I've just read this thread, great celtic army, with lots of flavour and details worked.
And I am glad that you were published!!
Thank you sir! The different colours make them very fun to paint, unlike the Indians I'm doing now, where I have to find variations through skin colour rather than clothing. I'm not quite done with my Ancient Britons, still waiting for Linear-A to release their new Celtic set but I placed an order for some resin Celts from Russia so hopefully I'll continue the updates later this year.
I've been meaning to come back to this project log for a while - my Celtic army is so very close to being completed! I was waiting for ages to order the recent Linear-A Celtic set before I began my next unit but my favoured distributor didn't stock them for months after their release date - agony! So I was forced to wait until they got an order in. The miniatures arrived very quickly and I'm happy to report that the sculpts are excellent! I haven't seen any other painted examples online, so if you're waiting to see how they look like, I've got a sample below, arrayed with figures from other manufacturers.
My final unit of skirmisher javelin warriors is now waiting for Germania-Figuren's new Celtic command set to be released. So again, there might be a while until the next and final unit update for this army!
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1/72 Ancient British Celtic Army
The Gweltijo-lāto (Wild warriors – Ancient Brittonic) are fierce ambushers and cunning guerrillas; woad-clad and howling like otherwordly visitations of vengeance. From the forests they strike, hard and fast, like lightning from a clear sky, only to fade just as easily when eyes turn their way. The Gweltijo-lāto are slingers with a talent for subterfuge and deception. Not for them the frontal charge of massed shieldwalls and bloodrage, but the predatory patience of the hunt, which, while less theatrical, is where the real killing begins. And without exception, all of the Gweltijo-lāto are expert hunters. They scorn the Lummo-Woret as young amateurs, skittish as deer, a distraction at best and dangerously incompetent at worst.
The Gweltijo-lāto serve as scouts for the Iceni, taking note of enemy movements from concealed positions, probing for weak points, watchful for attacks from unexpected quarters. Without the speed and dash of cavalry, their approach is quieter and more methodical. With the patience of hunters, the Gweltijo-lāto do not lose themselves to blind fury or the possession of battle lust but weigh the balance of battle carefully before committing their strength, but then fight with all the ardour the celts are known for. They feint, retreat, harry their foes, always on the outskirts with their slings and swords, dashing to prepared ambush positions for their next round of attacks. Named as the 'wild warriors,' their title was earned from their fierce independence from king Toirdelbach's command, being nearly uncontrollable and 'wild' in their isolationist tendencies. They are given this freedom to operate simply because of their effectiveness, so their unit name is a great honourific; a mark of the tribe's confidence in their capabilities and trust in their good judgement in battle.
The Gweltijo-lāto adorn themselves in woad en-masse. They have embraced the noble tradition of their ancestors, with many warriors also spiking their hair with lime, fighting naked and making trophies of enemy heads. Their leader, Cunobelinus, is a dour, pious warrior and a staunch traditionalist. Even before his family was cut down by plagues, he seemed unhappy, always on the verge of anger and his murderous temper has only become worse as the Romans have closed in. Cunobelinus fights to maintain the Iceni way of life and to venerate the gods but he seems to do these things only out of practice, with no more passion for them than anything else. Regardless of his bitterness, he has proven himself a staunch fighter; calm in calamity, murderous with a blade and his warriors trust his instincts that have seen them victorious time and time again.
(As part of my effort to make each unit distinctive, the Gweltijo-lāto are my second unit of skirmishers. My skirmisher units are arrayed on diorama bases, perched on cliffsides or high hills to imply their light-footedness. The height of this slinger unit allows the base to tell a story; in this case, the slingers are hurling rocks from above while the warriors in the first rank are charging into close quarters.
The recent Celtic set from Linear-A: Hannibal Crosses the Alps Set 5 "CELTIC SALASSI / TAURINI TRIBE VS. CARTHAGINIANS” has many evocative, characterful poses of Celts levering or pushing boulders upon enemies below. When I saw the masters of this set I knew I wanted to use these for my 'slingers.' The strength of the Basic Impetus basing system is there are many models on one base, allowing a scene to be set, and grouping these boulder-pushing models with slinger models allows people to see they're part of a slinger unit at first glance.
