SAGA Challenge

This week I’ve been putting together a couple of squat Dark Age buildings for the Anglo-Saxons based on these images off Google.

The steps will be familiar to most people, I think, but I will present my approach which is quite picture heavy.

Materials are 5mm foam core; Pan scrubbers; coffee stirrers; some balsa wood; and glue. (Usually I use PvA for buildings, but I had none so used a UHU type glue instead. I don’t think it makes a particular difference.

The first set of images are the materials and basic construction.  The pan scrubbers are 10x15cm and about 5mm think. I trimmed off 5mm from one of the scrubbers so that they would form a need angle of equal sides when glued down.

The two triangle end pieces were measured from the “inside” of the triangle formed by the two pan scrubs, and were 9.5 cm on two sides as shown.

As it turned out, I ran out f foam core, so instead of one solid piece for the roof supports, I used a couple of smaller pieces.  It was still secure, so no harm done.  I did not put an additional piece in the middle of the house, although that could be done to add additional support.  I’m not sure it’s necessary

The end pieces and roof pieces were glues into place and pinned to hold the shape while the glue dried.  One this was done the roof pan scrubs were also glued down individually and I left each side to fully dry with small weights on them to ensure a good bond.

Of course I realized afterwards that I should have completed the finishing of the two end walls before doing this!  It just made the construction of the end walls more difficult. I’ll explain further below.

The wooden end walls were done with coffee stirrers. As I alluded to by gluing the roof on too early I had to think of a way to get the coffee sticks onto the wall supports. I think I over-thought the solution!  But here’s what I did.

I measured onto a board the shape of the end walls and put a small piece of double sides tape in the middle. I used this as a template for the construction of the walls and once they were all in place, I used further double sided tape to secure the sticks together. I originally thought to simply stick these in place with the tape, but later changed my mind – so any ordinary tape would do here.

I eased off the taped wall pieces and glued these into place on the foam core, and used some small clamps to hold them in place while these dried.  The “door” was a piece of thin balsa wood.

Once everything was completely dry, I removed the tape.

Painting was done with diluting a Contrast Brown paint into a weak wash and simply painting this wash on the wooden sticks to allow them to form their own finish.  I used different paints on the door and door frame.

The roofs were already green from the scrubs, but I added a mix of dried herbs (from tea bags) and thin wood shavings at the bases, and different mixes of colored sand on the roofs themselves. Not sure about how accurate this is historically, but I didn’t want to paint these pan scrubs and the glue/sand seemed a decent solution.

Next up I’m thinking of making a ruined tower.  I don’t know how this would fit into the period, but as there were certainly castles of some sort in the 10th century, I’m sure a half-built or ruined tower could have been a feature.

Anyway, in the meantime, Happy Gaming

Update on the remaining terrain pieces.

I haven’t done anything remarkably different to others, but here are pictures of the process for the different terrain features.

Walls were made by using balsa wood, 5mm thick and 20mm high stuck down on “tongue depressors” or art sticks, depending on where you are.  These are about 6″ in length. I cut some in half and rounds the edges with sand paper (I did the same for the fences).

The balsa was “textured” by rolling a rock on the wood. As it’s so soft, it leaves an impression. On reflection, I think the result is more like concrete than stones, but it will have to do (although It is an interesting possibility fr other games such as Bolt Action or Necromunda, where concrete might predominate?)

I added a mix of PvA and sand to the bases for both texture and strength. As an aside, I have some small sand which I previously colored with green paint, and this the added to the base provides an “instant” grass look, which I later highlighted with another green acrylic paint.  I think it looks OK, but comments welcome.

Painting the walls was straight forward: based in black then a series of grey/white  dry brushing. I also tried placing some brick shapes in paint with a flat brush. Again, bot 100% happy, but it is what it is, at least for now.

The wattle fences were made using the same 6″ art sticks.  I drilled small holes every 1′ but on reflection I think the look would be better if the were every 20mm (about 3/4″).

Tooth picks were glued into these holes and once dry, cut off about half way.  The wattle is actually cotton yarn.  Note that this isn’t the normal thread, but is thinker and I think used for crochet work or maybe tapestry work. This can usually be found at any haberdashery.  I chose a grey as this is a good neutral base color.

