Blood and Spectacles: On the Painting Desk- Dark Age Irish are Done (Insert Clever Title Here)

Monday, May 16, 2022

On the Painting Desk- Dark Age Irish are Done (Insert Clever Title Here)

One of the key goals for 2022 was to order and complete painting a Wargames Atlantic Dark Age Irish army. This was to act as an opposition force for my Victrix Vikings that I painted in 2021. The idea was to use these two forces to help with the marketing and post-production work for a new game system for Viking Age warfare called Fury of the Northman. This game is based on the Men of Bronze engine and therefore uses armies of similar size.

In this case, the Dark Age Irish army was supposed to have about 6 units so about 60 models, and include two units of warriors, two units of slingers, and two units of skirmishers. The focus of this force is greater mobility and firepower than my Viking force.

In my last post, you got to see some progress on the Skirmishers and Slingers. There, I also broke down the colors I used with my Armypainter Paints. For brushes, I used basic, big-box purchased brushes. So, with that let's get into the pretty pictures!

Here we have the finished Skirmisher units. The Irish army in miniature format is famous for a few things, including Irish Wolfhounds in battle. Personally, I think their actually use in battle is VASTLY overstated in wargaming, but it is a fun flavorful unit that makes the army distinctly Irish. The Wargame Atlantic sprue comes with several of the "Good Boyz" so I figured I might as well use them!

I also avoided giving the Skirmishers shields for the most part, as I figured those would limited their ability to move quickly and easily through the brush. This is also the unit I put the most "shirtless" models in, as I also assumed the poorest members of the community would end up here in the army.

For basing, I used a cheap acrylic paint from a big box retailer, globbed it on heavy with a cheap brush, over the hardware purchased washer, and then sprinkled it with left-over lichen/moss found at the bottom of my terrain storage box. No need to waste it after all!

Now, onto the Slingers and how they turned out once I based them.....

and then the other unit of slingers......

Not much to say about these guys. They have a mix of slingers and just guys throwing rocks. Or I guess charitably you could say they were there to re-load the slings. I prefer to think they are just throwing the rocks.

The, the warriors....

All the shields are hand painted, because I did not buy transfers. I had forgotten how much I disliked painting shields, so it was a good thing only two units of warriors had them, plus a couple other here and there for unit leaders. I base panted half Oak Brown, and the other half Leather Brown. I then used a combination of Monster Brown, Desert Yellow, and Army Green. The white white ones are Mummies' Robes while the red one is Rust Red. I then used the same colors on contrasting backgrounds to make the symbols and marks. Finally, I gave them all a Strong Tone wash. I tried to paint them all on the sprue, and that made it a lot easier. After cutting them out and gluing them to the warrior, I had to touch up the contact points with the shield's base color.

Here is the warrior unit with their Chieftain to lead the force.....

Unlike the Viking army I built earlier, the Dark Age Irish do not make use of the Shieldwall. Therefore, they will mostly be acting in dispersed, Open Order units. They did not need to rank up as tightly. The Chieftain I wanted to have some more vibrant colors and an all metal shield to help him stand out a bit.

Here is the full army together....

I look forward to these guys hitting the table and fighting against the Viking raiders in the coming weeks and months. I still want to add two more forces to my Dark Age armies, the first is a Anglo-Saxon army because it is iconic to the era. The second is an Arab force because I am enamored with the historical Battle of Talyata where the Vikings and Arabs fought an engagement. Plus, it would be a big departure from my other Dark Age armies.

Here's a preview of some Vikings vs. Dark Age Irish action!

You can see the rules on the Blood and Spectacles Wargame Vault page to find Fury of the Northman.

In addition to finishing the Dark Age Irish, I also finished up painting my Corinthian War alliance fleet for Poseidon's Warriors. It is 2 units of 5 fast trireme from Athens, and 15 cataphract triremes from Corinth.

Next up, I need to 3D print 25 more Spartan cataphract Triremes for the opposing forces. I look forward to launching a Corinthian War campaign using land and sea battles soon!