Björn Grendel's Unberogenes. Mounted nobles. Month four, rank and file.

The Nobles chargind into battle.

Worst part of this challenge Is the blog part. Is very time consuming since i have to use my phone, also, as Always, my pics are overexposed. Its very difficult without proper equipment... 

But here we are again. 

This time I focused on the wealthy ones. The nobles, among the Unberogenes, who can afford to own horses, iron armor and better weapons; rich in jewels and arrogance. Lots of arrogance.

I spent a lot of time deciding how to make this unit, how to make it cohesive but at the same time unique. At first I thought of using the theme of a single color that would tie them together again, or maybe a single common heraldry.

But then I decided to go wild and, in pure oldhammer style, I painted them individually, ranging as much as possible. 

I obviously drew inspiration from some Norse or Irish designs, I inserted some obligatory oldschool checkers and then I dedicated myself to some more complex paintings. I remembered that we are in an era before the Empire and plausibly before the invention of heraldry. Things will soon change for the Unberogenes but for now fantasy is the master.

Karl of Steel and Hope. He sports a shield with a knot because the craftman misunderstood his name.

Ubbe Turgeisson. Daddy's boy, a spoiled brat and capricious beyond all limits. But his speed with the sword keeps everyone's mouths shut. 

 He bought this fur. He actually killed a leopard but he preferred to buy a new pelt rather than tan one himself.

Fianna Ulverdottir. Once a fierce Shieldmaiden but now calls herself a Shieldwidow. She carries her husband's weapons into battle, in honor of the only man who has ever defeated her.

This model is supposed to represent a male warrior, but i notice thinner and more feminine features in the face, especially in the chin and eyes. bangs and earrings increase this feeling so i decided to add some makeup and create a different character. i like her a lot

Bjorn Bjornsson, the Bear killer. Dont call him by his nickname without enough proofs.

He sports a Bear paw on his shields. Obviously.

Jago the Savage. He carries a shield with his bride's name, Aria, with blue eyes, red hairs and golden skin, one of the most beautyful women of the Tribe 

Joup. Son of Japetus, sporting a mammoth at dawn. He Just bought his shield from shieldmaker but now he wants to ride a real One!

Jeop Is Joup's Brother. He painted his shields by himself, a Mountain Lion in Honor of his first hunt. Jeop Is a talented painter but he still prefers to fight!

Oden the twice hanged, banner bearer. He was actually hanged only once but a cool name is very important and young people respect him too much to criticize him.

His shields has the markings of an orc he killed once... Every warrior of the Tribe knows the tale.

The Bear was repainted over the captured banner of a fallen enemy Clan 

Jurgen Windcaller. Because of reasons.
(Yes THAT reason)

He his the only to ride into battle without any protection. The Gods gifted him with visions of his death, by the hand of his son. So jurgen has no armor nor sons (yet).

Unit leader. Thurgeis Dwarfborn. Sporting a crane in honor of his Human mother and a big red beard in honor of his Dwarf father.

Group shot. I almost regret not to have used round bases....

And there we are. Individual nobles, individual names, individual colors, what am i missing? Oh. Yes. Those models, pointwise, count as:

10 mounted chaos thugs: hand weapon, heavy armor, shield  200pt 

(command grup cost not included)

Still trying to improve my photo tecnique.. next month i think i will go freecard... Lets see what happens..

In the meantime, stay true, stay oldschool, and keep painting, Brothers!

Björn Grendel's Unberogenes. Warrior Red warband. Month three rank and file.

 

The Road so far....

March. Third month of the challenge, the lead pile is still very high, so I took courage in both hands and faced one of the two main infantry regiments. Warriors. This time we get to the heart of the matter, the military class par excellence, which represents the core of the Unberogenes forces: professional fighters, certainly not farmers or artisans with weapons. To represent them, I chose the largest and best-armed models among those available, (throwing in also a well armed barbarettes for good measure) many with necklaces and jewels that better represent their social status, the miniatures with the most beautiful and largest weapons, with shields and helmets. I made two units of 20 models (ABSOLUTELY ALL METAL) And here the difficulties began.

Only one barbarette in this unit (but my daughter's favourite.