The first rank of charging warriors uses two dynamic poses from the Linear-A set, which are full of movement, seeming to charge and pounce. The warleader is posed to urge his warriors on, while the single head-taker is brandishing his trophy. I refrained from painting blood on his axe; I want this army to not seem so vicious, their traditions may be barbaric, but I want a nobility and richness in their culture rather than a grim cruelty. The left most Linear-A figure has had a very watered down blue (almost made into a wash) applied as woad warpaint, and this is my attempt at a new way of painting Woad, almost like a very light smearing across the body, as inspired by the Iceni units in Rome Total War 2 promotional art.
In keeping with the themes of the army, there are plaids, bare flesh, woad and disorganisation. The severed head plays into the sub-theme of Celtic head taking. As the skirmishers are some of the least prestigious in the army, the plaids are minimal, and decorations for the warriors are mostly stripes instead. Cunobelinus does not wear chainmail either, in keeping with the other skirmisher leaders. The Revell model has wings on the helmet; a classic Celtic theme. Relieved I didn't have to sculpt these, I've painted them white to keep them simple; which is different from all the other winged helmets in the army. I added a greenstuff sash to him as I've seen recent depictions of Celts with sashes and I couldn't be bothered further modifying my Celtic king. As such, Cunobelinus has three pieces of separate plaid items on him; shirt, pants and sash. It was a lot of painting work. I also gave him a greenstuff sling for visual consistency with the other slingers.
I wanted to distinguish the Celts from the Romans by having lighter skinned warriors, so I've tried some lighter skin colours. My current skin recipes are:
I like using a variety of different models from different manufacturers for figure variety; every single one of my models are unique in this army. With models from Airfix, Linear-A, Italeri, Revell and Caesar Miniatures, I have a range of differently shaped and posed men, which emphasises the individuality of the Celts which is a hallmark of this army.
One of the elements of my Celtic army is inconsistency; they are a tribal confederation, not a formal, uniform organisation. I don't have a single unit where a theme applies to every figure. The Gweltijo-lāto have the most spiked, limed hair figures, the most blonde figures and the most woad-painted figures but these themes are not across every single member of the unit. All of my skirmisher units will have naked figures, but this one only has a single one, the least of all the skirmisher units.
The base was made in a similar fashion to the last unit, with foam staked on top of each other to form a cliff face, then sand applied, then flock, shrubs and flowers.)
(Unit 10 of 11 - Ancient British army - Basic Impetus)
Great work Owen, at the end it's a very nice small diorama Your painting on Linear-A is interesting for me, good ideas for my future romans-britons diorama Do you think these figures can be applicable also for "late" britons (Boudica rebellion period) ? or some conversion is needed ?
Another great addition to your Celtic army, Owen. You are a bit like me in that you carry out several projects at the same time (I have in mind your ancient Indian army), with the difference that yours include many more figures than mine, so your merit is greater.
Iceman1964 wrote:Great work Owen, at the end it's a very nice small diorama Your painting on Linear-A is interesting for me, good ideas for my future romans-britons diorama Do you think these figures can be applicable also for "late" britons (Boudica rebellion period) ? or some conversion is needed ?
I saw that you acquired the Celtic Linear-A set in another thread, I hope to see your spin on it at some point! From my readings, I think the Celts are very applicable for Boudicca's rebellion. Celtic warfare seemed relatively unchanged from when the Romans first landed to Boudicca's rebellion (although the Gauls had discontinued the use of chariots, the Britons kept using them, but that's kind of irrelevant to a discussion about Ancient Britons specifically). The description that Caesar provides about the Britons being:
"All the Britons paint themselves with woad, which produces a dark blue color; and for this reason they are much more frightful in appearance in battle. They permit their hair to grow long, shaving all parts of the body except the head and the upper lip."
seems to suggest that the Britons looked like other Celtic people, except their distinguishing features were the use of woad, and perhaps their long hair and shaved chins (no beards). It does seem that sources say Gallic men spiked their hair with lime and this doesn't seem to be mentioned for the Britons, however I've never seen any evidence contradicting the use of 'limed' hair for the Britons and I think it could have been possible they could have also adopted a similar hairstyle, we simply don't have the sources to conclusively say (and limed hair is a cultural archetype for the Celts, in the same way the use of red for the Roman legions have been enshrined in the popular perception, so I kind of just want it in). I think the Linear-A figures would work great!
Minuteman wrote:Nice work. But my Goodness, did we Brits really look like this 2000 years ago???
Haha I think everyone has come a very, very long way since the days of head-taking and blue face-painting (fun for the whole family).
Santi Pérez wrote:Another great addition to your Celtic army, Owen. You are a bit like me in that you carry out several projects at the same time (I have in mind your ancient Indian army), with the difference that yours include many more figures than mine, so your merit is greater.
Best regards.
Santi.
Thankss Santi! Oh it's not about the figures that are painted, it's about the care invested in projects that give them value! I do like to juggle a few projects at once, who knows, I might start something completely left-field sometime soon (waiting for Linear-A to reveal their masters for the Indus culture sculpts - the Ancient Mauryan Indians are on hold just for that. I rely on Linear-A far too much.)
Really these Celts are some of the most beautifully painted minis. There is a Van Gogh like impressionist quality that makes them like a work of art. And the plaids are fantastic! Not to say what others do is not art, but what I do is much more like painting in the numbers for each part, and then add in some wash techniques.
Who are you matching up against them? Do you have a club or friend that is making some Romans? Or will they be pitted against some fun fantasy Indians?
I have been on the fence about getting the linear A celts just because I have so many other projects, but also a addiction to collecting basically every single ancient army in 1/72 plastic. (especially from Linear A)
Howlin wrote:Really these Celts are some of the most beautifully painted minis. There is a Van Gogh like impressionist quality that makes them like a work of art. And the plaids are fantastic! Not to say what others do is not art, but what I do is much more like painting in the numbers for each part, and then add in some wash techniques.
Oh, I almost forgot to update this blog! I sometimes think of saving content into a big bundle, but I've been quite busy recently and the painting has definitely taken a backseat, but I have plans to restart once I get back to Australian shores.
I am flattered to be even remotely compared to Van Gogh, thank you very much! I am very proud of some of the plaids, such as on my eagle-helmed king, my Queen's dress and on the pants on one of my cavalry leaders, but they were so time intensive! It really was a matter of patience, thin brushes and a matter of fixing mistakes, which are so easy when accuracy is needed on such a scale, but the end result is so rewarding, as you can see!
I sometimes do want to paint in the numbers, in batches, and finish with washes but I don't have it in me. When I try it, I look at my models and I always think, but I can add more highlights, do more on the faces, and the whole piece usually takes three times longer than expected. I'm just a bit of a perfectionist for my works, and this extends to my other creative ventures. I do want to try an army that is just quick and fast at some point - I thought it would be my Mauryan Indians, and it is for my troops, and then I get large surface areas such as elephant cloth and then I try to recreate paintings haha.
Howlin wrote:Who are you matching up against them? Do you have a club or friend that is making some Romans? Or will they be pitted against some fun fantasy Indians?
