I finally dragged out the lightbox (the great thing about having a lightbox is the vast improvement in quality it brings to your pictures, the terrible thing about having a lightbox is that taking pictures becomes a bit of a production), so I probably should get around to posting the results.  Might as well start with the GHOST ROMANS.

As I’ve said before, one of the goals with these guys was, “Get them done fast,” so even though they’re a lot rougher than what I normally paint, I’m satisfied with them.  Not counting the Warlord, the whole lot took me about 3-4 days to do, which is something of a record.

The specific inspiration comes from Cornwell’s Saxon Stories; one of the novels’ leitmotifs is the idea of England as a post-apocalyptic world.  Artifacts and architecture of the Roman world that came before are scattered throughout the land: dilapidated Roman forts are frequently used for shelter, Uhtred makes his home in London in a Roman villa the fyrd believes to be haunted.  This is also something the most recent season of Vikings touched on, too.

So, I got a bug to get some cheap, plastic Warlord kits, paint them quickly, and run them as the restless, wrathful spirits of Roman legionnaires, bestirred to wreak vengeance and death on the barbari who’ve inherited and wasted their legacy.

Here’s the whole mess:

• Warlord
• Hearthguard x12
• Warriors x16
• Levies x12

That 3/2/1 Hearthguard/Warriors/Levies is how I always initially think about Saga lists (for good or for ill).

I’m extremely pleased with the Warlord.  He’s a Warlord Imperial Prætorian Guard and a Gripping Beast Dark Age Warrior with some cutting, sculpting, and pinning.

All of the unfortunate Viking dude is held up with that arm, so there was a lot of reinforcement going on.  The sculpting isn’t quite what I’d like it to be, but it holds up okay… especially with the quick and dirty paint job on them.

The Hearthguard are Warlord’s Imperial Roman Prætorian Guard; the idea is that the helmet crests would make them stand out.  In play, that hasn’t worked as well as I’d like: I got them mixed up with the Warriors more than I’d have liked.

The Warriors are Warlord Imperial Roman Legionaries.  Initially, I’d planned to do them with the Early Imperial Roman Auxiliaries, but thought they looked insufficiently “Roman,” which is kind of stupid, but what kind of hobby is this if one can’t be stupid about it?

Finally, the Levies are Agema’s Republican Roman Velites.  I wanted to do a bunch of guys with the wolfskin, because it’s really distinct, but it turns out that it’s 1 wolfskin per 2 models, so I decided not too.  If I ever do another unit, I’ll do them all with wolfskins, so I’ll have one with and one without them.

It’s interesting to note that the Agema guys are way out of scale with the Warlord guys.  I came up painting Citadel minis, so I like the squat, broad, distorted, heroic minis that Warlord does… the Agema guys feel like they’re more realistically proportioned and in a larger scale.

All of these are nominally 28mm.  The Velite is half a head taller than the Legionary and the Prætorian, and he’s hunched over.

Here’s how I painted them:

GHOST
GW Celestra Grey basecoat
1:1 wash
– GW Drakenhof Nightshade
– GW Biel-Tan Green
GW Celestra Grey heavy drybrush
5:3:1:1 wash
– GW Waywatcher Green
– GW Guilliman Blue
– Water
– Matte Medium
GW Celestra Grey drybrush
P3 Morrow White light drybrush

GROUND
GW Steel Legion Drab basecoat
GW Tallarn Sand overbrush
GW Ushabti Bone drybrush
Wash 2:2:1:1
– GW Agrax Earthshade
– GW Seraphim Sepia
– Water
– Matte Medium

So, it’s a little more complicated than a quick drybrush, but fundamentally, that’s what’s going on.

I decided to do the warband before knowing what to run them as: Casey suggested I run them as either Irish or Pagan Rus, since both of their boards looked like they played in a way that could be articulated as “spookily.”  Since I’ve already got a bunch of Celtic Warriors, I went with the Pagan Rus.

Pagan Rus are, apparently, very good.  Possibly too good, which means I might need to rethink that, but we’ll see.