Hobby WIP: Militia and Mounted Scouts (Bows)

During this past week I started really hobbying on some Militia; 4 Troops worth, which should be enough to run them as anything I want (though honestly, chaffy 50-point Troops is probably going to be their lot in life). On Saturday, I was sitting around, enjoying the day, bemoaning a bit that the weekend was over and I had to go back to the office the next day. I am a moron.

So Sunday was basically an unexpected bonus day, which, being the adult I am, I mostly spent playing video games and hobbying. I got a lot done!

Half of the WIP Militia. The other pic was blurry.

I decided that I am going to try and multibase the Militia on full-fledged Troop-sized bases… so basing is going to take some extra effort this time around. I’m going to try to use some Milliput to create some uneven ground to camouflage their little stands… so yeah, more to come on these guys, but I’m making good progress!

The Militia models are mostly Fireforged Games Foot Sergeants, though I do have a handful of extra Roman minis making appearances too. The accompanying Romans are mostly spare banner/musician models from all the boxes of Romans I have acquired, since I have not been using musicians at all in any of my Roman units. These visitors got the kitbash treatment, acquiring spare weapons and such from the Foot Sergeant sprues. With a little more work, the units should look just fine.

The Militia models have a variety of armor (Roman, scale male, cloth, padded/leather), which gives them a good “unprofessional” feel to the unit. I think this rag-tag look will be contrasted by the similar shields, which, being largely white, will help visually unify the unit. We’ll see how it turns out.

Roughly a billion shields for the Militia, and a bunch of pieces of the Scouts.

As I was thinking about that idea (uniforms are whatever; unify the unit with shields), I remembered my Mounted Scouts, languishing unfinished in a box because I could not decide on how to paint their wrapped tunics all those months ago. The night was young, so I pulled out the Scouts and set to work, and a few hours later, was pretty happy with my progress.

Originally, I was going to paint their tunics purple and white, and give them rugged cloaks... and the whole endeavor promised to be a nightmare for my brush positioning, so I kept all the bits separate, as you can see above. I should have at least glued the bow arm to the torso before jumping into painting the brown... oh well.

Group Shot! With Ra 5+ ... I may need this whole group to do a wound. We'll see....

The Scout models are all from Fireforge Games. The leaders from their “Heavy Cavalry” pack, and the rest from their “Mongol Cavalry” box. If anyone else is looking to build up some Mounted Scouts… I’d suggest just buying the box of plastic minis. The material used for the heavies is really brittle, and despite looking cool in that extra armor, the horses are not a great sculpt, and I’m not sure how long they will last, as again, they are pretty brittle models. I may have some repair work to do in the future…

And a close-up shot. The plastic models are fantastic - really dynamic!

They all still need one more touch of paint (for the glorious moustaches), and then shading/washing but these Troops are progressing well too. Will hopefully have all these done by this time next week!