I've deployed my Celts only once (against the Imperial Germans!), so far, I started this army a little before Covid I believe, so the whole world went into lockdown for a while. I wish I did have some local friends making some historical enemies but I don't. I have a wargames club started by my ex Ancient History teacher, and we recently tried a very unhistorical match of the Iceni against the Imperial Germans. I filmed it and you can see it here (with a fun little animated introduction):
It was very fun to get into gaming again post-lockdown. I owe quite a lot to my Ancient History teacher: he introduced me to 1/72 as a scale when I was still in Warhammer, and now 1/72 is my favourite scale. He opened me to the possibilities of cheap, accessible wargaming, which I think is great because I don't think people should be restricted by budget for something so simple and fun. He actually gave me his collections because he was running out of house space:
I definitely will pit my Ancient Britons against my Indians as soon as my Indians are finished, shouldn't be more than a few more years :p
Howlin wrote:I have been on the fence about getting the linear A celts just because I have so many other projects, but also a addiction to collecting basically every single ancient army in 1/72 plastic. (especially from Linear A)
Oh I love Linear-A's miniatures. Absolutely adore their works. I've accidently ended up collecting almost every 1/72 ancient army :p in online shopping sprees. I really like how the Linear- A Celts expand the number of poses available to collectors, with some dynamic cliff-action and some boulder pushing. I did a review here, with some 360 spins of each figure:
I've felt I've content-dumped enough here to tide people over until my final unit (It's coming, I've placed the orders). To provide some foreshadowing, I've really liked the look of Germania Figuren's Celtic figures so I want a final unit of javelin skirmishers made of many different figures from many different manufacturers. I have so many spare Celtic miniatures I might have to make a Galatian army for the Diadochi wars at some point. Hmmm. I could see it being thematically different too (Greek influenced helmets, furs, less plaids, blue as a primary army colour). Oh well, more plans in the pipeline!
Yeah I have watched those videos already, very entertaining reviews.
I still have yet to play a game with mine, from a childhood though I imagined it differently. Like you know as a kid you were like, well my super hero have this power, and your friend is like, uhh but mine can do this...? has infinity etc....
I want my battles to be a bit like that, where each side as to tell a story and based on its believably gets a score.... so for instance, I send a cavalry charge into a flank of archers and say I am going to clean the floor with this mass of troops... sounds plausible so 80% chance they kill the archers unscathed..... they roll a 18.... very successful..... they roll a 10,,, they achieve job but lose a few men in the process, get a 1, front horse stumbles and they all fall over and the archers counter the attack while they try to get up or are crushed....
Kinda like that. Rules with only guidelines,... may get messy, may need a referree!
Rich W wrote:Looks like you've been given a lifetimes supply of figures. They'll keep you busy for a very long time, or pay for some other nice things...
I'm being kept very, very busy haha!
Howlin wrote:Yeah I have watched those videos already, very entertaining reviews.
I still have yet to play a game with mine, from a childhood though I imagined it differently. Like you know as a kid you were like, well my super hero have this power, and your friend is like, uhh but mine can do this...? has infinity etc....
I want my battles to be a bit like that, where each side as to tell a story and based on its believably gets a score.... so for instance, I send a cavalry charge into a flank of archers and say I am going to clean the floor with this mass of troops... sounds plausible so 80% chance they kill the archers unscathed..... they roll a 18.... very successful..... they roll a 10,,, they achieve job but lose a few men in the process, get a 1, front horse stumbles and they all fall over and the archers counter the attack while they try to get up or are crushed....
Kinda like that. Rules with only guidelines,... may get messy, may need a referree!
Oh I get that, I think rules are in place to facilitate the social experience of getting together and having the spectacle of figures on the field, sometimes if they get in the way, and the purpose is the spectacle, you can always modify. I think unstructured narrative play CAN work, but you need someone who's on the same vibe. I think a standard rules system allows strangers to just play games, which helps if you don't have your own hobby group. There's definitely a place for all kinds of games.
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Before I get to the meat of the content, here's some side promotions: I published a step to step guide on how I paint horses:
What ancients 1/72 set I thought was best in 2022:
And finally, a little joke video about how Putin ruined 1/72 miniatures, I think it's censored because politics are sensitive, but it's accessible on my channel:
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So, I did say it would be a while until my next update in my last unit post. And it has been. Around a year and a half. I have never forgotten my Ancient Britons and have quietly, all this time, planning on how to come back and finish this army once and for all. Well, I can say now that the whole army has been done!
