Shieldwall Markers Experiment

Not the most original of ideas but rather than using shields embedded in a base as markers (see picture below) to indicate that a particular unit is in Shieldwall I thought I'd try out a few of Gripping Beasts Anglo Saxon Shieldwall miniatures that I have had kicking around for probably two decades or thereabouts. 

The trick to getting them to look right was going to the be the base size so I ordered some 40m, 50mm and 60mm diameter custom bases from Warbases which arrived in a matter of days. Kudos to Warbases as some achievement with the inherent chaos within the postal system under our present 2020 circumstances.

After painting up three mini's I tried them on first the 40mm (way too small!), then the 50mm (still too small!) and lastly the 60mm base (perfect).

Shieldwall Marker on 60mm Diameter Base:

From Above:

So, next to take a look at what the marker looks like to the fore of a unit. I think they have come out as well as I had expected and will be painting up one for each unit. Yeah, it will take more time to paint these up but if you imagine seven units each with one of these markers for the fore of the unit, I think it might actually look quite striking. It will certainly have a more aesthetic appeal then a few shields glued to a base. 

First, the Old Markers I used to Use:

New and Improved Markers:

I love the happy accidents that sometimes occur when basing up miniatures. Although it is not all that dinstinct in the first two photographs, I am really pleased with the way in which the Dane Axe of one of the Huscarls hewing over the Shieldwall marker in the last image. A nice coincidence :>)

Anglo Danish Huscarls and Fyrd Unit 2

The second unit in my Anglo Danish army now complete. There was quite a bit of painful rebasing (that dumb superglue idea I has when originally basing reared it's ugly head again!) but mercifully I was able to fill in a few gaps by painting four or five extra miniatures which of course needed varnishing. There is usually quite a long delay from applying my first coat of gloss to the final matting down of the miniatures; this I will go into more detail in a post very soon as I feel that it is an important step often overlooked if using enamel gloss varnish prior to matt.

Over all I'm pleased with the way the unit has come out. Despite the vignette base with the downed Huscarl with his comrade protecting his body being a bit sparse, I think the unit has maintained the Shieldwall presence so essential to getting an Andlo Danish army to look right on the table top. The miniatures are crammed in on 40mm x 40mm bases which nowadays can be tricky, especially if you want the unit to keep a cohesive fighting stance and not just appear as a load of Early Medieval/Dark Ages mini's all standing upright holding their spears! Which is not what my idea of such an army would have appeared at all., so crammed in they stand!

The picture below shows the two units I have now completed (a third is on the way now) and gives aa nice approximation of what they will look like when lined up next to one another. If you would like to take a closer look the image is "clickable" like all the images on my blog:

A picture taken from just above eye level of the unit in Shieldwall:

The rest of the pictures give a good 360 representation of the unit......

Frankish Franks!

Those Early Byzantine have to fight someone so I decided to get some units of Franks painted up with a cursory eye in the direction of Casilinum/Volturnus 554 CE in mind.

Although these smaller Foundry Perry sculpts are smaller then your average 28mm miniature today and could have suited a 40mm x 40mm base, I made the decision to mount them on 40mm frontage by 60mm deep bases. The reasoning it twofold. First, the sculpts are very animated with a real sense of forward momentum and I wanted to conserve this feeling on the bases. The deeper bases allowed for a little more spacing. I hope that this displays my intention. The second reason is quite a simple; as they will be fighting my Early Byzantines I thought I would just stick to the same basing convention. Having said that, in the future if I need to stretch the basing convention for a particular unit, I will probably do so.

Here are a few snaps of the unit from various angles.

Please scroll further down the page to the pictures of the individual bases if you're interested.

Individual Bases:

Base 1:

Base 2:

Base 3:

Base 4:

Base 5:

Base 6: