Last Points of Carolingians!

    Count Drogo - lord of the Lombard Marches - leads the forces of Charlemagne on its borders

Here are the last of the figures for my 28mm Carolingian Saga army. They include another batch of eight warrior bowmen, the warlord, and a supplemental batch of six archers. As I mentioned in earlier posts, all of the figures in this army except for the bowmen are from the Gripping Beast 4-point starter box I purchased at Game Table Adventures in Newark, OH. I already had a number of various Dark Age bowmen, so I didn't really see the point in going out and purchasing more for this army. I decided instead to use the figures I had and paint them up to match the rest of the army as best I could. Some are from Old Glory, some Warlord Games (I believe), and who knows where else? Feel free to comment on my blog if you recognize certain miniatures!

    I was really happy with how the hand-painted shield and the Photoshop-created banner came out!

I really like how the warlord base came out. I was planning all along to go with a red and green stripe theme for Count Drogo, my fictional Carolingian warlord (count of the Lombard marches). I made it a point to repeat those two colors throughout the warband so they predominate. I obviously made Count Drogo's reds and greens much brighter and fancier! I am not a big fan of painting stripes, but I am pretty happy with how his striped cloak came out. The yellow dots on the tunic were kind of overkill, but hey! A Dark Age noble will want to show off his finery when it comes to clothes. His dragon shield is hand-painted and one of my favorites from recent batches of figures.

    Count Drogo's companions, his trumpeter Ranulf and his Doberman Pinscher, Griffo

The other bit of overkill was on Drogo's scale armor. I decided to paint alternating rows of silver and bronze scales. The Franks were known to produce fine armor and weapons during the Dark Ages, so I figured this noble lord would have the best. Oh, and in case you think "Drogo" is completely made up name, that's not the case. I "Googled" Frankish names and saw it pop up on a list. I like the way that Count Drogo has the same rhythm and rhyme as Khal Drogo, the badass leader of the Dothraki from Game of Thrones! Count Drogo's Doberman Pinscher (no, I did not research if that breed was around in the Dark Ages...) is from Iron Wind metals, I believe. Or perhaps yet another 28mm dog miniature I picked up somewhere in a flea market! I used wire to wrap around the dog's neck as a leash and tucked it underneath Ranulf's hand resting on the hilt. 

    Batch #2 of my Carolingian archers - note the four with shields strapped to backs at the last minute

As mentioned before, though Count Drogo was included in the box, his companions on the base came from other places. I tend to take the figures out of the manufacturer's packaging nowadays when I purchase them. I put them in ziploc bags so they fit better in my unpainted lead drawers. Yes, sad to say, I have a mini cart on wheels with 5-6 drawers full of unpainted lead -- AND a supplemental 3-drawer bin on the shelves next to my painting desk! There's no way everything would fit if they remained in their original packaging. Lately, I have been trying to snip off part of the label and put it inside the ziploc bag, or at least write on the bag in marker what manufacturer and pack the miniatures are from. I would like my blog posts to be more informative and say, "I have no idea where this figure comes from" over and over here...haha!

    I am fairly certain the two on the left are Old Glory Viking archer figs, but not sure about the left two

I did the archers in two batches, one of eight which I had originally planned on doing, and a supplemental group of six after I foolishly thought I was finished with this army. Why paint more? Well, in my Carolingian Saga army, the warrior bowmen are the real killers due to the way I use the advanced abilities on the battle board. So, I decided to paint some more up so that I could reduce the number of warrior spearmen and increase the number of archers, if I choose to do so. Also, as I was finishing the first batch, I decided to attach shields to the backs of four of the Old Glory archers. They are supposed to be warrior bowmen, after all -- not Levy! This meant scraping paint off the figure where the shield would touch the archer's back. I tried to scrape the paint off the corresponding part of the shield off, too. Normally, I would attach any weapons and shield first, before painting. However, I already had these mostly done when I made the decision to give them shields slung on their backs. Probably a poor decision that will result in shields popping off that were insufficiently glued metal onto metal...!