Important note: the uprights need to be an ODD number otherwise the weaving doesn’t work. Periodically I would ‘fix’ the weave with superglue (I also dropped superglue on the knot when starting the process with the yarn. I find starting in the middle hides the knot better than starting at one end.  Loose thread can be snipped off later.

Once complete and dry, a grey paint is applied and can be highlighted with a lighter grey for emphasis.

The ground work is the same as with the walls.

The fatigue markers was made with Mantic small square bases, a dollop of glue/sand and a radon shield with sometimes a weapon stuck down.

A black primer followed by a white dry brush finishes the job and the base painted a green.   decided that these represent fallen warriors and I wasn’t about to start painting all the shield fronts!

So, I think that’ll do for now with the smaller terrain pieces, next on the agenda is a couple of Dark Age buildings.

So, while the Vikings are doing their homework I felt that the table top would need some additional small terrain to make their imminent invasion just a little bit more challenging. (My son has my number – and also some extremely fortunate dice throws – and so anything to slow down my impending defeat is to be welcome).

So, what do we need?  More trees for sure; some haystacks for the “look” of the thing; some wattle fences and some walls? Probably all of these. And of course somewhere to live! (The houses will come later).

So to start I made some simple hay stacks based around old wine corks, DAS putty and some Mantic round bases.

The size of the corks was too large, so after cutting them down to a more reasonable size, they were glued to the bases and once set, DAS was applied in small amounts at a time. I probably got the actual shape of these things wrong, but hopefully they will have the right “look” once they’re finished.

While the DAS was still slightly malleable, I used an old toothbrush to etch some groves into the DAS to represent the straw-like nature of the stack.

Once fully dry (I waited overnight) I gave them a grey undercoat, then successive layers of acrylic paint (the cheap £-store variety). Base on Yellow Ochre and building up with yellows and browns with final highlights of pure yellow.

These aren’t perfect, but once on a suitable hayfield I think they’ll pass.

On to Trees.  The core structure is twisted wire. This is a well known technique, so I won’t go into detail.  The only wire I could get was a bit thicker than ideal (I’ll try to get some florist’s wire as I think that’s a far better option) but you have to play the hand you’re dealt.

I made five tree shops to start with and made some typical tree shapes, which were then glued to 60mm bases with a hot glue gun. (I have some multi-tree bases that have 60mm holes, so I can group 2/3 trees together). I then applied a thick layer of PvA glue to the wire format and dusted in some fine sand.  This creates a texture on which to paint later. The bases were also treated with a sand mix of different sizes.

This was followed by spray painting them black and subsequent dry brushing of brown and grey/white.

The base of the trees were given a coating of random forest scatter comprising tried tea leaves and herbal tea colored shades of green.

Foliage is a different matter altogether. I don’t have access to model shops, so instead I glued random pieces of wire wool to the branches.  These were then painted with a black spray can, carefully avoiding recoloring the truck or branches.

Once dried, the shapes were painted with artist acrylics in greens and yellows (other leaf colours are available).

I will later varnish them with a Matt varnish as I think they’re just a bit too bright.

I’ll update on the walls and fences asap.

Happy gaming

So, this week I managed to complete the Anglo-Saxon army to a quality I can live with. Table top, basic paint job which passes at 3′ viewing! Pictures follow below.

In addition though, I did some experimenting with the Contrast paints to see the effect of different colored base coats. GM say they work best with a white undercoat, which given the nature of the product seems a reasonable proposal, but what if some other colors are used?

I didn’t stray too far from the “white” undercoat, and instead used some light pastel colors to see what difference (if any) was noticeable.  And there are some  minor changes to be seen – at least when using a Red Contrast paint.

The first picture shows the figures with the four different undercoats. I used Vallejo paints for this: Pale Flesh 72.003; Natural Flesh 74.006; Highlight Skin 74.008 and Iraqi Sand 70.819. The Contrast paint Blood Angels Red was painted over these once they had fully dried. The images should be in this order.