In my last unit post I said was waiting for Germania-Figuren's new Celtic command set to be released. I got the set and sat on it for a while, because new projects have taken my attention. My Mauryan Indian army was postponed pending Linear-A's upcoming Indus Valley set, I had Joseon Koreans to start because I very much wanted a unique army that is almost never represented on the tabletop but which still has a link to modern society and I've got a time-sensitive Sengoku Japanese army to finish. But as luck would have it, my ashigaru shipment has been delayed, so I can't work on the Japanese at the moment. What better time than to finally tackle my Celts? Plus, the new Boudicca movie is coming out in December 2023, so good to get in the spirit of things.
It has been a very long journey, started in March 2019 which was when I started working on my first unit. The Ancient Britons are my first finished Basic Impetus army in 1/72 scale. They are the army in which I finished my first unit too (I have a unit of Imperial Romans with 2 painted figures still waiting on my painting bench... from 2011). I started the Celts because I wanted something simple to begin with, and fun to paint, and the Celtic patterns looked like a nice challenge, and an opportunity to keep varying my painting, far more exciting than the Romans. Every model in the army is unique with effort to convert many of the models. It has been a labour of love to finally get this project completed.
For anyone who cares about the fluff of the army, I was reading my Ancient Britonnic dictionary and noticed the word for sling which I didn't catch when making my last unit. So I'm renaming my previous unit to Gweltijo-Tablā - wild sling (18/11/21 - 07/12/21)
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1/72 Ancient British Celtic Army
The Labaro-Delgo (Boastful Pin – Ancient Brittonic) are javelineers and hunters. As hunters, they know how other hunters operate and excel in guerrilla actions and skirmishes. They have learned patience when stalking the wild game for their tribe - expertise they have turned to hunting an altogether more dangerous foe. They are called boastful as an ironic jest, they tend to be the quietest and most mysterious members of the tribe. Often, the unit will go out on far-ranging expeditions in pursuit of food, and this makes them decent diplomats, as they have met many members of other tribes and formed small friendships.
Though the Iceni often lack discipline, the Labaro-Delgo have been trained well to maintain silence, to be watchful and to pick their battles for their advantage. This unit is led by Saenu, a veteran warrior who can sneak about the underbrush with barely a sound. Saenu attempts to bond with other members of the Iceni, but his stutter and strange perspectives make him an awkward member of the tribe. Though all respect his skill in a fight, few find his company bearable and he finds war to be a nice opportunity for social interactions. Often times on patrol, he will strike up a conversation with his unit and they will be forced to respond, as there would be nothing else to do. He finds these interactions very educational. Once, he kidnapped a Roman just to attempt a conversation, which lasted until the end of the Roman soldier's life. Very revealing.
As part of this unit is the sister of Queen Aessicunia herself, the cunning Isolda. Despite Aessicunia's poor grasp of politics the tribe warmed to her bombastic nature, rather than to Isolda's contemplative mein. Isolda, though far more suited to the games of power, is content to advise her sister and spend her days in the solitude of the wilderness. These are dangerous times, with the Roman armies scouring the countryside and Isolda wishes nothing more than to try her skill against these foreign invaders. She has vowed not to marry until the Iceni are free from the yoke of Roman control - a sign of her firm belief in the cause and also her desire to remain unwed for as long as possible.
(As part of my effort to make each unit distinctive, the Labaro-Delgo are my third and last unit of skirmishers. My skirmisher units are made on diorama bases, waiting on cliffsides or high hills to imply their light-footedness. I like to use the height of the base foundation itself to tell a narrative, and in this one, the unit is posed as if waiting to attack, looking down upon the enemy from their vantage point. The unit poses are mostly standing, not in motion, which helps create this idea of pre-action tension.
