Foundry Vikings and Normans for SAGA Rules

Viking Warlord with two four man Hearthguard units, 2 points for SAGA I will add an 8 man unit od warriors with spears and a 12 man unit of levies with bows to make my 4 point warband.

This is a huge foundry figure, excellent casting, had to scratch build the shield for him as a normal shield looked tiny!

Here he is again, real monster, the Normans better get some iron into this bastard fast!

Foundry Normans on Conquest plastic horses, legs didnt fit so I used a pen wrapped in sandpaper in a drill to round them out, quick and easy, these make a great mounted knight, the guy on the right is Duke WIlliam, the one on the left is bishop Odo.

Odo on his grey.

William the Bastard, riding one of the four horses he lost at Hastings?

Half a 1 point warrior band, the Norman warband will be more of a combined arms deal, 2 units of 4 mounted knights (Hearthguard) Mounted Warlord, 1 unit of 8 warriors with spears and 12 levies with bows.

Close up of a spearman.

Another spearman, hand painted shields these, more time but nice effect.

Another close up. Took the photos with my iphone4 great tool that, easy digital zoom. I bought these at the Foundry factory shop in Nottingham just after the riots, they where not damaged but had cancelled an open day as they felt people where unlikely to travel, very friendly and gave me a generous discount worht about 25% so well worth the visit. SAGA now has a release date, check gripping beasts website, they also have some sample warbands to give you an idea for army preperation, not sure if the number of hearthguard units will be limited but suspect so as armour would have been quite expensive so Im going for majoity unarmoured in my warbands.

Foundry 28mm Vikings

Group shot, these are for SAGA when they are published! A Warlord and most of 2 four man Hearthguard units, lovely castings.

The Warlord, mounted on 40mm round base to make him stand out..

Banner bearer, Jomsviking banner from LBMS, shield transfers also LBMS but the shields are GB plastic ones.

Nice spectacle helm, very norse...

A close up of an amoured Viking, very nice figures from Foundry but very dear, so, buy them from Stuart Armstrong at www.colonelbills.com I found him through Ebay, fast and friendly service and mint figures cheaper than from Foundry. Thanks Stu.

Gripping Beast Vikings

Further shots of OG Casualties

Gripping Beast plastic Saxon standing over two Vikings, one holding his mates head together.

Close up of these Old Glory figures which come as a single miniature with two figures.

Aerial view showing the composition of the 40mm base, I think it worked well.

More SAGA miniatures

Not updated for a while so here is some of my recent work, primarily Im focusing on Gripping Beasts upcoming SAGA skirmish rules, from what I can glean the Warlord in each force is quite critical and Darre at the beast tells me they are mouting them on larger bases to make them stand out. Ive focussed on making a round 40mm base into a little diorama to depict the warlords, and maybe cos Im a bit bloodthirsty they feature casualties, the ones below are Old Glory 25mm "The slain" casualty pack miniatures which I think are excellent figures and good value.

Above is a Black Tree Design Viking, these are great figures but sadly this company's customer service is very poor, I ordered some Late Romans from them and waited so long I cancelled the order and got a refund, shame cos they have some nice miniatures.

This is a close up of one of the OG casualties, love his helmet which is knocked sideways.

Here he is again with a West Wind Productions Arthurian as my Saxon champion roaring "Whose next!"

Not the best shot but here is a Gripping Beast Saxon with a head tilt and arm coversion standing over an OG set of two Vikings, one kneeling holding his mates brains in! Will add another close up ate the end of post.

A GB Viking with a Little big man Banner, excellent products from LBMS.

Space Wolves Army Building Blog Update 6

4 man Thunderwolf Squad with Attached Wolf Lord.

Thunderwolf Cavalry, Power Weapon and Storm Shield.


Thunderwolf cavalry, Plasma Pistol & CCW with Melta Bombs.

Thuderwolf Cavalry, Bolt Pistol & CCW with Melta Bombs.

Thunderwolf Cavalry, Plasma Pistol & CCW.

Finished my Thunderwolf Cavalry squad, added loads of bits from my bits box like pouches, grenades and melta bombs. Im really pleased with this unit it really looks awesome in the flesh, very nasty too with the 12" charge and fleet, planning to bombburst the wolf lord out of the unit on the chargs to make a double attack on two units or vehicles, they will certainly draw fire, but, the army also has Nigel bunkered in a 5 man wolf guard unit in terminator armour, covering fire from long fangs and 4 x 5 man squads of marines all coming forward at a run, the plan is for this army to fight fast and nasty and leave the opponent feeling mauled by turn 3. LOL Ill probably lose though! Second game tonight, so far ive lost 1 from 1 (Tabled by Col Corbanes armour heavy guard list, but, I forgot the melta bombs!).

