The Start of a New Saga

Hello all! As my poorly punned title suggests, I have been working on a new project these last couple of weeks. I really haven't had as much time to paint as I would like, and have only finished eight models of the sixteen I hoped to have done by today. If I want to get these guys finished by July, I'll have to pick up the pace a little!

This is actually the second time I have started an Anglo-Danish force for Saga (which is a skirmish game set in Dark Age Europe). My first army, which was finished about 1.5 years ago and built using the Wargames Factory plastics suffered from both poor models and a poor paint job. I'm really not a fan of the Wargames Factory stuff; the models are pretty low quality and the detailing isn't great. It didn't help them that I had painted the models in a hurry to below the standard I was doing even then.

The fact is that I the figures didn't at all match my current standard of painting, and I wanted to be able to play with something that reflected the quality of miniature I was able to produce. I have used the Gripping Beast plastics this time around, and the quality jump is huge. Lovely, lovely kits, and incredibly well priced too. I have found the faces incredibly easy to paint - the features are very exaggerated, and this makes it very easy to pick out pleasing highlights. I also tried something a little extra with the chainmail, using multiple drybrushes to highlight it and make it look a little more dynamic and 'real'. Hopefully it's noticeable!

I think that the shields and faces are the key elements of these models, and I think I've done a pretty good job on both! :)

To paint the chainmail, I firstly drybrushed the whole area with Boltgun Metal, followed by a drybrush of Chainmail, leaving the previous layer in the recesses. I then gave it a final drybrush of Mithril Silver across the top where the light would catch.

I think this is my favourite face of the lot.

My favourite part of my previous Anglo-Danish force was painting the shields by hand. I'm sure that transfers would look better, but I love the scope for creativity it brings!

That's all for now! Hopefully I'll be able to spend a bit more time painting over the next two weeks and complete 16 models :)

Thanks for reading! :)