I have been reconsidering some of my gaming goals lately, and one of the ideas that I have renewed and brought forward to my gaming plans involves getting some skirmish groups together for some Song of Blades-type scenarios. I have a variety of figures that can be used for this including my lovely wife's elves and my Reptus (lizard folk).
A few other groups can be formed, like orcs:
These are Old Glory orcs, from their Ghost miniatures line. The skin color has just been started - no green orcs here! The orcs suffer from having no magic-user types, but maybe numbers will help them out; I think that I have 18 of them someplace...
And some humans:
The sword-swingers are old Harlequin miniatures, with a musician and standard bearer included. I am not certain if those two have an effect in SBH but they will look nice. The crossbow types are Old Glory miniatures from their late HYW selections, and the guy in grey is a Reaper martial arts type that will be a special character. After taking this pic, I found a chap that could work as a magic-user, so the humans have a balanced force.
The intended effect of dusting these old miniatures off and getting them painted is to get some sort of actual gaming going on here - it has been far too long...
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Moving along with the first element of the Shén legion:
I use plastic rod for my javelins/spears/pikes, with a different diameter for each type. For pikes I am using 1/16" (1.6mm) rod from my stash of materials that I have hoarded for just such an occasion. The price tag on this particular material dates back to 1996!
Step 2 of the process:
Pikes for all, with shields for the rear rank, which is the right-most ones in the above pic! The pikes are approximately 3"/75mm long. The hands needed to be drilled out, but the material is soft enough and the hands big enough so the chore was not too difficult.
And lastly:
The miniatures now have a coat of black gesso for primer. I am going to let the gesso dry for a few days before the next step.
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Finally, the process for this legion draws to a finale! Here is the archer element:
This pic is after sprinkling sand and talus over the base, and a mix of earth and green flock has been, quite literally, dumped over the base. After it has been allowed to dry, a day or more, this is the result:
Not too green, which is good. It looks like I missed a spot or two, but I will add a few pieces of coarse flock to help hide them.
And now, the final product:
A few small chunks of coarse flock finished the element. Next time, I will watch the talus placement a bit more closely, as several pieces seem to have landed on edge, which looks a bit odd.
And now, for a group pic of my small but growing Tsolyáni army:
Very blue (my lovely wife has taken to calling them the blueberry squad!), but that is typical of Tsolyáni armies I believe. The next elements will be a little different, as the reptilian Shén have black scales along with their blue armor.
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Ah, the joy of a delivery of new miniatures! Behold:
Bags and bags of Tékumel figures - two warbands and two hordes of Shén + a few others, and a bunch of Sapphire Kirtle skirmishers, along with assorted weapons and shields, and another Sérudla (far right). I am most interested in the Shén, so they were sorted out first:
Piles of Shén instead of bags now!
The different poses are formed up into files, or maybe conga lines (!), and the first element of Shén poses on a Litko 60mm square base. This first element of Shén will be representing the Tsolyáni Legion of the City of Chrí, 7th Imperial Shén Auxiliary Heavy Infantry. This is a bit of an odd unit, with a human commander that dresses like his reptilian Shén troops, and this element of the Legion is armed with pikes. This unit should be an eye-catcher, with the scales of the Shén being a satin black, and the armor a mix of blue and red-orange.
Here is another pic of the Legion, with a slightly different mix of figures:
This pic is meant to be a mnemonic to help me remember the placement of the figures on the base, as I will surely forget once I finally get this element ready for basing!
And here most of the Shén have been separated into element groups - with a slip of paper identifying the unit - for storage until the first element is done. This represents two different legions - one is Tsolyáni and one is Yán Kór - with three elements of six figures each.
I have yet to delve into the bags of skirmishers, and there are some other goodies mixed in there also.
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And... a small amount of progress on the Huaxtecs:
I am slowly working on more small details - hair color options will be first. I am going with a variety of colors, as the Huaxtecs are reputed to have dyed their hair. Next will be weapons.
To help with the hair colors, and hopefully tattoos also, I found some of this:
The local art store had a few jars of these inks, and having read of their use at Big Lee's blog, I'll give them a whirl.
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