    As with my other Carolingian warriors, I gave these colored hemlines on their tunics

Two of the archers had cloaks, so I was able to do a little pattern on the bottom border. Otherwise, all of the tunics have a simple, contrasting stripe at the hemline for decoration. They also had helmets, so I continued the two-tone metal color combination. These are actually two of the miniatures that I'm not sure if they are Old Glory or another manufacturer. They seem a little more cleanly cast then the other Old Glory sculpts that I used, but that could be just random. They also are a markedly different pose than the others. Old Glory specialized in big bags of figures with slight variations in pose and equipment, so maybe these are their figures and maybe not.

    My modifications to Old Glory Welsh/Irish figures changing them into supplemental bowmen

Once I decided to do the supplemental group of archers, I rummaged through my Dark Age & Ancient unpainted bin drawer. Much to my surprise, I had actually painted up ALL of my archers already. I thought I had more than a dozen more Old Glory Viking bowmen left over, but nope! Oh, no...does this mean I would have to (gasp!) buy more miniatures?? Well, don't despair -- my skinflint nature won out and I found some figures that I felt I could easily convert to bowmen. They were from my "Welsh/Irish" bag of Old Glory miniatures. They are meant to be holding a javelin and a knife, I believe. However, I switched that to a bow and arrow.

    Here are the six painted as a group - I used four different Old Glory poses to create these six archers

Converting or modifying miniatures is not my strong point, I admit. However, I thought I did a fairly good job drilling out their hands and using the remnants clipped from wire spears to create bows in the hands of these four separate poses I used (two duplicates), and an arrow in one of the poses. I have included a picture in the post so you can see my modifications before painting.

    I was getting bored with plain tunics, so I decided to add a bit more decoration to the mantles

Since most of figures that I have painted up for this army are ordinary, rank and file warriors, I have to admit I am getting a little tired of painting plainer looking figures! I am ready for a change up. The parade of dull greens, faded blues, and other earthy tones look good in mass. However, they're not very exciting to paint. However, at least they are not a uniformed army! It has been a L-O-N-G time since I painted uniformed troops. My guess is the last were the groups of 6-8 figures that I did when I was painting my 28mm Pulp project. I painted some U.S. Sailors, Senegalese riflemen, British Indian troops, and so on. So, I am sure all of those gamers who are painting up uniformed armies are laughing at me, now! "You think YOU'RE bored...!"

    The feathers on the arrows being held up are just a couple thicker layers of paint with tiny gray lines

So, what's next for me after Carolingians? I plan on getting the last of the terrain done for my Saga collections. Inspired by Jim Beegan's efforts, I want to have enough to set up eight games for a 16-player Saga tournament. That means I need to add four more swamps, fields, rocky areas, and ruins pieces. And if I can ever find a source of large sheets of styrene, I will make make some generic, flocked "large" pieces (10"-12" circular shapes). I also have a lot of resin/plastic pieces to paint up to place on the rocky areas and ruins (which I actually finished before these last six archers, see the More Terrain for Saga post here). 

After that, I was going to intersperse some character figures that can be used in the Old Feud scenario for Saga. Any figure can work for the "Soldier," of course. However, I wanted some distinctive figures for the "Brute," "Mystic," "Counselor," and "Princess." I have found some at both the Guardtower and Dragons Guildhall from their AD&D and Reaper Bones lines. Of course, I already had some figures that I could use for some of the characters, but I wanted more. I hope to have 16 participants in the Advance the Colors Saga tournament, so want to have a good handful of loaner characters for those who haven't painted up anything that they can use for them. Speaking of which, the player packet for the tournament has been released. For a copy of the file, click here. If the link doesn't work for you, comment below and give me your email address. Also, be sure to contact me and let me know you are planning on participating, and I will save you a spot!