A Song of Blades and Bronze... Some Slingers

 Greetings...

Yet another small addition to this project...

This time it is some Northern European Slingers.

This group is made up from the youths of the village so they have less tattoos... I intended to do very simple plaids on these... but as always I let things go...

I am very pleased with them... I may have to get a few more.

The tunics started of with a Citadel Loren Forest base coat and then the different plaids were added with a mixture of muted colours.

The miniatures are...
https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/european-bronze-age-scandanavia-north-west-europe-1600-bc

The bases are...
https://warbases.co.uk/product-category/bases/round-cornered-bases/


The paints are Wargames Foundry and Citadel...
https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/paint
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling

As always these were a lot of fun to paint... maybe I shall add some Sea Peoples next...

All the best    Aly

A Song of Blades and Bronze... More Northern Europeans.

 Greetings...

Here we have the next batch of Northern Europeans...

I had intended these chaps to feel a bit more rank and file... Plainer cloths and less tattoos...

I have however failed in this... as I got carried away... I really enjoy painting the tattoos and the plaid and I am finding it difficult to hold back.

So for now I will say that the more rank and file troops will ‘mostly’ have bronze shields.

There are some slingers in the Bronze Age pile I may move them up the queue...

I would also like to add a Northern European chariot... and Mharaid would said she would really like another one pulled by giant geese (you will of course remember that there is a fantastical element to this collection)

A couple of years ago I bought Mharaid a lot of Britains (54mm) hollow cast farm animals... at the time every other eBay auction had Geese Geese Geese, which would be perfect.... not now though... the hoarders have got in there and emptied the shelves... utter swines!

I will persevere. 😆

So here are the toys...

All of the tunics started of with Citadel Administratum Grey and then the different plaids were added with a mixture of muted colours.

I am very pleased with the results and I will no doubt get carried away again with the next batch...

The miniatures are...
https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/european-bronze-age-scandanavia-north-west-europe-1600-bc

The bases are...
https://warbases.co.uk/product-category/bases/round-cornered-bases/


The paints are Wargames Foundry and Citadel...
https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/paint
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling

All the best    Aly

A Song of Blades and Bronze... Sea Peoples Archers.

Greetings...


Just a couple of figures for this project this time...
Two Sea Peoples archers...

These chaps have been painted in the same way as their comrades...
I am rather pleased with the blue 'crest' on the kneeling figure.


The Kilts and Helmet Crests are... Citadel...  Evil Sunz Scarlet and Lothern Blue



The miniatures are...
https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/the-sea-peoples-bronze-age-mediterrenean-raiders

The bases are...
https://warbases.co.uk/product-category/bases/round-cornered-bases/


The paints are Wargames Foundry and Citadel...
https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/paint
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling


As before these have been a real pleasure to paint... I have some Northern European warriors in the painting queue so more tattoos and plaid ahead...


All the best   Aly

A Song of Blades and Bronze... Northern Europeans and Sea Peoples.

Greetings...


Here are a few more additions to this new collection...


Two Northern Europeans and Two Sea Peoples...

The Europeans...
I have given these two chaps rather traditional looking green based kilts... the intention is to do the next two with a different colour base.
I will probable have quite a few men with painted shields as I enjoy painting them but a few bronze bucklers add variety...
A vague plan for the tattoos is that younger warriors will have less/mostly torso decoration and older warriors will have the arms and legs covered as well.


The Kilt Base is... Citadel... Loren Forest.
The Leather is... Citadel... Skrag Brown.
Hair is... Citadel... Skrag Brown and.. Wargames Foundry... Spearshaft Light 13C.
White bits are... Citadel... Pallid Wych Flesh.
Bronze is... Citadel... Retributor Armour with a wash of Seraphim Sepia.
Flesh is... Wargames Foundry... Flesh 5B with a wash of Reikland Fleshshade.


Everything is given a wash of Aly's Brown Liquid...and highlighted with the original colours.


At this point I paint on the rest of the Plaid, The Shield Design and the Tattoos.


The Plaid pattern is... Wargames Foundry... Phlegm Green Shade 28A plus Citadel Contrast Leviadon Blue with lighter or darker contrasting fine lines added.
The Tattoos are... Citadel... Kantor Blue with a touch of Flesh added... slightly diluted with Lahmian Medium.
The shield design is... Citadel... Loren Forest.


