Chia Pet Norman Knight

This picture was sort of buried in my post about finishing up the Norman SAGA army commission. I'm feeling that it really needs its own little thread since its kind of a weird result from my application of static grass to the base. Don't worry about the paint job though, it all came off when I turned it upside down to remove the excess static grass. But for posterity's sake I give you the Chia Pet Norman Knight:

Norman SAGA Commission - Finished - Six Points

Well, this bunch is finally finished. Thanks to everyone for sticking with me on this little project. Last night I got all the weapons glued in place only to discover that two crossbows were missing. I have no idea if I lost them or if they were actually missing from the blister. Either way a replacement pack is on the way from which I will swipe two crossbows. The rest will probably go into the ReaperCon Melt bucket.

Today was touch up and basing today. Touch ups always take way to long and I'm sure I still managed to miss a few spots here and there but overall I'm pretty happy with the entire army. I used a new (for me) technique to add static grass to the bases and get it to stand up straight. I used my Grass Tech II static grass dispenser. this is a powered unit that charges the fibers as they come through a wire mesh and gets them to stand straight (more or less) up. I apply my favorite glue (matte medium and water) attach a wire that goes back the Grass Tech II , hit the power button and shake. Creates a huge mess on miniatures because its designed for large area applications. It also had an interesting side affect. Let me introduce the Norman Chia Pets:

Any way I now have static grass all over the place. Its bad as shipping peanuts. Here are a few shots from last night, they are starting to look like real warriors now that they actually have something to fight with.

That's also about as neat as you will ever see my painting area. It only looks like that way because I pulled out the airbrush to work on my ReaperCon competition miniature after I was done. That requires a certain level of neatness to be able to work relatively efficiently. Also I wanted to see if I could keep my highlights more or less intact by airbrushing on an acrylic matte coat. Overall I would say it worked out pretty well, although my airbrush didn't like it very much. Here are the knights ready to be sprayed:

And finally the finished product:
1 Saga Point - 12 Norman Levy

1 Saga Point - 8 Norman Crossbowmen

1 Saga Point - 8 Norman Spearmen

1 Saga Point - 4 Norman Hearthguard (Mtd Knights) - Note all the shields were painted by hand. I did use the Little Big Man Studios site as a reference. If you don't want to go to the effort of painting shields (almost any kind of shield) I highly recommend them. You can find his website here: LBMS

1 Saga Point - 4 Norman Hearthguard (Mtd Knights)

1 Saga Point - 4 Norman Hearthguard (Mtd Knights)

 Free! - 1 Norman Warlord

So that's it, finally finished. Oh and for the sharp eyed among you, I did forget to edge the bases for the knights, however, I did get that taken care of.

Norman SAGA Commission - Stay on Target

This weekend I pretty much wrapped up the painting on the commission. What is left to do is get the weapons painted and glued in place and get the bases flocked. I spent most of yesterday's time working on the bases themselves and today I touched up the Hearthguard, especially the shields. There are still a few shields in this bunch that I don't like but overall I'm pretty happy with them. The dragon on the warlord's shield came out quite well I think. My freehand has definitely gotten better after this job.

Norman SAGA Commission - Levy (Archers)

Finished off the Levy (Archers) tonight. Pretty happy with the way these came out tonight. So now I'm down to finishing up the Hearthguard now. Add some trim to the knights and touch up the shields. That checked one is still bugging me so I may repaint that one again and of course I need to finish the warlord's shield. Tonight's result: