Ragnar Lothbrok and Family & Friends

    Ragnar Lothbrok and his family and friends from the Vikings TV series - 28mm Brigade Games

Since I am going to be running my Viking Town Raid game at a number of conventions this year, I decided to spice up the interest level a bit by using characters from the 2013 History Channel's Vikings series. They will lead each player characters' band of raiders in their attempt to gather more loot than their fellow Vikings. I asked for input on the Lead Adventure Forum and did some searching myself, and eventually decided to go with 28mm metal miniatures from Brigade Games. Besides the series star Ragnar Lothbrok, the set of five also included his brother Rollo, wife Lagertha, son Bjorn Ironside, and friend Floki the shipbuilder.

    Vikings series characters in front of a 28mm Acheson Creations Viking Turf House

I preferred to order all five from the same manufacturer so that I didn't end up with scale issues. Plus, Lon Weiss at Brigade Games always has excellent service and sells quality miniatures. Shipping from the USA, rather than an overseas manufacturer, was a plus, as well. I really liked the figures when I unpacked them, and continued to like them through the painting process. There was almost zero flash and the detail was crisp. I detest "slotta" bases, so snipped them off of their metal tabs and shaved the bottoms of their feet flat so that I could epoxy them directly to the base. I primed them with white Gesso, and the Vikings were quickly ready to be painted!

For their flesh, I use a ruddy craft paint but then apply a wash of darker orange color. I don't know why a matte clear paint and a matte dark orange combine to give me a glossy finish sometimes, but that's what I have to deal with. I fix that anyway during the final wash and clear coat stage. I decided to do all five at the same time, painting their flesh, then clothing, then weapons, etc., at the same time. I wasn't under huge deadline pressure, as I wouldn't be running the game till Cincycon weekend, Feb. 28-March 2. For those interested in playing, the game can accommodate six players (all Vikings) and will be on Friday at 7pm and Saturday at 10am. 

    Ragnar Lothbrok from Brigade Games -- I think they did a nice job recreating him in 28mm

I am hard pressed to pick a favorite among the five miniatures, so I will just go over them one by one. Starting with series star Ragnar, I did numerous Google Image searches to try to get his costume from the series right. The chainmail is my usual recipe -- an Iron Wind Metals Steel base color with a Silver dry brush. Seeing the images for the characters I found online, there would be LOTS of varieties of brown in these five figures. So, I did my best to differentiate tones so each figure didn't look like one big blob of brown. For Ragnar, that meant a dark brown tunic (with my own addition of a dark red trim), medium brown trousers, and lighter brown boots. Googling his shield came up with a red shield with a strange bird emblem, so I took that as liberty to create my own Ragnar shield design using a bird head. The tattoos on his head came out well, I thought, as did his lighter tan colored hair.

    I like how Ragnar's brother, Rollo, and his tattoos came out (which I did with a black micron pen)

Bare-chested Rollo was probably the easiest to paint (at least until it came to the tattoos). More brown's with some leather straps and tan boots. His shield also came up in a Google search. Incidentally, I think the design is similar to one of the flags of the Nordic nations today. His dark brown hair and slightly crazed looking eyes came out well, too.

    Ragnar's wife Lagertha is a definite fan favorite in the series -- a tough, no-nonsense shield maiden!

Lagertha gave me the opportunity to do the most detail and creativity. Blue seemed to be her color in the series, so I gave her a light blue tunic with a decorative darker blue and yellow band at the hem. Her trousers were brown (what else?) and I made her boots a bit fancier looking, painting them reddish brown. Her blonde hair was more striking than the other characters in the images, so I used a brighter yellow. The shield design is the one she and her shield maidens used later in the series and is based on a Viking rune, I believe. In fact, I admit the chronology of the characters and game are a bit mixed up. By the time Björn is old enough to go to war and lead men, Rollo is in Normandy. But hey, it is a game and most of the Ragnar legendary sagas are liberally played with by the show's writers.

    I'm satisfied with my job on Björn Ironside's animal skin cloak - Ragnar would be proud of his son

Björn's figure was the one I was least looking forward to paint. The images I saw online of his animal fur cloak looked challenging. Still, I persevered and did my best. I began with a light tan base coat on the fur, then white dry brush in what would be the animal's (wolf? fox?) lighter sections, with medium brown patches here and there to darken it up. A brown wash over it all and I am actually very happy with how the cloak came out. The rest of the figure is various tones of (wait for it...) brown and gray. The "< >" shield came up in a Google search, so I went with it. I gave him lighter blond hair than his mom, but more yellow than dad, which I thought made sense.

