Thracian Warlord & More Rhomphaia Men

    My third batch of Thracians using 28mm Crusader Miniatures (purchased from Badger Games)

I continue to work on my Thracian army for Saga: Age of Alexander. Normally, the last thing I do for any new army is paint the warlord stand. However, I was tired of using my Roman warlord as proxy for this army (which IS about half done, now). So, I decided to paint up the last of the rhomphaia men and the warlord. I've also decided to take a pause on playing the Thracians at our Saga game days to get some practice in with my venerable Welsh army. I will likely be playing it in the next two tournaments I take part in.

    A look at the shields of this batch, which includes the warlord stand & five rhomphaia men

The only assembly necessary for these Crusader Miniatures Thracians (which I bought from Badger Games) was epoxying the shields on the arms and giving the warlord his spear. I particularly liked how many of these Thracians have their left arms extended to make it even easier to properly center and affix the shields. As readers of my blog know, I prefer metal miniatures over plastic kits with all of their heads, arms, and torsos that require assemblage. I am getting a bit better at using super glue recently, but still not enough to want to have to glue a whole army together. Give me the heft and weight of metals any day! 

    Almost no assembly required -- the wicker crescent shields were the only thing I had to glue on

I started my usual way on these figures: white priming and then painting the skin. I use ordinary white craft paint to prime figures with a thick, stiff brush. Next, I paint all of the flesh areas with craft paint flesh. The color I use is too pale for my liking, so I put a Terra Cotta colored wash over the skin afterwards once it dries. The next step is the artistic step, in my opinion. I grab a ballpoint pen, survey my paint rack, and select the colors for the figures tunics and cloaks (if they have one). I write these down on the cardboard square I temporarily base my figures being painted upon.

    The pastel colored tunics and cloaks of the Thracians all received a dry brush highlighting

After painting the base color for all of the tunics, I do a dry brush of a lighter version of that color (usually the next day, after the acrylic paint has had a chance to "shrink wrap" onto the figure). Then I follow up with the cloak color, and dry brush it the next day, as well. Okay, I lied. This NEXT step is truly the artistic step for the Thracians. I sit down and plan out the cloak pattern for each of the figures wearing cloaks (six of the eight in this batch). I will physically draw a sketch of the pattern on the cardboard square, with notes on what colors I will use. 

    So far, I am a big fan of how these geometric patterns are coming out on my Thracian Saga army

On about half of these patterns, I used micron pens. The rest were done with a brush. I am really happy with the way the cloaks on my Thracians are turning out. The micron pens (I buy the Sakura brand from Hobby Lobby, and my favorite pack contains six "Earth Tones"). However, I recommend getting an even smaller tip black mircon pen, too. It is very useful for the tiniest detail work or outlining a shield pattern. Some things I find easier to do by brush, though -- such as borders on cloaks or evenly spaced lines on particularly rippled cloaks. Cloaks with deep folds make it difficult to fit the nib of the micron pen all the way into. Of course, none of these details would be possible without my lighted magnifier that I hold the figures under while painting. My eyesight simply isn't what it used to be for finer details, and I depend on it regularly.

    Several angles of the warlord stand - note the severed heads on the standard & ground in front

For the warlord, I decided to forego giving him a dog or other animal on his base, like I often do in Saga. I liked the standard bearer figure on foot (with its two severed heads suspended from the pole). I also decided to use one bodyguard type figure with a rhomphaia, in addition to the mounted general. This would give me a total of three figures on the warlord's base, which is what I like. Also, if I use one mounted figure and two foot figures on a warlord base, I can legitimately claim that stand as either mounted or foot! I will usually use him as mounted with this army, but there may be opponents where I would prefer him to be on foot. This way, I paint up just one warlord and use him for both options. 

I painted the warlord in more of a Greek style rather than one of the tribal Thracians. From recent excavations of the tombs of Thracian kings, they would often imitate Greek dress and fashion.  In hindsight, I wish I had put more effort into his horse rather than giving him a boring white one. Sigh. I do like the severed head on a post and helmeted head leaning against it, though! I've had these painted up ever since my Roman army, but decided the leader of Thracian tribesmen would be the perfect general to use it on!

So, what's up next on my painting desk? I actually assembled an MDF building that I will need for the next post-apocalyptic scenario. It is black primed on my desk and I should begin painting the interior walls tomorrow. I also have some more wrecked cars I picked up as part of a Terrain Crate pack that I want to squeeze in between more batches of Thracians, too! So stay tuned -- it is summer and I finally have time to work on my hobby stuff!