I don't shade or highlight any of these patterns as it makes for a much cleaner finish...

The Sea People...


I have stuck to the same primary colour based pallet with these... with a strong leaning to the reds...
The tattoos follow the same style of dashes and lines as before.


The shield design is based on an image I found on the internet which I think may represent Death or Ancestors so quite appropriate.... I rather like its slight weirdness.

The Shield is... Citadel... Mephiston Red with a Wild Rider Red icon...
The Kilts are... Citadel... Mephiston Red and Evil Sunz Scarlet...
The Tunic is... Citadel... Lothern Blue...


The rest of the painting process was the same as the Northerners.



The miniatures are...
https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/european-bronze-age-scandanavia-north-west-europe-1600-bc

The bases are...
https://warbases.co.uk/product-category/bases/round-cornered-bases/


The paints are Wargames Foundry and Citadel...
https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/paint
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling

Once again I am very pleased with how these have turned out...I have also enjoyed painting them very much.


All the best   Aly

A Song of Blades and Bronze... Test Figures Part Two.

Greetings...


Here are my next two test figures for this project...


Two Sea Peoples/Persons...

I have gone for almost primary colours for the clothing... pretty much like all the illustrations I have looked at...
The tattoos ( though I have found no evidence of them having them or not ) are straight lines and dashes to contrast with the curved nature of the Northerner's body art.
The shields as they come are a nice contrast... but I have added to this by painting them a deep red (Citadel Mephiston Red) with a lighter red curved pattern.


I am very pleased how these have come out and I am looking forward to painting more...

I don't think that there will be much confusion between them on the table...


The miniatures are Wargames Foundry...
https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/the-sea-peoples-bronze-age-mediterrenean-raiders


The bases are...
https://warbases.co.uk/product-category/bases/round-cornered-bases/



All the best   Aly.

A Song of Blades and Bronze... Test Figures.

Greetings...


Okay ... First up... There is no such rule set as A Song of Blades and Bronze...


Mharaid and I have been talking for a while about starting up another small skirmish project...
Initially I had considered modifying A Song Of Drums And Shakos to have some games based on characters from the book (and TV series )Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.
We thought it would be interesting to add a bit of magic to the equation...


This vague plan took a little bit of a jump and a change of period when I was delving in the lead mountain and uncovered some Wargames Foundry's Bronze Age Northern Europeans, I immediately thought that this would be a nice period to play and paint... and it would fit into our ideas for adding a touch of the fantastical to things...
Who would they fight though ?
As it happened the next thing out of the mountain was some Wargames Foundry Sea Peoples...
Who is to say that the Sea Peoples or Achaeans didn't go north and encounter and raid the peoples they met... To be honest I haven't really done the research so maybe they did...
This now gives us two quite distinctive forces to fight our games... and the possibility of adding Minotaurs , Centaurs  , Medusa or a Cyclops...
We have done this before with our Xmas games when we introduced Krampus so there is nothing really new here...
I have a copy of Song of Blades and Heroes so we will probably use suitable rules from both sets...


Mharaid picked the Northern Europeans for her force so I have the Sea Peoples.


So here are the first two test figures...

Looking at what people think the Bronze Age Northern Europeans look like... It would appear that they were a bit dull... Brown with additional brown and some coloured edging... probably brown.


As we are going for a touch of the fantastical I decided to go for some subdued Plaid patterns and spiral tattoos...
The shield and standard designs are based vaguely on a Celtic Goose/Duck design that I found on the internet... For our purposes it will be a Goose... Mharaid talked of them worshipping a Giant Goose.


I decided to gloss these as it brings out the colours of the plaid a bit better... and I like shiny things...


I look forward to eventually getting some games in with these and the Lion Rampant collection... After all... Variety is the spice of inevitable slaughter...


The miniatures are...
https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/european-bronze-age-scandanavia-north-west-europe-1600-bc


The bases are...
https://warbases.co.uk/product-category/bases/round-cornered-bases/


I have a couple of Sea Peoples in the current queue... but for now it is back to Sassanids and Napoleonics...


All the best   Aly