Faithful readers, you know that I recently closed a deal to write a new book for the Osprey Wargaming Series, Barbarians at the Gates. As part of that process I also need 30 photographs of miniatures. I also like to have two armies for playtesting and Demo Games. That means, I need to paint up some models!
These may or may not feature in the book later. I am hoping to find some manufacturers to support me with the photos. However, I still need some painted armies. After thinking about it, I decided to focus on the Vandals as my Barbarian force. Why the Vandals? First, I have been fascinated by them as they were not 100% successful historically. They faced a lot of set-backs and some victories in their history. Sure they had some pretty big highs like sacking Rome and conquering North Africa but some big lows too. I mean, they basically got expelled from Europe by other barbarian groups after they had been driven from their traditional homelands by Huns. They also lost in Spain to the Romans. Like I said, not always the best track record. Sounds like my gaming history in a nutshell!
The first step was to get a feel for what I wanted in the army. Thankfully, I had an example Line-of-Battle for the Vandals in the draft rules. I decided to use this as the core of my Vandal army. This would be....
- 1 Unit of Heavy Cavalry
- 1 Unit of Elite warriors
- 1 Unit of Warriors
- 1 Unit of Militia
- 1 Unit of Archers
Of course, that would be the core of my force, but I was also going to make other units to be able to swap in and out. That would include more of each unit type (except Cavalry) and some skirmisher units with Javelins.
With the force selected, it was time to think about the models. I took a look at several lines and what was available to me from US distributors. Ultimately, I decided to go with Gripping Beast plastics.
The Goth Elites would be the main Heavy Cavalry unit, the Saxon Thegns would be the Elites and warriors, Dark Age Warriors would be the militia and skirmishers, and archers are self-explanatory. I spent a weekend and built and spray undercoated the core of the army. With that done, I loaded it up into my WIP box and
ready for the road.
I also built and undercoated all the archers, all the Javelin armed skirmishers, and spear-armed Militia. However, I did not need these for the core army so left them to paint up later. I still had enough miniatures for 2 spear-armed units of warriors that I did not get time to build.
So, here is the core of the Vandal army.
Of course, I am going to be Batch Painting as much of this as I can all at once. I will probably do all the infantry together. I will be painting the cavalry on their own. Not to brag, but I tend to think I am a pretty good batch painter, but you will get to judge for yourself.
On the next weekend, I made sure to drybrush all the minis with cheap acrylic white. Those who know my process know that I skipped the Dark Grey wash. This is a test to simplify my approach. Using Speedpaints on Historical models is also a test. I am not sure how these will turn out and how well they will fit in with my other Historicals.
From there, I started the batch painting. The first thing I did was to use Barbarian Flesh and paint up all the skin tones for the Vandals. Painting has begun in earnest now. This is real!
After that, I picked out a few colors for footwear. Graveyard Grey, Hardened Leather, and Dark Brown all got the nod. All the boots got painted. From there, is was time to make sure the horses got their feet colored too! I made their hooves Graveyard Grey. Then I used a variety of colors for their skin such as Hardened Leather, Dark Brown, Sand Golem, and Runic Grey. The horses are mostly armored so only their legs, noses, tails, and ears really show.
Hard to believe, but with that my daylight for the second weekend day working on these guys was waning. I had to pack it in for the day and do some sight-seeing! Not great progress, but I am batch-painting 60 models, if you count the horses and riders separately. Progress will be iterative!
Here are some sight-seeing photos since I don't have that many miniature photos in this one. This is Badlands National Park below....
Mount Rushmore. I have been here a few times, and I always make sure I get some of the famous Thomas Jefferson ice cream when I stop by. This was particularly fun as we had pre-planned to meet some folks here and hang out!
The Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, South Dakota. An active dig-site of Mammoth bones. The area has a lot of fossils from the end of the Ice Age.
You can see that I have had a hard time finding time to paint miniatures as I spent quality time checking out the Black Hills area of South Dakota. There were plenty of others stops and discoveries as well. However, not much on the gaming side of things or that would be of interest to wargamers at the moment.
Keep in mind, there is a rather large delay between when these post on the blog and when I actually did it. Therefore, by the time you read this I will be long gone from the area. However, I expect I will be heading back through a few more times on my travels so let me know you favorite Black Hills related sights, and what game stores I should visit in the area! Is there any local cons I should try to time my visit to attend?
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