More Viking Warriors

This week, I will be mostly...finishing some Vikings.

This is 1 point worth of warriors for Saga, which means that I now have a 6 point Viking warband (one of my goals for the year!)


Figures are from Artizan Designs, and very nice they are too. I used my new discovery of water based 'dip' on these. As with Army Painter, I would never in a pink fit actually dip them - the stain/varnish is brushed on, then top coated with Vallejo matt varnish.

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...

Viking Fort Work in Progress

Playing Saga has made me want to make some Dark Ages terrain. I've never attempted terrain boards and such, but plunged in on the weekend with the start of a Viking/generic dark ages fort. The twice-poxed MDF base is already warping a little (which I thought they weren't supposed to do?), but otherwise things are proceeding nicely. I will be happy to finish whittling bits of dowel for the pallisade though. Here's how it's looking so far:

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 :).

Work in Progress - Vikings

I'm teaching a unit on the Vikings at the moment, which has inspired me to paint up a couple of armies for the 9th century struggles in England. I'll be basing the figures for Basic Impetus.

In a radical departure from standard Dux Homunculorum practice I have decided to have a go at painting 28mm figures. The figures are from Wargames Factory, and I'm generally pretty happy with them. As Neldoreth points out in his brilliant review of the Plastic Vikings, the figures work well as a loose unit, perhaps charging, but less well to represent a shield wall. My only real gripe withe the WF Vikings is that their hair is much too neat. Indeed, this was the first reaction of the Duchess when I asked her to admire uncritically my finished painting.

At this stage, I'm contemplating using WF Vikings, but pitting them against Saxons from Gripping Beast, which are much more suitable for making a shield wall.

I'm new to this 28mm malarkey, so any constructive feedback is very welcome.