Celtic cavalry

An unruly mob of Celtic cavalry. Figs are from Warlord.

More Celts and some Saga

I moved this unit of Warlord Celtic cavalry off the workbench this week. Nice models, very animated. Clearly not just out for a pony ride

Mark Wall and I also managed a game of Saga this afternoon, my Spaniards (played as Normans) versus his shiny new Anglo-Danes. This scenario was all about holding terrain features. I manoeveed 12 knights onto the main hill very early on to soak up VP, then as his footslogger marched forward I sprung 6 knights into 8 unarmoured warriors and managed to lose what should have been a squash! (my 15 dice hitting on 4+ lose to his 8 dice hitting on 5+...I lost 2:3!). Mark's surname should be "Shield"Wall.

Half my strike force blown, I spent the rest of the game skulking, sniping and getting picked off unit at a time. At the final reckoning, a tie VPs 54:54!

More Celts

This week I finished off my first box of Warlord Celts, this batch has a few carrying gory trophies. These were fun to paint.

The cat (Harry the ginger Norwegian forest cat) also received a new outfit. He has an incredible temperament, I think he enjoys makeovers...

First batch of Warlord Celts

Today I finished 20 Warlord Celtic warriors. Very nice sculpts, perhaps a bit over-animated, but much better than WF Celts in quality. They would be quite difficult to rank up on 20mm square bases so I put them on 20mm washers which give a couple of advantages including heft, magnetizability, and ease of ranking. The other shortcoming of this set is that there are only shields for 50% of the warriors and while the transfers are nice, they are paper stickers that have to be cut to fit. A real bugger to get right!

I think my work on fleshtones has improved, same paint scheme as the last batch but a bit easier on the wash, plus the detail is deeper and anatomically better on these than the WF shop mannequins.

Celtic slingers

Just finished some cheap and grim looking Celtic slingers. These are the Wargames Factory models. Mixed results I think. I like the flexibility, but some stiff poses seem inevitable. Not sure if I am sold on the wash either, I used GW sepia on the flesh areas and it seems a bit overwhelming and dark. It's a good product, the fault is mine for perhaps going a bit heavy.

Here are a few pics of the Celts as promised. I must say that I really enjoyed this project and I am looking forward to getting these fellas on the table. WF are tops, you can quibble about details but they are bloody good value and there are infinite ways to put them together. Plus Tony is a top bloke, and the rate of improvement and expansion of WF products is pretty amazing.


The boys are back! (2.5 boxes WF German, 1 box WF Celts, transfers by VVV)


Giddayup! (1 box WF Celtic cavalry)


Fetch? (Warlord hounds and handler)


Oh deer! (Babastus the Druid)


Yee-haa! (2 boxes Celtic chariots)

I have similar numbers of Romans done, ready to go except for the movement trays now.

More Celts

I finished another 10 celtic foot this weekend, I assembled and based them on Friday, then painted these fellas yesterday and today. There are 22 more to paint up and then my 28mm Celtics and Romans are complete!

These guys came out pretty good- the models are actually the German warband bodies with celtic heads. The back 3 ranks are based 3 figs on a 60mm x 20mm and the front figure is the metal Arminius-"Hermann the German" chieftain from Wargames Factory. I quite like him, it's a nice sculpt with a lot of character. You can really tell the difference between the quality of metal and platic in this shot- the detail on Hermann is much deeper. The plastics are just a bit shallow in the folds of cloth and faces, but I still like them and you cannot beat the cost savings relative to metal.



(aside- I wonder if "Herman" is a reference to Herman Rarebell the drummer of the 80s metal band the Scorpions who had a short solo career as "Herman the German"? The sword is definitely in scale for a heavy metal referenced character. Man, I loved the Scorpions!)

Next up: I have a half-dozen Zvezda mounted crossbowmen to finish off for my Hundred Years War French. These will play a role in a cheveauchee mini-campaign for Impetus I am planning to run at the club. It's a snappy little piece found in Supplement 1 for Impetus. More on that later....

Penultimate WF Celts

I have mostly finished a unit of 12 WF 28mm plastic Celtic cavalry. I really like WF products since they are so versatile in what you can do with them, and the molds are improving with every release. These were not bad, although the horses (ponies really) have quite a few gaps and I'm not crazy about them.

I used simple, bold colour schemes with lots of contrast, but avoided plaids and checks since I haven't perfected how to do them. I also declined to paint designs on the shields because when I do they look like a 5 year old painted them. So I might order some transfers, or I might just leave them looking cheap and cheerful- they are for gaming afterall. I also still have to do the grass and some stones to finish the basing, but I usually leave this until I have a batch to do at once.

This unit has 4 armoured guys who could do for command or characters, plus 8 unarmoured guys who are just rank and file dudes. I am not sure what they will be used for yet- I have sizable Celts and Romans done now, enough for WAB or Impetus or just about any other system. They are mostly individually based 20mm wide so they could be ranked up just about for anything. I see Bob has gone for DBA 60mm basing, so I could do that too with some blutack or 2-sided tape and larger bases. CCA is another option. Not sure yet. I will use either these or my 28mm plastic Napoleonics for my MayDay game.

My last 28mm unit for this project is another 20 or so Celtic foot with 2 metal chieftains. When those are done I will post all the units, probably organized for a 1500 or so point WAB game. Maybe these guys would be good test subjects for breaking in the new WAB 2.0 when it comes soon [rubs hands gleefully...]