Assembly and Painting Wargames Atlantic Dark Ages Irish

you remember these lads

       Taking  a break from rigging galleons I decided to try my brush on some of the new Wargames Atlantic Dark Ages Irish. I pulled a frame out and assembled the figures that it contained; six warriors and two wolfhounds. Aiming for a more "generic Gaelic look" I avoided arming any of them with shillelaghs, opting for swords and spears (and one axe) instead. The figures went together quite easily but there was some gaps at the joint between arm and shoulder. This may have been driven by my choice of pairing between torso and arm but I think that it needs to be pointed out. 

 

in the gray plastic, it is hard to see the fit of parts this way...

 

.....but things become much clearer once they are primed white

 

the one particularly bad fit was on the burly fellow in the middle wearing the cape,

 the joint between his right arm and shoulder is quite noticeable, 

even though I used tube cement (which helps to fill small gaps) when I assembled him

this may well be the result of a poor choice of arm and position

 

a closer look at the group

 

the dogs are superb, the fit is excellent

 

the Gaels being some of the most enthusiastically pink of humans I added some red to the Gulliman Skin contrast paint and thinned it a little, it still came out darker than I had hoped

 

so I mixed a batch of even lighter skin tone and went about adding highlights

 

then some hair, plaids in this time were not specific to certain clans

 so I didn't have to worry about any familial affiliations 

 

I gave everybody some hair highlights and took a stab at another plaid pattern

  

all that bearded anger made wish I had some 28mm electric guitars, 

these guys could have come from Boston in the late 1980's

 

final flesh and hair highlights, 

next comes some brown washes to tone down those saffron shirts