Last of the Pictish Warriors for Saga

28mm Pictish long spearmen muster in front of a monastery chapel, obeying the summons of their warlord

A gaming group in Chillicothe, Ohio, runs a "Pledge of the Brush" event on their Facebook group. Gamers are encouraged to make a vow to finish a particular project by a certain date, and then upload pictures. I decided to join in, making a pledge to finish my 28mm Dark Ages Pictish army for Saga by the end of January.

I mixed in three Foundry Ancient Germans to give the units some more variety of figures, like this guy in the center

First, this meant that I had to figure out the composition of my army. I am leaning towards 4 points of warriors, which means 32 figures. Counting up the long spearmen I had painted already, adding in my standard bearers,  horn blowers, and figures that could be unit leaders, meant I needed eight more to finish. That would be my first batch, and what I am posting pictures of with this blog entry. I also plan on having 2 points of Levy archers, which meant I needed to paint up six more archers. That would be the second batch. The final batch will be a Warlord stand, with a Warlord, standard bearer, and trusty dog. That would be the third and final batch.

Here are four of the cloaks -- each figure in the army has its individualized pattern on his cloak

Today is the 15th, so I have just over two weeks more to get the remaining two batches done. However, I would really like to have it done by our next Saga Gameday at the Guardtower East, which is Sunday, Jan. 26. That shortens my time to 11 days. I think it will be close!

The final two Pictish long spearmen (the guy on the right actually a German) -- glad to be done with these!

To add some variety into my warrior units, I tossed three Ancient Germans into this group of eight figures. The remaining five were two poses from the Picts that I have been painting for the last two batches -- the ones where I have to carve out the cast-on lead spear so I can give them wire long spears. There is a bit more repetition of poses in this group of 25 long spearmen, but I alternated different shield types to give them some difference. I even tried to angle the long spears differently, but there is only so much you can do. Finally, the tartans, checks, and stripes should make them LOOK like they have more variety than they truly do.

Judge for yourself -- are my tartans, stripes, and checks subpar and evidence my painting skills are in decline?

Speaking of tartans and such, I used three basic types of patterns. The simplest is alternating two colors of wide horizontal stripes. The next most difficult is the tartan pattern, which is simply a series of horizontal and vertical stripes creating a "window pane" effect. It uses only two colors, but gives the effect of a more complicated tartan pattern. The third style is a checkered cloak. This one probably takes the longest amount of time, and seems to be hit or miss with my declining painting skill. Take a look at the photos, above, and you can judge for yourself or not whether my skills are deteriorating or not.

Next up, six Dark Ages archers for the Picts!