Women and Children First

 Taking a brake from testing my painting skills and from working on line units, I decided to work on my Anglo-Saxon civilians. They wont feature much in the big battles but can add lost of flavor to the skirmish games I have been playing with my son. First I painted the young children and two adult women holding children. All of them are from Gripping Beast except the redhead who is from Reaper Miniatures. 

I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take some photos with the new houses they will live in. Hopefully they will survive the coming conflicts.

Anglo-Saxon Houses

 Finished 4 Anglo-Saxon houses that I 3d Printed over 2 years ago. I believe they are all from https://www.3dprintterrain.de/collections/medieval. I wanted them to be a bit colorful instead of all the same boring shade so they are a bit more vibrant then might be historically accurate. Still they will look good on the table and hopefully wont get burnt down to often. 

Skin tone update

 So I took the advice of lots of the people who commented on facebook and went back to the minis and added two more layers of highlights. I still need to work on blending the edges and figuring exactly what should get the last highlights. Overall I think they look better. In the photos below the left side is before and the right is after going back. Please let me know what you think. 

New Painting Techniques.

 In an effort to improve my painting skill I am working on highlighting up a miniature using 1 paint that is increasingly lightened by adding white paint. I did a bit of this with the Zombie Ladies that turned out ok. I wanted to work on something more realistic and so will try skin. The goal is to give the model depth while blending the different layers together. For my first attempt I chose 3 nude female models as they offer lots of curves and crevasses that this technique is ideal for painting. I also kept a painting journal to track the mixture of each layer as I went. 

Here is the end result of my first attempt.

Overall I am not very happy with how it went. I struggled to blend each layer together and on the placement of shadows and highlights. Sometimes feeling like I was over highlighting or not doing enough. I ended up going over them with a Flesh Wash and then one last highlight layer. At tabletop level they look fine but I dont think they hold up very well close up. The end result is nude women who look dirty. However, as I plan to use them as objective markers (hostages to be rescued), maybe the dirty look works. I have a few more models to practice on and hope to improve. 

Anglo-Saxon Housecarls

 Finished a unit of Victrix Anglo-Saxons with Dane Axes. Still need to add the flag but they are otherwise table ready. This brings me up to 2 full divisions for Hail Creaser with 1 more to go. There are only 2 units of Housecarls in the army as part of the Kings division and both are armed with Dane Axes. I tried a bit of a speed paint on these so the paint job is not quite as clean or detailed as I normally do. I only have 4 units of formed infantry, 1.5 units of skirmishers, and 2 command bases left to do. Army total will be 231 models when completed. 

FFoL Might and Melee game 2

 My son Thomas and I got our second game in of Fistful of Lead Might and Melee (FFoL M&M). 

    After last game, which if you haven't read then go here, Jarl Thor took his prisoners back to his fortified home and locked them up while he decided what to do with them. Elderman Stefn was his main enemy in the area but was also very valuable. He could be ransomed back to his Saxon people or to Thor's superiors.  The others didnt hold much value other then being sold as slave or executed as an example. He hated Priests so decided he would execute Father Lunden, ransom Stefn, and sell the rest as slaves. Thor had the prisoners locked up in a storage building and told them what their fait held for them on the marrow. Then, posting his men at their positions, he retired for the night. 

    Stefn and his men would not resin themselves to this fate. It took them all night but they finally broke free of their bonds. They needed to escape but had no weapons. All of their equipment had been loaded in a wagon at the far end of the yard and the gate would take at least two people to open. Stefn planned for them all to make a dash for the wall and try to jump down into the ditch below. His loyal men insisted that they should instead make for their gear and distract as many of the Danes as they could while their lord made good his escape, especially because he was wounded from the pervious battle. Reluctantly Stefn agreed.

Jarl Thor's fortified home. 

Elliot was placed to guard the wagon of capture gear while Benjamin patrolled the East wall.

Felix patrolled the yard and Dedric the West wall. 

Stefn and his men prepare to make their escape, they just need to brake the door down. 

Thor relaxes in his house with his dog Hunter.

On turn 1 I got lucky with a Queen of Hearts and an Ace (wild) which I played as a Q of hearts. For the first one I healed Stefn's wound and had him attempt to brake down the door. As a veteran he uses a D12 and managed to smash the door to splinters with a roll of 12. He then made a run for the nearest ramp up the wall. 

The second Queen (ace) went to Ator to heal his wound from last game. He dashed across the yard but couldn't quite make it to the wagon. 

Seeing the weaponless Ator rush towards him, Elliot confidently charged the man and left him with a shock. 

Next Nodons ran out and, seeing Ator in trouble, rushed to help him. 

Though Nodons was unarmed, he was able to land a wounding blow on Elliot with the help of Ators distraction.

Then Felix came and joined the melee.

However because I forgot the -1 for unarmed, their fight was a draw and they stayed locked in combat.

Dedric took the chance to plant an arrow into Stefn but, even with the re-roll of the 2 he activated on, managed to miss.

Father Lunden made a dash for the South East corner of the yard while Abeodan decided to cover Stefn's back. At that time Thor emerged from his house and was enraged with what he saw.

Thor charged Abeoand and struck him down (Out of Action) with one sweep of his axe. That ended turn 1.

I got the lucky card draw and Stefn made for the wall. He was able to safely jump down and make for the table edge. 

I was shocked to see Thomas had 2 Jacks and new that an arrow would be coming followed by Thor.

Dedric moved up and took his shot but only managed to cause a shock.

My luck continued to hold when Thor managed to slip while attempting to jump down after me and instead fell down, leaving him wounded.

The fighting in the center continued fiercely with Ator first taking a wound and then being struck down.  

Father Lunden safely made it over the wall but then caught an arrow from Benjamin that left him wounded.

Stuck facing Thor unarmed Stefn did his best but was dealt another shock for his efforts.

The fighting continued inside the yard with Nodons landing another shock on Felix before he was finaly brought down.

The 3rd tern left me with just Father Lunden and Stefn. Lunden was able to make good his escape but Stefn fell to Thors axe.

With the battle over it was time to see the condition of those who fell in battle. Stefn, Abeodan, and Ator suffered no real injuries but had been recaptured. Nodons' wounds where to severe and he died. Thomas's force gained another 9 renown brining him up to 18. It might prove vital in the next game. Father Lunden did manage to escape and I'm sure in on his way back to report all that had happened to the Saxon King. What this means for the victorious Thor and the fait of his captives remains to be seen...