Fight Like a Cimmerian…in Loincloths!

Hi everyone,

I have just finished the barbarian cavalry, which I fondly call ‘The Noble Sons’.  This brings the Barbarian side of things to a conclusion.  35 miniatures a side is all you need to play Tribal.

The horses below are painted in oils.  I finished them  yesterday afternoon, and they are nearly dry to the touch.  Since the paint has not dried completely, they are still a bit shiny, but that will eventually pass.  Painting horses in oils is super easy and fast.

I went about the cavalry differently, below are the pictures that tell the story better than I ever could.

That brings the barbarians to a close.  Next week I week take a group shot and try to start putting together the Picts.  I went with the Frostgrave plastic Tribals kit, because I did not find anything that really gave me the feel of Picts from the novels.

These plastic figures will do until something better comes along.

Until next time stay safe and have fun.

NR.

Hi everyone,

I had Friday evening and all Saturday off, so I decided to go to bed early, get up early and spend the day painting miniatures.  My main goal was to paint up my 15 barbarian miniatures for Tribal.

So it was more like 8am to about 6.30pm!  But I did get it done, besides working on other things.  I painted these miniatures in the same way as the first batch, with the exception of using Burnt Umber instead of Vandyck brown (which stains more).

Now I only have to finish up 5 barbarian cavalry, which I have already started and will post later on in the week.

After I finish up the cavalry, I will start the Picts.  Unlike these metal miniatures, the Picts will be all plastic – unfortunately it can not be avoided.

Until next time, stay safe and have fun.

NR.

Hi everyone,

After playing Tribal with my unpainted Cimmerians for about 4 months against my friend’s Huns, I decided it was time to start painting them up.

The summer is in full swing down here, and with the heat and the lethargy that comes with it, I did not want to try and paint the army solely by brush.  So I decided to solicit some help from my airbrush.

I have a medium sized Badger LG – a great airbrush and excellent for tanks, but not good for little fighting men. Therefore I decided to use my airbrush to to paint up the basic tones of the skin…and there is a lot of skin on these figures.

The rest I painted up by brush.  Since these are not display figures, I decided I did not to spend too much time on them.

I will let the pictures below tell the story.

With that I have painted up 15 of 35 miniatures.  Now I have to paint up 10 more infantry, 5 cavalry and 5 character and my force is complete.

After I finish painting up the Cimmerians, I will try to find the time to paint up my picts, because that is what I actually wanted to do – Cimmerians vs Picts.  I am also tired of fighting Huns all he time.

Until next time, have fun and stay safe.

NR.

Hi everyone,

I have finished preparing my warband for play.  I have built up 5 warrior bands, two with short weapons (normal side arms and shield), two with long weapons (great swords and axes) and one with bows.

I might add more units in the future, since I do have more barbarian miniatures, but I will not add any more bows.  In Tribal, it is considered dishonourable to fight with bows and you get no honour tokens from it.

For my leaders, I have a Cimmerian king and a general, which are both considered warlords. For heroes, I have chosen three of my favourite miniatures from different manufacturers.

That is all for now.  It is off to the club to smite some African tribesmen in the name of Crom!

Until next time, stay safe and have fun.

NR.

Hi everyone,

This past week I have started another project on a subject that is very dear to my heart.  Since I was young, I was constantly fascinated by three things: barbarians in fantasy and history, Norse and Greek mythology, and comics (mostly Marvel before they went down the woke toilet).

So when I had an excuse to paint up my Cimmerian-like barbarians, I could not resist.  As I have written in the synopsis, I had an enjoyable time playing Tribal from Mana Press with two African tribes.  So I decided to dive in with my own tribes, but in a minimal low fantastical setting.  Hence the project.

The barbarians are mostly sculpted by Copplestone, but I have other barbarians from Harlequin miniatures (early Kev White), Reaper miniatures and Bronze Age miniatures – and they do not look anything like Arnold.

I will be using my Cimmerian tribe to fight a force of Picts, that I will paint up in the future.  The Picts are the traditional enemies of the Cimmerian peoples, and a campaign in that region would make sense.  I will play the games completely with the rules of Tribal and I will add no magic or monsters.  It will be just warrior on warrior action.

Before I do the above, I want to start playing with my barbarians immediately.  That means if I wait until I paint them up – I will have to linger at least another 3 months.

Therefore, I will prepare the miniatures and play with them unpainted, gradually painting them up as I play against my friend’s African tribes.

Below is the first unit.  In Tribal, there are 3 kinds of units: warriors with short weapons, warriors with long weapons, and warriors with missile weapons. I have a healthy mix.

Preparing the metal miniatures is quite straight forward, but I wanted to remove the puddle bases in order to make them look more natural on the MDF bases.

Below is the first of several units I am preparing. Next week I will show all the force ready to play and ready to paint up.

That is all for now.  This will be a side project, and one I will work on in between my main projects.  The aim is to play within the world of Robert E. Howard, and painting them up is secondary.

Until next time, stay safe and have fun.

NR