Sláine: Kiss My Paintbrush!

Decided to expand the Earth Tribes beyond the Sessair.  These are the Fir Domain who use their shields to help reverberate their battle cry.  Their king is Rudraige who bears the Silver Sword of the Moon.

I’ve been working from the Mongoose D20 Slaine RPG book for this tribe which has a useful illustration of this technique.

The figures are Roy Eastland sculpts currently available through North Star Figures.  AP Speedpaints for the main colours in the style previously described.  Tartan stripes are Vallejo Model Air Mediterranean Blue over the AP Fire Giant Orange and Vallejo Amarantha Red over AP Cloudburst Blue.

Here they all are with their King.  Not bad for scale as far as I’m concerned.

Had a go at the opening scenario tonight.  I have to say that these rules aren’t the easiest to get on top of for first time players.  We were very grateful for the OTT Let’s Play which definitely helped with the combat sequence but there are a couple of things that I’ll need to spend some time looking up.  I need to get my head around the Winded rule and as long as I can work through the references on pages 10, 15, 19, 23 & 28 I’m sure I can figure it out.  Is it just me or should that have been put in one place?

Anyhow, here are some shots from the playthroughs.  Game 1 was mostly for testing the play sequence and movement rules.  Slaine and Ukko ran away and were impossible to catch after good D6 rolls on their Sprints.

So far so good and onto Game 2.  This time combat would be the focus.  Slaine and Ukko reset to the central stone and decide to rush at the Skullswords and Drune Priest.  Mass combat ensues where all of the specialist cards are played and Slaine comes out victorious.

We’ll play the other starter scenario that introduces Blood Points and hopefully be a bit more familiar with some terms that the writers clearly think we know already.  I appreciate this is their second version of the 2000AD rules but I didn’t play Judge Dredd and the rulebook seems to be written for people who did.

I post on Insta and the Slaine, Ukko and Nest photo I put up this weekend got a like from Pat Mills – author of Slaine.  I’m never washing my Instagram again.

The starter set heroes, Sláine, Ukko the Dwarf and Nest the Druid.

King Rudraige with the Silver Sword of the Moon, King Gann with the Flaming Spear of the Sun and Mongan Axehead of the Sessair.

Thanks to @demonsub for the inspiration for the colours on the Spear of the Sun.  I was going to go for bright gold but was reminded that in the Bisley art it has this demonic possession look too so settled on this having seen it in demonsub’s project.

Sláine the King and Niamh.  This is the bonus Sláine miniature for pre-ordering.  This colour scheme for Niamh comes from the “Sláine the King” comic cover art and is a fantastic version of a 1980’s leotard in a Olivia Neuton John “Physical” video style (one for the teenagers there).

That’s it for the Warlord first release miniatures.  Whilst we are waiting for the second wave release in August I’m continuing with the additional miniatures and will start on the playthough of the game scenarios.  I’ll take a group shot once the table is set up.

The two Fomorian champions.  Alternative Armies sculpts – and very meanicing they are too.  These are bigger than the Warlord games models by a head (see my scale comparison earlier in the project) and they have been based on the 40mm rounds rather than the 25mm.  Painting method is the same as the other Fomor.

Each of my forces is being expanded by the addition of a big thing.  Not in the rules but very evident in the graphic novels and hopefully this will work at the slightly expanded scale I’m planning on playing the game at.  The Earth Tribes will get Slaine’s war chariot and the Drunes a sky ship.
First up then the Fomorians with a mammoth.  Here’s the art that inspired this choice:

The mammoth is a combination of a 3D print acquired at the Legionary show in Exeter last month and a Citadel Savage Orc shaman from eBay.  I wanted a model with widely splayed legs holding something up vertically and this one fit the bill.

A bit of Greenstuff to cover the hole in the raised foot,green stuff a slight gap between rider and beast and a massive base and we were ready for painting.

Mammoth was painted in the same way as the ombre graduated wet-blend I used on Slough Feg.  The mammoth started darker with neat Dark Wood on the underside and inside lower legs; blending into Hardened Leather to about 2/3 of the way up, and the trunk; then Sand Golem mixed in until it was virtually neat Sand Golem across the forehead and down the spine.  Tusks were Palid Bone and then decreasingly heavy dry brush coats of Dheneb Stone, Bone White and Ivory focusing increasingly on the ends and upper portions until the last colour was just on the very tips.

Fomorian was painted the same as the others although the feathers on the cloak were Zealot Yellow with a dry-brush of Vallejo Flat Yellow.

Alternative Armies had a very good offer on their Erin models before Easter and Gavin was very helpful in sorting out the best deal.  They even threw in a free skull pile.  Great delivery turnaround too.  Highly recommended.
I overindulged somewhat, getting Fir Bolg, Sidhe and Fomorians.  I’ve painted the latter now and baring some extra bases that will arrive Monday I’m done.  They are painted with Plasmatic Bolt in the way I described in the original Fomorian entry earlier in this project.  The NMM bronze effect on the shields and armour panels is a mix of Palid bone, Dark Wood and Speedpaint Medium.  Verdigis is stippled Nihilakh Oxide Citadel Technical paint with the upper surfaces wiped back to the bronze tone.

I’ve got a group of three with Spear and shield.

Two smaller Fomor called Pucci in the Erin range.  These will make ideal companions to Fomorian characters in the same way as dwarves do for the human factions.

This is the skull pile I got as an extra gift from AA, thanks 🙂  Palid Bone then a drybrush of Citadel Foundation Dheneb Stone.

Now the witch’s guard with their long swords and shields and capes to match their mistress.  The capes are Blood Red.

And finally a collective shot with one of the Warlord Fomorians for scale.  I think they look great together and give less uniformity to the Fomorian force which fits better with my idea of what they are like from the graphic novels.

I got the Sessair done, including the Red Branch warriors with their funky weapons.

The main feature colours are Zealot Yellow and Absolution Green.  Kilts have had the pattern picked out in Vallejo Flat Blue.

Tattoos are great fun.  I did them the first time in my Celt-Iberian project and I use thinned down Vallejo Prussian Blue for the woad like colour.  You need a good brush with quality bristles to make things easier.  I find this proto-Celtic “Tribal” style pattern quite easy.  The basic principle is to work from the middle towards the edges of a design, from thickest part to the thinnest.  I pick a large skin area, then start from the middle of the pattern and press down slightly to get the wider part and then lift the pressue whilst moving outward in the curve of the pattern, lifting until only the very tip is is contact and exagerating the curve back towards itself to finish.  Then back to the wider section in the middle and off again curving in another direction.  I try to follow the raised contours of the musculature as this makes the pattern easier to see.
The raised parts of the pattern are highlighted with a 60% add mixture of white, keeping the paint quite thin using ink or an Air type paint.  This can be used to cover any unevenness in the width of stroke from the first application.

Give tattoos a try, you’ll be amazed at how easy they are 🙂