From PeteF: Shieldmaidens Part 2: Warriors with Spears (22 points)

Sheildmaiden Warriors with Spears

Since I painted no female minis at all in Challenge 8 I'm doing some Bad Squiddo shieldmaidens this time round. These are from a Kickstarter and will eventually be part of an all girl Viking warband for SAGA.

Annie Norman (Bad Squiddo) has made some great sculpts - they are expressive and great fun to paint. I had a lot of fun with these and feel that my Dark Ages painting is getting a little better each time I put some effort in. I was especially happy with how the yellow-ochre turned out since the Vallejo paint I use for this colour has being giving me trouble - greasy with a tendency to dry with an unwanted shine. The fix turned out to be thinning, lots of layers, shaking the bottle a lot and mixing with other colours.

Bad Squiddo provide the shields separately with lumps on the figures' hands that ensure they fit well (unlike the Old Glory shields I did last week). These shields had textured wood surfaces which made painting the designs a little more challenging than on a smooth surface.

They don't provide spears - so I ended up using some plastic spears left over from some Warlord Celts which have a nice variety of pointy ends. This warband is getting autumnal colours with a fair amount of red and yellow. Also working on leather effects using dotting with an old scraggly brush - I like how this is turning out.

Leather coat using dotting

Four shieldmaidens at 5 points each for 20 points - enough to give me more than 25 points in the Viking category for one more Squirrel! entry.

Please also enter these in female figure category for Lady Sarah's consideration.

Gripping Beast Shield Design in the middle

__________________________________________________________________

Well now, an historic figure. Maybe even a cabinet post! They are aglow with whirling, transient nodes of thought careening through a cosmic vapor of invention! 

They do look quite autumnal, and the faces are quite expressive. The ocher in particular looks quite well, especially on the lady in the middle. She reminds me of the beloved schoolmarm in Rock Ridge. The shield patterns are certainly an inspired choice. 

Taggart, take this down: "For the shields and scrollwork, I award an additional ten percent of points." If you will just sign this, Governor. Right here.