Sláine: Kiss My Paintbrush!

Midgard is going to work really well with this project.  It was interesting to hear in the interview with the author James Morris that he first started playing Midgard with his own Irish myth armies.  I hope my armies will do the setting and the rules justice.

The Midgard rules are well supported with some excellent resources on the author’s website.  There is even a force creation app.  My preference is for spreadsheets so I’m using the force creation spreadsheet provided here: https://mogsymakes.net/resources-for-midgard-heroic-battles/

Sláine here is the army general and will be joined on his base by Nest and Ukko.  He is a Level 3 hero and I’m representing my heroes’ levels by putting the same number of models on the command base.  Warbases sell sabot bases that are 60mm round with 3 25mm recesses.  They are for Test of Honour if you are looking for them.  These sabot bases will be used for the Level 2 and 3 heroes.  Level 1 heroes will be on 40mm round bases, again Warbases sell a suitable sabot for putting a single 25mm round based model on.

The basis of the armies is the Tribes of the Earth Goddess have been joined by the Fir Bolg to battle an alliance of Fomorians and Drunes.  We are just starting to learn the game so will start with forces at 300 pts which is the suggested minimum.  We start with the Tribes of the Earth Goddess and their allies.

The Heroes are:

Sláine, Level 3; Army Commander, Battle Smiter, Favour of the Gods, Fearsome – 39pts
King Gann of the Falians, Level 2; Legendary Missile (Flaming Spear of the Sun) – 20pts
King Rudraige of the Fir Domain, Level 2; Legendary Weapon (Silver Sword of the Moon) – 23 pts
Streng – Fir Bolg Champion, Level 1; Beastmaster – 15 pts

Total for the Heroes – 97pts.  There is a maximum of 1/3 of the points from heroes so we are just under.  Total Reputation is 11.

Earth Tribes units:

1 Unit of Sessair Heavy Infantry (HI); Spears as Tribute, Impetuous – 24pts
1 Unit of Sessair Red Branch (HI w. missiles); Javelins, Spears as Tribute, Impetuous, Fearsome – 27 pts [Pictured]
Cathbad, Cauldron & Reborn (Warrior Horde); Relentless – 14 pts
1 Unit Fir Domain (HI); Impetuous – 21 pts
1 Unit Fianna (HI); Impetuous – 21 pts
1 Unit Falian Shadow Warriors (HI); Impetuous, Armour 2 as they are fighting in a set battle in the daytime which isn’t their preference – 16 pts
2 Units of Fir Bolg HI with slings – 36 pts

Total points 159, Reputation is a total of 16

The Fir Bolg are accompanied by an ogre who will be a Monstrosity using the Giant profile.  He’s Armour 4 as he is smaller than the biggest giants and comes with the mandatory Traits; Aloof, Brutal, Fearsome, Impetuous, Steadfast & Towering.  44 pts, Reputation of 4.  His Aloof trait is the reason the Fir Bolg champion has Beastmaster which helps to provide a bit of control over Aloof creatures.

The whole force is therefore 300 points with a total Reputation of 31

I’m slowly working through the sabot bases and will post some pictures once I’m finished.

The Tribe of the Shadows are represented as black painted warriors and were experts at night raids, subterfuge and ambush.

My version was a fairly straightforward conversion from 2 sprues of Victrix Gallic Fanatics.  Black Speedpaint over the zenithed undercoat with some top highlights created by wiping the very tips to remove the Speedpaint.  A light edge highlight was added to the top half of the shields to help show the details.  Weapons in Gravelord Grey Speedpaint.  This was a very gentle reintroduction to painting as I’ve been “off games” for a while.

Sabot base is 12x6cm which is the beginning of my effort to convert this collection into armies to use with the Midgard rules.  More on that soon.

The ‘men of bags’ were inhabitants of Ireland who preceded the Irish pagan gods who defeated them and drove them away.  In our tale they are predecessors of the tribes of Danu and are therefore opposed not only to Slaine and his Sessair but all of the invaders of their land.

All miniatures are Alternative Armies, from their Celtic Myth range.  All paints are the new AP Speedpaints, Warrior Skin is the lead here for a deeper colour.  Hair was a blend of equal parts Medium, Sand Golem, Burnished Red and Hardened Leather.  I’ve gone Chalcolithic (copper age) as inspiration so Brazen Copper for the metal work and I like the saffron dyed garments of the Irish Kerns so decided to port those over to this force as well so they look distinct from the others schemes I’ve already used on this project.  The yellow is Ancient Honey and I’ve done an extra coat on some minis in the recesses and lower down on capes to help to deepen the tone a bit.  First up are the heroes:

Then the tribal commanders, chief, musician, standard and a champion.  The banner is some freehand, I don’t normally bother but LBMS didn’t have anything chalcolithic-y enough.  The banner was black with the pattern marked out first in pencil then overpainted in Vallejo Cold Grey.  Then the whole thing was washed in Occultist Cloak (a blackish blue grey apparently) which takes the edge off the black and helps it look a bit more used.  Then the symbol was overpainted with Vallejo Cold Grey and then a thinner line inside the grey of Vallejo Ivory.