    I managed to hold off mimicking Floki the shipbuilder's insane giggle as I painted his figure

Finally, Floki -- a very interesting character in the series. The shipbuilder is not named as such on Brigade Games' website, but is obviously based on that character. He holds an awl (wood carving tool) and axe. In the series, he rarely carries a shield, if I remember correctly, but I attached one to his back anyway since it was included in the pack. Here the Google searches were particularly helpful. I replicated the reddish brown vest, gray under tunic, brown pants, and dark boots as closely as I could but to also allow for contrast and a more interesting looking miniature. I gave him the tear tracks tattoos that this devoted follower of the Norse gods wears in the film. His unruly hair was done in a medium brown and he looks equally sinister and crazy like the character is at times in the events in the series.

All in all, I am VERY happy with how Ragnar and his crew turned out. When I left for vacation Feb. 4, everything was done on these figures except the wash and flocking. I finished those when I came back, two weeks later. It is also less than two weeks from my Cincycon game, now, so hopefully you will soon see action shots of them looting an Anglo-Saxon town and cutting down hapless villagers!

    A final look at the Brigade Games' take on the characters from the History Channels series, Vikings

What else is on my paint desk? I have the two trailers I purchased from Bad Goblin Games at Siege of Augusta. Both have their primary base coat and dry brush done on their exteriors. I have begun painting the exterior details and then will switch to the interiors. They also have to be done because I will be bringing them down to Cincycon to be used by Bad Goblin Games when they run their Trailer Park Warlords of the Apocalypse game Friday, 2pm, at Cincycon. A couple of the owners just happen to be in Cincinnati from Florida for work, and they decided to run one of their games and attend the show. Since they're flying up, I am helping them out by bringing a mat and some terrain to use. If you get a chance to play in their game, I encourage you to do so. It is a lot of fun!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 7
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 15 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 5
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 7

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 9
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 5

Viking Longship in 25mm Resin

    This 25mm resin Viking longship has languished unpainted in my closet for more than a decade!

Many, many moons ago, I went to Pittsburgh for a DBA Ancients tournament held at a game store. I placed well enough to win a store gift certificate, but ignored the packets of 15mm Ancients lined up for us to choose from. My eye had been caught by a 25mm scale Viking longship on the shelves. I chose that, and it has languished in a series of closets over the years until recently. I pulled it out to paint up as eye candy for my Viking Town Raid game (which I seem to mention on here in every other post...ha, ha!). 

    Closeup of the dragon figurehead, which was actually a metal piece which needed to be glued on

It comes with rowers and such, but honestly I want it just as a piece of stationary, atmospheric terrain. So, I stuck the rowers in the unpainted lead drawer to continue languishing (poor guys!). The longship comes in two resin pieces -- the hull of the ship and the deck with its benches and such. The dragon figurehead and curly tail spiraling off the stern came as lead castings. It also included one single wooden dowel for the mast. I glued the deck to the ship and the figureheads to their bow and stern posts. The dowel I set aside to agonize about later. The constructed ship itself got a black spray paint coat, followed up by my usual brush-on 50/50 mix of water and black acrylic paint.

    A close up of the benches and fur bundles that the rowers would sit on while at sea

Painting the ship actually went very quickly, much to my surprise. I did a wet brush of Howard Hues Camo Brown, followed by a dry brush of Khaki as a highlight. Then, came the more time consuming part of picking out the details on the deck -- the wooden seat benches, the piles of furs or skins for rowers to sit on, and the various bronze fittings. I went with paler colors, figuring the sun and salt spray would have bleached them over the weeks and months at sea. Once done with all of these, I did a black vehicle wash over the entire thing. I was very happy with how it had come out so far, but there was the small detail of that dowel for a mast!

    Panic along the coastline as the dragon figurehead is sighted - Viking raiders on the way!

Obviously, a single upright dowel was NOT going to do! Not sweet enough for eye candy, in my opinion. I would have to at least do a cross-spar, and hopefully with a furled sail gathered around it. The model will be sitting at anchor or dock 90% of the time I use it, I imagine, so a furled sail looks better than one with a bellyful of wind. I did research on what a Viking longship with a furled sail would look like. I asked the incredibly creative folks on the Lead Adventure Forum for suggestions. Thus, the two weeks or so of "agonizing" while the rest of the longship sat finished on my desk.

