From KevH: 20mm Anglo-Saxons Thegns & Saracen City Militia and Ghazi Fanatics (182 points)

From Kev:

Sculpting's done for now so I am back at the painting table, yaaay. First up are an addition to my 1/72 Dark age collection.

The Anglo Saxon Army in "Hail Caesar" is allowed a single small unit of Mounted Thegns. I could have chose the easy route for these and just painted 4 of the Revell ones. But no, thats not me and I do prefer the Strelets. So here we go, Strelets and Revell conversions. A few head swaps and the odd body swap and all on Strelets horses. 4 mounted Thegns to give the Anglo Saxons a bit of fast hitting power.

Then back onto the Crusades. More infantry for now. First up are another City Militia unit. 12 Figures, these are 3 to a base to show they are a Medium infantry unit.

Then closely followed by the first of the Ghazi Fanatics units. This is a warband, (24 figures) hence the double ranks.

Once again a medium infantry unit with 3 to a base to show this. I decided on a uniform colour scheme for the Fanatics as I wanted them to look menacing on the table. Andy had the idea for the red headgear. Red, black with a bit of white give these the look I wanted and will easily make them recognisable on the table.

The other fanatic units will be a slight variation on this scheme.

All the Saracen figures are HaT 1/72 and from their ElCid range and painted in my high contrast style. I am now working on some of the Saracen Cavalry, at last, lol.

Beautiful work once again Kev! I particularly like the unit of Ghazi fanatics - those colours certainly reinforce their intended role. 

These fellows with their excellent banners, shields and conversions will give Kev 182 points, allowing him to wrest back control of 2nd place from Dave. Nonetheless with only a 48 point spread between the two it's really anybody's race. Pretty exciting stuff!

From TamsinP: 28mm Anglo-Saxons (131)

From Tamsin:

Well, those naughty Norsemen from my last entry clearly needed someone to take them on and send them running back to their longships. And who better than a Saxon Earl, his standard bearer and 20 of his bloodthirsty thegns?

The figures are 28mm plastics from Gripping Beast. It would have been nice if the sprues had come with Dane-axes, but they didn't. Never mind, at least they had enough spare axe hands for me to use - I ended up lopping off spear hands to give myself for thegns with axes.

I've gone for a slightly more uniform look in terms of clothing for these than I did with the Vikings, and didn't bother with adding on pouches, knives etc this time. Shield designs are once again hand-painted.

The last pic is a close up to show the detail on the rear of the shields.

Lovely work Tamsin. Overall, how did you find the Gripping Beast plastics to work with? I have a couple boxes awaiting my attention and I'm curious to what can expect.

These 22 Saxons will give Tamsin a base of 110 points, but, as her last entry, I'm adding extra points for the hand-painted shields, so 131 total.

From TimB: 28mm Anglo-Saxons, Norman Foot, Greek Light Horse plus a Celt and a Greek (310 points)

Wow, the lads sure have been busy! Its been a week of multiple-period, multiple-posts ranging from Ancient Greece to present day Mogadishu, from characterful single figures to large multiple units - all of it excellent stuff! So keeping up both the theme and tempo Tim sends us a veritable cornucopia of great minis to look at. First up is an impressive unit of Anglo-Saxons arrayed in one of their formidable shieldwalls.

Tim tells me that this unit is composed of a dog's breakfast of 28mm manufacturers: Gripping Beast, Old Glory and Black Tree Design to name a few.

And really, who better to face-off with the Anglo-Saxons than those avaristic yobs with bad haircuts from the Cotentin. Yes, you guessed it, the Normans.

These are all 28mm Crusader castings. Tim did fabulous work on the shields with both of these units.

Next we have a stand of two 28mm Greek light cavalry from Black Tree Design...

...truly an ancient Greek from Warlord Games...

... and finally a sunbather from the Orkneys wearing nothing but his tattooes (and, well, a huge freakin' sword). He's from Warlord Games as well.

These fourty-nine foot and two mounted will give Tim a base of 265 points, but I'm going to award him another 45 points for the great hand-painted work on the various shields and the tattooed loon. So 310 it is. Wonderful stuff, Tim!