Pulp Figures Anglo-Saxons Painted

Pulp Figures Anglo-Saxons with paint on them. The figures were very cleanly cast with minimal mould lines, and the deep details were easy to paint. The texture of their mail is very nicely done.

The shield arms are held a bit higher than some other makes meaning that the faces are partly obscured by the shields themselves. I did find slightly smaller shields for them in my stash but the difference wasn't really noticeable in the end. Because of the shields obscuring so much I painted them separately, normally I stick them on first before painting

Only half of them got cloaks, they will be part of the veteran unit I have in mind; the others will be dotted around other units so that their monopose nature is disguised a bit.

Here's a close up of a few - despite all basically being the same figure the variety of interesting helmet styles disguises this a bit, along with different shield patterns.

There are some nice details on the figures, like the buckling up the back of their hauberks.

Even the cloaks I added didn't come out too bad.

Shields

"...the guilty parties are Ailred the carpenter and Eoward the blacksmith, both men whose labour is required for the arming of those newly arrived who are destined for the shieldwall. Yet both men were seen in recent days partaking of ale when they should have been labouring with adze and hammer. It is not the first time that men required for battle have had their fitness to do so fall foul of these two miscreants, whom I suspect to be foul sodomites so often are they in each other's confidence and partaking of drink in each other's company.

"Do they not know that the ships of Fergus mac Urnach have been spotted off our shores in recent days? This is no time to indulge in perverted lusts or drunkenness - to work, wretches!"

A slight delay has unfortunately manifested itself with these Pulp Figures Saxons. A delay manifested in the addition of their shields, or more specifically in the tiresome task of painting of their designs....

Michael Perry's knob

Jumping forward in time slightly, to the days of St. Gurnard's gotterdammerung, I fancied painting some cavalry and dug out a pack from Perry Miniatures 1st Crusade range, so who are basically Normans.

One of the ball-aches of 28mm dark age miniatures is gluing in spears and shields which are usually separate items. No matter what glue you use there's always the risk of them getting knocked off.

I was pleased to see Perry trying something to alleviate this problem, namely a protrusion, or knob, on each figure's arm, and shields with a hole in the middle. 

By sliding the knob into the hole, so to speak, the knob becomes the shield boss and this makes for a much more secure attachment than just sticking a whole shield to the arm. An innovation which goes some way to counterbalancing the usual rough casting from Perrys. 

I handpainted a banner for them. The Normans, being practical souls, don't require fancy knotwork animals like other Dark Age armies, relying on straightforward Christian iconography, bless them. The surface wrinkled a bit, I think I started furling it before it had fully dried. Like a fool.

Here are the dastardly continental scumbags, riding about England's fair land as if they own the place.

Veteran spearmen

Here are the completed veteran spearmen with their greenstuff cloaks. I did half the Pulp Figures pack, leaving the other half cloakless. Those will be dotted around other units so that their monopose nature is disguised.

The basic cloak shape added. The fur was done previously.

My initial view about the order to add the fur and body of the cloak was wrong, it turned out that adding a cloak after the fur was much more hassle than the other way around. The figure already stuck to a base and with a spear is the one where I did the cloak first. He definitely was the easiest to do, and looks the best. 

Second stage, bulking out a bit.

I added the basic shapes of the cloaks first, then once that had cured, I added the deeper folds with small sausages of greenstuff which were smoothed into the surface of the cloaks.

In the photos you can really see some roughness in the surface. The greenstuff was curing very fast and I was still working it when it was really a bit too hard. I could try some of the liquid greenstuff that GW sell to try and smooth them out. Or just trust to the painting to disguise any imperfections. Ah, well, it's all a learning experience.

And so to paint.

Pulp Figures Anglo-Saxons

Last year, Bob Murch of Pulp Figures posted on Facebook an Anglo-Saxon spearman he had sculpted. It wasn't intended that it join his range, but he said he would send a pack of fourteen casts with variant heads to anyone who PayPalled him the required funds.