    The curled stern is another metal piece and turned out very nicely when dry brushed

Before I could even begin on the sail, I would have to first affix the horizontal spar to the dowel rod. I decided to go with a narrower width dowel for the spar, and I would pin the two together with a piece of brass rod. I also shaved out a bit of a flat on the spar so the two would join closer together. From there, it was a simple matter of drilling a hole in each and then adding the pin. Once it was in place and the glue had dried on the mast, I slid the spar onto the projecting length of the pin. Once again, simple to do, with white glue adding its grip to the two pieces of wood. Once dry, I trimmed off the excess pin and recommenced my agonizing about the furled sail!

    The cause for days and days of agonizing: How to do a furled sail on the longship?

There were several good suggestions for how to do the furled sail on the forum, but I ended up going with my first thought. I purchased a piece of red and white striped scrapbooking paper from the local craft store. For some reason, Viking longships are always illustrated with a red and white vertically striped sails. The pre-printed paper would keep me from having to paint the sail. I measured and trimmed off a rectangle. I then folded it in half, painted the underside with white glue, and set it under a weight so it dried flat. While it was drying, I borrowed a spool of brown thread from Jenny, and wrapped and cross-wrapped the spar and mast together so it would look like rope lashings.

    A welcome sight to many villagers -- a Viking longship sailing away!

I was still figuring things out on the fly, and putting further work off each day. One night, while trying to get to sleep, I had the idea of pre-curling the top part of the sail around the spar and epoxying it in place as a separate first step. So, I took the sail (which was only about half the length it would be if it would be down and "full bellied"), and trimmed out a divot in the exact center where the top end would split to go around the mast. I epoxied it into place. This worked really well. So far, so good. I took a deep breath. I was ready to put my ideas to the test and furl the sail to the spar. I found a piece of insulation foam and poked the bottom of the dowel into it, firmly fixing it upright. Next, I grabbed my bottle of 50/50 white glue and water and poured its contents into a plastic cup. I set the foam on the edge of the sink and weighed it down so it wouldn't tip over and fall in.

Taking a wide flat brush, I soaked the sail thoroughly with white glue and water. I waited till its ends began to curl, which hopefully meant the layer of white glue joining the two folded sides together was once again wet and pliable. I cut a length of brown thread, made a loop, and pulled it tight, pulling the sail up like a curtain. I wrapped the thread round and round the dripping paper. I did the same thing in three more spots -- two "tie ups" on either side of the mast. It was a little crumpled in places, but by and large, looked vaguely like I wanted it. I set it to dry over the sink.

   A view from above of the longship, which actually painted up very quickly to my surprise!

That evening, once the glue had dried, I trimmed off various wild pieces of string, and painted over the loops with full strength white glue. The next morning, I used a thin brush to paint a light leather color over the looped string. Was it perfect? No. I am sure others could do a much nicer job. However, I pronounced myself satisfied and all that was left to do was to clearcoat the ship and mast. Done! After languishing in my closet for more than a decade, I finally had a 25mm Viking longship! I have updated my tallies below, but felt a little like Legolas and Gimli when adding only a "1" to the "Terrain Painted" total. Despite weeks sitting on the painting desk (and days of agonizing), "That still counts as only one!"

    Last look at the dragon figurehead -- which historically was removed when sailing to trade peacefully

What's next on my paint desk? Well, the occupants of the ship! I purchased a set of five 28mm Viking miniatures from Brigade Games that are sculpted to resemble Ragnar Lothbrok and his friends and family. They are close to being done, and will likely be my first post when I return from vacation. So stay tuned!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 7
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 10 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 5
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 7

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 9
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 5

Lion Rampant: Charlemagne's Empire Battles Byzantines in Italy

    Our Sunday evening group gave Lion Rampant a try, with six 24-point warbands on the table at once

My friends Keith and Mike S had been wanting to try a big game of Lion Rampant for awhile. We finally got it arranged for this past Sunday, with six armies on the tabletop. Three Carolingian commands faced off against two Early Byzantine with one Avar ally. Each of the six players controlled a 24-point warband using Lion Rampant rules. I was worried that it would be too much of a traffic jam on my eight foot wide table, but it ended up not being the case. I was pleasantly surprised by that.

