Medieval Distractions

Back Then

The year is 2022. A young(ish) Lazy Forger is working on the Union range of models for Full Spectrum Dominance, and his squirrel-brain starts mumbling.

People in the local club are playing warmaster, but the models... kind of suck? They're all in long strips and repeating over and over, with thick bases that need to be masked with putty, and the results are ...underwhelming.

Lazy sits at the computer, and starts reworking the freshly made mannequines for the Union. The goal is an opponent force for the Western Kingdom, but a few notches up. Like, quite a few: nothing wrong with the underdetailed 6mm infantry done back then, but clearly 10mm (which is nearly 12mm to the top of the head) is a better scale for armies with no tanks, and no big buildings of sort.

And the bondi, and bersekers, are born.

The playbook is the usual: tight supports under the feet, with the rest of the outer supports bundled in a way that makes them easier to remove, while you can paint your models on the strip.

And... it's that simple. No solid bases, no rigid strips of 8 figures standing stiff for the class photo... with the extra twist of having bundles of 2-3 figures joined to form lines of shields. That reads right, and sends the right message.

And these two jumping guys, because of course IU had to do that.

Now

Fast forward to... I guess, last Friday?

After chatting with a friend who's into Warmaster Historicals, I got the mojo back, and realized that back then (the chapter above!) I also spent some good time with geometry nodes in Blender to make a convincing chainmail.

This kept me up one night (not even joking), so Friday morning decided to set aside all the other pressing deadlines (some of them past due!) and try out doing some armoured troops to go with the Bondi and the Bersekers.

The test print went flawless, and more and more piled up.

My discipline with files and organization has improved quite a bit in the last 4 years, so I spent some good time reorganizing the old files as well - but within the day, I had the Hirdmen done!

Grouped and individually based, to give the best dynamism to each base.

Compared to the Bondi, there's three main differences: I didn't put any spear (that's not entirely realistic, but it's true that richer and fancier soldiers tended to prefer more expensive weapons, like swords), shields are larger (made of better wood, so light enough to make them. Also helps players reading what-is-what from a distance), and no kneeling poses (that's for peasants!)

I know, none of this makes sense, but as long as there's some internal consistency, it's fine.

And here they are, small strips, printed with flexible resin to prevent those small axes to snap away!

Chainmail was a tricky one to nail, and in 2022 I remember doing several iterations and test paintjobs. Now, it should really shine (pun intended) with a simple coat of dark brown wash over silver!

I ended up with 25 poses. Many are pretty close between them, but still: not bad for a weekend project!

That's all for today. Lots of pictures!

Jack