I’m note sure how well the slight colouration shows in the pictures, and it IS only a modest change in color, but it is there. More experimentation necessary.

The other “experiment” came with the shield designs.  I had in mind a simple geometric scheme which would be “easy” (ho ho ho!) if I used masking tape (I had some Tamiya tape handy) to block off a base color and then painted over the top, removing the tape to reveal a perfect paint job. Well that was the theory.  To come extent it worked, but there was touching up to do and in the end most of the shields were hand painted.

I also tried to paint some animals/birds. My eagle looked more like a distressed pigeon, and the dragon looked like a badger (according to “mini Apple”). So, back to art school for me.

I used primary colors from Vallejo as I wanted the shield designs to be simple and bright. Not sure if this is historically correct, but en mass I think they pass muster.

Some pictures of the process follow.

Sticking to the use of base cats and Contrast paints, the final playing around was a common base coat (Vallejo Lemon Yellow) under three Contrast paints, Blood Angels Red, Ork Flesh, and Leviadon Blue.

As you’d imagine the color combinations produces their expected new color based on simple color relationships.

In closing, I think there is a lot to discover about using Contrast paints, and I’m reasonably happy with what they can do, but the different colors do behave differently! I found little “contrast” with the Leviadon Blue as it simply went on in a solid block of color – but that could be me.  A similar issue with the Magmadroth Flame.

Anyway, final pictures of the completed Anglo-Saxon force. Leader/Hero, 2 x Hearthguard, 2 x Warriors, and 2 x Levies.

Happy gaming

Mainly working on the Anglo-Saxons this week and some good progress made (pictures to follow). I have mainly use Contrast paints, but for some of the smaller details and where I don’t have an appropriate paint, I used Vallejo and other paints as necessary (some older “Foundry 3-set” paints for example).

This week I wanted to get the Warriors and Hearthguard done, the general levies will follow shortly. My son is still slowly working through his levies and warriors; hopefully they’ll all be done by next week.  (I suspect he’d rather someone else did the painting so he could get straight to the tabletop and gaming, but painting is also a necessity unless you’re exceptionally wealthy and can get someone else to do it for you!)

Some small points to mention on the pictures; I will probably do some additional highlighting on the figures at some point once all of them have their initial painting completed.  For example, the sword or spearhead edges could be highlighted with silver or similar to emphasize these, but there is plenty of time to consider this once we can at least get the whole army on the table and play through a few games.

The metallic elements were painted with Vallejo paints, while the other areas of cloth etc. were all done with the Contrast paints. Overall I like the way the Contrast paints work, but I’ll probably be more selective in their use going forwards as there seems to be a wide variable in how they look afterwards.

I also want to experiment a bit with painting the Levies who will be randomly painted to reflect their simple, inexpensive backgrounds, so with that in mind I’ll try preparing them with different coloured undercoats on different cloths. If I’m right, this “should” result in a different finish to the same Contrast paint over these different base coats. I guess we’ll see by next week.

The bases are completed to tabletop standard, and here again I might go back and add some “grass tufts” or similar to make the bases more interesting.  I like to paint the base edges in green to fit in better with the table, but other options are well known (e.g. Black edging) but to me I just prefer the look of the green edges.

These Warriors were painted with these Contrast paints: Darkoath Flesh (actually I’ll use this for all the flesh tones on the Anglo-Saxons); Flesh Tearers Red for the tunics (Why does GW have such idiotic names for their colors?); and the blue trim was Leviadon Blue.

I later added small highlights to the flesh parts with Foundry Flesh 5B.

All the metal parts – swords, shield trim were pure Vallejo Gunmetal (72.054), which I diluted slightly as a wash for the chainmail shirts.

All the leather belts, bags boots etc. were the same color Contrast Cygor Brown. It’s a bit dark and I decided to use other leather paints for the Hearthguard (see below).

The highlight on the scabbards was either white or Brass depending on the engraving and the cross strap was Iraqi Sand, Vallejo 70.819

The green on the sword and dagger sheaths was Contrast Ork Flesh (I’ll use a different paint next time) and the brass trims for the Cross and shield boss was Vallejo Brass 70.801. The shield was painted with Vallejo Camo Bright Green 70.833 and the cross in Coat d’arms Blood Red.

