Five of the scenarios contained in the Book of Battles supplement for Saga use either livestock or objective markers as part of the victory conditions. I wanted to upgrade what I had available as part of my ongoing terrain improvement project. I needed six bases of each type.
Along with the ruins and rocky ground pieces I bought from Acheson Creations and which I posted recently, I also bought some resin pieces to use as objective markers. After the usual washing with soap and spraying black, I painted them with several coats of Ceramcoat Terracotta, then a wash of GW Agrax Earthshade, followed by a matt varnish. I painted watered-down glue on the bases, then dipped them in a tub of brown ballast. After that dried, I used more glue to add patches of static grass and small bushes.
Clockwise from top left are a stack of amphorae, a large pot which came without a base (I glued it to a 40mm round base), a 28mm Cretan archer guarding the loot and showing the scale, and my favorite piece which has two half-buried amphorae along with a large bull's head; perhaps a relic of a collapsed Bronze Age civilization?
Four identical groups of amphorae. They came cast on 40mm bases which are the perfect size for objective markers.
With a 28mm Cretan archer to show scale.
I needed six bases of livestock. I already had 2 Highland Cattle and 2 pigs from Irregular Miniatures that my daughter had painted for me in 2014 for use in Saga 1st edition. They were on different size bases so all I had to do was rebase them. The Highland Cattle got a coat of Iron Wind Red Brown, followed by a drybrush of Howard Hues Mideast Flesh, then a brown wash. When my daughter painted the pigs, we googled English heritage pig breeds and she picked the Wessex Saddleback (l) and the Gloucestershire Old Spot (r). A Viking is attempting to rustle them.
I had a pack of 6 Gripping Beast Manx Sheep that I had bought for this purpose and put 3 each on two bases. For the sixth base I looked through my unpainted miniatures and while I didn't have any more farm animals, I did have 4 deer from Iron Wind/Ral Partha, so I used one of them. After some quick paint jobs they were finished.
For the Manx sheep, one base was painted Iron Wind Khaki and the other left with the white primer. Then I used GW contrast paints (Aggaros Dunes or Skeleton Horde), followed by a drybrush of Army Painter Skeleton Bone. The lower legs and faces got a wash of dark brown. Now that they're finished, I can't tell which base was painted khaki and which just primed white.
I painted the deer as a European Red Deer with an initial layer of Coat d'Arms Barbarian Leather followed by a wash of GW Doombull Brown to give it a reddish tint like the photos I saw online. The face and hindquarters got patches of off-white and I used GW contrast Skeleton Horde for the antlers.
Thanks for reading!
