Irish SAGA

Using a fineliner pen to get the gist of these shield designs down and then following up with paint. Seems quite a handy way of getting it done. Probably cheating to some die hards, but I’ll face the reckoning if I have to. ?

Got the last 3 minis of this unit built so hopefully be done by the weekend. ?

Also used Halfords red plastic primer on these and I really like the lovely matt coat it gives.

I like the fleshy colour of the clothes on the cloaked guy. It was a mix of Bugman’s Glow and Steel Legion Drag.

The grey of the beardy guy’s clothes is the Nighthaunt blue grey technical paint and a Nulin Oil wash.

Really loving my new red Halfords plastic primer spray.

I painted the face with Army Painter Barbarian Flesh and decided to dry brush over the majority of the model with the flesh colour in downward strokes; like a zenith type effort.

Then I covered the clothing in Aggaros Dunes Contrast Paint. The effect gave me great high and low areas and I didn’t bother highlight anything. I just went into the plaid twinned lines up and down and left to right. Really fast and nice earthy dyed clothing colour.

The unit has come together quite well.

The shared clothing pallet, basing and shield colours has really helped.

No idea if an army with this few Hearthguard can be effective, but my Saga journey has never been about minmaxing or even winning.

Army completed. Well… maybe a kitbash Brian Boru for later. I have added a handful of other bodies to the army, but I still have 3 bodies left in the Wargames Atlantic Irish box. Plenty of bits and bobs left over.
I currently have:

A druid,

A hero,

A warlord,

One unit of levy,

Two units of warriors,

One unit of warhounds

And one unit of Hearthguard.

Thank you Avernos for your guidance and encouragement throughout. Thanks to Pundancer too for the mentions on the unofficial hobby hangout. Thanks to everyone who smashed in my buttons. And thanks for the golden button earlier in the project.

I have been looking into the history and myth around Brian Boru, King of all Ireland.

Most miniature ranges have Brian seated and old. This reflects that most ranges expect people to be acting out The Battle of Clontarf, where he was anywhere between 70 and 75 years old.

I looked up some images and found a stylised Celtic lion’s head that was apparently on a ring owned by Brian. I am going to use this as his shield design.

Apparently, as a general rule of myths from that era, that a man is gifted longer life and the associated wisdom if he is graced by God. There’s little doubt he was too old to be leading from the front, but perhaps the occasional suggestion that he was between 80 and 90 might be to support that heroic tradition and promote his devout faith.

I also see his death story as potentially biased by faith. If he just ended up being caught in a fight with a far younger man as the enemy fled in an unexpected direction and into his camp, that’s an inauspicious end to a hero graced by God. If he was basically martyred, cut down in prayer by a vicious pagan, it becomes a different narrative. I have seen some art work of his end in a nightshirt or surplus kneeling, praying as a Barbarian looking guy stands over him. We’ll never know how he actually died, but for my Brian mini there’s at least going to be suggestion that he tried to defend himself and will be dressed for battle.

I have chosen some Victrix Viking and Anglo-Dane command sprue pieces I picked up cheaply a while ago for the main mini. Then use Wargames Atlantic shield and sword scabbard to tie him to the rest of the force.

Paint job wise I will be making his clothes fairly colourful as there seemed to be a tradition that not only the colour of garment helped dictate your place in society, but also the number of colours on display.

I will have him grabbing up his shield and a Dane axe to defend himself. As this is probably not a wise choice of weapons for an elderly king it gives a nod to how rushed into action he is. Just behind him I will have a Bible resting on a slab of stone that he has been interrupted in reading.

My kitbash Brian of Boru.
I used the Victrix Anglo-Dane and Viking command sprues as the base, with a Wargames Atlantic shield and scabbard. I didn’t have any scabbards left with the sword hilt, so I cut a hilt from the command sprue and glued it on top.
One of the heads on sprue had a headband. Not sure if it was meant to be fabric or metal, but I painted it Army Painter Weapons Bronze to be his crown.
The arms are meant to be joined on the axe and posed across the chest, but after some cutting and gluing I managed to get the pose I wanted and added the shield.
The flint stones took some picking and balancing, but once I was happy with the selection I PVAed them in place.
The cloth across the top stone is just a piece of PVA coated wetwipe.
The bible is made from cereal box card for the cover and jiffy bag squares as pages.

Managed to get the symbols online, printed them out, already had some red blank dice and PVA glued them up in no time.

Never say never. This project started out as an experiment into whether the Wargames Atlantic box could get you a serviceable Irish Saga force and has become the story of my Irish force as it expands a little. I wanted to make a Footsore purchase to get a cool Black Douglas not-Salute miniature that I wanted. These seemed like a good option and feel that I need some more elite models in my warrior and levy heavy force.

Primed with Army Painter Leather Brown then used Steel Legion Drab on the tunic. I used Mornfang Brown as a base for the plaid trews and Vallejo Brown Violet green for the cloak. Heavily washed the cloak with Athonian Camoshade. Used Rhinox Hide for the hair and mustache.

Quite a bland start to these 4 minis, but that was kind of intended.