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.