Germanic warband: reviewing the troops

In the previous post, I displayed my ancient Germanic warband, and asked if you, dear readers, could identify the origin of the various minis, in spite of the blurry pictures (it would have been too easy, otherwise).

I received several answers in the comments and was really impressed by the knowledge, and the quality of the glasses of the contributors. All together, you've almost identified everything, except for a few guys in the background.

Here you are the answer. I am going to give the detail of the sets used, and the manufacturers of course. As you will see, I summoned almost every tribe of the ancient world :)

Let's begin with the easy part, those who you all recognized.


1. The sets you all recognized

   1.1. Caesar set H040 - Ancient Germans

   1.2. Hät sets 8068 - Ancient Germans and 8074 - Imperial Roman Auxiliaries (third guy from the right, with the off white oval shield, a spear replacing the club)

   1.3. Hät set 8069 - Dacians

   1.4. Hät minisets 6005 - Picts, and 6008 - Visigoths (the lonely man on the left)

   1.5. Hät miniset 6007 - Franks

   1.6. Strelets set M035 - Ancient Germans

   1.7. Strelets set M004 - Vikings (I have painted other vikings, but they were too well equipped to look like ancient Germans)

   1.8. Esci set 225 - Barbarian Warriors (yes, it is possible to use descent poses from this improbable set - I remember a time when it was the only available set representing ancient Germans, I then used every pose. The kneeling archer is a conversion from this set)

So far, all these manufacturers had been identified by most of you. The following have been named by Paul (from Paul's Bods) only.


2. The sets identified by Paul

   2.1. Miniart set 72013 - Germanic Warriors

   2.2. Orion set 72028 - Slavic Warriors (ok, this one is not in the right warband, let's say he is a neighbour visiting his friends)

   2.3. Coates & Shine set 8133 - Gothic Army (ok, it is almost a Hät reference)
 

The last ones had not been identified - they were completely lost in the background !


3. The figures lost in the background

   3.1.  Revell sets 02553 Celts (Gauls) and 02551 - Anglo-Saxons (The "Gaul" is on the left - nothing to do with a Celt, but it can be a descent Frank)

3.2. Emhar set 7206 Saxon Warriors

And last, a family picture - the mix is the best way to represent that sort of warband.

This picture is not blurry, will you find them all ? :)

My Germanic warband is growing - faster, but not that fast

I'm proud of myself today. For the first time in my life, I have been able to paint 8 figures at the same time, and they were painted in two days - I even painted another one, but I keep it for the next post :)

All right, all right, I can hear most of you, army painters, laughing... and you're right to do so :D but the above is true, since I usually paint one or two guys simultaneously. So yes, I am a very slow painter, but I try to improve.

Enough with myself, what do we get this time ? Well, as most of you guys, I love to see big painted armies on the battlefield, and I realized that I already had a few Germanic warriors (maybe you remember my Germanic Hornblower, or more likely this berseker - even if I suspect that guy is probably not accurate), so I decided to paint some more, 8 guys, so that I can have 2 more DBA Wb elements, and take pictures.

I really tried to paint faster than usual, but I realized that I couldn't: the same skill, and the same result, more or less. So how could I paint more minis than usual, where was the difference ? I simply used the same color palette on several minis, so I spent less time looking for a color scheme, even I still want every figure to be unique. This time, I mainly used red, green, 3 different browns, flesh, metal and gold, off-white, sand... I think the result is in my tabletop standard, but the method is efficient.

What do you think of them ?

Oh, and one last thing: I cheated a little for the pictures, because the last ranks are filled with minis that we can consider as proxies: Picts, Franks, Saxons... I deliberately mix figures from as many sets and manufacturers as possible, so that I get a motley warband. I will conclude this post (and week) with this little game: can you find the number of manufacturers involved in this scene ?

Thanks for reading, have a good sunday evening :)

Galadhrim

A few months ago, I had the chance to get some Fantasy minis by Caesar, a reference rarely seen on the web and apparently only sold by the manufacturer himself. These minis looked very promising, as they represented elvish and human warriors inspired by the Lord of the Ring trilogy. They were Elves and men from Gondor in the second Age, and Galadhrim from the third age. These Galadhrim composed the troops sent by Galadriel to help the men of Rohan during the siege of Helm's Deep - please note that they only appear in the movie but not in Tolkien's book.

I was very excited at the idea of painting one of the archers, since their battledress is rather impressive - and the version made by Games Workshop used an interesting color scheme.

This is what I could achieve - I just finished him half an hour ago :)

This mini perfectly fits its opponents - in this case, Uruk-Hai by Dark Alliance. The Galadhrim is defending the garden of Lothlorien against the orcs of the White Hand.

Tell me if you find this color scheme convincing - I have a few others to paint !

Gaelic mercenaries in medieval Ireland

Last year, I wrote a post about galloglass and kerns, the gaelic warriors of medieval Ireland. This post contained pictures of one warrior of each sort.

Today, my warband has grown a little. Here they are:

This warband is led by a chieftain, even a lord, considering the quality of his armour.

His retinue is composed of galloglass, Scots from the Highlands and the Isles, at first, but also local Irishmen, whose main weapon is the double handed axe.

These fierce mercenaries are seconded by kerns, light native infantrymen, whose main weapons are javelins and knives, and sometimes bows.

They are ready for raiding!

8th Neapolitan Line Infantry Regiment - complete

With the addition of the last musician of the month, I can show you a complete Napoleonic infantry battalion, belonging to the 8th Neapolitan Line, white uniforms with pink garment (as original as a Berg Cavalry regiment).

Here you are:

Each company is represented by a set of three figures, so that we have a complete battalion with 18 figures: 4 fusiliers companies, 1 voltigeurs company and 1 grenadiers company.

Voltigeurs

1st company, with officer, drummer an standard bearer

2nd company

3rd company

4th company

Grenadiers company

 The organization of that unit is the same as in the French line infantry. A few more pictures:

The minis are a mix of several manufacturers: mainly 1812 French Hät (Line and Light, Officer from the Young Guard set), Accurate and Newline Design.

The Grenadiers are conversions, using Hät and Accurate bodies, with Esci grenadiers hats and backpacks.

Hope you like them ! 

Musician of the month: drummer of the 8th Neapolitan Line

Hi everyone!

I hope you haven't forgotten this blog :) I know it is a very long time since my last post, but there are several reasons:
1. Summer: I prefer to live outside than to look at a screen
2. Summer: I prefer to travel than to paint in the cellar
3. Socializing: I prefer to talk to people than to my plastic figures
4. Garden: I had a few things to do in the garden (and it's not over...)
5. In spite of the summer and the holidays (in southern Italy, see here - in french, sorry), I also had a lot of work

So after a long break, I come back to this blog with some newly painted figures, but there is only one on display today: the musician of the month!

Our musician is a drummer in the 8th Neapolitan line infantry regiment during the Napoleonic era, and I must admit that he was a real pain to paint. Documentation first: not so easy to find, I used several out-of-date sources, hoping to be accurate - once again, your wise comments are welcome, dear scholar readers.
Then the painting itself: it is difficult to paint after a 5 months break, and the uniform of this drummer is complicated: white with pink garments, and red and white chequered motif everywhere! I had to throw my brush away after that.

Well, this is the drummer:

 You will notice that this is not a plastic figure, but a converted Newline Design Nassau drummer.

Next week (yes, I promise, the pictures are already taken), I will show you the regiment to which this little guy belongs.

As usual, hope you like him :)