in vain so more effort was going to be put into making this project fancy. As posted before, I had a much different shape than the standard square in mind, since I saw what Little Big Men Studio put out with crenellated banners that caught my attention. This digital work helps as I’m preparing boxes and making ready to relocate to where I can set up a proper hobby desk once more.

In building the banner to what I saw in my head I thought finding a border was most useful. I managed to hunt down a Victorian era styled border that would serve me. There was quite a bit of rebuilding for what would be the leeward edge as it began as a full rectangle. After I got that all done I copied the main layer of the circular name and placed it. The colors will need to be reworked as I could only salvage the initial black image from the many layers. This isn’t a loss as I’ve cleaned up everything and I can begin to edit again. I’m a little miffed that I’ll need to relocate a diamond mesh texture that looked good at 28mm scale but the Internet is vast and I have time before any printing.

There’s more work to be done as far as fabric texturing and any warping due to curvature in the banner is concerned but this is a good place to put out progress beyond figures.

Not painting at the moment, I’ve managed to do a quick build of levy archers and plan what I’ll have for my standard Saga warlord. I’ve thought to use the same parts on him to keep consistency between fantasy and regular play. Since I can only track down a Saracen banner bearer from Gripping Beast on horseback I think I’ll just kitbash one on foot. Oh joy, more customization!

I decided that it might not be in the best interest of presenting a fine and noble man such as Hasn without presentable peasants. It is the lowliest of men that are the example of exactly how wealthy and mighty a ruler may be.

I painted the dishdasha with what I think is VMC Khaki Shade. I can’t say for certain as I’ve had it for so long and used it so many times that I’ve rubbed the label blank from handling. and the washed with GW Reikland Fleshshade and highlighted before the mandatory inclusion of the blue people seem to think is the bees knees. I’m fond of it myself since it keeps as a compliment to a general yellowed tone to my army. What else can you expect from the desert… maybe some red, a touch of pinks, the occasional green? No, this is not that kind of desert. Maybe another army will get that but for now you get yellowed brown, nearly baby turd brown. No color joy for you with the desert!

Anywhat, the simple freehand to break visual space was something to give these guys some flair to their generally drab attire. Its nothing fancy as these guys lack money for better threads but the lord of the land can’t have underdressed murder hobos in the lowest ranks of his

Slight disclaimer: There were noises made by some semi-Internet-famous entities that this project wasn’t updated enough. Well, just like good bowel movements, this will get some more regularity

My little dudes are now the epitome of making battle beautiful, atleast outside of the fabulous fashion sense and antics of things related to Slaanesh. I’m quite pleased with the results of all my figures, to include the noble steeds, as these take the cake for the regular game. I’m also happy with the difference made by the lighting in my room.

Right now the pinnacle of the regular game must be attended to.

The initial cohesive pattern for the command unit was a thought that ended up becoming a critical element. All the warriors on foot and horseback stand as unique entities for clothing from cash. The levy are dirt poor and by virtue of conscription have cheap clothes but, as we have seen, this leader of men cannot have his roused rabble running about in rags so they got uniforms. In the end the command would stand on its own too but must first be built. Having looked at the max base size for warlords in Saga I thought that the 60mm footprint was good to put multiple figures on.

I modified the heads a little with greenstuff as the shemaugh have been unwrapped and show the faces. This really was a case where I wasn’t happy with the one armored head option that came on the sprues and found a way to hide the chain coif while tying in the helmet/turban that was done with others.

Unlike Lloyd’s experience sometime back with pinning hands I managed to not blow out the fingers in the hand held forward. The only issue I had was that the rear hand still had the remnants of the spear I clipped from the spearmen arm I had plenty of. There was no way to clean that off so I drilled through it and just fed the piano wire between the hands. Pretty damn good I say to just eyeball the angles for and get as close as I did.

The trumpeter was again more wire work that needed to be done. The plastic sculpt is beautiful, the drawback is that the horn is flimsy and broke at the hand. Again, just a bit of alignment was required to make this a non-issue. A little bit of glue liberally hit with accelerant that was sanded down to shape would see the detail problem resolved.

The final build portion for my army’s leader was now at hand. More scratchbuild modeling with greenstuff was the way to go. In order to make the figure significant I added a robe that billowed from riding in order to break up the monotony of the plastic sprue bodies. Its nice to have uniform parts that I can build as I need pieces but this was going to be my centerstage piece for regular Saga. To have that detail meant I could show off some paint skills later that would signify he didn’t buckle swashes but had cash to sling on silks and scimitars as I was inspired by the metal Mutatawwi’a leader from Gripping Beast. I got this all done before I found out about the Saladin figure that would have lead me down the path of putting the horse in a 12th century flapper dress.

The whole thing is a multi-element base so I’ll finish it all and then base appropriately to tie all the figures together. What I need to do now is finalize my banner and have it printed. I see good things in the future.

Throwing a monkey wrench into the mix in order to get more content out I thought finishing off these guys and letting my ideas collect for the leader and his retinue was in order. Switching my direction of travel like throwing the E-brake and drifting into these minis seemed like a good idea. We’ll see how well it worked out from your opinions.

Horse painting commenced and breaks down as follows….

Brown:
Airbrush VMA Burnt Umber 71.040
Drybrush RMS Intense Brown 09138
Drybrush RMS Chestnut Gold 09073
Wash GW Reikland Fleshshade

Black:
Airbrush VMA Black
Drybrush 1:1 VMA black/RMS Midnight Blue
Wash Nuln Oil

White:
Airbrush Gray
Drybrush 1:1 gray/RMS white (slight contamination of previous brown that wasn’t cleaned off well)

I initially had no set idea for what could be done for the patterns of fabric but I believed that I might want to see about getting some help in reducing the detail level somehow. That didn’t happen as I kept rolling around the thought of “If you do something, do it well; leave a sign to let the world know that you were there”.

