Sláine: Kiss My Paintbrush!

The final unit for the update is a unit of heavy horse by Brigade Models from their Celtos range.  The styling of the riders and particularly the cavalry is very much ‘inspired’ by the Bisley art of “The Horned God”.  They are an impressive sight with their sheer size and styling as heavy horses in the Shire horse or Cleveland Bay mode, especially the typically huge hooves and feathers (the shaggy hair that grows long down from the fetlocks and over the hooves).

This is the only place I know of where you can see pictures of all 8 different miniatures that Brigade Models sell.  Why don’t manufacturers put pictures of their products on their online shops?  Especially when they look as beautiful as these??  Only in this industry.

With that unit, we are finished.  300 points of Earth Tribes for Midgard.

That’s the core force finished for all three armies and we also have a few allied factions done as well.  I’m already play testing the armies and there might be a tweak or two to come.

Next I’ll move on to a simple process for creating a campaign matrix.

The last tribal heavy infantry unit are the Finians.  They are Celtos miniatures by Brigade Models.  Nice castings.  I bought all of the most animated poses I could find, mostly leader and character miniatures.

Then the Warped Warriors.  Hopefully impactful in the game they are a bit all or nothing being worth 5 Reputation if the opponent can take them down.

Both miniatures are now OOP.  The one on the left was by Warlord Games and the other was by Wargames Foundry Miniatures.

The upgraded list includes some more heavy infantry and Warped Warriors as the Monstrosity.

Heroes (99 pts) :
Sláine (Level 3 Army Commander) – 28pts
King Gann (L2) – 20pts
King Rudraige (L2) – 23pts
Scathach, Fianna Swordmistress (L1) – 10pts
Chariot Hero (L1) – 18pts

Troops (152pts):
5x Tribal Heavy Infantry (Sessair, Fianna, Falians, Finians & Fir Domain)– 99pts
1x Red Branch (on base of 3 models) – 19pts
1x Cathbad, Cauldron & Reborn (on a horde base) – 14pts
1x Heavy Horse – 20pts

Monster:
Warped Warriors (using the Giant rules) – 48pts

I bought myself some Brigade Models Celtos miniatures for Christmas.  There were 8 infantry to make a new heavy infantry tribal unit (the Finians) and all 8 of the cavalry miniatures to make a unit of Heavy Horse.

I’ve adjusted the command base of King Rudraige to have one of these new miniatures on it.  The previous axeman will go into the Finians.  I’ll need to repaint his kilt as he is painted in the Fir Domain colours.

I finished off the Drune Tribesmen units.  These are horde infantry so they are on bigger unit bases of 11 miniatures.  I’m pleased with the work I’ve done to rescue the very battered eBay miniatures.  It was very helpful to have plenty of bits available, not just from the sprue of the old school GW Marauders I had but also some extra heads from the Frostgrave Barbarian kit and some pouches and daggers from that and the Gnoll kit.  That provided just enough to get the variety into this rather restricted kit.  The addition of the metal minis has helped too and I think they fit nicely alongside the rest of the Drune army.

I changed the metal mix for these units to give them a slightly different look to the Skullswords.  Less blue in the mix so it is now 4 drops of Runic Grey, 1 drop of Cloudburst Blue, 4 drops of Gravelord Grey and 4 drops of Medium.

And so the whole force is finished and looks like this:

One upgraded unit of crossbows, with the three extra bowmen from the new box.  Now they should be a bit more effective in game as Formed Archers rather than Skirmishers.

Next the berserkers who are metal Ral Partha Europe miniatures from the Chaos Imperium line.  More traditional 28mm proportions here so not as tall as the nearer 32mm of the Warlord miniatures so I stuck them onto GW plastic bases rather than the flat Warlord rimmed ones I’m using in this project.  Instantly taller and no longer looking too short next to their brethren.

I love the Warlord Slough Feg miniature and was very pleased with the wet blend I did on him.  I wasn’t happy with his base though.  In Midgard I use a round 3 hole sabot for the commanders.  A level 2 commander gets two models on this base (with a blanking base for the final slot).  A Level 3 commander, like Slough Feg, gets 3 models.  I had him with a couple of Skullswords before but I need them to make up an extra unit and I never really liked them with him, he’s normally on his own in the graphic novel.  Then I remembered the skull pile I got as a freebie from Alternative Armies.  That would be great and would mean I could give him a skull covered base like the image of his cave from The Horned God where his pose is copied from.  I ordered an extra skull pile so now his base will have 3 “models” to indicate he is L3, himself and the 2 skull piles.  I also covered the base in skulls from a GW base conversion set of plastic skulls.

Now here he is in all his glory, with the page from The Horned God behind:

It isn’t quite as strong as Conan’s ‘What is best in life?’ speech but it is right up there.

Next for the Midgard points upgrade are the Drune faction.  Their 300 point list is as follows:

Heroes (101 pts) :
Lord Slough Feg (Level 3 Army Commander) – 41pts
Slough Throt (L2) – 34pts
Megrim & Robym the Dwarf (L2) – 26pts

Troops (155pts):
2x Drune Tribesmen (on horde bases of 11 models)– 24pts
1x Half Dead (on base of 7 models plus menhir) – 14pts
2x Skullswords – 50pts
1x Skullswords with crossbows – 22pts
1x Madb and the Badb – 15pts
1x Berserkers – 15pts
1x Werewolves – 15pts

Monster:
Giant – 44pts

I’ve already got most of these but needed to add a box of Warlord Drune warriors to cover the second Skullsword unit and expanding the crossbows from a skirmish unit of 4 into a formed archer unit of 6.  I added 3 beserkers from Ral Partha Europe.  Finally I am putting together two big units of basic tribesmen to bulk out the force which otherwise is quite small numbers and elite.  I have some of the old GW plastic Marauders and their design aesthetic will be perfect for this force.  That late 90s Chaos vibe was very heavily influenced by Bisley’s Slaine art in the first place so to me, it feels like this kit is coming home.  Counted up what I had and it was only 6 miniatures.  I have the sabot bases already and they hold 11 each so I need 22.  I found 5 metal barbarian miniatures so will need 11  more.  Then spotted this rescue on e-Bay.

Not it great nick but I’ve got spare arms and there is nothing Dettol can’t handle – even very thick layers of acrylic like these ones have.

After a day in the orangey juice of joy here is what we get.  I’ve put four of the metal castings I’ll use alongside.  These are old Harlequin minis, Kev White sculpts probably.  I’ve got a female one somewhere that will complete the unit:

Now onward to undercoating.

The Fomorian 300 point force is finished.  Not the best photo but it shows them all done: