I've been painting a lot of vikings lately and realized I had a whole bunch of them. I like Dark Ages gaming and these guys are pretty much the norm for a few hundred years in northern Europe in terms of arms and armor. Vikings, Anglo-Saxons, Wends, Swedes, Danes, Frisians... whatever you want, in that time period and locale this is pretty much what you are going to get. For my own ease, these guys are going to be called vikings for the rest of this post.
Turns out I have 142 vikings ready to go. (And 24 on order.) I just like painting them. Each guy is an individual so they are a great break from painting any army where they have uniforms and you just paint the same thing over and over. I painted these guy in small batches or even one at a time to clean my palate, so to speak, when I had done too many WW2 uniforms. I like to envision which guys are wealthy and which guys are not; which guys are willing to grab a shield and spear and which guys are not and let the paint flow. Some have better clothes and equipment than others.
Unfortunately I live in a house with no light and I'm a lousy photographer so the pictures suck pretty much. They really don't do justice to the figures. Sorry for that.
They are a mix of Gripping Beast plastics and, I think, Artizan metal figs. The seller doesn't say where they come from. Whatever, as long as he keeps me supplied. My paint jobs are utilitarian at best. They are good for the table, not the display case.
I like to play Saga (1st Ed.) but my favorite Dark Ages game is Pig Wars. I also have the rules for the period in Warhammer Ancient Battles, which I am anxious to play again, Lion Rampant, A Glutter of Ravens and a few more games too. Like one I haven't mentioned? Let me know.
The whole shebang. The boat is a Revell model, almost the exact scale. At $35 it was a no brainer. There may be more in my future.
Some javelin men.
Take my wife, please.
Command of sorts. I like the arrows in the guy's shield. I cut those out of the quiver of other GB dudes and glued them on. No idea where the priest came from. Looks like maybe a GW fig.
2 handed axes. The guy in the front left is rich.
Unarmored spear men from GB. These were among the first guys I painted.
Unarmored blades.
Armored spears. Overall I hand painted almost all of the shields. There's maybe 5 or 6 guys with transfers in this whole lot.
Armored blades. These are mostly metal. The flags/standards are from LBM Studios. The usual beautiful products.
Armored spear men. Again, I like the guy front left.
Bows on a boat. Worse than snakes on a plane.
Some blurry swordsmen. I also base them in groups, each different from the last group. That way, when they are all together there is a mix of bases. This isn't a great illustration of that, you'll just have to trust me.
Another shitty picture of the javelin men. I tried to make it look like they were throwing one but had another stuck in the ground at their feet. Did I succeed? You be the judge.
There's a couple fat guys in there. I like that.
Vikings looking for a fight. The guy with two swords is cool. Can you find him? Dark Age 'Where's Waldo'.
As mentioned, one of my favorite Dark Ages games is Pig Wars where it matters what models are armed with. 2 handed axes are bad news, which I suppose is not far from the mark.
I post this picture because it is the perfect example of my inability to get the closest figure in focus. Even in Super-Macro.
More blurry spears. I actually really like these guys in real life.
The End.
