Mitch K Posted June 15, 2018 Share Posted June 15, 2018 There's a common thread around early medieval wargames of the presence of packs of hounds that were used in war by the Picts and early Scots. There's very little actual evidence to support this. There are plenty of engravings of large hounds in Pictish stone memorials, and back to Roman times, fierce hounds for use in hunting or as guard docks were a highly regarded export from the British Isles, but there is nothing showing anyone running a pack of hounds on their enemies. However, I'm not going to let that stop me! In game terms, the hounds cause limited physical damage, but completely destroy the cohesion of any unit they attack, and low-quality troops are quite likely to simply break and run. Footsore Miniatures make some absolutely superb figures, so my choice of supplier was rapidly decided. Here are the hounds themselves. They're really nicely sculpted and there's a a nice variety of poses. The sculptor obviously based them on Irish wolfhounds, which seems not unreasonable. The Irish wolfhound was we know it today had an admixture of other breeds back in the nineteenth century, but I think these are definitely good enough. Here's the packmaster. His right hand is moulded with a set of leads/straps for controlling his charges. I felt the packmaster needed a little bit of extra work: a pouch to hold "treats" for his dogs, and a dagger to defend himself or to dispatch wounded enemies... The dagger is a find from another figure, and the belt and pouch are added from Kneadtite. The shield is from Newline Design - I may or may not use it, depending on the overall look of the final mounted piece. The hounds, after cleanup, priming and a base coat of light brown. The bottle in the background are Liquitex acrylic inks (Payne's grey and sepia) to shade the fur. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giemme Posted June 15, 2018 Share Posted June 15, 2018 This sounds interesting, I'll be following Ciao Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch K Posted July 23, 2018 Author Share Posted July 23, 2018 I managed to lose the majority of the work in progress shots showing the layering of the drybrushing on the hounds and the shading/highlighting on the handler. The real moment came with adding the eyes, gums and teeth on the hounds, at which point they seemed to come to life. The groundwork is artists' texture modelling paste, followed by flock and wash, then several layers of drybrushing. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver Fox Posted July 23, 2018 Share Posted July 23, 2018 Footsore have some really nice figures, I have a lot of their interwar figures for VBCW. Your hellhounds look fabulous. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Vale Posted July 24, 2018 Share Posted July 24, 2018 Doggies looking great, they've got a lean and hungry and "not just copied from modern animals" look to them. Will 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockpopandchips Posted July 25, 2018 Share Posted July 25, 2018 I like that, the dogs look great. How are you finding the Hataka paints? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch K Posted July 25, 2018 Author Share Posted July 25, 2018 Too thin to drybrush terrain effectively! They're working well for dodging in areas on aircraft using a brush (which is what I got them for). I'm going to try airbrushing them on the next builds I start, so that's the real acid test. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch K Posted July 25, 2018 Author Share Posted July 25, 2018 With a couple of coats of W&N matt, some static grass and copious numbers of tufts, this is where I've reached. I think the figures/subject is done, but I just want to tidy up the edge of the base. Even without that, these are more than ready for me to slip and spread havoc* among the Romano-Britons and Saxons in the next Dux Brittaniarum game! *See what I did there? 😄 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SA80A2AR Posted July 27, 2018 Share Posted July 27, 2018 cool. sssstayyy there ggood doggie. they are that realistic. are you going to fit leshes to them or not? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch K Posted July 29, 2018 Author Share Posted July 29, 2018 On 7/27/2018 at 9:55 AM, SA80A2AR said: cool. sssstayyy there ggood doggie. they are that realistic. are you going to fit leshes to them or not? The handler has actually got a load of leash straps in his hand, but the way the hounds are modelled it's clear they're meant to have been "launched in attack mode"!😄 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SA80A2AR Posted July 29, 2018 Share Posted July 29, 2018 ah. i wondered why they were still so close together when they had no leashes. unless they are very close to there owner. if i saw one coming towards me i think i would say 'oh ' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch K Posted July 30, 2018 Author Share Posted July 30, 2018 Yes, in the Dux Brit rules, even forming shieldwall doesn't help much - the dogs will bite your legs, and everybody will just scatter randomly. It doesn't kill many men, but it doesn't have make your follow-up charge effective! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SA80A2AR Posted July 30, 2018 Share Posted July 30, 2018 unless you hold the shield to your legs but then the dogs will jump up and get your neck. the iron age nuke!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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