I try to give mini-themes to each unit to set them apart from each other and give each unit their own character. They are the only javelin unit in the army, so they are already distinguished, but I wanted to go further. So, to set this skirmish unit apart, I wanted this unit to have the most naked men and the most redheads. Yes, this does sound like the setup to a porno. I also wanted this unit to have the least plaid, just to set it apart, but also, it's been so long since I've painted plaid and I didn't want to have to relearn old techniques just for a single unit. Anyway, for the last unit I was careful about which members to put into it; I still have many Celtic sculpts I haven't used in this army yet, from Airfix, from Caesar Miniatures, from Linear-A and even the recent resin sets I bought from Germania Figuren and some figures from Speira Miniatures. I realised that I wanted the leader figure from the Linear-AHannibal Crosses the Alps Set 5. Firstly, it references a classic Peter Connolly drawing. Secondly, the figure fits in with the theme of all my other Celtic skirmish leaders; he is unarmoured and has an adorned helmet. Thirdly, he has a spear, which is close enough to a javelin. I drilled out the hand and gave him an Italeri javelin, because the accuracy of my figures matter to me. I painted the leader as closely as I could to the original Peter Connolly drawing, but the shield was a little small for all the little black marks. I gave him red hair to make him fit the unit's theme.
The female figure; Isolda, next to him is a conversion from a Dark & Light AllianceModern Amazons (set 1) figure, with a greenstuff dress and new head with greenstuff hair. I converted the figure to resemble Boudicca from Civilisation V, the video game. I can't have two Boudiccas in the army, but her in-game background as the queen's sister is a little nod to their resemblance. If I had more units to make, I'm sure there would be more iterations of more Boudiccas, but I'm glad I'm finally finishing this army. I've always liked the complex dress of Civ V's Boudicca, so recreating it was always a goal I had. Boudicca is redheaded, so fits well into this unit's theme. Not many axes in my army, but there's a scattering here and there. Another mark for the 'disorganised' theme.
The naked Celt on her right is a HaTCarthaginian Allies figure. I wanted more naked figures, so he got into the unit. I greenstuffed anatomically correct penis and testicles (cock and balls) onto the model. Such details are important. I wanted his shield to be a little different, so it's got two coloured rims against a very dark blue background.
The final front-ranker is an Airfix figure with javelins, which I like the pose of. I paid attention to the shield and gave it many colours to emphasise the Celtic multi-coloured nature. I kept his clothes simple to emphasise how the skirmishers are lower status.
The carnyx blower is from Germania-Figuren, my first and only inclusion from the company into this army. I knew I needed a carnyx blower, to keep in theme with the other skirmishers. I could have used a Linear-A one from the Hannibal's triumph set but I wanted Germania-Figuren's presence in this army, and I was originally going to use their chieftain, but ended up using the Linear-A one. So the carnyx blower will suit as the company's representative. I like the model's bronze decorations around his belt, which is very different from all my other sculpts. I gave him some plaid to mark out his higher status and red hair to make this unit more redheaded.
The naked metal figure is from Newline Designs, who are a terrific company and I haven't painted one of their sculpts in a while. I wanted him to have no woad markings, to contrast with the other naked figures. He was given an Italeri javelin and red hair. Again, accurate penis and testicles. I checked.
The kneeling figure is from Linear-A, with his hand drilled out and replaced with an Italeri javelin. I love the kneeling pose while looking down but there are few contexts I could use the figure except on an elevated platform, or perhaps being humbled by an enemy or a noble from his tribe. As such, good to include the figure in this unit, when it is fitting. I gave his pants new colours I haven't used in this army before (because I didn't own the paints) and am always looking to introduce new colour variations in the army. Time was spent on the shield to give him an eye catching pattern, using a different quartered colour pattern of pink and teal.
The last figure in the back row is the standing javelin thrower with shield, and he is another Linear-A sculpt from the Hannibal crosses the Alps set. I also like this pose, and didn't need to convert him. I wanted to see if I could include any new designs for shields and found an inversed horse design I liked, paired with a red and white checkered pattern, which is a common Celtic pattern. I suspect the original sculpt is meant to be wearing pants, but I wanted more nude figures, so I've painted him as naked, but with shoes. That's probably a fetish somewhere. He's got some woad stripes to get more woad instances in the army and limed hair to fill out Celtic archetypes.
In keeping with the themes of the army, there are plaids, bare flesh, woad, limed hair and disorganisation. As the skirmishers are some of the least prestigious in the army, the plaids are minimal, with this unit having the least in the army. There are high rates of green and blue coloured eyes in this unit to differentiate it from other armies of ethnic peoples with less eye colour variation. All the skirmisher units have naked members (and no metal armour other than helmets) to include the celtic archetype of naked fighters but also to emphasise their relative lower status and poverty, which is evident in this unit.