Finally the base rim (as with all the others) was Vallejo Bright Green

There are two groups of Hearthguard which have both been painted the same way.  I followed a similar path as I had with the Warriors, but used more variety of leather and odd additional colors here and there.

Tunics used the blue Contrast paint as above, but for the red leggings I used Contrast Magmadroth Flame.  I am disappointed in how that went on as it shows little contrast at all, but that might be me not quite getting used to how the paint works best.  I might give it some additional highlights later.

Metal parts as I did for the Warriors. The large axe handles were painted with another Foundry paint Spearshaft 13C.  Brass for the little metal piece, eg. belt buckles etc.

The cloaks were all painted with Contrast Ork Flesh and again I’m not super happy about the finish, but revisiting that will be for another time.

I used a variety of leather paints from the Foundry range to add variations in the look of the models. So Tan 14B and 14C and Buff Leather 7C for the belt bags. I over painted these with a wash of the Contrast Cygor Brown, but any dark wash would do – maybe Agrax Earthshade?

I painted three shields using a variety of paints. The simple shield (Blue/White) was first. The white was a base of Italeri Flat White 4769AP (a local shop has started to sell Italeri paints, which is great) and Foundry Deep Blue 20A.

The red/white shield was actually a base of several layers of Contrast Flesh Tearers Red (next time I’ll just use an ordinary paint) and many layers of white. In retrospect I should have done this the other way round!

The final green/red shield was a base of Vallejo 70.833 Camo Bright Green and overpainted in Coat d’arms Blood Red.

So, some progress. One set of Warriors and the Levies to finish. My son tells me he’ll be on to the painting asap, so we’ll see how that goes.

So that’s where we are.

Happy Gaming.

So, short holiday over and time to try to catch up with the challenge. Son has school work to do (that’s the priority) but he wanted to “paint something” so he started on his Levies.  Only just got first contrast paint on the tunics, but it’s a start.

I managed to make a bit more progress with the warriors based on the “step-by-step” or “painting by numbers” approach I talked about last time.  Basically, using the contrast paints as the one-step base coat.

I think I will probably add some highlights and more differentiation later, but I’m an average painter at best, and the idea s not really about painting superb models, but in getting Anton interested n the wargaming hobby.

I hope in the next 6 weeks or so, we will have enough decently painted models to play a few games.  But before that, I also want him to try his hand at building an Anglo-Saxon dwelling or some other terrain features (walls, fences etc.).

A short update this week, a few pictures of the so-far panted warriors. Finishing off, highlighting and basing still to do.

Until next week, Happy Gaming.

We are away on holiday for a week, so this isn’t really an update, but a broader explanation of the painting approach I plan to take with my son.

In order to make it as soft an production to painting miniatures, I think that using contrast paints “should” be easier than more traditional methods. That said, in any case I’m going for a fast table top finish depending on the 3′ view being paramount.

In the following images I show the figure with the appropriate paint.  Everything is simple, just apply the paint and hope the Zenithal highlighting together with the contrast paint does the business for me.

The last image with the two paints – yellow and brown – resulted in a poor finish. I had hoped that applying the yellow first (as an additional undercoat) than the brown would result in a muted brown. But it didn’t really work that way. later on I added another coat of yellow, but I don’t like the result, and will probably use an ordinary paint to simulate cloth.

I don’t have any metallic contrast paints (actually I don’t even know if they exist!)  so I used “Gunmetal” from Vallejo.  This I applied straight onto the metal parts, but for the chainmail, I diluted it to more of a wash and will probably dry brush this later with silver to bring out the high points.

I used white on the shield to make a cross (a bit “wobbly!) and may have to touch this up later. Brass for the buckles and crucifix, and Iraqi Sand for the strap holding the crucifix and as a dry brush on the ground cover.  The final touch of blue on the chain mail is probably unnecessary so I may leave that out for Anton’s paint scheme.