    Carolingian left wing in the early game as we struggle with activation rolls to move up

I commanded the left wing of Charlemagne's army. Jenny in the center and Allen on the right had identical forces taken from the 2nd Edition rule book. We each had two units of Heavy Cavalry, two of Heavy Infantry, and two Archer units. I was a little worried when Mike S and Keith deployed on their side of the field, though. Every unit in Mike's Byzantine command could shot, and all but one in Joel's Avars. Keith's Byzantines were on the opposite side of the field, and he was fiddling with his troop list still when he arrived, so I am not 100% sure of what he fielded. I do know his archers seized a crop field and shot Allen's troops mercilessly. So, I was worried how Lion Rampant would play out with a mostly shooty army vs. a mostly not. Missile fire is something "big skirmish" rules sets often struggle with representing, making it alternately too powerful or too ineffective.

    Jenny's Carolingian center command, with one of its archer units on the left supporting me

Jenny had put one of her archer units on the left end of her battle line, and they marched alongside my two archer units who were on my right to repel Joel's fast-moving Avars. In Lion Rampant, foot bows consistently out-range horse archers (18" vs. 12"). So, with Joel's steady advance, he was bound to take some shots coming in. Jenny's archers loosed first and drove back Joel's light cavalry (the unit failed its courage test), killing two of their six figures. That was my hope. Mounted units in Lion Rampant are typically six figures while foot are usually 12. We should have more staying power in an archery duel. On the left, that's how it began to play out. After a frustrating first couple turns, I finally got my archers moving, hurrying to catch up with the heavy infantry who were advancing to meet the mounted Avar battle line.

    Joel's Avar mounted horse archer battleline across the table from my left wing

Joel was unable to get close enough to shoot without taking casualties. The Frankish archers would cause 1-2 casualties with each shot, and that would often be enough to drive back the small Avar mounted units. Things became desperate enough for Joel that he sent the Avar general with his Elite Cavalry to fill the gap vacated by the light horse. The Avar nobles charged forward, first against my archers, then against Jenny's. They drove back my unit which was trying to enter the plowed fields, but when they followed up by charging Jenny's archers, disaster struck. In Lion Rampant, if a leader's unit takes casualties, you roll to see if he was killed. It requires a "snake eyes" -- "2" on 2d12 to kill the general, but guess what Jenny rolled? The Elite Avar cavalry failed its morale check and fell back. Each turn, archers would shoot at them again and again until the unit was finally destroyed.

    Joel's Byzantine allies, Mike S (left) and Keith as their legions begin to advance across the table

On the far left, my two heavy spear units attacked a unit of Avar Cavalry. Each time, they counter-charged and drove us back. However, with our combined 24 figures against their six to absorb casualties, they had little hope and were whittled down below half strength. My own general got in on the action and charged in to finish off the unit. The Avars opposed to us were disintegrating, and we surged forward to try to threaten the Byzantine center. However, we were too late. Mike had cleverly placed his shooting units in a crescent and concentrated archery on Jenny's units that advanced. The shooting of four to five units a turn devastated her forces. One after another, her infantry and archers were hurled back. Mike had began the game activating poorly with dice rolls. However, when crunch time came and the Carolingian center entered his range, his rolls were flawless and he proved my fears were justified. Five units shooting from a defensive posture were simply too much to overcome. Jenny's forces were crippled and fell back.

    All of Mike S's force were archers -- from his lowly foot skirmishers to his heavy and elite cavalry

On the far right wing, Keith had been getting the better of Allen, as well. He had a unit of Elite Cavalry that was worth 8 points -- double what each of our units were worth. He used them to great effect to smash each unit Allen advanced, after it had been weakened by his Byzantine archers in the plowed field. Allen scored some successes, too, routing Keith's light infantry with bowfire. However, Allen's activation rolls were very poor -- especially with his other archer unit, which handicapped him severely. It is interesting that each command that attacked -- Joel's Avar left, Jenny's Carolingian center, and Allen right wing -- were all driven back by missile fire. Is archery in a defensive posture too powerful in Lion Rampant? This is only our first game with the rules, so I can't say for sure.

