Viking Berserkers, long hafts and all

When I popped these Gripping Beast  Berserkers out of the box, I noticed the axe hafts were very long, with one axe being taller than the figure.  It didn't look right to my eyes so I considered clipping the hafts down.

Fortunately, I didn't do that because the Bayeux tapestry clearly shows axe hafts nearly as long as the axemen.  Plus, there's a theory that a longer haft was reflected social status or ranking.  It will surprise no one that men have been worrying who's longer since at least the Dark Ages!

"A guy on the internet says I can make this longer."

Hurstwic is a wonderful website loaded with background information on all things Viking, including the use of axes in battle.  As it turns out, a long axe was useful for:

• hooking an opponent's ankle, throwing him off balance.
• hooking the shoulder or neck to pull an opponent out of position.
• hooking the edge of a shield, pulling it away from the defender.

The haft can be used to parry and strike, much like a fighting staff. The video HERE shows how an axe-armed Viking might have fought and defeated his sword & shield armed foe.  It's fascinating to watch and once again, shows my imagination is limited by my modern experiences. And here is a YouTube video of a History channel demo of the Danish axe worth a watch as well!

I tried to share my new-found knowledge with my family at the dinner table.  When I asked if anyone knew how to use a two-handed axe, my son replied "With two hands?"   That was pretty much the end of Professor dad's history lecture for the evening.

These Gripping Beasties come with LOADS of character.  I bent the arms on the fellow in the grey wolf cloak so he could wield a 2-handed axe like his mates.  I spent extra time making these shine since they are the killer unit in any Viking warband.  Throwing 4 dice per figure (rather than 2) in melee makes you belle of the ball in a Dark Ages mashup.

I'm loving the Foundry skin triads and mulling over investing in a full set of Foundry paints.  Their system takes the guesswork out of color jumps for 2-tone and triad painting.  I just have to figure out the paint pot versus dropper bottle angle. And the price. It always comes down to money, doesn't it?

Next week, it's back to the Welsh with a post-up of the warriors.  If you look closely,you'll find the Welsh warriors in this picture.  Waaay, way in the back. Farther.  Keep looking...yea, those guys!

Welsh Bonnedig Archers

Quick post up of my progress on the 12 levy archers for the Welsh warband.  I'm using a hot glue gun for all my 28mm basing. A bonus is that the glue smooths out the transition from the base to the miniature.  The color palette here is simple and earthy, given they're a peasant levy.

I'm using Americana Light Cinnamon for the base coat, followed by Cocoa and then Sand for the highlights.   I took extra care in applying my base color to the ballast, given the trouble it took to paint the 10 wee toes.

Half the figures below have a single highlight of Cocoa and half have a 2nd highlight of Sand, popping the texture nicely. Static grass goes down after a protective coating.

I'm really enjoying painting for Saga.  I have to say that it's the most fun I've had painting...ever, really.  The siren song of 28mm skirmish is you don't ever get bored painting the same figure over and over.  Now that the levy troops are complete, it's on to 24 Welsh warriors.  This is where I can stretch my color palette and bring in stripes, checks and the like. Dawnsio ar y dibyn!

A new Saga faction-the Undead Warband 

Mustering a Welsh warband!

Tuesday night, I got a package of Gripping Beast minis with the makings of a 9 point Welsh warband.  53 foot figures, 13 mounted and loads of variety and poses.  I'm shelving my Vikings and Normans to dive into the Welsh.  New love is like that-overboard with the old, in with the new!

I'm going to try something new with this project.  I almost always wait till my figures are complete before posting up pics.  This time, I'll post as I go including more work in progress pics.  I've been finding WIP posts very helpful to understand how my fellow bloggers got from "A" to "Z" results.  The only downside is I'm relying on my cellphone camera so until I break out my real camera, the photos will be decent but not great.

Being addicted to painting, I immediately set about prepping all 24 of the Welsh levy figures.  I primed white and followed with an acrylic ink wash (Umber Brown).  You could prime brown and work up but I really like the effect of working up from the inked mini.  The ink settles darkest into the low spots, giving a nice smokey shadow to work with.  The ink wash is fairly quick and the only downside I can think of is that you do tend to get one very brown hand.  

These fellows are the javelin-armed Strathclyde levy. Being peasants, I kept the palette very limited for these lads.  Once I get to the Welsh warriors and hearthguard, I can loosen up a bit!

When I block paint, I paint neatly to keep the brown shadow in place around the belts, edges of clothes, folds, fingers and toes.  I follow this with a wash of GW Agrax Earthsade.  I've shelved the Army Painter dip/brush on technique for the time being.  More on that later.

Highlights over the wash. I'm painting the eyes for this lot.  They're quite small on the GB figures but the white does pop nicely off of the Umber Brown.

Here I've skipped a bunch of steps on account of forgetting to take photos while in the heat of the battle.  Thank goodness I'm not a war correspondent.  A quick shot of the PVC/ballast step.

Near the finish line.  I still need to put down a protective coat, hit with anti-matt, give the base 2 steps of progressively lighter drybrushing followed by static grass.

Pupils round 1

Round 2-bigger, better

These Welsh sculpts are fantastic.  They're the best Gripping Beast figures I've painted to date.  Very crisp detail, very lively and full of character.  Honestly, they're a bit like crack When I'm not painting, I'm thinking about painting and when oh when can I paint again?  Is there a 12 step acrylic program for folks like us?