Carolingian Archers Ready to Loose (um...NOT lose!)

 

    8 Old Glory 28mm archers to use as a Warrior Bow unit in my Carolingian Saga army

Since I like to mix things up while I am painting, it was the archer's turn to be the next group of figures painted for my new Carolingian Saga army. I'd already finished the first mounted hearthguard and foot warriors batches, so they were next. Once finished with these, my Carolingian army will be half finished (not counting the warlord's base, which I will do last).

    My 3 points of Carolingians so far -- almost halfway there on finishing the army!

The archer figures were not part of the Gripping Beast 4-point starter army, which the rest of the army will come from. They are various Dark Ages archers that I had in my unpainted bin. These eight, I believe, are from Old Glory. Sure, I could have purchased archers specifically for this army from Gripping Beast or Footsore, or any of the other miniature manufacturers that are much more popular with Saga players, now. However, the cheapskate in me just couldn't do that. Especially since I think they look perfectly fine. There were only three poses, I admit. However, divided amongst two planned warrior bow units that means only one figure per unit is a repeat. I can live with that!

    Closeup of 4 of the archers - I thought the helms on the first & third guys from left looked Frankish

An advantage of Old Glory is there was no assembly to be done. I cleaned up the flash with an X-acto knife and affixed them to squares of cardboard with white glue. I have decided to use this batch to do a tutorial post. The intent will be to show beginners how I paint miniatures, so look for that post soon. It'll have LOTS of work-in-progress shots to hopefully give newbies an idea how to approach painting up a batch of miniatures. I scribbled notes on the cardboard squares, selecting my colors for the archer's tunics and pants. Three of the figures had a leather/quilted looking armor, so I chose three different leather shades for those, as well. No cloaks or crazy stuff on these guys, so it was fairly easy to pre-plan my painting.

    Minimal detail on these archers - contrasting color hemlines and simple patterns on quivers, etc.

I did the bronze and steel look on the five figures that had helmets I could do that on, and a simple steel conical helm for the other three. I decided to jazz them up a bit with simple patterns on the quivers and sword sheaths. In keeping with my theme for the Carthaginians, warrior figures receive only a contrasting color on the hemline - no patterned borders or anything like the wealthier hearthguards receive. Nothing fancy in this batch, but these guys will quite possibly be doing the bulk of the killing in the way I plan to run my Carolingians. Their command and control battle board has lots of abilities that can make archery more deadly. 

    Still experimenting with the scratch-built lightbox Jenny built that I used to photograph these

What's next? Well, I am taking a break from miniatures to actually do some terrain, again. Since my current terrain has no specifically designed "rocky areas" -- a popular optional choice for Saga players -- I am creating four small ones. After that, I'll paint the remaining four mounted hearthguard for this army.