    Joel's Avar Light Horse dash towards the center of the battlefield, next to the village

There are a lot of variables in the rules, though. Units don't activate all the time. We needed to roll a 6+ on 2d6 to get our archers to activate. As the Carolingians, we failed at least 1/3 of the time, it seemed, with our bowmen. The Heavy Infantry do slightly better with a 5+ on 2d6, but that often meant they advanced unsupported against a wall of missiles. I did make the comment to the others that Lion Rampant was originally designed to be a medieval battle game -- not to replicate steppe warfare, which is kind of the army we faced. It convinced us that we need to be sure to do historical battles in our future games. Everyone was encouraged enough by the results to give it another try, though. Mike S suggested he'd rather fight the battles of Dark Age Britain than the continent, so there will be no horse archers or entirely missile-armed armies there...I hope!

    And those Avar Light Horse are promptly driven back by Frankish archery

Six commands of 24 points on an 8'x4' field DID work, much to my surprise. What's more, the game ended fairly quickly. Well, we actually called it early as Jenny and Allen's forces were in no shape to advance. I had won on the left, but I had no easy way to exploit my success with the Byzantine center anchored on the impassable terrain of the village in between out forces. I felt the enemy had won, though they weren't so sure. So, our experiment was enough of a success you will likely see us playing more Lion Rampant games in the future. Mike chose to use the variant of the rules where failure to activate a unit does NOT end your turn. Much like with Rebels and Patriots, you are given a chance to activate every unit in your force (assuming it did not have to rally), no matter how many other units had failed. Honestly, I prefer that. I know, I know -- playing the less forgiving command and control system forces you to make hard choices!

    Joel plugs the gap with his Elite Cavalry, who charge into the flank of my archers, driving them back

However, on a Sunday evening multiplayer game, I am looking to roll dice and have fun -- not agonize over every activation roll. And for those players having a bad night crapping out on activation rolls, there's not a whole lot of fun if you don't get to move troops around and shoot or fight! So, I guess I'm in the less serious, more "Let's have fun" crowd when it comes to "big skirmishes." And on that note, I don't really consider Lion Rampant, Saga, Warhammer, etc., skirmish games. They're big battle games. Anytime you're maneuvering 12-figure units around, you have left the skirmish world behind, in my opinion. Still, we laughed and had fun, whatever we want to call the game!

    Elated by their success, the Avar nobles charge into another archer unit...but lose their general!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 7
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 10 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 5
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 4

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 9
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 1

    The battle rages as my Carolingian leader at bottom leads his troops forward

    Victorious on the left, my command begins to sweep in towards the Byzantine center

    Good to get a table full of troops out & see the spectacle of a Dark Age warfare with Lion Rampant!

Armored Archers & Such for Sellswords Semi-Historical

    Six heroes of the British Isles ready to take on the Viking raiders in my semi-historical campaign

The really cool thing about starting to play a new set of rules -- cooperative Sellswords & Spellslingers in a semi-historical setting -- is that I have almost all of the figures I need already. Well, almost. One thing I noticed as I was reorganizing my Saga Dark Ages miniatures was that I have no armored archers. All of my bowmen are unarmored. Some have helmets or shields, but none had chainmail or even leather armor.

Thus, this batch of four armored archers in case one of my players decides they want to equip one of their archers with armor. The other two figures are covering other minor gaps in my collection. Since the players will represent the heroes of the British Isles -- Anglo-Saxons, Britons, Picts, Scots -- I noticed that I didn't have many "heroic" looking Pictish figures. Also, pretty much all of my miniatures with a two-handed axe or sword are Viking. And in this campaign, the Vikings are the "bad guys." So, I tossed in a Pictish hero and a Anglo-Saxon with a two-handed axe (and shield on back). These six won't cover every gap I have, but it is a start. Not to mention that the players may want to use their own figures...heresy! Ha, ha!!

    I really like the Pictish hero, left -- doesn't he took a bit like Mel Gibson in 'Braveheart'?

My favorite figure of this batch is the Pictish hero with his arms upraised. I don't know if it was intentional, but to me he looks a LOT like Mel Gibson's William Wallace character in the movie "Braveheart." He is a 28mm Gripping Beast miniature from their Scots-Irish Heroes pack. I believe they also package him individually as chieftain because I swear that's how I bought him from Cotton Jim's Flags at Historicon either this past year or in 2023. I went with a highlander looking color combination -- a dark red and black tartan wrapped across his shoulder and a dark greenish kilt. I considered putting a pattern on the kilt, too, but have found that sometimes too many patterns on one figure is "too much" for the eyes. The other figure is a cloaked Dark Age warrior that I believe is also from Gripping Beast. I gave him a bow and arrow made from lead spears. I also gave him a pattern on his reddish-brown cloak, though it is hard to see it in this photo. 

