Dark Ages: Hearthguard

No sooner than I finished the my small collection of character models the Anglo Saxon Skirmish Warband arrived from Footsore Miniatures.  Inside were the aforementioned band along with a friendly message, a Moorish Chieftain, and a sweet coin promoting Gangs of Rome.  I was pretty excited to get started having just run through those other models but find it more manageable to paint smaller groups of models.  I chose four of the hearthguard as my first subjects.

The models cleaned up easily, then I glued them to mdf bases and slopped on some gloop and sand for groundwork.  I'm afraid I brought the only complication on myself.  I didn't think about spears when I placed my order.  It wasn't until a couple days later this occurred to me.  I managed to get hold of some Fireforge plastic spears prior to the packages arrival and though they looked pretty sharp.  I think the diameter of the plastic shafts is more than was intended for the Footsore figures.  I had to bore an uncomfortably broad hole into the hand of each of the new figures.  I was fairly accurate and got by all right with three of the four models but a miss meant I had to to play back-up sculptor because I gnawed through the tops of the fingers and thumb.  I didn't do too badly but I don't know how in retrospect I should have picked up proper spears.

Painting the models was almost as much fun as the first group.  The hearthguard are well armoured for the age and wear long chain hauberks, and are unique even if the idea remains the same.  The hauberks while better protection in imaginary battle aren't as fun to paint as patterned textiles.  Most of the chain coats fell close to the hem of the long tunics so I wasn't sure if a patterned border would look nice without the main colour cloth contrasting it.  I may change my mind and add this detail later along with embroidered cuffs on the sleeves.