Of Vikings and farmers

Last Crisis I couldn't resist. I had to buy Gripping Beast's Jomsvikings! Sculpted by Bill T, these are some of the coolest Dark Age miniatures around! And they paint as easily as they are beautiful. Only fully painted 2 till now, but I'm getting there.

Say hello to Gunnar and Ottar Greyhair.

Furthermore, while meeting with some friends I had my first go at a Brügelburg miniature by Lead Adventure miniatures. They are such funny looking figures, full of joke and character. This fella is part one of the duo inspired by Albrecht Dürer's "Three peasants in conversation" (linky).

Part two is on the way as well... :)

SAGA Wip

My desire to work on something Dark Age-y is still going strong and I've started working on some things.In order to increase my motivation, here are some WIP pictures taken with my mobile over the last few days:

This is one of Bill T's Jomsvikings and (by Odin!) it's a beauty! Such a joy to paint. The whole range is amazing and I'm looking forward to painting every single one of them.

This is an animal pen by Grand Manner... Nuff said, really. I just wish they'd go down with the price, so I could buy the lot!

A pig by Architects of War. I am currently working on a pigsty in which this lovely, rotund fella could enjoy life before he becomes sausages!

Sorry for the crappy unedited pictures. I'll be taking some proper ones soon of these and of other stuff I haven't photographed yet.

Till soon!

Onward Saxon soldiers!

Can you believe it? 3 posts in one day!!!

Finally, I finished two more Saxons. The guy in the blue... dress... has been painted 3 times to the varnishing stage and something always went wrong. Now, I am finally done with him. Although he was a pain in the backside, I really liked painting this miniature (well, both of them really) especially because of his face.

The banner will be not my main one. Ælle has a bull's skull as his banner in the Cornwell books, but I absolutely love these Freebooter Miniatures skulls, so I had to use one. Now, I am hoping that the Gripping Beast bull's skull will look as nice as this one.

EDIT: One more view of the banner where the thick white-ish ribbon looks less weird.

New beginnings... and Flying Lead

One of the reasons I've been so slack lately has been the fact that I was occupied by interviews for a new job. Well, interviews now behind me, I've gotten the job and start tomorrow. Oddly enough that usually means that I will be able to use my free time more effectively, thanks to a structured day, so I'm not in despair yet. :)

As I mentioned, we gave Flying Lead a go last Friday. Although we are not completely through the rules - vehicles are still an unknown to us - they seem to be rather simple and can be quite fun. The opposing forces can meet on a relatively small table (we had a modular piece to play on of only 60x60 cm) and even the forces can be rather small... 4 to 10 miniatures per side should be enough.

Troops are defined by only two characteristics: Quality and Combat. While lower quality is better than higher, the opposite is the case with combat. Quality is used to determine action success or morale while combat is added to a value corresponding to a weapon used and a die roll.

It all sounds very simple and it is. Most of the Ganesha rulebooks are, although Flying Lead seems to have some differences according to Mr. Jones who co-wrote them. I cannot comment on that yet as I haven't read their fantasy rules. Simple is not a bad thing though. The word might create the wrong impression, so maybe "easy" might do the rules more justice. There is the occasional hick-up in the description of some of the rule mechanics, but nothing common sense won't rectify.

What I really really miss are Skill Costs. The book offers some templates of characters; from Mafia thugs to SWAT officers, but if you want to create your own team without the templates, you need to use the Squad Builder on Ganesha's website. If you want to have the costs on a sheet of paper though, you are out of luck. Sadly the calculations in the background are rather complicated at times, so that copying the costs from the builder won't help. On top of that my wish for a cost and calculation table in PDF form were met by a negative answer by the writer of the rules. So Squad Builder it is and will have to be. I don't mind it that much, but an ad-hoc squad creation will need a functioning PC nearby and that restricts the player slightly. Besides that, some of my buddies are not massive PC fans.

Still, the rules are fun, allow for quick games (2 five-man forces games on a 60x60cm table lasted about 45 minutes on average... The longest lasted an hour, the shortest 15 minutes) and, in spite of slight differences, can use elements (ZOMBIEEES!) from other Ganesha rule books (Zombies are in Fear and Faith) to accommodate every desire!

That's it from me on Flying Lead. Never written something on rules before, so if you are missing an important information, let me know.

And as a glorious swan song for this post *ahem*... Here is a WIP on my Saxons. I am posting this more for my benefit to increase pressure! :) The standard is not going to be the main one. Aella has a bull's head according to Cornwell, but why have one skull terrifying your enemies, when you can have two? :)

More Thegns... and beavers

Here are another two characters for our Skirmish. These are probably more Thegns, both wearing versions of the Sutton Hoo helmet. The left one is from the command pack by GB while the right is from the Saxon-Frank command pack by Wargames Foundry. This time I've used LBM transfers for the shields, which reduced the painting time considerably.

Although the Foundry figures are smaller, I think the can mingle quite comfortably with the GB and Musketeer miniatures. I've just had to raise the Foundry figure slightly to make the size difference less obvious. Here's a group shot.

Finally, more beavers to use with your puns! :) I've finally painted all eight supplied by Northstar. They are quite small but very grumpy. These Saxons probably messed with their dam.

Hroðgar, son of Ælle

This is my second completed Saxon while a few more are getting near completion. This for me represents Hrothgar, Ælle's son from the books of Cornwell. His posture could be leisurely awaiting a foe with the conviction of a young strong fighter... or perhaps, deed done, he is having a breather scanning the battlefield for the next enemy after wiping his sword clean on his last victim's clothes. Although capable in battle, his shield still carries a protective shield knot.

Before I get carried away... here he is. Shield was again hand-painted and I really enjoyed painting him. Miniature is by GB this time and I love the helm, even if the details are a bit muddy.

 Last week I also visited Northstar and bought some beavers... One of them just came up to me and complained about the absence of a river to build a dam on. I think we will have to rectify this injustice on our table. Lt. Hazel will have to disagree at his own peril!

1st Saxon to arrive on England's shores (Musketeer Miniatures)

My finger is slowly on the mend and although it is still giving me some stability problems, I managed to finish my first miniature. Inspired by Lt. Hazels Britons and destined to face them in the near future (hence the similar base colours), the first Saxon has jumped of his ship ready to fight... bare handed for the time being. :)

Because I will be flying back to Germany in about a month, I decided to not include any spears yet, in my paranoid fear that they might be classed as dangerous objects and thrown in the bin. So, late February I will make another picture of this chap and the ones to follow when they will be all ready for battle!

Excuse the slight poorer photographic display... I only have one lamp in England. I am also struggling a bit with my colour choice, as I have most of my paints in Germany, but I guess I get to mix more now and that's also quite a lot of fun. :)