A brave-hearted attempt to recreate the might of Albion

I'm one of those recalcitrant old codgers who believe that fantastical adventures should take place on square bases, with nary a Space Marine allegory in sight. One of the key advantages of this failure to believe that Sigmar is the Emperor's little brother is that I have something of a developmental sandbox. I know in the most literal sense that Games Workshop will not do any development for Warhammer Fantasy for a long time, if ever (recent behaviour has shown a more conciliatory attitude towards Warhammer fans, so perhaps in the fullness of time it will return as a specialist game, who knows). I'm lucky enough to be part of a small group of hobbyists who are eager to still develop the Warhammer Fantasy world. And something I always felt had more potential was the land of Albion.

We know a lot about the Gaels of Albion, from supplements such as Dark Shadows and older roleplay materials. We know that whilst obscure, the Gaels have an important effect on the world of Warhammer, having some nebulous connection to the Old Ones. There's a fair bit of artwork showing these wild looking tribesmen. But after all these years, we only ever got two giants, a druid, a Fenbeast and a Truthsayer (the Dark Emissary is more of a budget chaos sorcerer, what with being Bel'akor's minions). 

Queen Gwenlaen leads a Gael raiding party.

When looking for new models, the first thing I did was to research Picts. I was a little disappointed: Picts looked a lot more... well, civilised than I'd hoped. I quickly realised that I didn't want my Gaels to really look like Celts, but rather like Hollywood depictions of them: Braveheart, Centurion and King Arthur were the kind of things I was thinking about. I briefly considered using the 2002 Chaos Marauders, then quickly abandoned the idea. I think they can be made to look acceptable with some time and care, but they just don't look the part. 

In the end, I decided that if I was going to do it, I would do it properly. I had a very specific idea of what I wanted, and part-farming became the order of the day. 

The kilted legs came from Victoria Miniatures. The torsos are feral scout torsos from Spellcrow. The heads are the wilder looking heads from Empire Greatswords and Marauder horsemen. The arms took a bit of thought. For the shield arms, I used the arms of Ungors very specifically from the 2003 Beast Herd kit. Now, I have plenty of these, but I do intend to sort out a mould for them because they are a finite resource. Obviously, I removed the fur from them. The sword arms are the hand weapon arms of Marauder Horsemen. Their hand weapons have been removed and replaced with the sword hands from Empire Swordsmen. All of my Empire state troops are Halberdiers or Spearmen, so I had stacks of them about. 

To finish up, the shields are a mixture of Marauder and Marauder Horsemen shields, with the iconography filed away. The shield bosses are 'Small celtic Shields' from Scibor Miniatures. Be warned, there are two different packs of these and only one is right for this. 

Anyway, there we have it! The fierce people of Albion coming to Warhammer Fantasy battlefields - and it's pretty easy!