    An armored Briton converted into an archer and a Saxon warrior with a two-handed axe

I have owned the 28mm figures I use for my Britons for so long I have honestly forgotten who the manufacturer was. The figure on the left comes from that pack, which you may be able to tell from his almost Late Roman style helmet. Speaking of patterns, his cloak pattern is my absolute favorite from this group of six. Since the Britons were definitely Christian at this time, I thought I could get away with a cross and dot pattern on a broad red stripe. Otherwise, I have him a deep blue cloak, pale blue tunic, and dun yellow leggings. I love the horn strapped at his waist and think it helps him pull of the archer vibe. The Anglo-Saxon warrior shows he is from the period with major Scandinavian influence on equipment, and could easily substitute as a Viking if needed. I like the green and yellow color combination on him, and his baggy trousers.

    Another 'general' figure raided for an archer & another Briton complete the set of six figures

I raided another Gripping Beast leader figure for this armored archer on the left. This is their Alfred the Great figure reduced in prestige to merely a heroic archer. The arrows that the four archers in this post are carrying are slender lead spears I've trimmed down. For the feathers on the ends, I painted the tips in white glue and sprinkled fine Woodland Scenics flocking on them to give it some texture. Alfred's bow is a brass wire spear (I needed something narrower to go though his closed fist), while his British companion carries a slightly thicker lead spear trimmed and bent. I like how both of these turned out, and love the balding head of the Briton. Alfred the Archer's fur-lined cloak is cool, while I went all-out on his companion's cloak with my Micron pens. 

    Another look at the six heroes I painted up, the first specifically for my semi-historical campaign

All in all, these six figures should prove useful if players choose to use them for their characters. I envision each player controlling 2-3 figures in this cooperative minis game. The bad guys are run by the A.I. and card deck in Ganesha Games' Sellswords & Spellslingers rules. As I mentioned, this will be semi-historical, so no "wizard" characters and we shall have to see how the supernatural makes an appearance in the games. At the soonest, it will likely not be till late March that I begin running games with the rules. It depends on if I run my Star Wars skirmish first.

So, what else is on my painting desk? I have begun working on some Viking heroes resembling the characters from the History Channel "Vikings" series. There's Ragnar Lothbrok, his wife Lagertha, and more. Those will be for my Viking Town Raid game, as will the 28mm resin Viking longship which is done except for the creating the sail. Stay tuned for those and more which are underway...!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 7
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 10 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 5
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 4

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 9
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 1

Ah, the Good Old Days -- 3 Acheson Creations Medieval Buildings

    3 Acheson Creations Medieval/Dark Age huts picked up on sale at Drums at the Rapids 2024

When I first began to make the switch from 15mm to 28mm wargaming, Acheson Creations were the first buildings I bought. I picked up quite a few for both the Medieval and American Frontier periods. They were a great introduction to buying and painting 28mm terrain, mostly buildings. They were easy to prepare, paint, and flock. Their deep grooved detail made it easy to simply base coat, wet brush, then dry brush -- and voila! Your terrain piece was ready for the tabletop. I was very disappointed when they scaled back production as Craig Acheson went into semi-retirement.

    The two bigger huts -- SO easy to prepare and paint up-- and one of my 28mm Dark Ages villagers

At Drums at the Rapids 2024, a regional distributor of their products was also stepping back from attending gaming shows and selling his stock at 50% off. In addition to a number of other items, I picked up three of the thatch-roofed Medieval buildings produced by Acheson Creations. I had all but forgotten about them in the intervening months since last May. Luckily, last year I created a note on my iPhone that documents all terrain and scatter I have that is unpainted or unassembled. I saw these three buildings and immediately added them to my Short List which sits on my desktop to help me remember what I planned to do next.

    The smaller of the three medieval huts -- I like the stonework lining the bottom of the walls

One drawback to Acheson products if you are unaware, though, is that the mold release agent is very powerful and lingering. Long ago, my friend Jason -- He of the Great Suggestions -- told me about his trick of running them through the dishwasher machine. Next, I spray them with Krylon Fusion Acrylic Matte Black paint. This is followed up, as usual, by brushing on a 50/50 mix of black acrylic craft paint and water (which I keep remixed in a plastic bottle on my painting desk) to get into all the recesses. Once dry, the item is ready to be painted.

