Dark Age batch

It's been a while between brush strokes but there are finally some newly painted figures at house Prufrock. They are all part of my Dark Age 60mm base project and there is a real mix of figures. The bulk of them are Essex (DBA pack), but there are also a few Feudal Castings chaps and some others I don't know the make of.

These have all been done with a 'block 'em, dip 'em and forget 'em' philosophy, so you won't see any fancy stuff here, I'm afraid.

As you can see from the pictures, the basing is all over the place. I tried to give myself gradations between the huscarls, bondi and skirmish types (with a berserker base for good measure), but being realistic you might say that I don't have much clue. If you were to be more charitable, you might allow that I am 'basing to my own specifications.' It's to be hoped that it turns out to be the latter!

Most of these were primed very badly (my fault of course), so for extra durability I want to give them a satin varnish, Klear wash and matt varnish before flocking the bases.

Anyway, it's good to have something to show for the year.

By the bye, I'm not sure what make these fellows are, but they are quite clearly sculpted in a different style from the rest. If you know whose they are, I'd really appreciate it if you'd leave a comment.

Anglo-Saxons for Dux Bellorum

This is my other recently completed 15mm army.  They are mostly Essex figs but there are a few Tabletop chaps in there as well. These should allow me to field Anglo-Saxons from earlier times right through to 1066. Again, bases are 60mm wide to match the Normans and forthcoming Vikings.

This is two DBA armies' worth, plus about 10- Tabletop figures.

Shieldwall. These are later period.

Shieldwall of somewhat lower quality...

Your bog-standard shieldwall.

Huscarls, thegns etc.

Skirmish types.

The lot.

Normans for Dux Bellorum

Here are some recently painted Normans for (modified) Dux Bellorum. There are a few Bretons still straggling in and some foot reinforcements to come, but this is the bulk of the army.

The figures are Essex 15s, bar a couple of exceptions that we will note as we go, and they are all mounted on bases 60mm across.

First up, the light horse.

These are lovely figures to paint. Blocked basecoat and a dip is all I did with them.

Next, archers.

There are true Normans and some from the Breton DBA army.

More foot. This time heavy infantry, crossbow and levy skirmishers. The mailed chaps look to be Bretons and 9th/10th Century Franks rather than Normans, so I need two or three bases of heavy foot with kite shields to bring me up to 1066.

And to the big boys: knights!

Is the grandsire of Reginald Front-de-Boeuf amongst them, perhaps?

The standard bearer here and the chap with the Normans-in-Italy crisscrossed shield are not Essex. They came in a pack labelled Thistle and Rose and evocatively titled 'The Bastard'.

You can see the biggest bastard of them all above centre. He was a bit too chunky to mix with the Essex, so I put him on his own base.

Command base.

You might note a fourth imposter here. Although he came - black-undercoated and missing his lance - in the Thistle and Rose lot, he looks to me to be a Chariot figure. I should have got rid of the black undercoat because he doesn't quite match. Oh well, too late now!

I'm actually quietly chuffed with how these came out. The new wet palette did wonders in allowing me to easily mix colours for horse coats, so there is a lot of variety without the grief that ensuring such used to entail. I was a bit apprehensive about doing the shields at first, but using an ultrafine Gundam marker to outline the patterns beforehand made things very simple in the end. It was also pleasing to get to use up four figures from the bits and pieces box.

Can't wait to get them on the table.

But before I do that, I'll have to show off the Saxons...

Saxons (and maybe a few Angles...)

Well, the (Anglo) Saxons are done. This is two Essex DBA armies' worth; Anglo Danish and Middle Anglo Saxon. Glad to have these done, and with the dip to help out they didn't take too long at all. This is the first time I've painted an army made up completely of Essex figs, and they were very nice to work with. 

Next step is to flock them and then onto the Normans, Bretons, and Vikings, I guess. There may be a Samnite or Gallic interlude though. We'll see how things go.