I’ve been hitting the brush hard in the Cbaggery these past couple of week – hitting it hard like Rob Ford hits the pipe.
Mark has been an evangelist for the game SAGA for a couple years now, and several of the other lads have already gotten behind it and are busy working on their own armies. And while I did participate in a demo game he graciously ran last year, even though the game is alot of fun, I never caught the itch. Until I went to Hotlead this year that is: Meeplemart was down there – with their entire inventory, it seemed like – and Steve brought quite a number of SAGA blisters and starters… well, I happened see some of the limited edition Skraeling models in person, and I was sold.
How could I not get caught up in it? They’re limited edition models; my family are Newfies on my mother’s side (family name is Newhook, and they’ve been in Newfoundland for a couple hundred years…) and Amy is metis (with a Cree ancestry). I found my army! The following Monday I ordered one of the few remaining starter warbands from north Star Hobbies in the UK.
It took me a few weeks to clear off my painting table – (those who know me know I am very disciplined about my painting projects: I do NOT start a new one until the one on my table is completed. Otherwise, nothing would ever get finished. That’s just how Cbag rolls.) and that gave me a great opportunity to do my research into the Skraelings themselves.
After a couple Google searches I found the blog for John de Terre Neuve and photos of his Skraeling models.
Now, I am not one to blatantly copy someone else – I dont like it when people do it to me, so I dont do it to others – but in this case, I couldnt imagine any way of presenting the models that would be superior to the work he did: not only was his research terrific, but everything he did to the models was perfect, including the special attention to the Cheiftain, the colour choices and the base treatment. (in my defense, I was planning on doing an autumn theme myself…)
I knew in my heart that to do my models in any fashion other than the way John did would be an insult to the models, so I sent him an email with my compliments and mentioned that I wanted to use his ideas in my work – as an homage – and asked if I could get his blessing; which he very graciously gave me when he responded.
Here are shots of my first 3 units for the army – two units of warriors and a unit of levy. I was *stunned* how fast these models painted up: I figured I would be able to do one unit a week, but somehow I managed to get all 3 units complete from bare metal to base treatment in under 2 weeks (11 days to be precise, taking into account the couple days I didnt paint at all).
I’ve been exploring many new materials and techniques with this project: oil washes and filters, a new brand (to me) of inks, and a variety of new materials for base decoration. This has also been the first project I’ve worked on this year that I have been painting wholly in the moment - which might explain why they are progressing so quickly – aside from a distant itch to put together some Willy’s Miniatures Undead Blood Bowl models I’ve had on my shelf for over a year, the only models I’m thinking of right now are these Skraelings. It’s joyous. 
– I completely lost interest when everyone decided on 15mm. It’s just not a scale I get any pleasure from painting.
