Wednesday 25 June 2014

Levy bowmen for Saga

Another product of my latest efforts are 12 levy bowman for my Saga warband. Actually I've been working on them for some weeks but finally last week I managed to finish the bases.
Three kneeliong bowmen.
The figures are from Gripping Beast's excellent Saga range. As usual for GP metals they have open hands to have the bows glued in. A bit fiddly but it works.
Cloaked bowmen. Front...
The pack consists of 12 levies in 4 different poses so it's three pieces of each. Of course more variety would have been great but actually I don't know any producer who has twelve variation of the same type of soldier...
... and back.
All in all the figures are sculpted very well. Kind of old school style as usual at Gripping Beast but chracterful as well. Unfortunately there's a nasty flesh running over the face which I didn't recognize when cleaning or priming the figures. It didn't show until I started to highlight the faces so decided to let it be. Afterall they're only a couple of slaves but I'm a bit annoyed anyway. Silly me!
Standing bowmen, version 1, front...
For the first time I tried to emulate bowstrings. I used plastic bristles from cheap broom and the result is rather alright I think. But this work is so fiddly I wouldn't do it for larger units.
... and back.
As usual I painted the figures with Vallejo Model Colours and some Armypainter Quickshade for the darker parts. Since those levies are kind of slaves I decided not to paint any ornaments and used rather simple designs for the shields. As for the hearthguard and warriors I used the excellent decals from Little Big Men Studios.
For the bases I used my usual colours as well as some sand, static grass and clump foliage.

Next unit for my Saga Vikings will be another eight warriors. They're cleaned and primed already but I'm not sure when I'll paint them.

Now for something completely different:
Burkhard from the DHC wargaming blog is celebrating his blog's birthday and several milestones he reached recently. 
In the unlikely case that you don't know his excellent blog, then have a look there. Burkhards presents a lot of nicely painted miniatures there and from time to time some good pictures from wargaming or history related events.

20 comments:

  1. Nice Worky, Monty!
    The bowstrings are a great addition to those lovely miniatures.
    Cheers,
    Thomas

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  2. Great work on these with some nice muted colors.

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  3. Excellent work, I especially appreciate the shields and faces!

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  4. Very nice work Monty, love the bow strings :-)

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  5. These are looking great and nice touch with the bow strings.

    Christopher

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  6. Excellent work - I use elastic thread for bowstrings - its a bit easier to work with

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  7. Excellent work on these guys Monty! Well done on the bow strings too!

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  8. They are looking great. I agree with the more muted clothing for levies, it fits the background well.

    Personally I am never sure about the bowstrings. I used to do it a lot in the past, then quit doing so. I still can not decide which way I like it better. :-/

    Oh and thanks for the mention about the give away... Right now it still is a surprisingly tight field!

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  9. They really look excellent. The bow strings are a nice touch.

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  10. Very nice looking paintjob indeed! Good job in adding variety with the paintjobs even if you had to deal with multiples of the same sculpts. The added bowstrings really take them up to a higher level too.

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  11. Great painting Stefan, love the added mud effect on the cloaks.

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  12. Beautiful brushwork Stefan and kudos for doing the bow strings!

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  13. Nice Viking bowmen. Extra points for the bow strings. Shows a lot of patience and some skill to do those.
    cheers

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  14. Very nice work Monty.

    Darrell.

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  15. Excellent. The bow strings look great and are a nice touch.

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  16. Many thanks, chaps!
    Please excuse that I was too busy with our new family member to reply to each comment.

    Cheers
    Stefan

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