    Acheson buildings often don't have a way to keep roofs on - my solution is pieces of black foamboard

The buildings come in two pieces, roof and the main body. Another drawback to some Acheson products is there are no "tabs" or ways to keep the roof from sliding off. I have tried various things over the years, such as magnets. However, I find the best method is to take some stiff black foam board and glue to the underside of the roof with epoxy. This keeps the roof from sliding and is hidden from the eye when the roof is placed on top of the building proper. For one of these three, I tried a new experiment, gluing bamboo skewers into the inside corners of the bottom half of the building. I gouged out some material from the underside of the roof where the skewers would line up. In the end, I probably should have done the foam board on all three. Historically, I prefer this method and think it is the least fiddly -- no worries about lining up the skewers and holes.

    Although intended as Medieval/Dark Ages huts, they can be used for a variety of periods

All three buildings were painted identically, and are intended to add to my Anglo-Saxon village for my Viking Raid scenario I will be running this year at conventions. The bottom half received a base coat of "Maple Sugar" craft paint, a first dry brush of tan, and a second highlighting of white. The wooden corners, as well as the window and door wooden pieces were done in dark brown with a Howard Hues Camo Brown wet brush and finally a tan drybrush. I went back and read some early entries to my blog to remember how I did thatch for my Acheson buildings. After the black prime, I did a wet brush of Camo Brown, dry brush of Iron Wind Metals Dun, and very highlight of light gray. Both the bottom half and roof half each also received black vehicle wash.

   The two larger buildings without their roofs - I really like the muddy look my color combination gave

I really like how the walls look -- very muddy -- what you'd expect from a Dark Ages Anglo-Saxon village. Or, at least what I would expect...ha, ha! The thatch looks nice, too, I feel -- not too bright and not too gray. I realize my thatch is likely very new looking compared to what it looks like after its aged a few years. However, I feel it looks more like what we expect thatch to look like. Just like how we make wood more brown on the wargames table than the very grayish color old wood looks. It conforms to our expectations and having more color says, "wood" to us -- or in this case, "thatch."

    A look from above at the thatching -- Acheson buildings have great, deeply grooved detail

I flock the bases in my usual way, as well, and was done with these three pieces much more quickly than the one very small building that you will hopefully see in the next post. Then again, that has always been something I love about buildings from Acheson Creations. They are soooo darned easy to get ready for the tabletop! So, what's next? That mystery small building (or is more like a market stand?) that I alluded to is almost finished, as well. At the same time, I am working on a half dozen Dark Ages warriors to be available for players to choose for their characters in my upcoming semi-historical take on Sellswords & Spellslingers. More on those soon...!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 0
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 4 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 0
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 3

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 0
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 1

My Hurried Week of Dark Age Town Additions

    Much to my amazement, I got all of this prepped and ready for the tabletop in one week!

Knowing that I was going to be running my playtest of my Viking Town Raid using Sellswords & Spellslingers this past Sunday, I spent the week leading up to it hurriedly getting some more stuff ready. I wasn't 100% sure I actually needed any of it, but figured it would be nice to have them. I readied two Dark Age buildings for the table, painted up nine more armed peasants, added four highland cattle, two oxen, and a burning fire pit with flickering LED light. 

    This Dark Age hut by Tim Peaslee needed only a minor fix to become part of my Anglo-Saxon town

Amazingly, I ended up getting all of it finished, which honestly surprised me. When I first set up the raid's terrain on my hexagonal gaming mat, I felt it could use a few more buildings. I glanced through my unpainted terrain list that I keep in the Notes section of my phone and saw a couple items I likely could get finished in time. One was a gift from master terrain maker and friend Tim Peaslee. A year or so ago, he had handed me a Dark Age/Medieval looking home that he'd created out of insulation foam and wood. He does the thatch, I believe, by running a wire brush through the insulation foam to give the pattern. Tim then paints the thatch and you would never know it was originally pink foam -- except the one he'd given me you could barely see glimmerings of the pink beneath the thatch color. Being anal, I wanted to get rid of that before I used the building, of course! So, I watered down Walnut brown acrylic paint by about a third and brushed it on thickly. It soaked through, covering any pink. A tan dry brush brought the thatch highlights back, and voila -- one more building was ready for the tabletop!