Monopose, but with 14 head variants. Very crisp castings.

They've been sitting around since last summer and I thought it was about time they got some paint. I also want to add cloaks to some of them, as I have in my mind the idea of a unit of grizzled veteran spearmen, and I think giving them bear and wolfskin cloaks would make them stand out a bit on the battlefield. Most of the helmets on these figures are a little earlier in style than C11th English would probably have worn, so although strictly speaking anachronistic it fits with the idea of older, more experienced warriors.

The only downside to the figures is the very thick shields they'e supplied with. Almost as unwieldy as the ones Foundry supply, but fortunately I have a pack of Crusader Miniatures spare shields to use.

The first cloaks go on. It's not that hard to do - I just rolled out some greenstuff to something approximating scale thickness and cut a cloak shape out of it. The animal skin texture is teased out with a toothpick. After doing the first two I realised it would be more sensible to add the animal fur section first. Adding it on top of an existing cloak will make the shoulder area absurdly thick. The other two might have to live with mere woolen cloaks. I'll accentuate the folds with more greenstuff once the first layer cures.

Reinforcements arrive from Victrix

"...We are fortunate that our lord and thegn, Eadric, is a man of uncommon vigor in our defence, and demands service in the shieldwall from all who are able. Look you, here, and you will see some stout fellows recently arrived and willing to give battle to our enemies. Let us refresh these fine exemplars of English valour with ale for their troubles on our behalf...but what's this? One impudent wretch has relieved his bowels beside the sacristy! And he laughs! Apostate! Loathsome abomination! I'll take this shaft of ash to your hide...aye..run, so you should, another dozen strokes await you...dare attend mass here at your immortal peril!"

I ordered a single sprue of the recently released Victrix plastic 28mm Anglo-Saxons to see what they were like. I'm not really keen on plastic figures; I find building them a hassle as is cleaning off the mouldlines. The much vaunted "advantage" of wide-ranging poseability is rubbish as usually only one or two combinations of torsos and limbs will look natural, and most poses will look like clothing mannequins with arms and legs splayed all over the place.

The detail looks very good. I notice that two of the torsos have their legs positioned too widely to fit on the 20mm bases I use. They may squeeze onto a larger command base, but with 25% of the figures not really useable getting a whole box is looking less likely.

Spearheads are nicely done but the shafts are very thin and likely to snap. I'll probably cut them off, drill out the hands and replace them with my usual wire spears.

I stuck one together; fiddly, but they're certainly much more refined than the Gripping Beast plastic Saxons. I'll bump these to the top of the painting queue to see how they fair once they're baptised with paint.

"Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits."

The re-clothed brethren of the abbey, and their new brothers, off to matins. Black's a tricky colour to highlight, I find. Either you go too light and the highlights look like stripes, or too dark and you can't really see them. I think I've erred a little to the latter here, I might tinker with them later on, but the Gripping Beast figures are so grotty I can't see the effort really paying off much of a dividend. In fact, two of them are so crummy they may be sent to join the leper monks of St. Scrofulus.

Properly Benedictine now.

Unclean! The two on the left are destined for the leper colony.

I've recently learned from the Regia Anglorum living history group that the rope belt is probably inauthentic for the C11th, as this is an innovation of the Franciscan order. Such, I'm afraid, is the life of compromise typical of a miniatures gamer who doesn't want to spend his life converting whatever figures are available to fit his narrow period of interest.

The rule of St Benedict does not actually specify a colour for the habit, only that it is made of cheap and readily available material, but it seems that wool from black sheep had become the custom by the time of the Norman Conquest.

Be happy in both work and prayer, brothers.

My disappointment with the Gripping Beast monks has led me to order some fine looking figures from 1st Corps in order to help fill the abbey with more contemplatives. They arrived this morning and look really nice; I especially like the poses who are at work, busying themselves for the good of their holy community - ora et labora, indeed.