A test base of 28mm Frankish foot

 Having lent my 28mm Patrician Roman army to someone to use at last year's Warfare ADLG event, actually seeing this venerable army on table gave me a pang of nostalgia for what was one of my very first 28mm ancients armies (OK, of my "second wind" of buying and painting 28mm figures anyway). 

Having painted up lots more stuff since then I'd sort of convinced myself that these guys were just, well, not all that nice, and a little too overindulged on the "soft tone Army Painter wash" front to make them look overly battle-worn. 

The reality on the Farnborough tabletop however was much brighter and nicer than I remembered, with the notable exception of the always-shoehorned-in "gothic" foot I used as Foederate infantry. 

These guys were actually Dark Ages Scots from Old Glory - nice enough figures, and perfectly fine playing at being Vikings, Saxons or a lot of other hairy barbarians - but always a bit of a stretch when used as Frankish axemen in a Late Roman army.

With Wargames Atlantic releasing a new "they could be anything" box of Romano-Barbarian warriors around that time I immediately resolved to buy a set and try and paint up some properly "Frankish" infantry to go with my Romans, but using a slightly brighter colour palette (OK, not so much ink wash) to give them a bit more ping. 

And these are the results:

The front rank are all Wargames Atlantic figures from their Dark Ages Army Builder set, painted with "Breton" stripey tunics and given a random range of shields and weapons - mostly axes to make them Franks. 

All of the stripes have been done with the classic "fat dark line, thinner lighther line" technique using paints from the newish Army Painter Fanatic 6-part triad ranges. 

The guys at the back are an odd bunch - picked up from a Warlord stand at a show, they were a blister of "Warlord Resin" figures which I think are mostly from an "SPQR: Dacia & Sarmatia - Dacian Tribesmen with javelins" set, which came with a few slingers as well.  

These resin figures came with open hands making it a simple job for me to add in some axes from the Wargames Atlantic sprue (and the bits box) to make them into "Franks" 

The shield patterns are also a mix - the "Roman" one is a LBMS transfer on a Gripping Beast plastic shield, whereas the others are waterslide transfers from Battle Flag, which don't quite fit on the Wargames Atlantic round shields but are close enough that with a bit of blending of paint colours and some layers of varnish to seal them in they just about work better than me trying to paint them myself. 

 Here's a "YouTube Shorts" video of them rotating slowly on a turntable. 

All in all I'm pretty happy with them, and I will be painting up a few more bases to ake up a decent sized block of Frankish infantry to fight alongside my long-neglected Late Romans in the coming months. 

Looking more specifically at the Wargames Atlantic figures, they are, if truth be told, perhaps a smidge on the bland side when it comes to variety of dynamic poses - and there isn't a huge amount of deeply cut detail on them either. As such, using "proper" layered painting techniques like I did on these ones is very much the way to go I think (rather than relying on washes and Speedpaints).

But, at £30 for 48 perfectly servicable figures, honestly, what's not to like - especially if they can be padded out with some random bits-box purchases from the discount bin at a show too!