GROWING THE FYRD

Managed to paint up some more Saxon Ceorls this week, they have come up well I think, everything from the colours chosen to the way they are posed, I really like them, this month is really turning out to be a Dark age month for me, I wouldn't be surprised if I end up finishing the whole Saxon warband, as mentioned in a previous post there is not that much more to do, let me see, 7 more ceorl warriors to paint up, 2 more skirmish ceorls, a Saxon war flag, a few cavalry (in two minds about this) and a couple of Saxon Heroes.
After the Saxons I think I will start on the Picts, I want to paint these guys to match their reputation, Barbaric and mysterious even by Saxon standards, but I don't want to do this at the expense of historical accuracy, I want to fulfill the above mandate but still have them look fairly accurate, any ideas out there? 

I watched Beowulf and Grendel on dvd (G.Butler version) the other night, this really bolstered the Saxon fire, Visually, the whole movie set up felt very authentic, weapons were spot on, armour and helmets looked very Saxony even right down to the small shaggy horses that were available at that time! good movie, if your into the Dark ages and haven't seen it, check it out, its well worth the watch.

Gerard Butler In 'Beowulf and Grendal'

 

SAXON WARLORDS

As promised, this post I am delivering a couple of Saxon warlords, a pagan battle standard and a horn blower, as with the rest of the Saxons, these minis are from SLM  and are 15/18mm, SLM sculpt some very good poses on their minis, very natural looking poses, which is a welcomed sight, these days there are way to many 'awkard' looking poses out there in miniatures land, there casting process must also be good as there is very little prep work needed to get their minis ready for painting, this is a big bonus for me, I think there is nothing worse than having to repair or adjust newly bought minis.

Only one way to settle a land dispute...

With my Dark age project, most of my skirmishers will probably take place in the earlier part of the Dark ages, so they will most likely be small affairs, One Saxon Lord disputing with another, or a Saxon Lord fighting off a cross border raid curtersy of the dreaded Picts or something like that, so I painted up two Saxon Lords that can be used together as part of a bigger warband or separately as two smaller bands, theres not many more Saxons left to paint, actually 6 to be exact, but, I recently ordered even more Saxons, a small cavalry group and more lads with spears, so I will keep plugging away for now, but we are not far from finishing the Saxons.

The last couple of weeks I've been a little side tracked, I started going to a new gaming group whom I believe are called 'Peninsula Praetorians' we meet up every Friday night at one of the guy's house and so far its been a real blast, with this new group I have played Ambush Alley's Enduring Freedom (played at the show), FOGN Field of Glory Napoleonic and for the next few weeks we are doing it Old school, we are play testing the new DnD rules called simply 'DnD Next', which feel very much like the Basic version of DnD (think Red box set) published by TSR but revised/ simplified by Frank Mentzer, which happens to be the set I played with when I was in School, all this dungeon dwelling could see my DnD Fantasy project revived, stay tuned for more.

SAXON SKIRMISHERS

Continuing on with the Dark Ages Project, I slapped some paint on four Saxon ceorls (churls) to complete a small group of skirmishers, I don't believe projectile weapons were a major part of Saxon tactics, a lesson they would learn at the battle of Hastings, but they were definitely present in battles from a historical perspective, so I will include a small group of them, again these are SLM miniatures and the scale is 15/18mm, up next will be some Saxon Lords / Rulers, maybe even a battle standard.