Saxons finished

Completed in between various interesting bits of bug investigation for work.

Hair by Citadel Contrast (mostly Skeleton Horde), shield backs with Contrast Cygor Brown, fronts with various AP colours, weapons with AP metallics.

Basing: WarWorld Scenics basing grit, Vallejo Sepia Tone, my standard grass basing mix.

New warriors at the back. Need to tart up the movement bases a bit :D

Panting some more Saxons

My Saxon warriors for Dux are.... scratty, as my wife would say - shields falling off, paint chipping etc. So I've assembled some more out of the GB Dark Ages warriors box and started on them with the Contrast paints...

Leatherwork in Snakebite Leather, faces in Fireslayer Flesh, clothing in assorted Nazdreg Yellow, Agaros Dunes, Millitarum Green, Arkhelian Green and Flesh Tearer Red. Saving Skeleton Horde, Gore Grunta Fur and a couple of other shades for hair.

Should get these finished and maybe even based tomorrow.

GW Contrast paint tryout

...because all the cool kids are doing it.

Four GW Dark Ages warriors for a test piece. I've videoed the entire (well barring the non-Contrast bits) process as well, and I may edit that and put it up if it's useable and you actually want to listen to me talking to myself and pontitficating in general while painting :D The video is 38 minutes, so that's how long it took me, not counting the undercoat and the shields.

Impressions? For a painter of my standard, it's absolutely no worse, probably better and certainly quicker, than base coat plus wash or dip. Yes, there are a couple of bits I need to touch up, looking at the photos :D. It's also worth keeping a bit of paper by your palette to run your brush on as a guide for the colour it will probably dry to.

The undercoat. It's supposedly 'ultra smooth'. It's also a bit enthusiastic,  so be gentle when spraying.

Not easy to tell what the end result colour will be from the bottle.

Undercoated

And done. The shields weren't done using contrast. 

Some Dark Ages figures...

Started on assembling some GB Dark Ages Warriors to improve my somewhat tatty Saxon warriors for Dux B.

One of those days - chasing down my polystyrene cement to discover that the thin applicator tube on all three was blocked, and none responded to application of fine needle/wire. And my EMA Plastic Weld bottle is 90% empty and has lost all its stick. Eventually resorted to using a brush into one of the pots of Revell cement, which is all very well but in my rather confined workshop the fumes can be a bit overpowering.

Still, I got 5 assembled and I can go to Trains4U (which I need to anyway) tomorrow, if they're open, to get some more Plastic Weld and poly cement.

The observant will notice I'm switching to 20mm round bases for these. Also, the other reason for these is I have some GW Contrast paints on order, and I want to try them out.

Dux on a budget

Apropos of a question on the Facebook group, I've been doing the maths to see what the minimum investment is in figures to play Dux Britanniarum.

Obviously, your best bet at least for starters is going to be Gripping Beast plastics, namely one box of Late Romans, one box of Saxon Thegns, one box of Dark Ages Warriors. Lets have a look:

Dark Ages Warriors: 40 figures

• 40 with spears (you end up using 18)
• 16 with javelins 
• 8 with swords
• 32! with slings (you will use 8)

Saxon Thegns: 44 figures

• 32 with spears (you end up using 30)
• 36 with swords or axes (you end up using 2)
• 2 officers, 2 standard bearers (you use the officers)

Late Romans: 44 figures

• 16 with bow (find someone with a late Roman or Byzantine army to sell them to :D)
• 24 with spear (you end up using 18)
• 16 with sword - same body as spearmen (you end up using 2)
• 2 officers, 2 musician/standard bearers (you use the officers)

Currently, GB will sell you this for £60 as a three box deal. You'll probably then need about 6 or 7 sheets of shield transfers if you don't want to hand paint them, at £3 a sheet.

For a starter Dux force, you will need

Saxons:

• 12 elite
• 12 from the Thegns box
• 18 warriors
• 18 from the Thegns box, or mix in some unarmored and/or bareheaded spearmen in each group from the Dark Age Warriors box so you can distinguish them from the elites
• 4 slingers
• from the Dark Age Warriors box
• 3 Lords and a champion
• two Lords, plus two figures with axe or sword from the Thegns box.

British:

• 6 elite
• 6 from the Late Romans box
• 12 warriors
• 12 from the Late Romans box (I'd distinguish these and the elites by using different shield designs - I have these on my elites, for example, and these on my warriors and levy, giving the levy the ones with white backgrounds)
• 18 levy
• 18 spearmen from the Dark Age Warriors box, but use heads and oval shields from the Late Romans box (or leave them bare-headed)
• 4 slingers
• from the Dark Age Warriors box
• 3 Lords and a champion
• use the two Lords, plus a couple with swords from the Late Roman box

This usefully leaves you enough figures to produce:

• 2 Saxon warrior reinforcements (more if you used some of the Dark Ages Warriors)
• 4 British warrior reinforcements 
• 12 mercenary javelinmen

And yes, I know, the Thegns aren't perfect, being a bit late for the era, but it hasn't bothered me or my opponents (or apparently anyone reading this blog) in 5 years of playing Dux :D The other downside is that your missile troops are slingers, not archers (as the late Roman archers are armoured and thus not really right), but this isn't a huge problem IMO.