Black Tree Designs Ancient Germans

I finally managed to polish off a number of projects that had been lingering on my workbench for months, the biggest of which were fleshing out a pair of ancient German warbands for Hail Caesar. Thanks to the Black Tree Designs big Summer sale I was able to pick up two dozen barbarians and sped through painting them to table standard. Despite the rush, I think they turned out well (more a credit to the sculpts than my paint job). More pics and thoughts after the jump.

I acquired a few Black Tree Designs figures in a lot of barbarians about a year ago. I used many of them for a stand of Celts, but mixed in with the lot were a handful of BTD ancient Germans, German savages, and Picts. Trying to scrape together some stands I combined them with some Foundry Germans into a hodge podge of "german barbarians".  With the BTD sale I was able to expand on my existing figures to create a single warband of naked savages and a single warband of clothed Germans.

BTD Picts on the left, German savages on the right

Review of Black Tree Designs Germans

Having a few Black Tree Designs on hand, I thought I knew what I'd be getting.  After getting a pack of German Savages, Chieftains and Warriors recently I found there were marked differences within the range.  The Chieftains were great: crisp detail, expressive, little flash.  The warriors were of the same quality, but I was surprised that they required drilling to open their hands to accept spears.  The savages I received all bore clubs, but I noticed a number had either weak detail or were miscast. Luckily all casting errors would be covered up by their shields but it was a bit surprising. 


Also, the Warriors had knobs or posts for mounting their shields jutting from their elbows.  Since these large tribal shields were held from a handle centered behind the boss, affixing them to the posts would have looked incorrect.  I simply removed the elbow posts and glued the shields to their fists properly.


Despite these drawbacks, I was still very happy with the figures. They mixed well with my existing forces and the sale price could not be beat. 

Black Tree Designs German Savages