I've had these for years to be victims of evil dwarves, greenskins, undead, or whatever; I had previously written off Medievals in this scale. However, the new Barons' War stuff has really captured my attention. I've all the packs from Wargames Atlantic, many from Victrix, and a representative amount from the official Barons' War line in metal, sculpted by Paul Hicks. While I await the new King John's Sourcebook, I elected to take on another long-term project I may never finish. Five bags, roughly 30 figures each, of armed peasants filled with the requisite amount of ressentiment, defining a project quite appropriate for our current age.
And as with everything else, I thought I could whip these out quick - not a lot of gear, hardly any straps, extra weapons, etc. But they took longer than I thought, as usual. I really am incorrigible. Nonetheless, where I could, I've snuck away to begin prepping the rest of the roughly 150 figures in this collection. The first pack: Leaders, Agitators, and Mad Monks is primed, zenithaled, and in progress on the desk, crowding out a large unit of Warlord Napoleonic British.
I thought I'd divide the 12 monks into two groups - this is the first half, being a kind of generic, but common order found in England during this period. I was going to paint the other six as either Jesuits in black robes or maybe even Franciscans, but despite them all being "monks," they seem to be of different orders. If they are to practice tonsure, shouldn't they all be this way? What about the culty-looking chap with the processional cross? I think I'll do the others in the most appropriate colors for the sculpt. Some clearly seem to be of the Dark Ages, whereas others seem more suited to the 14th and 15th centuries. You'll see more of this as the project unfolds.
The other thing: to give myself some flexibility, I'll be doing these in the 3, 2, 1 basing style. All basic sculpts that are ones of a kind will get individual bases. If there are variants of a basic sculpt, one will be done individually, and the rest will be paired off on a base with similarly acting miniatures. Finally, there will be some made up for three-man bases to make moving them around easier, plus they will be tightly arranged vignettes to represent a mob. The individual models can be used anywhere, even Baron's War, Pillage, or victims or a lynch mob in a medieval witch hunt game.
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| Here's how they began - black primed, then drybrushed with white. Doing 2-3 layers over black to get solid coverage is too time-consuming, but bringing the levels up in advance makes it much easier, plus I can better see all the haste-related irregularities common to all Old Glory sculpts. Irregular, but endearing, even charming! |
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| That's Dark Warm Flesh from Pro-Acryl for the skin. Lovely paint - one coat application mostly. Army Painter Fanatics still require a couple of coats, but they are far better than the originals. Tan for the cowls, grey for the robes. |
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| Bootstrap for the shoes, leather, belts, and some of the hair. Ancient Stone was for the rope-style belts. |
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| Pro-Acryl for the wood and weapons, Two Thin Coats Glistening Gold for the larger crosses - odds and ends for the rest it, the ham, rolls, necklaces, etc. Everything has a base coat of something. |
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| I'm doing what I call "YouTube" painting - most of the non-competition painters on that platform do it this way: lay down the midrange base coats, then put a wash (colors vary, but they are always darker. Then bring back the original colors, leaving the darkness in the recesses. BUT my Army Painter Strong Tone has lost some moisture over the years. Further, it was kind of a mess to move around having a jelly-like consistency. I went with it anyway knowing I can fix it with subsequent steps. |
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| Here I've brought back the original colors on skin, cowls and robes. (Maybe hair?) I like the weird muddy effect it left behind (not just a rationalization) on the bottom third of the robes so I left it there and didn't paint over it. This also made it appear like the robes are not only dirty, but sodden too. |
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| The next steps were to just bring up the highlights on everything while leaving that bottom part of the robes alone. You can see I've uncharacteristically work away a lot of the primer along the base edges. And I have been poo-poohing using figure holders while I paint! |
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| Finally, I finished the bases with Vallejo's Diorama FX Thick - Russian Mud. Every mini in this project will get this treatment to unify the collection. First time I tried it and it came out great. The peasants have to be revolting mud dwellers after all. Historians may disagree. |
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| The mud did shrink down a bit after drying, so note to self: pile it up! I also resisted putting any of this stuff on the miniatures themselves. It's quite dark, and I chickened out, though in the end, I don't think it needs it. |
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| I put in a Wargames Atlantic Foot Knight in the mix so you can see how they compare size-wise. They are monstrous compared to modern miniature making, but I love them nonetheless. So don't get me wrong, I love putting together plastic mins, but Old Glory will always be my favorite in any number of projects, as this blog attests. Character matters. |
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