The final pictures are the finish quick paint job.  It’s a bit like a paint-by-numbers approach. But en masse I think they will do.  The non-chain mail figures will just have a block of one color or another using the contrast paint to form he necessary highlights and shadows.

So, in ten days or so, I hope we’ll have some painted troops to share.

In the meantime, Happy Gaming

It’s the Orthodox Easter weekend here so not much done.  BUT, we did manage to finalize the basing of the figures with the addition of the ground cover I mentioned last week.

If you recall, I made a textured paste comprising PvA glue (basically a white wood glue) a little water and some Raw Sienna acrylic paint. I just eyeballed the mixture, but I’d say PvA/Water/Painting in roughly 5/3/1 proportions.

To this was added three types of sand/stones.  A very fine sand which seems to have the effect of making the basic paste itself and then a coarser sand for the main effect and a smaller amount of tiny grit for more  variety.  Again eyeballing this as a mix of fine/course/grit I’d say 3/2/1 approximately.

The ground cover was applied with a metal wax crafting tool but obviously anything else could be used. The main purpose is to level the ground to cover the lip of the existing plastic base of the figures so there is as little evidence of the figures’ original bases as possible.

To be honest this isn’t absolutely necessary, but I prefer the look (I’m old but not completely “old school”!) and like to see the figures apparently walking on the ground, not standing on a bit of plastic.

The images below give some idea of the effect I’m aiming for.

The picture of the two Hero/Leader models perhaps shows up some things better.

The one of the Left is my Anglo-Saxon Chief. Nothing fancy on the base, just the figure mounted on a larger base – actually a plastic gaming chip from a “poker” set which came with these “gambling” chips in different colors. They are a bit thicker than the standard bases (or the coins I am using) but I think this is OK for the Chief figures.

The Righthand one is Anton’s Viking warlord and is a bit more fancy.  He is raised even higher with the addition of a couple of layers of thin cork sheets (I forgot to take a picture!) and the “rocks” are a few bits of “Cat litter”. This is actually an interesting resource as the type I have here comes in a wide variety of sizes in the same package and makes for decent looking rocks.

The final two pictures show the “Before and After” figures on their bases.  You’ll notice a few figures with the bases painted in the base paint, these were already done before we rethought basing them AFTER the base paint. So these will require some additional painting now.

The final step with the ground cover will include some highlighting – probably “Iraqi Sand” (Vallejo) or similar and some grass/tufts to add a bit of greenery.

So, hopefully we will start painting next weekend. (Those with sharp eyes may have noticed that I have started on the Anglo-Saxon Lord already).

Happy Gaming

Slow progress this week, but we did at least get to the point where the figures were built and ready for base coating.  I have for some time now been using wooden slats and double-sided sellotape – other brands are available 😉 – to hold my figures for this process.

As I previously mentioned, I mount the plastic figures onto coins of the right appropriate size to add some weight and secure them with a UHU type of glue. So far this has worked without any adverse issues, so this was the option I chose for this game as well.

The preparation of the paint job is straight forward, although I will be trying my hand at Zenithal (spelling?) highlights this time in order to seed up and simplify the painting process for my son. I am no great shakes at figure paining and these are not intended for competition, so as simple and quick a paint job as necessary is the name of the game.

The pictures are simply the steps from mounting through Black > Grey > White undercoating.  I think I might do a little dry brushing in white especial around the faces before we start to paint.

One thing we notice after last week where I mentioned making a kind of ground paste for the figures was that this might be missing a trick, in that the paste was a natural ground cover in its own right.

So I stopped applying the paste and instead took the dried figures (post base coating) and mixed some PvA glue and Raw Sienna acrylic paint with some fine and rough sand (with a little water) to make a paste which had a light brown tint.

I will experiment with different acrylics, but the idea is that once dry this ground cover will only need some limited application of grass and tufts and then done.

We’ll see hw that gets, but initial pictures seem to be interesting.

So, that’s it for now.  Next weekend we hope to start painting, but the weekend after we are off for a break, so probably no update then.

In the meantime: Happy Gaming

Well, we’re slightly behind where we thought we’d be, but good progress is being made.  The Anglo Saxons are all built and most of the Vikings. Only 18 Levies to complete and both armies will have been made up.

