Revell Viking Ship Finished

I just finished a project I started at Christmas - making the Revell Viking ship as a piece of terrain for SAGA. I changed my mind a couple of times about whether I wanted it beached or at sea, but in either case I started by hacking it off at the waterline. I made a bit of a mess of this. Ultimately I decided to have it beached, so it looks like it is sunk into the beach too deeply, but hey. I mounted it on some mdf and added a beach texture with sand and some breaking surf from DAS modelling clay. The furled sail was made from material soaked in PVA.

I started painting the base with some acrylic craft paint I had lying around. Then I simply painted the ship with some craft paint, before painting it over with Cabots woodstain and spraying it with Tamiya matt varnish. I am very pleased with the effect - the Revell kit has beautifully modelled woodgrain that the varnish picks up nicely. The surf was finished with shades of duck egg green, blue-grey and white before having a couple of layers of gloss varnish brushed over it. I will probably do another couple of layers when I buy some more. I finished it off with some simplified rigging, extra simplified because I managed to throw away the blocks needed to secure the rigging forward of the mast. Duh.

I'm pretty pleased with the final result, and it will do the job as an objective marker in SAGA. The beach is too dark, and I will try to lighten it with some shades of grey and light brown. Also, in retrospect, I would model the base so that it fits over the corner of a terrain board, like this fantastic example that puts mine in the shade. I will have to give some thought to making a section of coastline that the ship can fit into. In summary, I recommend the Revell kit - it's a cracker! Just have to keep it away from those pesky mermaids...

Viking Reinforcements!

Just finished this unit of 12 bowmen for my Saga Viking warband. The figures are Wargames Factory plastics - not my favourite figures in the world, but they do come with bows, and I already had a box lying around.


It is a very bright day here, so apologies if the photos look a bit washed out.

Dark Ages Fort - Finished

I've petty much finished the fort I've been working on over the past couple of weeks for use with Saga. I sprayed the board with Tamiya Dark Earth, with a light overspray of Tan to tone it down a bit. The palisade was painted with some craft acrylics in various shades of grey and brown. I had originally planned to put a stain wash over it, but decided it didn't need it.

Following the suggestion of Paul at THe Man Cave I added a suggestion of planking on the rampart, just made with strips cut from a cereal packet.

Overall I'm pretty happy with it, although at some stage I may add something to the interior of the rampart - maybe timber supports or even cover it with flock. It looks a bit bare at the moment. I'm going to build a great hall for my warlord to fit inside the fort, but might paint some more figures first. Next time I'll also do a better job of trying to stop the board warping.

I played a game of Saga with a friend last Thursday night using the fort - came up with a scenario with special rules for breaking down the gate etc. I enjoyed myself, but I think my mate missed the usual elves and pixies he tends to game with.

Viking Fort Work in Progress-Part 2

Thanks for all the nice comments about my Viking fort so far. I have been steadily chipping away, and finally finished the palisade. I followed Rodger's advice and painted the reverse side of the MDF base with water to try to improve the warping problem. Certainly seemed to help a bit, but the sodding humid Sydney weather is conspiring against me.

Next up, I've added a couple of stairways up to the rampart (that I will neaten up later) and have been working on the platform over the gate and the gates themselves. I was trying to put the gateposts into a sort of bracket so that they would open, but I think I will just leave them loose so they can be positioned open or closed. Note the primitive 'murder holes' above the gate. The doors and platform are made from paddle pop sticks, split lengthways into more realistically-sized planks and then re-assembled. This process attracted some pitying looks and satirical comments from the Duchess, I can tell you. Count youselves lucky if you have a Cave to hide in. I have the dining room table, my nerdiness on full display...

Saga Viking Warband Finished!

Just put the finishing touches to my first warband for Saga - four points worth of Vikings.

Here's the whole gang, comprising...

...the warlord with his bodyguard...

...another point of hearthguard...

...a third point of hearthguard, taking the option of turning them into berserkir (well, Ulfednar)...

...and a fourth point spent on warriors (bondi).

Have I mentioned how much I love this game?