The base was made in a similar fashion to the last unit, with foam staked on top of each other to form a cliff face, then sand applied, then flock, shrubs and flowers.)
(Unit 11 of 11 - Ancient British army - Basic Impetus) - ARMY COMPLETE
I like that you go for accurate conversions! But, seriously I really do like your tattoos! They look very good and the figures look fearsome enough to scare the Romans off to Teutoburger area! Maybe not that great idea for them ....
This brings back memories of the Airfix chaps of my childhood.
I think the slinger might be one of them .
Good work.
Best wishes,
Chris
Yeah he is! I know Celts have a special place in a lot of peoples' hearts, early childhood figures or because they've got cultural roots. Wanted to do them justice. Thanks!
Ochoin wrote:Individually & in groups, your figures capture the period & the people so well.
I have only one criticism..... you ended with " (Unit 11 of 11 - Ancient British army - Basic Impetus) - ARMY COMPLETE".
I doubt that, very much.
cheers, donald
Haha, well you know, as soon as I was finished I started thinking... I still want to paint celts. I have so many unique poses I didn't even use in this army:
I am thinking that the armies I want to make later; Carthaginians, Galatians, maybe Seleucids, will have Celts in their armies in some form or other. Maybe the Britons are done, but I'm very sure I'm not done with Celts. Maybe do the Gauls...
Susofrick wrote:I like that you go for accurate conversions! But, seriously I really do like your tattoos! They look very good and the figures look fearsome enough to scare the Romans off to Teutoburger area! Maybe not that great idea for them ....
Haha, it just bothered me, I don't know what it was. I was like, well come on, well it's just weird if some minis are anatomically correct and some aren't, I like my consistency. The tatts and warpaint is always fun to just splatter around, sometimes I can be lazy with it if it's just stripes. I like my Ancient Britons fierce, the Roman accounts were certainly terrified of them. They're just fun to depict. You get to play with so many colours and they can be a little messy!
Iceman1964 wrote:Great work Owen, I especially like the shields, they are super !!!
It's funny to see we are on the opposite side of the planet and we are painting the same figures
I love seeing your Celts actually, I like seeing how other people interpret the same sculpt, it's nice to see I'm not the only one doing them. I'll keep following your project!
Santi Pérez wrote:Another wonderful unit for your Celt army, Owen. I agree with Enrico, their shields are superb.
And also videos are very interesting.
Best regards, my friend.
Santi.
Thank you as always, my friend Santi!
Rich W wrote:Very good and fearsome looking bunch! I particularly like the shields-such intricate designs!
The shields can take a lot of time, but I think it's worth it because they're such a large surface. Lots of room for freehand!
This will be the final update post in this blog / topic for a long time, but I needed to wrap things up with an army shot. Presenting the Iceni Pritani - approximately 12/01/19 - 27/06/23 - Iceni Britons
Here is a walkthrough of the whole army, from its earliest conception to finished force, with explanations of themes, the construction and panoramic shots of each model and unit:
This is an in-depth guide in how I made the final unit of Celtic javelineers:
And this is the future of what comes next:
No more Celts in the short term. But I'm sure there will be Celts somewhere eventually. It's been a fun journey.
The different colours make them very fun to paint, unlike the Indians I'm doing now, where I have to find variations through skin colour rather than clothing. I'm not quite done with my Ancient Britons, still waiting for Linear-A to release their new Celtic set but I placed an order for some resin Celts from Russia so hopefully I'll continue the updates later this year.
Moderator
I am very proud of some of the plaids, such as on my eagle-helmed king, my Queen's dress and on the pants on one of my cavalry leaders, but they were so time intensive! It really was a matter of patience, thin brushes and a matter of fixing mistakes, which are so easy when accuracy is needed on such a scale, but the end result is so rewarding, as you can see!
