Painting Challenge Report #8

A milestone achieved in my Saga project, as last week I finished the last two units of guards for my Dark Ages warband

 

Guards units have 4 men, representing 1 point  in terms of the Saga point system. Together with the previously painted models, I have now a total of 6 points (1 levy. 2 warriors, 2 guards and the warband leader)  to deploy a warband on the table. 

 

Given the generic design of most of these models, they can be used for any army list between the period of the Late Roman Empire to the beginning of the first Millenium. So any list with the terms "Anglo", "Saxon", Danish", even Vikings can be used with the mdels al ready painted.

My plan now is to start painting some cavalry units which a re featured in many of the Age of Invasion lists like the different "Goths" (Otrogoths, Visigoths,etc), Franks and other horse mounted peoples beyond the Rhine and the Danube rivers.

As of today, my total points score on the Challenge has reached  482 points or 69% of my 700 points target.

Painting Challenge Report #6

 January is gone and I'm happy with my progress so far in the Painting Challenge. Usually, by this time in the competition my painting mojo suffers; but not this year. I think the Saga project is keeping me engaged and committed.

The past week I finished a second unit of 8 warriors (1 Saga Warband point equivalent). The minis are from the Gripping Beast plastic Dark Age Warriors box, straight from the sprues. Shileds as usual from the superb Little Big Men Studios range.

 

The unit is generic enough to play a rol in any Dark Age warband and even later periods, like for example acting as light infantry for an El Cid/Reconquista army. I'm now close to conclude a 4-point starter warband: I already painted one levies (1 point) and the two warriors (2 points) units. I only need now to paint the Guards, which hopefully should be ready next week.

 

I have also started looking for a suitable warband leader.For a cavalry-free army, I have already prepared this chief standing on a boulder. Happy with the final work but I may add in the future a stardard bearer. I'm planning in any case to paint some other warband leaders, and at least one riding a horse.

 

Following this week's submission my accumulated scoring has reached 442 points, representing 63% of my 700 points target for this year's Challenge.

 

Painting Challenge Report #5

 Time flies, I can't believe that 5 weeks are already gone since the beginning of the Challenge (and the winter period)

Very satisfactory progress this week. Despite having less time available for painting, I managed to finish another 8-men Warrior unit for my Saga warband. These were initially to be part of an Anglo-Danish warband, bu the models are so generic that can be part of any Saxon, Viking, etc unit in the Dark Age period.

 

 

The second part of the entry are Saruman and the Palanthir. These were painted to win some bonus points by visiting the 80s Studio site of the Challenge Studios. The model is from an (very) old Mithril range bought in the 80s literally (it was even in the sealed original blister pack!)

 

Quite happy with the painting work, depicting Saruman in the act of conjuring Sauron's Eye in the Palanthir.

This week I scored 67 points, taking my Challenge's accumulated to 377 points. I have already covered 54% of my March 21st deadline target of 700 points, so not bad at all. Now I need to keep the momentum.

Painting Challenge Report #3

 Third week of the Annual Painting Challenge concluded and my progress is good. Clearly having been on holidays for a couple of weeks helped, as I consider myself a slow painter. Now that I'm back in the office, I'm afraid that some momentum will be lost, and the weekly scorings will decrease.

This week I went back to the Saga related projects and finished an archers unit. These are rated "Levy" in the Saga rules and the unit must have at least 12 minis. The models are 28mm plastic straight from the Dark Ages Archers box.

You may remember from three weeks ago, the Arab archers unit also included some minis from the same bow. I only needed to swap heads from the Araba Spearmen box. This is one of the great advantages of the Gripping Beast boxes, the pieces are fully interchnageable between boxes, enabling an infinite number of poses.

 

The second part of this week's entry is a Darth Vader model. It is 3D printed and was given to me by one of my club pals, pushing me to enter into the Star Wars period. The model also scorer 20 bonus points in the SciFi studio of the Challenge. 

 

I'm still resisting to jump into that wagon... but who know if this might be the project for the next winter Challenge XD 

 With the points scored this week I'm now at 250 points or 36% of my 700 points target for this Challenge

   

 

Painting Challenge Report #1

The first week of the Challenge is over and I have managed to score 80 points total in two different entries, 60 points coming from the painted models and the remaining 20 points the bonus from one of the Challenge Studio locations.

