Gripping Beast 28mm Teutonic Knights

Grand Master

Another view

One more shot

Finally got around to painting some of my own stuff. These are the first shots of my Gripping Beast Teutonic order WAB army, I have 1500 points worth and these came as one of GB's £100 army deals which I used the profit from selling my Ultramarines to finance.

Im basing them on snow bases to represent the order during their various Baltic campaigns, its interesting to read about the orders history, I do this for most of my projects to gain insight and generate enthusiasm, the order originated in the middle east during the crusades then moved to North Eastern Europe and from what I can gather had a habit of getting their arses kicked in battle, they lost almost all the major engagements they where involved in but still gained a reputation for being very arrogant in dealing with locals and other organisations. Hmm........ very German. But, they looked cool and field a lot of cavalry so make an iteresting WAB army with a lot of punch.

Ill post details of the army list with ore photos later.

Immortal Plastic Hoplites

Left side of figure including shield Transfer.

Right side of model including inside of shield.

Ive rabbited on in here a bit about being a pro painter yadda yadda yadda, here is one of the advantages, I contacted Stephen May of Immortal miniatures a while back offering to paint some of his new Plastic Hoplites in exchange for a few boxes to make my own army and he agreed hopefully impressed with some pics of my painting. The models arrived last week and here are the first pics of one painted, so I also thought I would do a review of the models while I was at it.

The box contains enough sprues to build 34 Hoplites with a mixture of tunics, linen and Bronze armour and predominantly spears but some swords too. The shields are in 2 designs with the more common Hoplon types being in 2 sizes and are attached to the arms with excelent detail inside the shield rim. The quality of the casting is superb, there was no flash to remove on any of my models and the box also contains enough bases for all the models in 20mm square which is a godsend and saves procuring seperate bases at extra expense.

The helmets represent several designs and the modeller can choose the crest style depending on the era he is representing, excellent.

The box also contains shield transfers, waterslide type, with a number of historically accurate designs which have been very well researched and produced and are of a very high quality.

Lastly the box cotains an unexpected Gem, a reference book with descriptions of hoplite equipment including their colours and designs and a description of the historical periods in which they featured, this is clearly a labour of love from someone who is an expert in the period and who has looked carefully at the archeological and historical evidence when preparing his product and then released something for the love of the period rather than as a money making venture.

Overall I am very impressed with these, they represent excelent value for money at the price and I'm glad to paint for Immortal and proud to be associated with them.

The muster continues

Slowly getting there, having to prioritise some commision work for Warlord but WAB wise I have 160 points here....

WAB version 2

Ive just received a free copy of WAB Version 2 from Warhammer Historical as they have pictured some of my models in the book and gave me a free copy as a contributor, dead proud of this, some of the Hussites on page page 13 are mine (All the rear rank) and the half page pic of three Warlord Games Celtic Chariots on Page 114 are mine too, dead proud of this as its more enduring than the front cover of Wargames Illustrated I had, plus "Mike Collington" is listed as one of the miniature painters in the front along with such exalted company as Alan and Michael Perry, Dave Andrews and Dave Woodward who I greatly admire and take inspiration from, Woohoo!

First multiple stand

This is the first time Ive done multiple stands like the ones shown in Shieldwall, I like the idea of being able to build little diorama's on a larger base and its also easier to position the figures carefully so their shields and weapon positions look right, I'm pleased with the way this has turned out and am planning another 20 bases of 4 or so with about 20 single figure incliding banner bearers and leaders.

Warlord Celt/GBP Viking Berserker conversion

This is a hybrid Berserker using a Warlord Plastic Celt and spare weapons and head from the Gripping Beast viking sprue.

Planning a few of these for my growing WAB Viking army.

GREAT DANES by GBP

My gradually expanding warband...

Same guys after a reshuffle, the Sea King/Jarl at the right hand side....

Love the hammers of Thor on these miniatures

Another shot of the same time travelling arrow, it was fired 700 years in the future by a

Perry WoTR plastic Archer and travelled through time to just miss Rolf's right foot by 2 inches!

The spear arms give loads of options, including as shown on the GB website by lopping

the top off to add the head of one of the 2 two handed great axes on each sprue to give a standing great axeman....

Best thing when facing this guy is to avoid the downward stroke - obviously - but remember he will not just swing wildly, he has probably been killing the likes of you half his life and is just as likely to use the lower edge of the axe to hook you legs from under you or to hook down the upper edge of your shield for the spearman in his second line - previously not noticed due to the roaring lunatic with this axe - to lunge a spear through your throat.....

This is an accidental conversion, the shield did not fit due to where I had positioned the arm, so he got a knife, taught me to blu tac shields to the arms when gluing them on though!

You should have seen the udders on the cow this horn came from!

These are all shots of the Gripping beast plastic Vikings, these are superb value, incredibly flexible and have loads of spares... thereby hangs a tail, I did some painting for Paul at Warlord games a while back and took castings and models in lieu of payment, I had loads of Warlord 28mm plastic celts left over and have combined some of the half naked guys with the GBP heads and weapons to make some Viking Berserkers, will post em soon but they really look cool, the scale matches and the sculpting is equally crisp, also try swapping back the extra celt heads from Warlord with the Vikings, a great bald head on the celt sprue, watch the blog for some shots of these......

In the meantime head over to Gripping Beast for a gander (Interesting fact here, a Gripping Beast is an animal depicted in a loop biting its own tail and featured heavily in Norse artwork while the painting and carving styles where heavily influenced by eastern styles because the Scandanavians traded lots with them) any way go here... www.grippingbeast.com

This Blog Entry is now entitled "Up Yours Mel" :-)

Gripping Beast Plastic Viking Front.

(Clic Pic to enlarge)

Gripping Beast Plastic Viking Rear.

These are shots of the first of my Gripping Beast vikings, these are outstanding kits, better than any other plastic Danes on the market by a long way, the casting is so good you can read the runes on the sword, loads of spare parts, limitless conversion possibilities and dynamic poses, can't wait to get my hands on the Saxons that are planned, really very well done to Darren and the team at Gripping Beast!

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