Dark Ages over the holidays

I decided to work up some Saxons over the break for a game of Hail Caesar I plan to run in January. I had a box of these fyrd, so gave them a go:

They came out okay, I got better at constructing dynamic poses with practice, but to be honest I prefer my shieldwall at rest or on guard with spears held vertically and this pose was not possible with the available armatures. The detail also tends to be soft and shallow, they are not nearly as good as Perry, Warlord or GW plastics. On the bright side, there are lots of good bits on the sprues for future conversions (bows, shields, etc). Still, a very good value. I plan to do the remaining warriors as Norman liberi using the kite shields and helmet head options.

I also found some Old Glory Huscarls that are great, the OG dark age stuff is really good- lots of character and dynamic poses (sometimes a bit OTT, but on balance they are excellent value and paint up really well.

The peasants are revolting!

Bit of a gap since my last posting, I actually finished another ECW cavalry regiment but it looks just like every other regiment, so I didn't bother putting it up. Then last week I finished my Covenanter command stand figures, I really like the cleric and the piper:

I also did a batch of medieval peasants who can be very useful for many scenarios. These turned out pretty well, I experimented with Vallejo wash over base/shade/highlight. They are a bit dark, but of course they are supposed to be filthy, miserable and angry

Up next: well, it's this time of year of course:

Happy Holidays everyone, keep safe and have fun!

ECW New Model Artillery and Horse

Latest ECW units to come off my bench is a mix of artillery and horse. There are two Warlord saker guns and crew. I couldn't decide whether to mount the crew on the base with the gun or base them separately. So I did one of each.

I have just assembled the last 10 horse and primed the command models- a pretty cool assortment of preachers, agitators, commanders and other goodies. And that will likely be a wrap for ECW for some time. Two armies is enough? Perhaps...