Romano-British - Painting under way

Work has kept me busy these last few days but I managed to make at least a start on the Dark Age Romano-British for Dux Britanniarum.

These chaps are levy and Combrogi who would wear a lot of civilian clothing of various hues from natural dyes. Thanks to my archaeologist stepdaughter and her specialist knowledge of Dark Age fabrics and dying methods I know what colours to paint them. I gave them an undercoat of Vallejo British Army khaki - which seems appropriate - as this will make the best base colour. As usual I painted the flesh areas next. I'm not 100% sure how I'll base the figures, but I'm leaning toward using movement trays to reduce the wear and tear from handling.

Dux Britanniarum - Romano-British

My order from Splintered Light Miniatures arrived yesterday, and very nice figures they are too. They have lovely proportions and minimal flash, and come with separate shields. I now have the Romano-British starter army along with some Dark Ages civilians to populate the village.

The photo shows the new shinies. Top-centre is the command element of Nobles and champions, along with a priest, standard bearer, musician and a nice mounted figure. Below them are the six Comanipulares (elite troops), next the four archers, then the bulk of the force which consists of the eighteen levy. Top left is a pile of shields and an odd figure (far left) who appears to be a Saracen (?). Below them are the dozen civilians, including a nice village blacksmith. Below them at bottom-left are the dozen Milites/Combrogi, who make up the standard warriors of the force.

The next job will be to trim off what little flash there is and give them a good soak to remove any molding powder. A friend of mine swears by soaking figures in methylated spirits but I think I'll stick to ordinary detergent.

Dark Ages animal pen - finished

The animal pen moves on to completion...

The liquid nails has a tight grip on the plastic strip, and the sand scatter is firm. I used dark chocolate brown Rustoleum for the undercoat. It's intended for metal but works nicely with this kind of flexible plastic.

The drying process took longer than the stipulated 24 hours before the smelly volatiles had evaporated and it became touch-dry, such is the cold and damp here this weekend. In fact it's still a little bit whiffy. Once it dried, I applied the first dry brush of buff acrylic, keeping the brush almost parallel to the fence.

The dry brush picked up the weave pattern beautifully. Technically it's bigger than the size wattle-weave would be for this scale, but I'm not choosy, and it does give a good impression from a distance. Also due to the scale, I don't think the vertical posts in the weave would show, so I omitted them rather than mess up my aging eyes in trying to represent them.

Once the buff had dried I went over it again with antique white, applying it sparingly.
 

The first coat of grass green came next... 

...then a dry-brush of apple green on top.

I left the centre of the pen dark glossy brown like wet mud, since the ground within the enclosure would be gouged-up and trodden down by animal snouts and feet. There wouldn't be a scrap of vegetation left uneaten. A few smudges of buff to give a texture like drying mud to the ground and that's it - finished and ready for livestock.

Splintered Light make suitable pigs and rams in this scale, but I'm wondering if HO-scale railway animals would suit as well for a cheaper price. Dark Age cattle in particular would have been akin to the modern Highland breed, and those are available for railway modellers. Something to research...

Dark Ages animal pen

So, having made the basics of a Dark Ages British farm, I need to add some details. First up is a pen for livestock, that staple of both diet and mobile currency of the period. I'll go with a circular form, which appears to have been a common configuration as backed up by archaeological excavations. Stone pens were used where fieldstone was available, and the remains of some of these are still in existence in places like Dartmoor and remote parts of the Yorkshire Dales. I'm going with wattle fencing, since this appears to have been the commonest type.

To begin with I took a battered old CD, and sandwiched it between two discs of card.

The bottom disc is a tad wider than the CD to give a chamfered edge. I covered the edge with PVA and sprinkled sand over it to hide the shiny CD and provide a keyed grip for the liquid nails when I come to it.

The fence itself is made from a strip of plastic packing tape. It has a wattled appearance which, with a bit of paint, dry-brushing and ink will look pretty much like wattling. This material is quite hard to cut widthwise, but is easy to cut lengthwise. It goes with its purpose, really, but it's convenient for me because I needed to cut it to a realistic scale height - enough for a 15mm Dark Age British farmer to look over the top of to check his animals haven't been stolen by a Saxon raider. It also serves for short lengths of general purpose fencing around the farm. Under the Dux Britanniarum rules farms and villages should have at least two of the buildings connected by between 6 to 8 inches of fence.

I washed the strips to remove any and all traces of dirt and fingerprints from the passage through the parcel delivery system. Experience has taught me the material needs some help to take paint at the best of times and a clean surface does this. 

The plastic strip has a natural tendency to curl, so I used that to my advantage. First up, I smeared some liquid nails around the sides of the disc where the fence will go, leaving three gaps equidistant apart for the hot glue. The hot glue will fix the strip in place while the liquid nails dries, which may take some time in the generally damp weather we're having here in Ohio.

The strip is now fixed in place, with the liquid nails smeared again to cover its lower edge. It's slightly off-centre - too much coffee this morning made my coordination a bit off! - but no matter. Two lengths of matchstick form the gateposts. I used the hot glue gun and some strips of trusty pizza box to make short lengths of fencing for the farm/village.

(Those figures at the top-centre of the photo are master models awaiting warmer weather for me to make silicone molds of. Amongst the items are Arab slaver casualties for Colonial games, and a door, window, two recumbent statues and decorative strips for my Hirst Arts-related projects. And yes, I will get to the Doctor Who figures eventually).

Next up will be to spread some liquid nails in a smooth layer around the interior of the enclosure, and more around the outside which will be sprinkled with sand. I'll do the straight fencing the same way. Because the pen is somewhat raised above the table level, I'll build a downward ramp at the gate. Once all that is done and dried, it'll be on to the undercoat using enamel paint. Hopefully the rain will clear up in a day or so allowing me to take it outside to spray.

The Four Doctors

My wife and I are big fans of Doctor Who. Like many Americans her 'first Doctor' was the Fourth, played by the great Tom Baker. I go back slightly earlier to the end of the First Doctor in William Hartnell's tenure. We have a number of 28mm figures of the Doctors along with some of the Companions, but lacked four of the Doctor's incarnations along with two familiar recurring characters.

This lack has now been rectified.

From l-r, First, Second, Fifth and Seventh Doctor. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart keeps a wary eye on the sneering Master.

These are Black Tree Designs sculpts. I took advantage of their winter sale to order the four missing Doctors, along with the formidable Brigadier and the dangerous Master. Black Tree's excellent service saw my order taken on Wednesday to arrive on Saturday. Good stuff!

The castings are clean and crisp, with little flash. The sculptor did an excellent job of capturing the faces, from Hartnell's cunning smirk through Troughton's frown, Davidson's cavalier charm and McCoy's inquistiveness. The Brigadier is the essence of Nicholas Courtney's military alter-ego. The Master is perhaps the weakest rendition, looking more like a vampire than Roger Delgado or Anthony Ainley.

I'll clean off what little flash there is, remove the Slotta bases (which I don't like) and give them all a good soak before painting. Once done I'll glue them to bases of clear plastic.

Just before Christmas I took the plunge and ordered the 15mm Romano-British starter army from Splintered Light Miniatures along with a set of twelve villagers. All in all, a busy start to a new painting year.

Happy New Year!

Yes, the cartoon pretty much sums up my attitude to the old year. Here's to a new and better year full of hope, promise and wargaming goodness!