Last Roman Saga
Recommendations: 401
About the Project
A friend of mine has meant to get into Saga for sometime. He felt that the 4 points boxes from Gripping Beast were too tempting to pass up. He added to this with some bits on eBay and I offered to kitbash up a Hearthguard unit from some spare Saga kits I have. After building his list and building his minis the project began to falter... So I offered to paint some of his collection for him. Unsure whether I will paint everything or not.
Related Game: SAGA
Related Company: Gripping Beast
Related Genre: Historical
This Project is Completed
The army
There were some eBay additional bits and my mate Tim built everything, his first dalliance away from GW products. 
Built around a foundation of a Gripping Beast 4 point box.My kitbash project
I started off with some Wargames Factory chainmail bodies. I used the Wargames Factory arms as well because of the chainmail on the shoulders.
I chose to use cloaks from Wargames Atlantic Dark Age Irish sprues. The shields are perhaps from Conquest or from Wargames Factory (not sure). The swords are from Wargames Factory. Perhaps a little underweight compared to some swords around in my collection.
Then I realised that I didn't need to limit myself to bare heads just because I didn't have Late Roman options. In the Gripping Beast generic Dark Age Cavalry box I found some Romanesque helms and some oval shields. 
I knew that with two pairs of quite different builds that the paint job and shield design would need to be used to tie them together.The Hearthguard paint job
The freehand on the shields were something I was desperate to do. 
The green is quite bold but I used Athonian Camoshade to try and make it less so.
The models were primed black, a zenith of brown applied from the cloak side / shield side. This made it easier to paint the Flesh tearer Red cloaks and the white background of the shields. The cloaks got a highlight of Mephiston Red.
The shields were based on some of the Little Big Man transfers I looked up online. The Christian "P" icon is a Late Roman symbol that gets a lot of use in wargaming.The lists
Got my delivery of Romans.I failed to give my friend guidance on what to build to make a Saga ready list.
Now I can see the bits up close I will paint the minis in batches that make sense unit wise.
The first idea looks like this:
1 warlord on foot
1 warlord on horseback
4 Hearthguard Cavalry
12 archers
4 Hearthguard on foot – sword and board
4 Hearthguard on foot – (kitbash painted already)
4 Hearthguard on foot – spear and shield
8 warriors – shield and spear
(With four similar minis on standby with extra spears to convert the warriors into a levy javalin unit if preferred.)
A standard bearer (can’t recall how these work in game or whether they get assigned to a unit.)
Hearthguard - divide and concur
I decided to grab two of the Hearthguard built by Tim and to separate out the kitbashed circular shield guys to make a unit. I found more cloaks and added those to fully bond the unit together.
Then I used the same shield design and the same paint theme to gel this unit together with the remaining oval shield guys.
Archers
I couldn't work out what the circles and over shoulder details on the models were. Turns out they were just decoration. The example shows squares but others show circles.
The brown with a white zenith seemed like a fast way to paint these up.The scheme for the archers
I like this flat helm's for archers and slingers. I will maybe take some of their tunics closer to grey and beige. 
I will play with the colours of the cuffs, trim and decoration over the shoulder, but keep the circles the same.
The circles seem to have intricate embroidery, but for me a simple cross and dots is achievable. It's something that can be revisited easily if Tim wants it taken to the next level at a later date. There might be small eagle transfers out there that might do the trick.
To differentiate the different materials I just used different contrast browns so they look different to the original brown primer.
3 points
Two hearth guard and one archer levy unit to get me to 3 points so far.
Happy with the variety of clothing.
Cavalry WiP - scheme settled
Made a start on the cav. There are too many for a unit, but it's fun to have options and potential for expanding of the force later. The shield is thematic but probably needs another element to look right.
The golden helms with a face are indicative of Romans, but I am not sure they lasted all the way up to the Dark Age and were probably just ceremonial.Cavalry.
Another unit down. Happy with this tabletop ready attempt.
The shield designs came out OK. There's variety enough in the horses and the clothing, but they are united by the shield the basing and the golden/ brass elements on the helmets.
