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