Saxon Miniatures' Vikings

Just received my shipment of Vikings from Saxon Miniatures.  Very nice looking sculpts for the most part.  I'll probably do a detailed review of the minis and some scale comparisons, very much look to be in-line scale wise with Gripping Beast.

4th Complete Viking unit in Paint....

 This is my fourth unit of Hersir's all painted up.   Quite a few subtle conversions in this one also.

Both models on the ends are converted to be crouching.  The one with the shield overhead converted from a War Factory Games model.

There are also a few converted heads on some of the models.  And again I added some eyecandy to the movement tray.

The shields are mix of my paint and Little Big Men transfers.

Flag is a conversion that I did with hand painted details.

The basing is much the same, and I'm really digging the flowers and tall grass mixed in.  I will be definitely doing more elaborate basing for things in the future.  And its also held up quite well.

The dead Saxon is actually a Warlord Games barbarian casualty figure.  Then I decided I needed a Viking downed in the ranks for more story.

Below is a closeup of the downed viking and the front rank.

As always.....there is always more.....that is not not done yet.  I have more Vikings, especially bondi to do, both of the Gripping Beast plastic types and also some Foundry ones.

Something a bit different....Captain America

Been a while, on my other table is a piece of 11x17 art board, where I've drawing a Captain America piece to help get back to something normal.  This inspired and my recreation after the classic pose that Jim Lee did back on his Uncanny X-Men run.  I like Jim Lee's work, just have never been able to draw in that hatched style.  At some point I'll put ink to it and a foreground.

3rd Viking Unit in Paint

Pretty much the same thing going on here as with the other units.  Lots of candy and gripping Beast goodness.  The two berserkers are the old casts, and are showing their age, I did a bit of smoothing and updating on them.  I will be replacing them.

I really like the main character below, the hornblower next to him is a cool figure also.

The standard bearer turned out pretty cool, one of the plastic models converted up with a banner left over from the Fire Forge knights.

A bit of eye candy on the movement tray in front of them.

I did a pose for my chaos marauders some years ago and the Viking on the end reminds me of that model standing over a dead enemy.

Better close up of him below.

More pics of the back ranks.  These are painted to the same quality as the front.  I'll eventually shoot some pics of them, as they are pretty cool in their own right.

I really dig the GB plastics.  They are very nicely detailed models with a lot of variety.

More Vikings ready to pillage....Pics of Unit #2

Much like the first unit, this another big unit of Hersirs.  Heavily armed and armored. 

Similar to the other unit, I made up a movement tray with a bunch of eye candy to show off the unit.

This included various bits of armor, weapons, shields, bodies.  

I actually found painting the shields to be quite fun. The third guy from the right in the front rank is a converted Warlord Games barbarian.  The second guy from the right with the dane axe is a converted War Factory Games model.

Below is a better side view.

Views of the rear of the unit.  The second guy from the left is Gripping Beast plastic model wearing a cape from the Fire Forge knights.  The banner is also from the Fire Forge knights.

The beserker is an old metal Gripping Beast model.  Its really showing its age as a sculpt, not very good casting.  I plan on replacing all of those models, they are just very good looking.

Below a better view of the command.

 Closeup of probably a dead Saxon

Yep, I think he took a good hack to the upper body by the looks of it.  

And above is the unfortunate casualty for the Vikings.

My Bloodthirster....The Face to Fear

Yea, he's mean and ugly.  Lots of major and minor conversion work done on him. Fresh pics of him with my DSLR camera.  Even has some game table flock on him, as the model does get used.

This is a throwback to showing of my old stuff.  I converted and painted this monster back in 2008 to lead my all Khorne Demons fantasy army.  It was the center piece of the army that won me Best Appearance in Games Workshop's 2008 Chicago GT.   It also made first cut in the Golden Demon's Paint contest at Gamesday in the Monster category, which is really good for just an army piece. 

It is some of my better paint work, all brush work, no airbrush on this.  The left leg is moved forward, new whip handle, added armor, new tabard of chains, more hair, chains and skulls added to the wings like the Belakor demon prince.

The reds have tons of highlights and shades put into them.  The wings drove me insane painting them.

Changed the detail of the axe.  Added the skull for the belt line.

Added Khorne symbols to the axe.  Added the gauntlet, and the brass knuckles.

Removed all of the old skulls from the beltline and added more up to date skulls.  

The basing:  Yea I wanted to go with blood pools and not lava.  Everyone does lava.  To make mine different all of the basing for the army had a theme of hands coming up out of the pools of blood dragging humans and human body parts down to the depths of where ever Khorne comes from.  So simply I smoothed out all of the bases where the blood would be, added the bits, painted the reds for the pools and swirls, then when all done and sprayed with clear, I went back to the bases and covered all of the blood with high gloss urethane to make it pop.

 If you look really close at the highlighted Brass colors, you'll notice the use of a purple and green wash depending on how the light hits it.  Year their is also dark brown, black, and rust colored washes too, along with Vallejo Smoke.

So the model is nearly 7 years old, been used alot, has along with the rest of the army won me numerous tournament best appearance awards and is still holding up with only a minor paint chip and damage on one of the wings that I'll be repairing soon.

With the new plastic Blood Thirster having come out, at some point I will probably buy one, and downgrade this model to a Demon Prince for the army.   I have one more of these old metal Blood Thirsters, that I had always planned to convert and build, just didn't get around to it.  Its now on my desk being sketched on, and should make a nice Demon Prince model for my Chaos Warriors army of mutants.  Next time I paint something this large, the base coats are going to be laid down with my airbrushes.

Attack of the Danes....First Complete Viking Unit #1

I've had these done for quite awhile now, just never got around to photographing them properly, circa 2013.  I've really been enjoying reading Saxon and Viking history and historical fiction for the last few years, so I was really quite happy putting these together.  The majority of the models are Gripping Beast both metals and plastics.  And there are a number of really subtle  conversions, especially of the plastics.

The hersir unit is set up for WAB with the beserker being the second guy from the left above.  The Jarl being the third guy in.  The berserker is a converted Warlord Games barbarian.  

Above is another closer shot of the front rank.  Another berserker alongside a dane axe wielder.  The two models on the right are both conversions of Warlord Games barbarians with Gripping Beast plastic viking heads and shields.  I think they make good vikings.

The other thing I tried to do with this army is make all of the movement trays sort of tell a story, instead of being an eyesore geometric shape or hunk of metal or plastic.  This in my opinion, helps convey a story, while also adding a bit of eye candy and some protection of the models in the front rank.  I've always hated it when I go to a tournament and my opponent decides he's going to slam his heavy metal models into mine in the midst of geek fervor. Adding a little bit of buffer has helped quite often against that.

Above I added a fallen viking in the midst of the ranks.

Some unfortunate Christian got smashed in the head.

 Some more closeups of the front ranks.  At some point I'll disassemble the unit and photograph all of the models.  Some of the models are multi-based.

Views from the rear, the rear most ranks are painted to same detail as the characters and front rank.

On the shields I managed to combine Little Big Men Studios transfers with my own hand-painted shields as a time saver.  The other thing the LBMS transfers did was inspire me to put in much more detail, such as weathering and battle damage. 

And no there are no transfers used on the back of the shields, some of the most monotonous paintwork ever.  I will also be using many of these models in SAGA.