Mongols & New Objective Markers to Desecrate

    My latest batch of 5 Mongol light cavalry in 28mm from Curteys Miniatures

 Progress on my Mongol horde is moving at a very un-Mongol like pace. I just finished off a batch of five light cavalry that has been on my painting desk for at least three weeks, I swear. I need to paint 32 figures of Mongol "warriors" for my 6-point Saga army (that's not counting the six heavy cavalry "hearthguard," the Kettle Drummer's stand, and the Warlord's stand. After doing the first two batches in groups of eight, I thought I would do the remaining 16 figures in three separate batches. Thus, my group of five figures that seemed to take every bit as long as the eights did! Maybe it was a bad call, but it is better than burning out, I guess.

    More Mongol horsemen for my next Saga army, which is progressing at a very un-Mongol like pace!

One of the great things about the 28mm Curteys miniatures I bought for my Mongol army is the sheer variety of poses. That helps keeps it interesting and different. Four of these five figures were all armed with hand weapons instead of bows, and the fifth had a horn. I start off painting the horses, as usual, referring to the horse chart that I use to ensure variety and a bit of realism in my paint jobs. I finally got smart and began marking on the paper which ones I've used so I don't have to agonize over which styles of horse colorings that I have painted already. I liked how these horses turned out, but I was perhaps a little heavy on the brown tones. I did decide to epoxy the riders onto the base first before priming or painting them. I know I was debating on which course of action to take in one of my previous blog posts.

    I am not sure the batch of 5 figs went that much faster than my previous batches of 8!

I am painting my Mongols up in kind of mid-empire phase, when they have conquered part of China and have access to colorful silks. This allows me to choose from a wide variety of pastels or a mix of bright and darker hues. I continue to use the Micron pens for most of the decoration on the robes, but I do brush paint an occasional one. If it is just a border with dots or something like that, it is actually easier to do it with a paint brush than a pen. The pens excel when doing patterns or swirls or a series of dots. I also use the pens for fine details on shields now. No tattoos in the Mongol army, of course, but from now on, any miniature that requires tattoos will definitely be done using the Micron pens!

    A Mongol warrior gallops past a scratch-build shrine (Objective marker for Saga)

In the background of these pictures are my new Objective Markers for scenarios of Saga -- the miniatures rules I am using for my games. Some scenarios require players to destroy an objective marker in the opponent's area (for example, "Desecration" from Book of Battles). Sure, I could use the treasure chest or animals I have painted up, but that doesn't seem to fit the theme of the scenario as well. You want to destroy it, after all -- not snatch it up and steal it! So, I decided to paint up some religious shrines, statues, or whatever to make something more "desecratable"! I will probably do another batch like this soon, since these came out well, I think. 

    How's the army progressing? A group shot of all 21 of my 28mm Mongols painted so far

The statue of the Greek or Roman god is from the Reaper Ruined Temple terrain box that I bought at the Guardtower East. I decided NOT to glue the statue into place, rationalizing it would take up space the miniatures may need in a game. The two rather demonic (or pagan?) looking ones are from the Reaper Bones Harrowgate Shrines pack that I also bought at the local store. The last two were scratch built using various Hirst Arts stone blocks leftover from previous projects (thanks again, Zeke!) and a random Celtic cross I'd found a craft store long ago.

The Objective Markers are on 1.5" wooden discs from Hobby Lobby. I purchased metallic base bottoms from Litko Enterprises to stick to the bottom of them. I spray painted them black, then applied a 50/50 mix of water and craft black paint to them to sink into all the crevices. Then I gave them a couple progressively lighter shades of gray (not quite 50) dry brushing, flocked them, and voila! Done in little to no time at all! I always like to make purchases at the local stores when we have our game days at them, so it is satisfying to get these recent purchases based up and ready for the tabletop.

For my next batch of miniatures, I am taking a quick break from Mongols to do another batch of post-Apocalyptic figures. As mentioned in a a previous post, I may have found a rule set to try out in lieu of writing my own. We usually have six players on Sunday nights, so I need at least one more team. So, look for more updates soon!