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! ;)

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!

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.

new camera!!

Well I finally bought the new camera I have been promising myself for the last couple of years... Its a Sony A350 and I had a little play with it this afternoon and I think once I get to know my way around it a bit better it will be a great camera for my needs.
Above are a few pics shot today, sadly there is nothing new. Next week I have lots to paint so stay tuned

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....?

10 weeks to go 'til cold steel. Viking week

This week I am cracking on with my Vikings. I hope by the end of the week to have a unit of 18 Hirdmen and 2 berserkers to join the chap pictured below. I am cheating a little bit because I have a few finished already, just dont tell anybody.... This first unit will be Hiberno Norse in flavour. I am not sure which army list to use from Shieldwall just yet, most like it will be either Norwegian or Hiberno-Norse. Both have great light infantry (or open order infantry under WAB2). The Norwegians led by Hardradda have always been my fave and have the added bonus of being able to hire serjeants which can make useful heavy infantry to hold the centre, as well as close order bondi. My freshly painted GB Hersir kindly given to me by the infamous Lord S of GB. The rear showing off his Little big men studios shield transfer This is my Veteran Norwegian war leader, who embarrassingly fell under a Norman horse whilst swinging his huge chopper around in the last battle.

Cold steel 2011

I am off to Cold Steel at Grippingbeast towers next January. So I thought I would paint myself a new army for the occasion. After last weeks disaster which you can read about in the battle report I sold off most of my Vikings to Dave. This seemed like a good idea at the time, but with only around 10 weeks before the event I will be hard pushed to paint a 1500 point force. I have a lovely box of plastic Hirdmen, as well as around 100 hundred various metal Vikings ready to paint. Also at the Derby show a couple of months ago I took advantage of Westwinds offer and bought around 200 of their Age of Arthur figures which are dying for some paint. So with the 10 week deadline in mind I have decided to.... PAINT BOTH!! Yes i know it makes no sense. So without further ado here is a photo of the first figures of my new armies, the new generals. Gripping Beast Viking and Westwind Warlord. Both were a real pleasure to paint, I guess mainly because rather than batch painting I actually concentrated on just the above models, A much more enjoyable experience. The Viking which is the free give away from GB plastic box set is now my favorite Viking model, which is no mean feat as I have painted a few in my time.

Hardraddas last battle

On Saturday David hosted a dark age game at Ugley Hougemont. We fought a "what if?" scenario. What if Hardradda and his Saxon ally Tostig Godwinson had crushed the rightful King Harold at Stamford bridge, then made their way south to see off the Normans. We used Warhammer ancient Battles 2 and lists from the Shieldwall supplement. 3000 points of Normans led by David and his son Sam in the guise of William and Odo, faced off against Pat leading 1500 points of Saxons as Tostig and myself representing the great man Harald Hardradda with 1500 points of Norwegians. The scenario was pitched battle using hidden deployment. The battlefield was a pretty open affair with a huge hill on our extreme right flank and a few pieces of rough round on our left. Pat and I came up with the plan of taking and holding the large hill with the Saxon shieldwalls, whilst my hairy hirdmen sat in reserve ready to attack the Norman knights in the flank as they fought uphill. Obviously this ruse depended on Dave and Sam thinking it was a good idea to crash against the solid Saxon shieldwalls.... So we set up all our strength on the right and right of centre just leaving a few skirmishers on our left flank to harass the enemy. One of these skirmishing units were my Jomsvikings. Expensive to retain but great fun to play with! Our deployment would hopefully mean that the enemy would be strung out across the large field of battle so we could pick them off at will. Usually when Dave plays Normans he will have an army of lance armed heavy cavalry supported by 100s of crossbowman. Jomsvikings So imagine our surprise when dawn broke and we could only see one mounted knights unit. The Norman army consisted of mounted milites lead by William, Odo and an army standard bearer. 3 large units of heavily armoured dismounted milites each lead by a comes. Supporting these was a large unit of skirmishing liberi and a few units of slingers. The Saxons comprised of 3 units of huscarls and ceorls in mixed formation and what must of been over 100 skirmishers armed with a mix of bow and sling. The Norwegians army was bulked out with 2 units of hirdmen including berserkers a unit of bondi with thrusting spear 2 small bow armed bondi and a 7 man Jomsviking contingent to put the fear of Odin in the enemy. Dave and Sam on the left look pleased with their deployment, Pat is still fiddling with his little man, i mean men... A freshly painted liberi unit prepares to try their luck against the jomsvikings. The Anglo/Norwegian battle line.Ralph the timid discussing the best way to leave the field of battle without anyone noticing The heavily armoured Norman line. The skirmishers start to move forward to harass the enemy line. Dave had historical names for his comes leading the dismounted milites. This one was lead by Ralph the timid. I hoped i would be facing that one!! Turn 1. Opened with Hardradda and Tostig sending forward the huge screen of skirmishers. the Saxon shieldwalls headed for the hills in a fast march formation, hoping to claim it before the cavalry reached it. The Norman infantry crept forward in their heavy armour whilst the cavalry raced for the hill. Turn 2. Every skirmisher in range of the powerful mounted milites unit opened fire. after rolling many many dice Pat seemed quite happy with himself as many knights were toppled from their saddles. Dave rolled for a panic test not worrying to much as his general was leading the charge. But the dice Gods are fickle and he rolled an 11!! So off they scarpered back down the hill with jeers ringing in their ears. Luckily(for the Normans) they rallied at the start of the next turn before they were lost for good. Clouds of arrows seeing off the Norman elite Headless Sam tries to redress the depleted knights formation as the heavy foot move forward at a snails pace. the next couple of turns saw the Saxons dig in on the hill whilst the Normans moved steadily forward with what was left of their knights now on the right of their battle line, maneuvering for a charge on the Vikings. This was obviously going to happen soon, so i whispered in Pats shell like that it is time for the Saxons to be bold and come down from the hill to hit the Normans in the flank. Pat said they would but first they seemed to be having a tea break. So without further ado my impetuous Vikings lead by their impatient general surged forward into the Norman ranks. Sadly this is where i got caught up in the fighting and neglected my camera. After 3 rounds of withering combat, which included Hardradda getting injured the mounted knights charged the hirdmen. Hardradda lept forward into the melee only to slip on some poor souls spilt intenstines and get kicked in the face by a horse. Not the most fitting of endings for such a renowned warrior..... With the Norwegians well and truly buggered the Saxons decided to pour out another cup of tea and watch the butchering from their vantage point. Hardradda was now dead. Tostig seemed to be chuckling from behind his spangle helm. maybe it was his plan all a long...? He could now contest for the English throne, but just not today. Well it was a great fun battle, A well won victory for the Normans. My Vikings fought well but were really up against it with the Saxons uncommitted. Most of the Vikings are now living at Davids, after a post battle defection. WAB2 seems to be a slight improvement on the original not that there was anything broken in the last version. The longer thinner lines look better, i need a few more games to get used to the differences after playing version 1 regularly for about 10 years... Hopefully some more games soon!

shieldwalls clash!