Dark Ages: Fyrd is the Word



My Saxon project marches on with the addition of the first four man stand of fyrd warriors.  These freeman conscripts  were mustered to defend their own homes or might have been representatives appointed from regions to join an army.






These figures are more of the same Footsore models and like the others from the range are well detailed and with just enough variation in appearance to make them each unique, but clearly of the same classification. 



I tried to reuse colours from the last two groups of Saxon models I painted but emphasized the more natural hues to make their clothing more subdued as though dyed inexpensively.  Here or there a repeated a small swatch of "nice" colours for a fancy cloth cap or cowl.



The only element I didn't treat much differently were the shields.  I painted similar patterns in the same sorts of colours.  My favorite bit are the faces.  The sculptor does a fine job creating expressive faces for each of the four.



If you read the post on the hearthguard you might have noticed i didn't get around to adding a pattern on the cloth.  I didn't do it out of the gate, because I didn't want my farmer soldiers to look classier than my hearthguard; The, "chosen men" of the era.  If I can bypass all that steel and get something nice on their uniforms I would enjoy coming back to these guys because they were another fun group of figures. 


 

Comments

  1. Absolutely brilliant! I just love your brushwork :)

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    1. Thanks Ivor! The canvas should get much of the credit. My paint "style" seems stuck somewhere between the rather rudimentary layering I learned from the classic Citadel red pamphlet (after self teaching some terrible habits :P ) and the post millennial blending I was too much of an old fart to heartily adopt. The nature of the sculpts seems to flatter layering ("classical", and "air layering"). I still have more Saxons to add to the war band and made a Christmas order to Footsore so I have more of the same coming in 2018. Some Saxon archers are inbound and I think I said something about looking for an excuse to make a crannog.

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  2. I'm painting some of these models right now, so I can say from experience that yours look great!

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    1. Awesome Andrew! Have you been posting them somewhere so I can check them out? Nice models possibly make me a better ,and definitely a more prolific painter. I hope to get the four point band done in the next month.

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  3. Nice job dude. I quite like the colour scheme and the battle damage you have added to the shields looks realistic and not overly done.

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    1. Thank you, Simon. I tried to keep the shields simple by design. The more fantastic I try to make them the more wonky they are likely to end up and attract too much attention for all the wrong reasons. I think I can get away without transfers for the Saxons but if I ever give Islam or the Saracens a go I will ignore my bias and give the decal sellers my business. Those patterns are too intricate for me!

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