Thursday 12 January 2017

From AaronH - 32 28mm Celts (175 points)

This entry was two weeks in the making. I started off strong but then had to go back to work and hobby time slowed to a crawl. These lads are another unit for my Celt army for Hail Caesar. As an aside, after the debacle of my last post I bought a tripod and a trigger for my camera. I can now take close in shots that are in focus. I still need to work on the lighting however.

First up is another warband for my army. This makes the third, so only another ten or twenty to go.



These lads have the blue shields of the Brigantes, as anyone who has read a certain book about a Roman in Britain will recognize.


The majority of these are Warlord Games plastic Celts. There are two outliers in the bunch. The Chieftain is from Black Tree Designs. I have many of these Celts as they are great sculpts and they have great sales.


There is also one Wargames Factory dude in the back rank. He's hideous. I bought them not knowing what I would be getting and they were promptly relegated to the back rank of these formations.


These shots are a bit yellow. The shields are hand painted, obviously. I left most of them blue, to really make it stand out that this unit is about the blue shields, because they're blue and stuff.  Having said that, I did want the leaders to stand out a bit more. Also notice the chap on the left in the captures Roman helmet.

Too many green pants.
This unit also has a very high percentage of bare chested blokes. I guess they are showing off for the lasses.


The next stand, also led by a man in armor. Obviously he is quite consequential.


And here is the Wargames Factory dude. I have no idea what is supposed to be going on with his back. It's really quite bad.


Another unit, led by a half naked nutter. I reminds me of my platoon in Iraq...  I stick to four basic colors for the clothes and mix them on the models. I would normally do the shields in a bunch of different colors and halve/quarter them with all sorts of poorly drawn geometric designs. I wanted these guys to stand out for their shields.


The Warlord plastics have some odd poses. I'm looking forward to Victrix's looming release to flesh out the rest of my army.


The final stand shows one of those odd stances. I don't know why this guy is bent over double. I should probably have modeled a pila sticking out of his gut.


A bit more blue than normal, but it's a theme. I also realized, looking at these pictures, that I didn't paint the backs of the shields.

The next unit is eight javelin armed skirmishers. These are also Warlord but are metal and come in four poses with wire javelins. These are single based as I have a fair bit of both armies done that way so I can play them in skirmish games.


For the most part these are nice, simple models. There is one whose face is quite squished.


Squishy McSquish Face.




These are easy to paint, other than the fact that I insist on doing them 30 at a time. Warlord does some nice models and they are more than good enough to stand in a mass unit. I normally do the front rank with BTD metals and the back with the plastics. This unit just came out of the pile mostly plastic by chance.

This is a handsome bunch of Celts, Aaron!
They remind me of the days I'd send my masses of Airfix and Esci Celts to storm the same mixture of  Romans behind the walls of their domino forts(surely I wasn't the only one!)
160 points for these fellows, but I'll spot you an additional 15 points for an even 175 as I appreciate handpainted shields. Although I am a Sith Lord, I will allow you to keep the 15 extra points if you get the shield backs painted. Don't disappoint me. ;)
They have a nice animation to them and i lik how you kept the colors similar which adds to the unit feel and keeps them rabble enough for flavor. Blue is such a magical color, what Celt could resist a skyclad shield!?

That's 24 Celts in the ranked unit and eight in the skirmish screen. At this rate I'll have a playable army in four or five more years.

19 comments:

  1. A nice bunch of Brigantes there Aaron :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like these a lot, Aaron! I have some old Hinchliffe Ancient Britons that I was given (already painted) many years ago. I was going to do a repaint as they all have sky blue shields. Maybe I will leave them as they are after all!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wouldn't want a whole army of them, but as one unit in a larger whole I think they'll work out a charm.

      Delete
  3. These guys look great en masse Aaron! Well done on the painted shields, the only way to to.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I can't match the look of decals, but I purely hate the things. So, I'm not a purist, just lazy I guess. Thank you though.

      Delete
  4. Nice little Celtic horde there Aaron!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great submission, really will have an impact on the table

    Ian

    ReplyDelete
  6. A good balance of figures. Nice use of light blue. (Blue would not be a common dye but it was available)So no criticism of the colours at all and for wargaming easy to identify units!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hear you Clint. I usually go for the simpler colors for the ancients and dark ages. I'm not researching the exact shades they would have had but trying to hit a balance there.

      Delete
  7. Now that's a proper warband - well done, Aaron!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Lovely work, especially the extra effort on the shields.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Nicely done! That's quite an impressive amount of Gauls.

    ReplyDelete