Basic Impetus Demo Game

On Friday after school last week we put on a demo game of Basic Impetus for boys who wanted to know more about Historical Wargaming. This was the first game for my 28mm Viking and Norman armies, and actually the first game I've played with 28mm figures. I used the Normans, under the nom de guerre of Odo Iron Arm, with Conan the Librarian taking the Vikings.

The scenario:

The year is about 1020. A Viking raiding force has been making itself generally objectionable in the Duchy of Normandy, nicking plasma screen TVs and so on. The local powerful bastard Odo Iron Arm drags himself away from the mead hall and wenches to call up his retainers and catch the Danish seawolves. Moving through a recently looted village, Odo's men see the Vikings drawn up on a ridge waiting for them.

The set up.
The Normans struggle to deploy for battle from the road.

The game:

The first few turns saw my Normans trying to deploy off the road and making a mess of it. My initial plan was to concentrate on the Vikings on the ridge to my left, hopefully softening them up with footsoldiers and crossbowmen first. This didn't work so well. My footsoldiers charged the Vikings shieldwall and were promptly massacred, while the missile troops failed to make any impression.

Failing that, I charged the Bondi deployed across the road. This turned into a slogging match that started looking worse and worse for me, particularly after Conan launched some of his other Bondi into my flank.


Over on my left, the Viking Berserkers finally couldn't take it any longer and charged my general. This was one of several epic moments in the game, where Odo and his retinue beat off the Berserkers and pursued them back through the gap in the Viking shieldwall, only to be hit in both flanks and destroyed by the Odalsbondi on either side.
Running out of shields to bite, the Berserkir charge.

Odo pushes back the Berserkir, but not without loss. Casualty figures mark disorder and shields with different numbers of segments keep track of damage.

Fortunately, from this point on I had uncharacteristically excellent luck. I sent a unit of knights around on my right flank and dislodged the shieldwall isolated on the right side of the road. They continued on, rolling up the Viking Skirmishers and tipping the balance in the centre. Meanwhile, over on my far left flank a unit of knights broke another unit of Bondi. The Vikings army reached its break point and victory was mine (just).

The game was loads of fun, and hopefully served to inspire a few more boys to get into historical wargaming. I did here one boy remark 'it's just like Warhammer', but restrained myself from putting him on detention. Once again, I enjoyed the unpredictability of Basic Impetus, but also the way that different armies have their own characteristics. The Viking ability to form a shieldwall, especially when deployed on a hill, made them tougher than the Norman knights so long as they kept their formation. So whereas I had all the tactical mobility and initiative, I had to try to find a way to lure the Vikings out of their strong position or end up in unpredictable slogging matches (which is largely what happened).
Endgame.

Vikings for Basic Impetus - the Bondi

The last few weeks have been crap and everyone has been sick, so apologies for the lack of blog action. However, amidst all the mucus the Viking army for Basic Impetus continues to grow. Here are the first two units of Bondi, also from Wargames Factory. Click on the image and it will grow magically larger before your eyes.

And Mike - I reckon this bloke looks particularly like Brian Blessed :).

Vikings for Basic Impetus

Drum roll please....

Here are the first two units of my Viking army for Basic Impetus. Why the drum roll? Well, these are also the first 28mm figures I've completed. I feel obscurely guilty about neglecting my little 1/72 friends, but I'll get back to them soon.

Figures are from Wargames Factory. This is also the first time I've used the tufts on the bases, and I like the effect.

Figures are block painted, then have Army Painter strong shade applied by brush before being finished off with some highlighting. I want to work on the highlighting - not happy with it yet. I keep trying to drybrush on lighter shades, but the figures I see that look the best seem to add much bolder lines or blocks of colour.

Shields are all handpainted, with designs from various sources but particularly inspired by Neldoreth's Hour of Wolves and Shattered Shields site He is a truly brilliant painter. The banner is a paper one from Gripping Beast.

One of the things I like about Impetus is the larger base size, so I have tried to make use of it here with a little vignette featuring an overzealous Saxon about to meet his maker.


Thanks for looking!