Anton has taken a more “adventurous” route that I expected and is making his models the way he wants them, and isn’t too fussy about having each group of warriors exactly armed throughout. Personally, I’m good with that, the important thing is for him to enjoy the process. We’ll not be entering competitions, so exactly what they look like isn’t really too critical.

Next up is putting the plastic figures not bases. Personally I have always liked the “heft” of metal figures; as these will all be individuals rather than based collectively, I wanted to give them some weight.  I could have gone with washers, but as I had a handful of local currency, I went with these instead.

Size-wise they’re almost exactly 25mm, so for the purpose of the figures this is ideal. To base them all (60 figures) the actual cost is less than €1, so that works for me.

The figures are glued down suing a local glue which is very similar to UHU.

When the glue had set, I made up a kind of paste made of PvA glue and two types of sand.  One was extremely fine and the second more course.

There are two main reasons for going this way.  Firstly the paste adds a bit more strength to the model/coin joint. Although I have never had any issues with the glue alone, I think the additional paste mix helps to make the figures “handle-proof”. (I often drop my figures!)

The second point is that once dry, the paste adds some additional texture which should make the painting more straightforward.  At least that’s the idea.  I haven’t use this method for years – in fact probably the last time was 30+ years ago!

So next week is finishing the Vikings and basing so they can be base coated and I’ll be attempting Zenithal highlighting on these to hopefully make the actual paining easier!

Happy gaming

I will try to add an update each week, but as my son is at school Monday – Friday (and after school activities/homework etc.) we’ll only really get to grips with this challenge at the weekends.

So the yesterday we started to put together the figures.  As I briefly mentioned last time, the Victrix sets are great value, but unlike, say the Perry miniatures, there is limited flexibility in how the figures can be put together.

There are two different types of sprue; a standard (warrior) set, and the “Command” set, which includes the possibility to make “heroes” standard bearers, and other figures.

The combinations available are describes on the reverse of the Victrix packs header.

In putting the figures together we chose different options.  I chose to make all of one type of figures at a time by clipping off, say Figure B1, and mixing all the options for head, shield arms, and equipment based on my objective to produce 2 of each class of troops in the SAGA game.  Hearthguard, Warriors, and Levies.

My son (Anton) went a different route having decided to make 3 x Hearthguard, 1 x Warriors, and 2 x Levies.  How that will work in our battles we will see.  But as I said before, I expect we’ll primarily play 4 point games, so this does allow for some flexibility.

If we both enjoy the game as I hope we will, of course additional forces ca be purchased to fill out our armies.

We both chose to build a Leader figure from the command set.

So construction is underway.

My idea is to make the paining as simple as possible, and with that in mind I will try Zenithal highlighting and painting with Contrast paints.  I hope this will be a simpler introduction to painting these miniatures than a more time-consuming and complex approach such as the 3 step painting or using washes etc.

There will be some “spare” figures, which I can always use in other games, or variations of SAGA.  I think their “fantasy” adaptation allows magic so these figures could be adapted accordingly.

Next update I hope we’ll have at least completed assembly and based the figures, and ideally at least have them base painted.

Happy gaming!

So it begins with the two armies.  I purchased two Victrix backs of 60 soldiers from their Vikings and Anglo-Saxons range, as these seemed to us to be the most typical for the scope and feel of the games we want to play.

The building of the armies will use most of the figures available in the Victrix packs.

My idea is to allow some flexibility and so I will make 1 x Leader and 2 groups each of Hearthguard, Warriors and general Levies.  This should allow me to create 6 points of an army which I think gives the ability to field different types of forces as I expect we will usually play 4 point games.

This left a few “extra” men which included priests and standard bearers.  I might “flex” the rules to attach one of these to my Leader, although the recommended base size seems a tight fit.  More on that later, I think once building starts.

My son went a slightly different route and is thinking of his Leader, then to make 3 x Hearthguard, 2 x Warriors and 1 x Levies.  Now, this might change during the building, so we’ll see.

Lots of glue and mild frustration to come as we work our way through the mildly confusing Victrix building steps!