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Greetings all,

One of my big Projects for 2025 was to paint an army of Anglo-saxons to play various games with, but primarily for Fury of the Northman. As such, I decided the army was going to have:

- 1 Thegns units of Shieldwall
- 3 Fyrd units of Shiedlwall
- 2 skirmishers
- 1 archer unit

I decided to use Victrix kits for this project, and I ordered 1 Early Saxons, 1 Late Anglo-Saxons, and 1 Dark Age Archers kit for this project. This would give me an extra unit of Archers and Slingers I could swap into the army.



Since I was planning to batch paint 30-50 some models at a time, I also decided to use my Armypainter paints and washes. My other historical models are all painted using a Base + Wash method and I intend to follow suit with the same on these. Therefore, use of Speedpaints would be limited to a few Metallics for variety.

I decided to start my project on the Shieldwall infantry as the core of the army.



At the end of three weekends of work, here is where the army is at.



You can see further details, paint breakdowns, and batch-painting process on my blog:
www.bloodandspectacles.com

So, what is your experience with batch-painting? Any special tips or tricks for me?

With the Shieldwall batch painted, it was time to move onto finishing them off. That meant basing and shields.

Where we left off:


Confession time! I hate painting shields on historical, fantasy, or ancients. They tend to dominate the models though, so they are important. On the blog, I discuss a simple way to paint Dark Ages shields whether they be Viking, Anglo-Saxons or others......

https://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2025/03/on-painting-desk-anglo-saxons-are-back.html

My basing is also very simple and uses materials you can find at your local Big Box retailer. No specialty items needed at all.

This took me about two more weekends to finish off the final touches and get the Shieldwall all complete.

Where we ended up:


Half the army done, so it is time to move onto the skirmishers and archers. No shields so hopefully it won't take too long. Total time so far is about 4-5 weekends.

Looking good. I read on trick somewhere, on Dakka or Facebook I cannot recall. It has worked wonders for me. The concept is to not get lost in details and linger on a model. So the trick was this:
paint in assembly line, (a well known approach)
such as helmet, helmet, on all
shield, shield, rinse and repeat etc.
but they added this: don't hold a model in your hand for more than 20 seconds or so. In other words, you are painting a small area -- right boot, right boot, etc. (not both boots, all pouches, and the like). This may seem like it takes longer, because of putting down and grabbing models, but it really for me creates a focus on speed and output. If I get tired, and I'm for example painting all the armor assembly line, I can get way too over-extended on one figure. Worrying about this and that. if I'm doing just the back panel, repeatedly, there's less room for perfection. it's green light, throughout the session. Plus it feels good (I did all the swords and center dots on the shields tonight) rather than all the silver color on like 4 dudes. I hope this is an interesting approach and is helpful. just disregard if not your style.

Yeah, the details can be ignored to some degree when batch painting. The goal is for them to look good at arm's length and in big groups. Each individual is not as important.

That brings me to the second half of the army. This was going to be archers and skirmisher type units. I am still using Victrix miniatures.



This batch was about 50+ models. That is bigger than the last batch, but hopefully not having shields will make it easier.

I got a good start on the process. Nothing vastly different here as I use my usual batch-painting methods. Start with the flesh, then the footwear, and then start moving up the models in little batches of colors.



Then, I came down with the Flu bug and that really slowed down my progress!

You can read more of the gory details of the process of batchpainting on the blog if you are so inclined.

https://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2025/03/on-painting-desk-batching-anglo-saxons.html

My first big painting project for 2025 is done and dusted now. This Anglo-saxon army is complete!

You can see me tackle the last elements of the army; 20 archers, 10 slingers, and 20 skirmishers. Thankfully no shields so that made it a bit easier! However, that makes this army about 90 models or so.

Here is where I started this section of the journey.....



It had taken me about 4 weeks on the Shieldwall, and 5 weeks on these guys, plus I was down for about 2 weeks. A total of about 3 months to get this far.

You can read the gory details on the blog:
https://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2025/04/on-painting-desk-first-big-painting.html



On the blog I have a lot more photos of the progress and the full army shots. It always feels good to finish any army. The only step left is to get it onto the table!

They look good to me Easy E.

Cheers,

CB

After getting those Anglo-Saxons painted, I was eager to get them out on the table! Therefore, I managed to organize a quick battle versus my Viking.

Earl Eirkir received news of a Viking warband moving towards his territory after landing on the coast. He quickly summoned his Fyrd and Thegns together to face off this threat! He had heard that these marauders had come across the see from Hibernia and he intended on sending them back the way they had come!

Erik Greybeard and his men had left Hibernia after a disappointing raiding season. In fact, many of his men left and went back to their homelands. However, those that remained were battle hardened. They also had stout shields, chain mail, and many were equipped with the feared Dane Axe!

Forces:

We are actually using the sample forces right out of the Fury of the Northman main rulebook. That gives an elite, compact Viking warband versus a numerically superior Anglo-saxon force.

Anglo-Saxons



Vikings



Mission:

This is going to be a straight-up Raven Feast, which is a standard battle. No special objectives. but we do have a Bad Water complication. Let's see if we remember it on the day of the battle.

Set-up:

Again, we used the rules right from the book in order to set-up the table. This gave us a large single- and double-layer hill on the Viking side of the board to book end their forces. That naturally made a pass that the Vikings would need to march through to get to Earl Eirkir's lands. The other side was mostly open, with a forest on the Anglo-Saxon left.



As usual, I will not be detailing the game turn-by-turn. Instead, I will have a high-level overview and break it down into three phases, the Maneuver phase, the Battle Phase, and the End Phase. I find it is much easier to focus on the fun of the game and still get the general idea across to the reader this way.

You can read the full battle report on the Blood and Spectacles blog:
https://www.bloodandspectaclespublishing.com/blog