Here I’ve looked at the footsoldiers and considered what was done with the dishdasha on the 4pt box art for soldiers and hearthguard. I think I went a step beyond what I intended but I stepped back and considered the color palette. These needed to be brighter as it would be more expensive and attention grabbing; my problem had been solved by pigment prices.

Further on with the cavalry I had an idea about the riders. Yet again I find myself both loving and hating the fact that I push the envelope for detail at times. I was inspired by the decorated Easter eggs that are typically seen all made up for the celebrations of Orthodox Christians and then my recollection of the intricate tile work of the Islamic world.

So I sat and decided to take a bit of a break from Saga (Yes, I admit to my transgression, I have come back to my project only to self flagellate.. flatulate? Lol). I only did so to recharge my batteries. It also is due to the fact that I wanted to get some non-painting work done.

I’m in communication with a 3D sculptor from Russia and a printer here in the US to get a copy of my idea together. I’ve painted some non-Saga minis (relax already, its only for a short time) and now I’m tackling the Big Projects I stated I’d be doing. I have only a few more basic Saga posts left before the major Age of Magic stuff comes around.

In looking at the paint so far all the turbans tie my dudes together with a color element. This element needed to be centered on the head honcho, his attendants and the waving banner which marked the fearless man of action. With that in mind the banner needed to be reworked. To say that I hate the prospect and ensuing work is an understatement; I really liked the way my first run of the banner looked.

Oh, did I forget to mention I changed my mind about a color scheme? Well blow my nose, I did in fact do something radical yet again.

So it seems like when one wants something it can’t just *poof* appear as they wish, huh? Well, I’m currently dog-sitting at a friend’s house and unable to do hobby this week. I’m negotiating with The Russian about my upcoming digital project and have arranged payment to be made (its all hush hush type stuff for the rest of you lot not to know yet). The printer is back and gladly awaiting the gig on Fiverr as I have other tasks that I’ve decided to go ahead with otherwise.

I’ve fallen victim to expanding my force with more minis that “I had to have” which means I’ll, of course, need to get more bases to give it all a grand presentation when this is all said and done. Ugh… can’t I just do this all on clear acrylic? Pffft! Dash that nonsense. I’m glad that my Age of Magic assets are taken care of with regard to MDF basing already on hand as I just need to actually get them, assemble the parts, base and paint. Those are just the little details, right?

I swear that all of this really will be worthwhile to those of you following along on this meandering … Squirrel!!! Seriously though I’ll set out my next steps:

• Finish the command corps paint scheme and basing
• Finishing touches on all the regular troops (faces/weapons/basing details)
• Finally rework the banner and get it printed
• Receive and paint up another mounted unit (the one I saw and said “That must be mine.”)
• Show first unit of expanded options from an Age of Magic battleboard

Here is the glorious leader of my Arabian Knights forces, Hasn Al Qlb al’Akrab, in all of his glory for regular Saga. I was quite pleased with going back over the whole thing with Testor’s Dullcote. The rattlecan version of the formula seemed to just seal the figures and make it all glossy. Making certain that I had the glass bottle variety all shaken before loading the airbrush and doing short bursts of coverage has given this command group real definition as the matte settles the details of the paint. Admittedly it would look all the better once I got my banner on the pole for the flag bearer but for the moment it looks damn spiffy as I work regular work and set back the time to play with Photopea and edit the design. I’m also thinking about how the hell to get it printed as I neither have a printer nor am willing to just randomly get it as a Fiverr gig. I think that the amount of cash that I’d need to shell out would be more than just one flag, therefore requiring more work to design and have things on hand to add to models.

On the command group I’m rather happy with the design work that came out from the masking. It does need more work in order to perfect this technique and might well be better suited for simpler curves on models for flowing fabric. Then again I might revisit the spray duration as either short bursts that are drawn over or lower pressure continuous spray with a quick pass. Other than that the design work for the clothes was the only other technical component that I think I managed with the minimal amount of fouling. I might be wrong there but for freehand I’m not stressing too much since I think there’s enough detail to keep the eyes wandering. The waterslide decal from Little Big Men definitely gave a front view something to arrest attention while a mixture of tufts from Army Painter litters the ground nicely. As Lloyd is fond of adding horses to the total model count for cavalry I think dropping four models on a 60mm base as I have has worked well.

• As far as progress along what I’ve mentioned I will be done with the regular troops finishing touches as long as work doesn’t run me down too badly in the near future.
• The banner will be worked on and hopefully printed quickly. I might need to do some digging as to where I can get this done aside from an office supply store. I’m not keen on the idea of what kind of color balance I’d get with that.
• The ultra interesting and most excellent unit that I needed to possess has arrived. I’ve cleaned the models of flash and mold lines. I’ve added weapons that needed to be put on. I need to repair/modify a few details here and there but all is will with regard to them. I’ve already got paint schemes in mind and I’ll be ready to go quickly.
• My expanded option for Age of Magic is underway and I’m busy in the background making things happen. I’ve dropped The Russian as my ultra secret task seems to be below the commie mutant bastard (see the game Paranoia). I’ve opted for a secondary source and I’ll be getting more work done that Gerry can’t peer over the electronic fence upon my progress like the neighbor in the series “Home Improvement”. He’ll just have to wait like the rest of you. People should be glad that I don’t resort to the measures of German intelligence and start doing my typing on an  actual typewriter to avoid digital sneakery.