Midgard : Britannia (Archers 2)

The second unit painted up quite quickly as I knew the paint scheme I was going for and there are only four figures to go on the base. I stuck with shades of green and brown to make them kinda look like rangers/scouts, but they are within the bounds of colours used from the time.

The paint jobs were just block colours followed by a wash to give them some depth. As mentioned previously, all units in this army will have basic paint jobs even though I am itching to stretch my skills a bit more with some proper highlighting, shading and decoration.

The second unit of Celtic Archers

And here they are together with last week's unit...

The two units of Celtic Archers

Army numbers...

All of the Midgard based Celtic figures (68 of 106 completed)...

• 3/4 bases of standard warriors (30/40 plastic figures)

• 1/2 bases of elite warriors (10/20 a base each of plastic and metal figures)

• 2 bases of archers (8 metal figures)
• 1 base of female warriors (10 metal figures)
• 2 bases of slingers (8 metal figures)

• 2 bases of mounted warriors (8 metal/plastic figures)

• 2 bases of skyclad warriors (8 metal figures)

• 1 base of hounds (4 metal figures)

And the rest...

• Standard and elite warriors still on their sprues (36 plastic figures)

• Leaders and Champions (7 metal figures)

• 1 base of druids (4 metal figures)

• Spearmen (8 metal figures)

• Mounted warriors (2 metal/plastic figures)

• Slingers (2 metal figures)
• Chariots and crew (3/6 metal figures)

A quick picture of the last few units...

Archers and Elite infantry

I am very happy with my painting rate and that I am still enthused enough to keep on painting. There are still quite a few figures to go and some need constructing. I will look at trying to glue together and undercoat a number of the figures from the second list above over the next couple of weeks. I think I have mentioned before that I will most likely not paint all of the miniatures from the lists above, but I would at least like to complete all of the ones previously based for Midgard and a goodly amount of the leaders and druids.

Next time should hopefully see the completion of the Female Warriors base. There are ten to be painted, so they may take a little more time than the archers recently took.

Midgard : Britannia (Archers 1)

These figures were delayed for a bit as I had to go to a funeral earlier this week. When I got around to doing some painting, I decided to go for a unit of the archers to get a quick win - they only took me four days in total at around 20-30 minutes per day. I am not sure if the paint schemes are historically accurate in any way, but I don't really care too much to be honest. I was using these as a bit of a test run for my Lord of the Rings Gondor and dwarf rangers to see what shades of green and brown go well together.

Again, I didn't go to town on the very basic paint jobs for these troops; just a few basic colours, shaded and based in the standard way for my Celtic troops.

The first unit of Celtic Archers

Army numbers...

All of the Midgard based Celtic figures (64 of 106 completed)...

• 3/4 bases of standard warriors (30/40 plastic figures)

• 1/2 bases of elite warriors (10/20 a base each of plastic and metal figures)

• 1/2 bases of archers (4/8 metal figures)
• 1 base of female warriors (10 metal figures)
• 2 bases of slingers (8 metal figures)

• 2 bases of mounted warriors (8 metal/plastic figures)

• 2 bases of skyclad warriors (8 metal figures)

• 1 base of hounds (4 metal figures)

And the rest...

• Standard and elite warriors still on their sprues (36 plastic figures)

• Leaders and Champions (7 metal figures)

• 1 base of druids (4 metal figures)

• Spearmen (8 metal figures)

• Mounted warriors (2 metal/plastic figures)

• Slingers (2 metal figures)
• Chariots and crew (3/6 metal figures)

I like the way they turned out overall, so I will try to continue on with a similar paint scheme on the next batch of archers. I have already seen one or two of them that I would like to use in an upcoming Five Leagues warband that I am putting together. These figures have a lot of character.

Next time should be the second batch of Britannia Archers.

Midgard : Britannia (Elite Warriors 1)

This unit of ten elite Celtic warriors was a struggle for different reasons to the last couple of cavalry bases. They took much longer than the skirmisher bases as there were ten warriors on the base as opposed to four. These took me eight days to paint averaging 30-40 minutes per day, whereas the skirmisher (four figures) bases tended to only take about four days at 20-30 minutes per session. Despite the extra effort involved, I am still on pace for approximately a base per week.

Elite/Noble Warriors

I didn't do a grandiose paint job on these despite them being elite troops as I just want to get the army finished. Again, they were a basic few colours, shaded and based, but I managed not to mist the shields this time when I sprayed on the matt varnish. They should fit in well now as Roman adversaries, especially on their Midgard bases.

Here's the ongoing army tally...

All of the Celtic figures that were based for Midgard (60 of 106 completed)...

• 3/4 bases of standard warriors (30/40 plastic figures)

• 1/2 bases of elite warriors (10/20 a base each of plastic and metal figures)

• 1 base of female warriors (10 metal figures)
• 2 bases of archers (8 metal figures)
• 2 bases of slingers (8 metal figures)

• 2 bases of mounted warriors (8 metal/plastic figures)

• 2 bases of skyclad warriors (8 metal figures)

• 1 base of hounds (4 metal figures)

And here is a list of the rest...