Finally the warriors.  The shields were either Bony Matter for the wicker or an initial coat of Pastel Seafoam (too light a tone) which then had several coats of Thunderbolt Blue over the top, deliberately heavier on the bottom half for a sort of freehand painted two tone effect.  Looks a bit sloppy in the photos but I quite like it a gaming distance.

Coming back to this after a sojourn with Conan.  Here are some January sale winnings.  Annie at Bad Squiddo was having a clearout of the old Atlantis Miniatures resins and I picked up a Pegasus and the pack of 3 werewolves.  Fantastic sculpts (and wonderful customer srevice from Annie as usual).  Based to match the Slaine minis and useful as either Beasts or as a foe for the big man on their own.

The werewolves are just blended grey and white Speedpaints with a spot of black on the nose and some Slaughter Red in the mouth, Blood Red for the eyes.  The rocks are Runic Grey with progressive dry brused Cold Grey Sombre Grey and Wolf Grey.

The Pegasus was a bit of a pain, still not totally happy but he’s good enough.  Holy White over the zenithed primer.  It went a bit dull and patchy :/  I’ve gone back to a “proper” technique of layering thin coats of white over the musculature on the body.  The mane, tail and wings got dry brushed with Ivory and then White in increasingly light high point focused stages.  It’ll do.

I had another Foundry Sláine model and I wanted him riding in a chariot.  I found the ideal model at the Legionary show in Exeter.  There is a chap who has loads of Black Tree Designs models as he used to paint for them.  He had a painted Barbarian Chariot which was a bit oversized for 28mm models with the crew being nearer to 35mm.  That meant it was perfect for Sláine.  No need for me to do more than touch up the paintwork.  I did need to add a broader platform which is made from balsa and allows Sláine enough room and for me to base him and have him removable, rather than having to glue him in.
I was keen to have a model of Sláine’s charioteer, Gerg Three Fingers.  Nothing suitable on the market seemingly so a conversion was needed.  Here is what we started with – a Chaos Marauder with Gerg’s characteristic belly plate and a  spare head from Britannia miniatures, massive by 28mm standards but ideal here.

And we’re aiming for this:

Slaine is carrying the Spear of the Sun and Sword of the Moon and standing on the Stone of Destiny.  A bit of green stuff carved to match the planking of the chariot floor for the base and he’s ready for paint.

A bit of trimming and a touch of greenstuff to fill the join between head and torso.  The three Fomorian fingers were clipped off a zombie standard arm and superglued to the helmet and Gerg is done.  Speedpaints to match the Sessair.  Drilled his hands out and then used some tomato paste tube foil to make the reins.  Strictly speaking he should have two reins for each horse but one each will do.  Lots of flocking and clumps on the base to match the rest and we are done:

I’m done with the Foundry Sláine models.  Stuck with the Speedpaints athough there was some monor edge highlighting of the Sword of the Moon with Game Air Wolf Grey and BoneWhite and Pure White have been used to paint the bone and horn ornaments.  These guys are huge – they are mounted on 40mm rounds and absolutely fill the base.
The first model of Sláine the King in his full regalia with the helmet given to him by Danu is a great model.  The boar-faced belt has had a pair of Greenstuff tusks added.  These were super fiddly and very fragile so I can see why they got omitted from the casting.  I quite like the way the blue has gone a bit patchy on the back but maybe that’s just me.

Sláine mac Roth version.  Grim Black is doing some heavy lifting on this one.

Elfric and the El women are the final set from the Warlord second wave.  Not sure if they have any more planned but it looks like they want to move on now to ABC Warriors which is great for fans of that but a pity from my perspective.

I wanted a slightly other worldliness about the El, they are demons from another dimension after all.  Therefore I highlighted the clothing using Vallejo Fluro colours.  Elfric’s cloak was a blend of Slaughter Red in the recesses and Blood Red for the highlights and then the very top edges of the folds and edges were further emphasised with Magenta Fluro.

Likewise the El women had their 80’s aerobics inspired clothing highlighted with orange, blue and green Fluro paints respectively.

I’ve still got some Slaine bits left to do.  There are a couple of Foundry Slaine models, Slaine’s chariot, a skyship and the Alternatice Armies Sidhe and Fir Bolg.  I may get through them slowly this year but I’m keen to get one of the big miniature boardgames painted beforec December so I’ve mostly moved on to painting my Conan TMG and you can follow my progress here.

Celtos Miniatures are now produced by Brigade Games in the UK and this is certainly a Sláine adjacent range. Here we have two druids.  The Cauldron of Blood can have up to three accompanying druids so I’ve picked out these two to go with Cathbad.  Once could easily be a not-Cathbad with his skull mask and the other is probably a not-Sláine holding the Sword of the Moon and Spear of the Sun.  No matter, they are all my druids now.  Painting as per the previous methods for the Earth Tribes.  The bone details were tidied up with some Bonewhite Game Air paint.

Danu – Earth Goddess.  She is the patron goddess of the Sessair and Sláine’s patron god.

Not too much to do on this one so I spent a bit longer on the highlights with non-Speedpaints.  Blend of Speedpaint colours on the hair, thinned with Medium to ensure the zenith showed through consistently.  Crusader Skin was highlighted up with some Game Air Pale Flesh in very thin coats to bolster the strength of the highlight in places.  The jewelery was picked out in white and then a very thin wash of Holy White to give it and the knife a bit of shading.