 

This firrst week I focused my attention in completing a Moor/Sarracen warband unit: 12 archeres for 1 point Saga levies section. This comes to complete an old (actually very old) army project of early 2000s when I was heavily playing WAB.

 

Planning the Easter Week Break

Easter Week in Spain is traditionally a big holiday break. In Madrid we'll be from Thursday to Sunday on holidays; but the first three days of the week I don't foresee much activity at work, with everybody travelling or planning to leave to the beach or the ski resorts on Wednesday morning, most likely I'll be returning home pretty early in the afternoon.

I’m not leaving the city so I was thinking this afternoon how best employ this lull of activity. Current plans include the possibility of playing 3 days at the club, as two of my gaming mates will also remain stranded here; I have proposed to umpire the 29 Let’s Go! pint-sized campaign for Chain of Command as we shall be able to play between 2 and 3 games until the weekend. Alternatively we may play some casual games

Painting wise, as I’m somewhat delayed with my El Cid project, I expect to recover some of the time lost and finish my Moor warband. Currently painting some Berber infantry and noble cavalry, I definitively want to finish these guys and idelaly start a levy unit of archers. We aim to start playing using The Crescent & the Cross by late April

On the reading front I’m about to finish the fourth book on the Arnhem campaign in the next few days. I managed to go through the classic A Bridge to Far, Urquhart’s and Frost’s memoirs and currently 70% progress of another great work It Never Snows inSeptember.  I have bought some excellent guides from Pen & Sword and want top do some planning for our club’s collective visit in November to the area coinciding with Crisis 2015 in Antwerp.

So these are my plans but you never know what I may end up doing. Any plans the rest of you guys? Would love to hear.

PS: Specially for those far from Spain, the photo above is not a celebration of the Ku-Kux-Klan, This is the typical dressdown in Easter Week in the country (serious!)...

... well not everybody dress like this but almost...

Looking for Arthur

Browsing in Amazon this afternoon, I just bumped into this book about Dark Age Britain recently published. Written by Guy Halsall, a serious, reliable and knowledgeable historian who also writes a most interesting and "heretic" blog, it really looks promising for those interested in the period (...and struggling to play Dux Britanniarium one of these days!!!).

From the Amazon website:
King Arthur is probably the most famous and certainly the most legendary medieval king. From the early ninth century through the middle ages, to the Arthurian romances of Victorian times, the tales of this legendary figure have blossomed and multiplied. And in more recent times, there has been a continuous stream of books claiming to have discovered the 'facts' about, or to unlock the secret or truth behind, the 'once and future king'.

Dux Britanniarium: Household Guards

Slowly but surely, my Romano British army is progressing. Since the end of the holidays my painting time has diminished dramatically, with only some short spots available over the weekends. Yesterday I spent most of the day at home, recovering from a bad late-summer cold (which left plenty of time for painting, as none in my family dare to get to close to me...) and today I concluded the Household Guard section,  the elite team of the army. Miniatures from Gripping Beast and shiled transfers from LBM.

Dux Britanniarium - First Levy Unit

A second quick update on my holidays painting project. Now fully concentrated in painting my Romano British army for Dux Britanniarum, a photo of my first levy unit. The models are Gripping Beast (a DB starter army) and the shields, transfers from Little Big Men. The second and third units of levies are currently on the table.

Dux Britanniarum: pre-order period open

Exciting news this afternoon as the TooFatLardies Yahoo Group confirmed that Dux Britanniarum, the new Arthurian period rules-set, is to be launched by July 30th as initially planned. The TFL website is now open for pre-orders. You have two options, the hard-copy only (GBP 20) and the "bundle" (GBP25) including in addition to the hard copy book, a 62 cards-set, a tablet-navigating electrconic version (or a simple pdf, at the buyer's choice) and a special Arthur 28mm figure.

The game description from the website:

Dux Britanniarum is a set of rules for wargaming and campaigning in the Age of Arthur. Covering the period 450AD to 600AD the rule book combine all you need to fight tabletop games and to run a virtually paper-free campaign. 

Danger ahead....

... for my gaming plans and of course my pocket. Our friends at the TooFatLardies HQ are cunningly planning to hook me into a new period... all the information here ... Damn Lardies!!