First of all, the models themselves: the sculpts. Although really beautiful, the Copplestone Barbarians come with a relatively low number of poses. I don't know if they were originally designed for a specific game system, it would seem so, given the very limited variety of weapons they possess. In detail there are 5 poses of barbarians with axe and shield, 5 poses of swords and shields, 5 poses of two-handed weapons and a certain number of mixed poses, with two weapons, or command group.. so I did some calculations and came to the following conclusions:

Damn, my phone camera really sucks....

WHAT IS A BARBARIAN: it is undeniable that there is a huge difference between the barbarians of our history and the barbarians of the fantasy world. The former were nothing more than foreign populations compared to the great empires that faced them for the first time. The latter, on the other hand, are a type of individual, mostly, transversal to all races and cultures of the fantasy world. My miniatures, specifically, are mostly based on the concept art of Frank Frazetta, a well-known illustrator active since the 70s and enjoy that old way of doing fantasy that we all love (Conan the Barbarian above all). It is easy to see which people and cultures of our history have influenced the design of that type of barbarian: half-naked bodies, tattoos, furs and jewelry, simple but refined weapons, consideration for strength and honor, essential lifestyle immersed in nature: it touches the heart of all humans equally…

Beefy, savage, half naked and bronze helmet..

ADAPTATION TO WARHAMMER FANTASY : the barbarian this sense does not fit well with the world of Warhammer. Wanting to force a comparison we can think of a warrior of the first iron age (for example a Celt) transported to a world evolved up to about 1500, that's why I chose to move my setting back to the first age of myth, the dawn of Sigmar. I am aware of the fact that, according to the official lore, the saga of Sigmar should be set in an era more similar to the early Middle Ages, let's say about the 9th century but immediately after the "rule of lore" I follow the "rule of cool" so the unification of the scattered and weak human tribes fits perfectly with the figure of the barbarian who emerges from the wild lands to build an empire (and again the thought of Conan is a must).

GENERAL COMPOSITION: this army is not designed for the game, at the moment I am no longer an active player but only a passionate collector, but I am used to conceiving armies for warhammer 6 edition, and for this challenge I have to adapt to the 3, so I adopted a transversal approach in the composition: melee units in regular regiments, with a 25mm square base, ranged skirmisher units on 25mm round bases, heavy cavalry on standard 25*50 square bases. Heroes, monster characters and miscellaneous will go on the bases that best accommodate them by size or theme and they will always be fine for the rare times that I still play Heroquest or Mordheim.

Speaking of wich.. here a metal recast of the original Heroquest barbarian.. and his granpa.

INDIVIDUAL UNIT COMPOSITION: in January I presented my skirmishers: I already mentioned the reason why I divided them by social class and armament: historically and logically, moreover, archers and light infantry had different tactical roles, as in the Warhammer game, so I kept this grouping, and I didn't care about using a common color scheme for the individual units, painting whoever I wanted as I wanted. 

Remember those guys from january?

For the warriors the issue was more thorny: the lack of poses forced me to a lot of conversions and modifications, or to very small units or to units with too many identical models; so I simply took all the models available and selected them so as to form only two large units of 20, but without duplicates within each.

Crappy pics as Always. Im still trying to be consistent with my poor setup 

This leaves me with two units armed with mixed melee weapons, but I think it fits the concept of a barbarian warband, mixed, chaotic and tribally organised. To paint them I have chosen a colour theme, rather than a common heraldry, mixing geometric freehands with actual drawings, runes and skintones without worrying about any consistency, other than a general abundance of red colours. Rulewise they will always count as lightly armoured (to represent their physical resistance) and with a full command group. As for weapons and shields, I will simply place the models armed in the correct way at the time (for example all shields) in the front ranks and all the others in the back ranks, who will then be removed as casualties first, while my opponent should always have a WYSIWYG view of the front rank.

Hand weapons and shields 

Two handed weapons 

Two hand weapons 

Those brave barbarian warriors, pointwise, counts as

20 Chaos thugs: light armor, hand weapon and shields (or 2 hand weapons or great weapon)...                                       180 points

Banner 

My favorite champion so far..

To this first group of warriors I also added a Valkyrie, freely inspired by the “evil queens” of the 80s. Im pretty sire i had already seen her headress in a movie i swear, but i cant Remember were. Maybe was in Red Sonya or something like that.. please let me know..

Bonus pics... Did I said Frazetta? Here Is my omage to his art 

"Against the Gods"

Ok, at least I tried 

I would say that for this month it is more than enough, I have written too much. See you next update with a mighty flock of nobles on horseback.

Stay tuned and stay true.