28mm Viking raiding party

   I'd have liked to name this post 28mm Viking army, as I've been working on and off on this collection for over 10 years. It peaked at around 300 figures and currently stands at roughly 70.
   So not quite an army more just a small raiding party.

 When I have finally finished my new general and army standard bearer plus a few more warriors to thicken the shieldwall, I will be proud to call it an army again. (watch out Dave!)

 So today I was playing with the lighting in my room and thought I would take a few pictures to see what effect my new lights have. The majority of the troops are from Gripping beast with a couple of Crusader miniature beserkers thrown in.

 You can probably tell I was also playing with my camera and looking for that perfect shot. Sadly never quite got it, but hey the weekend is upon us and there is still going to be time in between the RUGBY!

 England for the grand slam? it would be nice!

The Vikings sure knew how to scrum, but I'm sure they learnt that from the Anglo Saxons! ;)

28mm Jomsviking

Number 8 makes the finishes the first rank in my Jomsviking warband. Another 15 to go and they will join the right of my Viking armies shieldwall.

28mm Jomsviking 7

And 7.

Jomsviking 6

Number 6!

Jomsviking 5

You may of seen this chap on the blog before. I have cut the Dane axe down a little since last time.

Jomsviking 4

and another

Jomsviking 3

and another....
Figure by Gripping Beast

Jomsviking 2

Carrying on from yesterdays Jomsviking, here is another of the brotherhood.
figure by Gripping beast.

Sorry the photo is a little dark....

Jomsviking 1

Well my youngest has been a little poorly and off school, which has eaten into my painting time. The good news is I  have managed to catch up with my paperwork and also a little bit of photography. so here is the first of a few Dark Age figures I have painted over the last year or so.

Figure is from Gripping beasts beuatiful Jomsviking range. The shield is a little big men studios transfer.

Gripping Beast Early Saxon Cavalry

Just been painting these Early Saxons up for Gripping Beast lovely scuplts from Soapy!


more to follow soon

Jomsvikings

As I said in my previous post my favourite miniatures released last year were these bad boys from GB.
So I thought it was about time I painted mine. Here are the first 6 of the the 25 Jomsviking minis, at what a joy to paint! I also have a few of the older style ones to do, hopefully it will be quite an impressive warband when they are all finished.
If the cold weather is making you feel all Viking. Grab yourself a few packs of these, play some Manowar through your head phones and get painting.
as Svend Karlsen aptly states, VIKING POWER!

SAGA Command stands

Figures from GB stripy pants from Carnaby Street. Lovely sculpts and great fun to paint!

I am now officially old...

 Well it had to happen eventually. I am now officially an old man, as i turned 40 last week.
The good news is I still have my own hair and my chest is bigger than my belly. The bad news is i may be getting a little to old to play with toy soldiers?
 Anyway for my birthday my mrs went to Rome to see the pope whilst I stayed in rainy Manchester with the kids. It was not all doom and gloom as i did manage to finish off these smashing Gripping beast plastic Vikings which I started about 6 months ago and for a change they are for my personal collection. they are a great buy and as good as any metal dark age figures on the market. All i need now are the Jomsvikings I have ordered!
  I also painted myself up an officer to start my thirty years war collection. pics soon.

COLD STEEL 2012

Anybody out there off to "Cold Steel" on Sunday? If so i will see you there!
This friendly WAB tournament is held at Gripping beast HQ this time each year. I have my thermals washed and ready.
 I am resurrecting a late Roman army I painted well over 10 years ago for the event. pictures soon

making the most of the sunshine

Amazingly the sun has been shining today in the grim north. So I have made the most of it by taking a few pics in the garden. Mainly of some Pueri I painted a while back but have not got around to photographing yet. These are from Grippingbeast and it is the first time I have painted their updated horses and I must say I was impressed by the sculpts. It must be the hardest thing for sculptors to produce and my hat is off to soapy who has done an excellent job with these. 12 Pueri armed with javelins

Hiberno Norse defend their territory from marauding Normans

More Hiberno Norse are called up from their village behind the giant leaves

The sun is about to go down as the Normans sally forth from their fort.

the set up.

As you can see the sun started to drop in my back garden and I had to put my table a little to close to the bush which kind of ruined the effect.

getting to have another good look at my Norman fort which was made by Paul Darnell of Touching History fame, has reminded me that I need to paint an army up to garrison it. Sadly these Pueri are not destined for my collection. Luckily it is my birthday in a couple of weeks, maybe i should treat myself?

You can see more of Pauls work on his new website Battles in miniature

not bad considering its Friday afternoon...

I have just finished off what I had planned for this week and I still have the weekend free, not bad for me! 3 Gripping beast Hiberno-Norse, 2 Crusader miniatures Berserkers and a monk The 5 Vikings I will add to the rest of my Hibenro Norse figures and the chap I painted last week will lead them. The monk can be added to my Romano British civitates army. So here it is, my first complete unit for my new Norse force. A Hersir, 2 Berzerkers and 17 Hiberno Norse with a mix of double handed axes and throwing spears. Some of the shields are hand painted the nicer ones and the standard are transfers by little big men studios. The majority of this unit was painted a few years ago, now at last it is complete an ditching for action. I will take a few more pics when I have time, as the close ups I did all came out a bit blurry apart from the berserker above. With the weekend now free, i will finish prepping up the plastic GB Hirdmen and some Romano British, then decide what to do next. I dont think I will get any painting done as it is my 6th wedding anniversary to my beautiful wife Marie Saturday, so I will be spending lots of quality time with the mrs. What a lucky lady....?