Another Viking Warlord conversion

Again using the GBP's for this conversion with some other bits.

 Arms are slightly rotated.  Added a leather vambrace.

 Left hand is from a clipped off Warfactory Games arm, same with the arm and hand laying on the base.

 And below is one cool looking Foundry model that I just put together.  Looks like fun to paint.

Well its not all Vikings...Some Imperial Guard

...or what ever the hell GW calls them now.  I've had these models for years.  To change up some of the things that I'm painting I decided to get these based up to paint.  The top being a Valhallan HQ model.

Below is an mock up of Commissar Yarrick.  Cool looking mini, so I needed to come up with a pretty cool looking base.

For the base I wanted something that looked like rubble.  The plank looking things I plan to paint up as concrete rubble, just some left over resin sprue.

 Carved and filed on the sprue.  Then added some HO scale ballast, some broken pieces of Apoxie Sculpt and busted up slate.

A couple more vikings....

I love those GBP Dark Ages plastic heads.  They look so cool with the Viking armored figures.

Again playing with changing up the arm positions.  The mail armor is GS sculpted with a small ball stylus in case you are wondering.  Very tedious to do on large pieces, but with this the 99 cent tool mates up well with the mail, and blends well once painted.

I'm also experimenting by adding plates for eye slots on the normal helmets.

Blood Rage Vikings....How do they stack up?

Quite well actually.  I'm always skeptical about board game plastic pieces, but these are quite good.  Adrian Smith's art hooked me, then I saw the sculpts and were quite impressed.  The Spear that this model held was way over the top fantasy and quite honestly reinforced the one thing I was skeptical about.

So I cut it off and replaced it.  Besides axes are just cool.  But I bet you are wondering how does this figure look compared to some of the common wargames figures.  Below, from left to right, you see a Gripping Beast metal, Blood Rage, Foundry Metal, Gripping Beast Plastic.

 Next a size comparison with an Avatars of War evil miniature.

Pretty cool, figure.  Will definitely be something that I use somehow.

Viking Warlord ...

I've had a few ideas on figures and poses that I have not really done using the Gripping Beast plastic Vikings.  So I'm rotating arms and shoulders to open them up a bit more.

 This will be a SAGA warlord.  Using various pieces on the base. 

Its using my typical HO Scale railroad ballast and the old go to of Italian Seasoning for the leaves.

Also playing around with doing leather vambraces.  Fun stuff.

Merry Christmas

I guaranty that this year's Christmas is a better one than I had last year. 

Red Box Games Kick Starter ....Barbarians

Well, with everything I had going on this year health wise, I forgot that I pledged the Red Box Games Kick starter for the "Barbarian Horde".  Typically I'm a Red Box - Tre Manor fan, but I'm not really sure how I feel about the Kickstarter Campaign and the product. 

I pledged the Jotunn, Hordesman Hero, and the Chosen Theme set.  First thing I pulled out of the package was the Jotunn, a massive figure, very cool looking, awesome detail, great looking pose, nicely done on the way the model holds the weapon.  Excellent piece.

Then as I sorted through the rest of the package, no Hordesman Hero.  Okay.  In its place was a sword wielding Helsvakt Berserker.  Which I will keep, as by the looks of it, its nicer looking anyways.  Again awesome detail, good pose, sword is a bit chunky.  I'll take it instead, and not complain.

Then I came to the Chosen Theme set.  Yea....not his best work.  Don't get me wrong the detail is still there, there is still the good poses, everything is sharp, and musculature is what we have come to expect, it's just the conceptual aspect that is lacking.  Where the join of the weapon hand on the Jotunn was brilliant the join on the Chosen weapon hands will even make someone like myself cringe.  Definitely a pin vise nightmare.  On top of that, all of the weapon hands holding something other than a sword, the weapon's haft is broken, way too thin and flimsy, even the extra weapon hands that were bagged loose, which I'm assuming were supposed to be replacements for the broken ones on the figure tabs are all broken.  Remember my moto though, plastic is your friend, and in this case it will have to be. Definitely going to require surgery. 