Just finished my second game with this army, an anihilation game with dawn of war deployment, won 10 - 4 on kill points against Imperial Guard, very enjoyable game, a 5 man Ogryn squad creamed the remains of my TWC and wolf lord in combat though it was only the lord and one other TWC after they had rolled up the guards right flank killing a couple of large guard units includig their commisar, good stuff, all good for the learning curve with these wolves...

Space Wolves Army Building Blog Update 5

Thunderwolf Progress

All 4 ready for finishing

Number 1

Number 2 (No Pun Intended)

Number 3 (Bet the Neighbours Love Him)

Yep, Number 4....

I got a flash of inspiration yesterday, a miracle considering the restless pack of german shepherds here wanting to go for long walks in the sun but I did break the painting up with walks!

I used Halfords grey primer initially here than an airbrush to add a large area of Fortress grey on the back and flanks, then a smaller area of codex grey within it moving up the back, again through airbrush, lastly I added black and continued up the back on two, and scorched brown for the other two, this was mixed with the codex grey.

Then I airbrushed the whole model with a 50% / 50% mix of Gryphone sepia and devlan mud, when dry I started at the bottom and drybrushed up with Bleached Bone, Fortress Grey, codex grey then codex grey/black on two and codex grey scorched brown on the other two (Wanted some variation within the pack and looked at the variations in my Alsations, 4 in case you're curious, oh and two Rottweiler/Alsation crosses).

Finally a fine airbrushed line down the back with neat devlan mud on the brownish ones and neat badab black on the others, then paint in the teeth and gums, wash the mouth with devlan mud and highlight em, I also used a bit more devlan mud to emphasise the areas around eyes and ears and creases on the muzzle of the growling ones this was added by brush. The eyes are 50%/50% yellow and darksun foundation.

Will complete the riders today and bases and post finished pics of the whole squad soon.

Gaming wise they are very very threatenning, added melta bombs makes them dangerous to vehicles too (Assuming that I remember them and dont let Col Corbane off the hook again!) and they are swift!, fleet plus 12" charge, their job will be as glorious bullet magets lancing into the heart of the enemy while my other units manouver up. Fingers crossed!

Preperation for SAGA rules launch.

Im really quite excited about Gripping Beasts new SAGA rules!

A GB Plastic Viking Warlord, based on 40mm round base.

Same dude different view.

A GBP Saxon Warlord with an unfortunate scot!

A small Saxon Warband.

ANother Viking Warlord, a GBP/Warlord Games Hybrid.

Part of one of my Viking Warbands

Conquest Games, Plastic Normans

Really like the way this Grey turned out.

Another Conquest Norman Knight.

So, Gripping Beast and Tomahawk studios are producing a dark age skirmish game called SAGA, also GB ad Conquest games are producing excellent plastic miniatures so dark age gaming has pretty much never had it so good! Ive re based my Saxons and Vikings in preperation and have even finished my gaming table, I love skirmish games and due to the nature of warfare in the dark ages smaller skirmishes where much more common than larger battles so personally I cant wait. I know very little about the mechanics at this stage except they seem to have some intriguing special dice, figures are indiviually mounted on reound bases and warlords/Leaders/Heroes are on larger bases, so Ive hit about 30 figures, Viking and Saxons and have some unarmoured welshmen from West Wind in the wings, so Im wishing my life away again waiting for the rules! anyone who played at SALUTE and can give us a run down on the mechanics please comment!

Space Wolf Progress

Wolf Guard In Terminator Armour

Back Of Cloak.

Three Blood Claws

Another Blood Claw, different squad.

Been a while since I updated due to the pressures of real life, but, I didnt sell any wolves through ebay and have now signed up for "Blog Wars" a tournament for the blogging community so am feverishly working on completing my wolf army, even played a game, a loss, probably due to the dice gods being unimpressed by a partially painted army. Learned a few things though, Njal is hard as nails, wolf guard even in terminator armour are fragile and Thunderwolves are lethal and fast but need to select targets carefully!