I have painted a small unit of heavy infantry belonging to the House of Folkunga/ Bjälbo.
The miniatures them self are a mixture of Gripping Beast plastic
hirdmen, Fireforge Games Heavy infantry and two Curteys miniatures.
I
wanted to try out a new technique as I was after an image of lots of
chain mail. By using the chain mailed torsos from GB and arms from
Fireforge I think I managed to nail the picture I had in my head with a
unit with lots of chain mail.
The Curteys miniatures fit perfectly
into my unit as an added variation and I the effect it gives to mix in
some metal miniatures in an plastic unit.
I started with priming
them "Panzer grey" a dark grey that I really like as a start for
painting chain mail. The chain mails was then drybrushed with metal
before I started to paint the blue and the rest of the colours.
I
have chosen to give them the Lion symbol from the House of Folkunga/
Bjälbo. I wanted to have the symbol in one colour and not adding
silhouette and details of the faces on the lion as I imagined that the
yellow lion form wound be enough for these men. This also speeded up the
process.
Starting with a dark grey primer and a metal drubrush
was a really nice technique for this unit and I will probably use it in
the future on units with much chain mail.
I went with the bases you get in the Fireforge boxes and the 60x40mm base is nice for multibasing, I had four men in the front rank and two in the second. By using more men in the front I get a much tighter shieldwall formation without having to paint more miniatures. It also makes a much more fun and varied look in the units.
I choose not to remove the Thor's hammers on the hirdmen torsos as I imagined that the old Gods and their symbols would still be used by warriors.
After the battle of Lena 1208 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lena the victory was attributed to Odin and this shows that for the warriors at this time the old Norse Gods had some importance, at least as a sort of superstitious tradition if nothing else.
I also use dark grey (usually german grey) as base for metal, at 15 mm I only use dark grey, especially for "modern" weapons.
ReplyDeleteNice looking unit.
Thanks.
DeleteGerman grey have to be one of the best color ever. I just love it, from the base of chain mails to watering it down and using as a wash on armour and as you said on guns and so on.
Very nice. I have always used black as my base for chainmail and then drybrush on the metal. I'll try this as a variation in some units - not all chainmail would look the same after all.
ReplyDeleteGreat looking infantry, and beautiful mix of blue and white colors...
ReplyDelete