At some point, I will have pictures and size comparisons, as I continue painting my Marauders of Mayhem army that I have no game to play just yet.  And I say just yet as I just received my copy of Lion Rampant in the mail, read through it, seems very cool, seems playable, so I'm looking forward to possibly Dragon Rampant.

Well onward.....I have about 150 miniatures looking to be primed today, in addition to another 100 or so that have already been primed prior to my surgery back in February.  Building of historicals is done for awhile. Onto paint and the building station will be cleared and will have drawings and Space Marines on it.   

A SAGA Saxon Warlord

 This is another model that I have no idea, who manufactured it, believe I got it from my buddy Butcher.  Not something that really appeals to me.  The axe is a just a chunky looking maul.

Plan is to paint this up and sell it.  Getting closer to some paint work....

A Saga Anglo-Danish War Chieftan

So this is Hereward, the son of the Earl of Mercia, an Anglo-Danish lord.  I bought this miniature with SAGA in mind use a Anglo-Danish lord.  It looked okay in the pics, but upon close examination its not really an appealing model.

Detail is pretty flat, the cape is definitely not dynamic.  So I modeled it up on this base, plan to paint it and sell it.  Use the Saxon Miniatures for your characters.

Saga Warlord

I'm cleaning out the bits box, can't remember where I got this miniature from, but I thought it would be cool to paint it up as a SAGA hq model on a GW 40 mm base.

Tree stump is resin piece that I had laying around.

Rocks are fake apoxie sculpt pieces with HO scale rail road ballast. 

Viking/Saxon Skirmishers

 One thing that my viking horde, sorely missed was more skirmishers.  To fill that void, I'm going to be using the Gripping Beast Plastic Dark Ages models.  They are very cool models, these are converted up as slingers, but they also make great bondi or levy troops and come with a variety of weapons.  Heads are mix of the standard kit and the plastic vikings kit as well.

Saxon Miniatures' Viking Warlords Review.....Great Characters

I had been wanting to add some more characters to my Vikings and along came Saxon Miniatures with their line of figures.  The miniatures are some of the best character models that I have seen in a long time and reasonably priced models.  Everyone of them is unique in look, is dynamic, and is well posed.

Alot of times when you see miniatures introduced the scale is all wonky and does not work well with where they are directing the focus of the miniature line, in this case in that 28 mm scale for WAB, Hail Caesar, SAGA and other such games.  Scale on these however are well done.  Below is the Saxon Miniature on the left and one of my Gripping Beast plastic Vikings in a similar pose.

 As you can see they fit pretty well together.

Below you see the same miniature, this time alongside of a Foundry viking.

Below, from left to right:  Saxon Miniature, Foundry, Saxon, Gripping Beast Plastic

Below are some more of the Vikings, a musician, command model and another Warlord that appears to be in Rus like garb.

 Same miniatures below, 1/4 turn.

 Below 3 more of the Saxon Miniature's warlords alongside one of my Gripping Beast Plastics.

Below 1/4 turns.

Below two more of the viking warlords, from left to right:  Saxon Miniature, Foundry, Saxon, Gripping Beast Plastic.

Below the 1/4 turn of the Saxon Miniatures.

 Below are two more of the viking warlords, this time with one of my converted Wargames Factory models.  On these two I used Gripping Beast plastic weapons with the models.

They are very cool looking models, and fit very well with all of the vikings and saxons that I have in my collection.  I'm very happy that I rolled the dice and purchased these, and greatly look forward to painting up these models and adding them to my collection.  If you are into Vikings, I definitely recommend these.

Additional vikings and mayhem....

 What are vikings without some mayhem?  The above mini is from Old Glory, using a spare axe.

Below another berserker.

Another converted Gripping Beast....

 And mini from Foundry.....getting closer to some paint.