I couldn’t tell you why I picked the Normans. We all picked our respective forces based on looks rather than any insight into the rules. The Normans have this very distinctive feel about them, with the stylised nose-guard helms and kite shields, they should be recognisable to anyone.
The Norman starter box was one of the more expensive ones, mainly due to the 8x mounted hearthgard units adding a lot to the cost and weight of the box.
The painting method is similar to the ones we have used before on this site. As we are all hapless fanboys of the Army painter system.
- Clean up and Base
- Spray With Army Painter system “Leather Brown”
- Block colour in with GW/Vallejo Acrylic
- Grit the Bases with GF9 ‘Medium’ Grit and ‘fine’ Grit
- Apply Transfers from Little-Big-Men
- Dunk in Army Painter System Medium tone Quickshade – aka ‘VunderDunk’
- Leave to dry for 48 hours MINIMUM
- Apply Army Painter matt anti-shine varnish
- Apply GF9 Flock Summer blend
- Apply a Mix of GF9 Meadow Blend and Autumn clump foliage.
The models didn’t need much cleaning up, mould-lines were minimal, and there was no excess flash. Weapons are supplied separately to allow customisation, but the design leaves these quite fragile. And I have already had a few swords snap on me. About half of the Crossbow men are cast with the Crossbows on the same sprue, these were tricky to remove and re-attach without damaging the crossbow part.
I am not sure who provides the bases, but they are between 1mm and 2mm thick, and very sturdy. Whether it is coincidence or design, the infantry base is exactly the same size and thickness of a 2p piece, so if I wanted to buy models from a different range, basing is easy.
Army Painter system “Leather Brown” leaves you with an excellent (Slightly textured) base to paint on, and the brightness of the colour helps support thinner layers of acrylic on top.
The Trick with Army painter system is to change how you would normally paint a model. You are looking to Block in colour in large flat areas. I used a combination of Games Workshop and Vallejo Acrylic paints, basically whatever I had spare. You don’t need to worry about any shading at this point. The GW colours used are ‘Bastial Brown”, “Snakebite Leather”, “Red Gore”, “Mithril Silver” and a few patches of “Shining Gold”. Don’t worry too much about using the brightest metallic colours for this, the dip tones them down nicely.
To Grit the Bases first apply a thick layer of PVA glue – don’t worry too much, the grit will soak this up. Once glue is applied sprinkle on a small pinch of GaleForce-9 ‘Medium’ Grit, then cover any remaining areas of exposed PVA glue with GaleForce-9 ‘fine’ Grit
The Transfers are optional, but I figured they would save me some time. The ones at the gripping beast stall are made by Little-Big-Men. These acted slightly differently to traditional (Airfix/GW) water-slide transfers, with one side being exceptionally sticky.
As always I did a quick materials test with a spare part of the transfer sheet first to make sure it didn’t have an adverse reaction with the Quickshade dip. When experimenting with new techniques always always always do a materials test first in case you end up destroying your paintwork when something has a chemical reaction you didn’t expect. Fortunately these came out fine.
Once applied and gritted, the models were dunked in the Medium tone quickshade. These were left for a few days to dry, as in the past I have gotten inpatient and done the anti-shine step too early, and ruined a whole batch of figures. Fairly warned be ye says I.
The Army Painter matt anti-shine varnish is sprayed on in 2 or three VERY light coats from a good distance. If you flood the model with too much you get that ‘crinkly’ finish to the surface which is not good.
The GaleForce-9 Summer blend Flock is applied to about 50% of the base. Just dap a few patches of PVA glue on top of the grit and then sprinkle the flock on to the glue, tap gently to remove excess.
To make these look a bit different I mixed up a custom blend of clump foliage, mostly GaleForce-9 “Meadow Blend” with some small bits of GaleForce-9 “Autumn clump foliage” to add a splash of colour to the bases.
Last Up I Picked up a KR Multicase to put these in. A Standard Cardboard box with 3xF3T trays was more than enough, and leaves me with room to pick up a 2nd (Maybe viking) force
And that’s it, job done, a great looking warband painted in three evenings needing zero talent. Thank-you “Skill-in-a-tin”