Of Gods and Mortals Celts

As part of the sadly cancelled Hammerhead game I'd been working on some Celts.
I've shown the mortals before (though I've now added some shields) but here are the goddess and heroes I've painted.

First up Epona, Celtic horse goddess. She's a Gallic Celtic goddess, though there are parallels with Rhiannon in Welsh Celtic mythology and Etain and Macha in Irish tales.
So I'm happy to use her in what is primarily the "Irish" setting of our OGAM games.

The model is a Copplestone sculpt based on the Lady Godiva legend that I got free with a Wargames Illustrated subscription some years ago. I had no idea what to do with the model but for this project she seemed ideal.
There are problems - it's a very 20th/21st century interpretation of beauty - I imagine your average Iron Age Irishman would have thought her far too skinny to be attractive, and the silicone enhanced chest doesn't (ahem) feel right either.
Aesthetics aside the horse saddle is also from a later medieaval period.
But she's a goddess, she can appear whatever way suits her and with whatever "tack" she fancies.
That said she's fine for what I had in mind and it's a lovely model to paint.

Next up a Kelpie - a Celtic waterhorse.

This is converted from an Irregular Miniatures Shire Horse. They're sold as 28mm Shire Horses, but they're clearly 25mm at best - but they work well for "shaggy Iron age horses"
In this case I sliced off the back legs, stuck her on a 40mm round Warbases base and then "sculpted" some foam with a little ready mixed plaster.

Next the Banshee from the Northstar Celtic Legends set. You've seen her before.

Next from the Northstar Celt Legends set is Cú Chulainn, the hound of Ulster.

He's rather more 2000AD Slaine than Iron Age warrior, but that's no bad thing.
Lovely model and really easy to paint.

Next up a Druid, again from the Celtic legends set.

Another nice clean sculpt that almost painted itself.

Finally a Púca - a shape changing creature often appearing as a black horse with golden eyes.

Another Irregular miniatures Shire Horse with just a simple black paint job.

You'll notice an equine theme to some of the Legends. Epona is a horse goddess so it made sense to have some appropriate models. I've also got a unit of mortal horses almost finished (you need either horses or cavalry in your mortals to be able to use Epona in the game).