The Levy Assemble & Merlin Grumbles

I am pleased to announce the completion of my 18 Levy for my Dux Britanniarum Romano-British starter force.

This was a quick and dirty paint job as they were Saxon Miniatures (now Warlord) figures I was lukewarm about. They are originally Viking Bondi but have the advantage of a fairly generic Dark Age warrior look, especially if one is representing Germanic troops or foederati.

They were primed white then washed in a bright primary colour - blue, green, madder red, lemon yellow. This produced a natural shade in the folds, an effect I accentuated whenever the component pigments of certain paints separated, as was especially the case with the Army Painter blue. I would soak up the darker pigment and wash it into the folds.

For the lighter tones I used a standard brown wash for more detail. The hair was treated the same.

More care was applied to the shields where I went for LBMS transfers and full three-stage highlights on the back boards. For ancients infantry the old wisdom really rings true: focus on the face, the weapon and the shields and you'll be fine. A bit of care was also taken with the bases. Maybe they could use another highlight, but there was a battle to fight the next day.

Their previous outing without finished shields didn't end so well. The nasty Saxon cattle rustlers stayed out of reach despite Merlin's exhortations.

Merlin himself has now been finished.

Inspired by Bernard Cornwell, I painted him as a grubby druid, with a sun-bleached bearskin cape and a dirty robe. People say he looks like Old Luke from the Last Jedi. I've left a bit of a gap on his base for a future decoration such as some toadstools or a skull when I have time to sculpt or mould them.

I umm'd and ahh'd about how to paint the bear fur cloak but in the end I just went with a base of Vallejo G Camo Black-Brown and applied the triads from Foundry's Bay Brown and Chestnut, about six layers in all, with a final extreme highlight of Vallejo Dark Sand to establish contrast and mimic some bleaching/weathering. It looks a bit harsh in the photo due to the lighting. I am still on the lookout for a good method to paint bear fur as well as timber wolf fur (for the champion Raedwald's coat).

This leaves only the champion and Lancelot's shield to receive their final highlights. But I'm already hankering to start painting some cavalry as I've been reading Y Gododdin to get into the mood.

I also finished work on another four warriors for a total of 16 warriors to make my warband SAGA ready.

Once again, the shields were hand-painted. I experimented with patterning the highlights on the white area. Unlike the Saxon Miniatures figures above these Footsore troops were a delight to paint. The faces especially were packed with detail, rewarding the time taken to paint in the eyes. They even sculpt the eyebags!