    My "Made in China" rustic stable needed only a black wash and flocking to be ready, as well

The next building is a rustic-looking stable that originally came from Michaels or similar craft store. I bought this resin piece years ago at a flea market and it still has the "Made in China" sticker on the bottom! It had been obviously mass produced in China, but needed only a little more work. I did a black vehicle wash on the wooden timbers and wattle walls. Next, I painted the green base with my usual earth brown that I use for bases. I flocked it with fine brown ballast and then Woodland Scenics Blended Earth flocking. A second building was ready for the table!

    The Reaper Bones oxen in their stable, happy to be finally painted up and part of a game!

Now, I needed more animals for the stable, right? The stable is rather large, scale-wise, and my current collection of 28mm animals would look diminutive inside of it. Luckily, already based but not painted up, were two large Reaper Bones oxen. I primed them with gesso white, even though I know you supposedly don't need to prime Reaper Bones figs. They got a quick paint job as they were the last things I was working on. I did a base coat of acrylic Bambi Brown and dry brushed them Wild Rice. Next, I painted the thatch of hair on their shoulders Autumn Brown, their horns ivory, and their eye sockets, nostrils, and mouth black. A brown vehicle wash over them and they look very passable for a quick, two-day (?) paint job!

    Four 28mm Gripping Beast (I believe) highland cattle wondering what all the noise of the raid is...

Also already epoxied onto bases were a family of four 28mm highland cattle from Gripping Beast. I had put one adult and one calf on each round base back when I was basing them up as objective markers for Saga (that never got painted). They also received a gesso primer, then a "Georgia Clay" acrylic color base coat. I did a tan dry brush, and picked out their eye sockets, and facial features in black. I did their horns ivory, as well. Once they were dry, I did a brown wash on them, as well. At first, I wasn't too happy with how they looked. Now that they are all flocked and based up, I'm much happier. More animals were in place for my Viking players to steal!

    Three of the 28mm peasants I added "just in case" cluster near the Bad Goblin Games firepit

You have also likely noticed, by this point, the flickering fire pit. This is one of the three 3-D printed LED fires that I bought at Historicon from Bad Goblin Games. This one was the most "Medieval" of the three, so I snatched it out from its brethren to add to the atmosphere of the tabletop. The piece comes with the LED light and the watch battery you slide into the slot ready-made for it. The fire pit itself comes in four pieces. There is the cylindrical, stone base, which I painted black with shades of dry-brushed grays. The orange plastic flames and wood pieces are the second piece. I painted the pieces of wood rather than leave them brown, but left the flames, "as is." I have heard some add a reddish wash over the orange flames. Maybe I will try that on the dumpster and garbage can fire from Bad Goblin Games that I still have to paint? There is also a bronze colored ring that goes atop the pit, which I just gave a clear gloss.  Finally, if you want the fire to be "out," they include a circular disc of "ashes," which I once again did in black and grays. I really like these flickering LED scatter pieces. They are incredibly affordable -- just $5 or less. Bad Goblin will be at Siege of Augusta this January, and I will be sore tempted to pick up more of their incredible terrain!!  

    Next batch of three peasants take their turn faithfully defending the oxen, who watch with interest

Last but not least, I spent most of the week working on nine more 28mm peasants I can use for Dark Age or Medieval games -- especially the raid! Some of them are Ancient Germans from Foundry, while others are Scots/Irish (or Welsh, I forget...) from Old Glory. I needed to put weapons in the hands of some of them, so used some of my spare axes or short swords from my unpainted weapons stash. Other than that, I wanted these to look as poor and simple as possible. So, no patterns or checks or stripes or anything, even though I knew it would make them look nicer. Also, I was in a hurry...ha, ha! I used earth tones -- tans, browns, grays, and some grayish greens or blues. I think they turned out pretty good for a quickie rush job. Did I end up needing them for the game to reinforce the peasants I already had? Well, not really! But hey -- I was prepared! 

    The final group of three Anglo-Saxon peasants ready to heroically chase off the Viking raiders

What's next? I have a couple Sci-Fi pieces of scatter on the paint desk right now. No miniatures, as I'm taking a breath after this hurried week of painting! After that, I am thinking of working on some of the MDF scatter that I bought from Dad's Armies at Advance the Colors...

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 227
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 254