It's a Goth..no it's a Saxon..no it's a Goth..

Got totally confused as I bought packs of Saxons, Franks and Goths at the same time then muddled them all up. Here is the Goth captain. Blurred picture as my batteries just went but haven't got time to do a proper one as I have to go to boring Ankara tomorrow and I need to pack but within the mad new security limits.

He's a nice figure with a Spangenhelm and a cloak.

Carolingian Standard Bearer

I've no idea what a Carolingian banner looks like. The shape of this one is based on the picture in the Osprey Carolingian Cavalryman. I'm going for a red, white and blue colour scheme for this unit as its more..French! The banner was made from a Gripping Beast spear with a crosspiece and a paper banner. It looks OK!

Carolingians

My most recent Dark Ages army is a Carolingian one. I wasn't going to start another army until I saw Mike Owen's Artizan figures. Slimmer than his Vikings but still compatible, oddly. The cavalry are lovely and it's just as well I've got over my hatred of cavalry as 50% of the points value have to be milites (I suppose some could be on foot) in WAB.

I've started a unit of mounted milites and a unit of liberi (light foot). The only problem I've found so far is that the foot figures don't rank up too well. To get their shields facing the front their spears tend to stick out to one side and collide with the next figure. I think I will get more of the standing figures and just use the advancing ones for the front ranks.

and just drill out a Gripping Beast spear and stick in a cross-piece.
I've solved the problem of the traditional "winged" spear

Newline Dark Ages Figures

Someone on TMP was asking about these today so here are a couple of comparison shots.

The three on the left are Newline Franks the one on the right is a Gripping Beast Early German as comparison. They have separate shields and weapons. Although referred to by other TMPers as "chunky" I think they are slimmer and more elegant than the GB figures The camera distortion doesn't really show this). This is largely because they have in-proportion heads.

Here we have the Goths (centre three figures) with a Black Tree Design late Roman on the left and a GB Roman Briton on the right. Some of the Goth figures have separte scabbards.

The man at Newline I bought these from told me that their EIR were designed to match the Perry Foundry Romans and I suspect these will go better with the Foundry late Romans than any other make. They are nicer figures, even with just an undercoat, than I had realised in the bare metal but are half a head shorter than GB. I might finish these off now!