28mm Gripping Beast Dark Age Cavalry

Its taken a bit of time to build and paint these little guys this week, its been a busy week in 'real life'. So these figures are to be used in the forthcoming 'Battle of Stamford Bridge' in December, to represent the English horse thath was alledged to have been present at the battle.

Completed unit of Dark Age Cavalry

This is my first box of these figurs, 12 in all, each one represented in an unarmoured dress and carring a range of spears, javlins, swords and axes. For the battle I'll add another 2 boxes to give a good sized mounted force for the English agaings their Viking opponents.

These guys will represent lighter cavalry used by the English ad other nationalities. the models clearly do not have any stirrups for the riders and thus cannot be used as lance armed 'knights'

The figures made up well, I actually made the executive choice to replace the supplied heads with Victrix Ango-Dane / Viking heads as I actually like the sculpts better and the helmets supplied with the kit were a little too 'early' in appearance for my taste.

Another view of the unit

I spray painted the figures black and then added a top down spray of white to give a base highlight before setting to with my paint palette. All the horses were painted using speed paints, as were some of the figures. They grey horse had a white dry brush applied and where I used regular paints I applied appropriate washes before varnishing and basing.

Reasonably pleased with this weeks work!

Finally a closer look at the rear rank

Latest 28mm Vikings

So here are my latest additions to the 28mm Viking Horde that I have been collecting for a few years, there must be enough to represent the Great Heathen Horde in a pretty realistic scale now!

Almost all of these figures are Gripping Beast guys, purchased on a whim from eBay as I saw the lot going at a reasonable price and already made and undercoated. There are three metal 'Ulfhednar' Berserkers in there as will plus a metal Gripping Beast model of Harald Hardada, whom I am obviously using as a commander for this group.

The completed group, on some nice new figure trays (made from MDF)

As noted the figures came pre-made and undercoated, I did a little chopping and gluing to repair broken and weapons and also to swap out some of the Gripping Beast heads that I didn't really like with Victrix spares that I had.

Unit Commander

The trays allow for eight or sixteen figures to be placed as a unit and thus ease movement and unit recognition for the coming games that I'm planning. 

First Group of Armoured Vikings

Second Group of Armoured Vikings, note the Ulfhednars lurking in these units,
they will be subject to a frenzy rule and may just charge out directly at the nearest enemy at their whim

The bulk of the lot were made up of unarmoured Dark Ages infantry, I have given them a slight Viking look and feel but in reality they can be used for pretty much any Dark Age army if you don't look too closely! 

The great unwashed of the Viking Army!

AHPC XI - Mike W [Hall or Traps] Irish Scallywags leading the good Father astray!

This is my third Challenge (excluding the interim Lockdown Challenge last summer) and it feels good to be back! I hope everyone has stayed (and will stay) well and thanks again Curt for organising this diversion from the real world...

My topic for today and the initial one for this challenge, is a small vignette depicting two Irish Kerns leading a travelling priest astray, this is for the first chamber of the Challenge XI Dungeon - The Hall of Traps . The Priest is a Gripping Beast plastic monk from their Anglo-Danish set, whilst the Kerns are both form the Wargame Atlantic plastic 28mm set.

You'll likely see many more figures form these sets in coming posts during this challenge as I build upon my Anglo-Danish forces for my Hastings 1066 project and the ongoing Elizabethan Wars project we have going at the SAS Wargames Club.

So the premise of the vignette is that we have one kern directing the travelling priest off the well worn road to a position where the two scallywags will rob the priest of his golden cross and other religious artefacts.

L to R: Wargames Atlantic Irish Kerns, 1st is pointing the way.

2nd is encouraging the priest with a spear. Gripping Beast Priest

The priest is in a brown habit, with little of worth about him except his crucifix and holy staff, the kerns are in traditional 'ochre' type coloured garb.

Spear Armed Kern, before washes applied

As usual I have undercoated all figures in white then painted on (in this case) quite a lot f flesh and then their clothes before  detailing weapons, shields and belts etc.

Priest, pre-washes

All finished off with various coloured washes - which I'm currently experimenting with, and then varnished with a matt finish.

The other Scallywag - pre washes

So I used Flesh wash on all skin areas, cut 50/50 with water to tone down the pigment. On the priest's robe I used uncut brown wash, to help give the cloth a richer, darker feel and I used a brown wash cut 1/2 with water on the Kern's cloths to give a light brown shade. After washing the figures I applied a little base colour as highlights.

Final Vignette: Priest being diverted off the main track

Final Vignette: From another angle

Final Vignette: Priest has his 'bling' on view, encouraging the Scallywags!

Final Vignette: Priest trying to ignore the Kerns

Final Vignette: A Kern with spears behind you is never good....

Points:

3 x 28mm Figures @ 5 Points Each   = 15 Points

Hall of Traps Bonus                            = 20 Points

TOTAL 35 Points

AHPC X - From MikeW: 18 x 28mm Dark Ages Archers (90 Points)

A cheeky, quick submission here that sees me complete 18 Dark Age Archers, these little guys were found in the same box in the Lead and Plastic mountain that my last submission of Norman Foot Soldiers were packed away in.

Figures ready to be built, earlier this week

As ever I have other batches on the go as well - specifically 4 new Dragoons to join my recently painted late 17th Century Dragoons see <here> and a full Tercio of late 17th Century Spanish infantry - The Tercio os Blancos - who are proving to be a real challenge as they are in mostly white uniforms and I'm not good with white!!

The finished Archers

Anyway these Dark Ages guys are  undercoating in white - by hand this time as spray can has run out - and painted in a variety of muted colours to reflect their lowly status.

Close-up of six of the little fellas

Thinned down, Army Painter Dark wash wash applied and Matt varnish was used before basing to my usual method.

Another six, on left a handy axe to protect himself,

right of centre arrows ready to fire in the ground

I added a few bits and pieces to the bases,a couple have axes in the ground - placed there by the archers, in case of needing a handy weapon in a hurry and a couple have arrows stuck in the ground - maybe more familiar in medieval times but my guess if it worked then it would have worked before as well.

Final Six, on left arrows in ground, ready to fire

POINTS
18 x 28mm Foot Figures @ 5 Points ea = 90 Points

SAGA -Vikings

Continue to paint up the excellent Gripping Beast plastic figures to ready my raiding party for a 'SAGA' outing.