Irish miniatures

Irish Dark Ages STL Miniatures: Gaelic Warbands in 15mm and 28mm

Ireland never had a shield wall problem because Ireland never fought that way. While Saxons and Vikings were forming lines and pushing, Gaelic warbands were doing something faster and considerably more annoying: javelins, ambush, hitting a flank and leaving before the response arrived.

Part of March to Hell: Dark Ages, in 15mm and 28mm as digital STL files for home printing.

The odd one out

Most Dark Ages armies in this range are variations on heavy infantry. The Irish are not. Light troops, javelins as a primary weapon rather than a preliminary one, minimal armour and a strong preference for terrain that made a formed enemy miserable.

That produces a genuinely different game. An Irish force usually loses a straight shoving match against Vikings or Saxons, so it doesn’t have one. It skirmishes, it uses woods and broken ground, it wears an opponent down and picks the moment. If your group has played the period through three shield-wall armies and wants something else, this is it.

Curaidh and the warband structure

The champion is the piece that makes an Irish force feel distinct. Curaidh were noble warriors whose reputation was personal, and the period’s literature is full of single combats decided by them. In game terms they’re a hard-hitting elite element in an otherwise light army, and several Dark Ages rulesets handle champions as a specific category.

Below them, hearthguards and warriors with spears, javelins and shields, then levies with slings and light weapons. Wardogs are in the range too, which is unusual and historically defensible: the Irish wolfhound has a long documented association with Gaelic warfare.

What’s in the collection

• Warlord and command groups — infantry and cavalry variants
• Curaidh champions — javelins and heavy weapons
• Hearthguards and warriors — spears, javelins, shields
• Levies — slings and light weapons
• Wardogs and mounted troops

Rulesets these work with

Sculpted to standard wargaming proportions and compatible with the systems used for the period, including Saga and Lion Rampant. Neither publisher is affiliated with us and neither endorses these models. Compatibility is about scale and basing rather than licensing.

Saga suits the Irish particularly well, since its warband structure maps directly onto the warlord, hearthguard, warrior and levy division the range provides.

Who they fight

Vikings, primarily, since the Norse spent two centuries raiding and settling in Ireland. Other Irish clans, which was constant. And through the wider Dark Ages range, Saxons, Normans and the rest of the early medieval world.

Scale and printing

28mm suits a warband, since Irish forces were small and every figure carries individual character. 15mm works if you want larger engagements or the ability to field several clans.

Optimised for resin and FDM. Around 0.03mm layer height on resin, tilted 30 to 45 degrees. Javelins are the fragile part here rather than long spears, and they’re numerous in this range, so solving orientation once is worth the time.

Frequently asked questions

What’s the quickest route to a table-ready warband?
Prime, block in your main colours, apply a wash to create shadow, then drybrush the raised areas. That’s it. At 28mm a Gaelic force painted this way looks perfectly good in play, and the palette works in your favour: undyed wool, leather, linen and bare iron are all forgiving colours that a single wash unifies. Irish warbands are small enough that this is a weekend of work rather than a season, which is the whole appeal of the period. The temptation to detail every figure is what stops most armies from ever getting to a table.

Why do javelins break more easily than spears?
Because they’re shorter and thinner in proportion, often held at an angle for throwing, and there are more of them per figure. A spear runs the full height of a model with the butt near the base, which gives it some anchoring. A javelin held back ready to throw is a thin rod projecting into empty air at an awkward angle, which is the hardest geometry to support and the easiest to snap during cleanup. Orient so the shaft isn’t unsupported along its length, support at the midpoint, and cure fully before removing supports.

Should I use a tougher resin for this army?
It helps more than usual here. Standard photopolymer resin is brittle, and an Irish force is defined by thin projections: javelins, light spears, and the slender build of lightly armoured figures generally. Tough or ABS-like resin, or a blend with standard, gives you models that survive being picked up and transported. It costs marginally more per bottle and saves a lot of gluing. The wardogs are the exception, being solid and low, so those print fine in anything.

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