I hope my friend likes them. There's still plenty of shields and infantry and a warlord to do.Warlord on horse
Kept the free hand simple. The mask is a fun head option.
I never find painting horses easy. I think this came out ok.Warlord on foot
Tried to match the style of the warlord on horse.
The freehand on both shields marries up OK, but I have decided to use transfers for the warriors.The transfers arrived
Andy at Gripping Beast helped me select the right size of Little Big Man studios transfers from the Gripping Beast site.I like that these are reverse slide transfers. You place them sticky side down where you want them and then add the water to release the backing and remove it.
My friend seemed to like the idea of the warriors looking almost in uniform but appreciated that the concept of armies in uniform was a few years beyond the dark age.
I will stick to a selection of greens and reds and greys and black to give a semblance of uniformity. Clothes did tend to identify you as a group anyway because of the dyes available where you come from.
I have these eagle transfers and another symbol. I will use these to identify the different units so it’s easy to deploy on the table at a glance.
Prep for the warrior units
Transfers and basingI primed these models a while ago, painted up my first model with the transfer, took the picture and shared it.
I am happy with the result, but the more I looked at the stark profile of the thick puddle base they were placed on the base with, the more it looks just slightly off. I dropped a good covering of my brown flock to try and hide the step, but didn’t pack it in the join to any degree. I might have been able to just add more basing flock to disguise the change in height but I chose to tackle it with some ready made repair filler / plaster instead.
Not looking for perfection with the plaster. Just enough so the miniature looked like he chose a slight rise / solid ground to stand on, not so starkly a plastic mini, on a thick puddle base stood on a 2mm plastic 25mm base.
My friend assembled these minis and picked some fun poses. This is their first non-GW historical game in some time, or perhaps ever, so cutting off puddle bases, (without risking cutting the feet off or deforming them) was not on his radar. Even though I have a lot of non-GW projects under my belt I still find removing models from the puddle bases a bit of a risky task. The slotter base and the hexagonal peg and hole on the base designs of GW bases are certainly a neat solution and avoid the extra steps I am taking to make the model feel in situ.
Unit of warriors
Knocked out 7 miniatures to complete the Point of warriors.
Enjoyed these. I used a combination of Deathguard Green, Camo Green Contrast, Corvus Black, orruk flesh, warpstone glow and Loren Forest Green on the clothes. The trim was varied between Jokaero orange and mephiston red.Second warriors unit.
Nice transfer. Mainly white and red which matches in with the other shields in the force.
The decorative straps and circles do slow things up, but they add variety. I am unsure whether these were a way of being unique or whether they were meant to unite units, but the late Roman era in Britain isn't a strong point sadly.Second warrior unit finished off.
I kept these closer to the brown primer. I painted the circles and shoulder decorative bits. For those that I didn't splash white over the edges they just got a wash and a highlight. For the ones with the most tidy up required I changed the tunic colour to Catachan flesh, Steel Legion Drab and Mournfang Brown.
Lloyd shot. Wherever there was a bit of sprue tag left over I chose to incorporate it into the paint scheme. One looked like it was torn clothing on an elbow, so I just painted flesh underneath it to mock a tear. On another elbow and on a tag on a head I made it look like a cut.
Standard bearer
I still haven't researched how these fit into the list composition properly in Saga for 2nd edition.
The transfers are great from Little Big Man. Couldn't have free handed the standard. Something to attempt another day.
Lloyd shot. The purple isn't used elsewhere in the force. I think purple has always been a regal special colour and in the Dark Age was a relatively expensive dye. Seems like an appropriate colour to use.Levy conversion fellas
Though perhaps just having them throwing spears in the pose would make more sense as javelin levy, but as I am deliberately adding these as an option to a warrior unit the dramatic poses stand out. Once added to the warrior unit they can remain the longest as they take casualties and represent the levy status of the unit until the end.
Once mixed in with the warriors I think it will be obvious what the intention was and not confuse or upset an opponent.