• Standard and elite warriors still on their sprues (36 plastic figures)

• Leaders and Champions (7 metal figures)

• 1 base of druids (4 metal figures)

• Spearmen (8 metal figures)

• Mounted warriors (2 metal/plastic figures)

• Slingers (2 metal figures)
• Chariots and crew (3/6 metal figures)

As this elite warriors base was made up of purely plastic miniatures, I thought I would mix things up a bit and do a few more metal miniatures next - I have several skirmisher bases to paint, so maybe some archers or slingers? I have another base of elite warriors to complete (I think they are all metal), but I will leave them a while as they will take a long time if this last lot was anything to go by and I need a few more quick wins to get my mind back in the groove before tackling them and the last unit of standard warriors (both ten per base). I also have the female warriors to contend with; another base of ten figures.

Once the figures that were used for the Midgard campaign are completed, I will carry on and do some of the rest of them - primarily I will aim at painting the leaders/champions, the druids and the last two mounted warriors. The chariots need to be fully assembled so will provide another challenge that I am looking forward to. I may not bother with the plastic figures still on their sprues, the metal spearmen and remaining two slingers just yet - I reckon I will be all "Celted" out by then and relishing a fresh challenge.

Midgard : Britannia (Mounted Warriors 2)

I really struggled to get these finished this week - it was extremely hot here in the UK and my painting mojo deserted me in favour of staying cool and sipping cold drinks. They seemed to take much longer than last week's efforts and I felt that I spent a lot more hours on these to get them right, even though they are still just a basic paint job and shade wash. I struggled again with the vast expanse of horse flesh and all the little bits and bobs around the saddles. That said, it is four more figures and one more base completed.

More Mounted Warriors

Again, there is a mixture of rider types on the horses to break up the painting monotony. I also ran out of spare shields that were easy to hand (I put one aside for one of the female warriors which I will get to soon, but I think I may have a few more on some old Roman plastic sprues), so only seven of the eight riders has a shield. To be honest that does not bother me as it makes them look more like a warband than a formal army. The unit cohesion still seems to be there though...

Two Units of Mounted Warriors

Here's the ongoing army tally...

All of the Celtic figures that were based for Midgard (50 of 106 completed)...

• 3/4 bases of standard warriors (30/40 figures)

• 2 bases of elite warriors (20 figures)

• 1 base of female warriors (10 figures)

• 2 bases of mounted warriors (8 figures)

• 2 bases of archers (8 figures)

• 2 bases of slingers (8 figures)

• 2 bases of skyclad warriors (8 figures)

• 1 base of hounds (4 figures)

And here is a list of the rest...

• 36 standard warriors and elite warriors still on their sprues

• 7 leader types

• 4 druids

• 8 spearmen

• 2 mounted warriors

• 2 slingers

• 3 chariots and 6 crew

I am just under the mid-point of painting the based units, so here is a group shot of where I am at so far. They are beginning to take the shape of a reasonably sized army now...

The Finished Warband Bases so far

I haven't decided on the next base yet - maybe some armoured elite warriors? This will present a different challenge to the cavalry as there are ten figures on each base. Probably the same amount of area to paint as the mounted warriors but they will be more fiddly.

Midgard : Britannia (Mounted Warriors 1)

This time I present you with the first base of finished mounted warriors. I actually finished them on Sunday but have only just now found the time to write the post. These needed to be painted from scratch (well, they had an undercoat) and took me quite a bit longer to complete than the three previous units. The horses proved a bit of a challenge due to the large areas of hide involved, but I just continued painting for a bit longer each day. I went over the lines quite often with these so had to keep going back to touch up where I had made mistakes. I think that they have turned out OK considering.

Mounted Warriors

Like the previous completed figures, these were just a basic paint job - nothing fancy, just coloured in and lightly shaded to get them ready for use on the gaming table. I tried to put a mixture of rider types onto the horses to break up the painting monotony. Each base (including the one I will be painting this coming week) has a mailed chieftain/leader type, and three wearing a variety of upper body wear and wielding a variety of weapons. I wanted to give the units a bit of coherence, so they all got some Roman round shields painted in solid colours.

Here's the ongoing army tally...

All of the Celtic figures that were based for Midgard (46 of 106 completed)...

• 3/4 bases of standard warriors (30/40 figures)

• 2 bases of elite warriors (20 figures)

• 1 base of female warriors (10 figures)

• 1/2 bases of mounted warriors (4/8 figures)

• 2 bases of archers (8 figures)

• 2 bases of slingers (8 figures)

• 2 bases of skyclad warriors (8 figures)

• 1 base of hounds (4 figures)

And here is a list of the rest...

• 36 standard warriors and elite warriors still on their sprues

• 7 leader types

• 4 druids

• 8 spearmen

• 2 mounted warriors

• 2 slingers

• 3 chariots and 6 crew

I managed to paint most days again this week but, as mentioned above, I had to up the minutes per day to complete them on time.

Next base should be more Mounted Warriors.