More Viking Bondi (Warriors)

    8 Viking Bondi (warriors in Saga) using 28mm Gripping Beast Anglo-Saxon figures

In anticipation of face-to-face gaming (and our Saga game days) resuming eventually, I have been filling holes in my loaner armies. Previously, it was a struggle to field both Vikings and Anglo-Danes (or a second Viking warband). I didn't have enough unarmored warriors, though I had plenty of armored troops to use as Huscarles, or hearthguard as they are known in the rules. Thus, the purchase awhile back of Footsore unarmored Vikings. And more recently, the 4-point Gripping Beast starter box of Anglo-Saxons.

    The kneeling guy with the shield was on of my favorite poses - I also like the shield pattern I painted

The good thing about Dark Ages is that one warrior often looked a lot like another. So, two Germanic/Teutonic warriors aren't that different when it comes to either equipment or clothing. So, I sorted through the Gripping Beast box and chose out 8 figures that looked particularly "Viking-ish." I enjoy Gripping Beast metal 28mm figures. The shields are often cast on and the hands are usually open to glue in the weapons. Contrast this with Footsore, where you must drill out the sometimes too small fists to accept weapons (which are purchased separately). Footsore figs are lovely, but I like to minimize assembly when it comes to my miniatures!

    Another of my favorite poses is the guy with the leveled spear...not so much his partner, though!

All but one of the figures I picked out to become Vikings had steel helmets. They also tended to have short sleeve tunics with long sleeve shirts and long pants underneath. I tried to streamline my painting with this batch. After doing the flesh, I did all the base coat on all three of the above articles of clothing instead of one at a time, followed by its dry brushing. Thus, I did all three base coats in one setting and all three dry brushing sessions on those colors in a second setting. I did have to "erase" with water the odd bit of splash over from time to time, but for the most part, it worked great. I will be doing this more in the future!

    The "strawberry blonde" hair of the guy on the right is one of my more recent hair colors I've used

I use mostly Ceramcoat craft paints, supplemented by Howard Hues and Iron Wind Metals acrylics. I've collected quite a palette of colors. For Dark Age miniatures, I prefer faded hues like "Wedgewood" blue and green. For what would be brighter colors, like red, I will often use an earthier, red-brown tone. Naturally, I work in various tans and grays, as well as dull yellows. I reason that people in the Dark Ages didn't have closets full of clothes like we do, wearing the same clothes day in and day out. That, combined with their method of washing, would tend have a dull down any brightness of colors over time.

    I like the intricate, Viking borders I've been putting on figures lately - such as this guy on the left

As with the earlier batch of Viking archers, I worked in decoration and ornamentation here and there on the figures, too. Slight more than half had bands or decorated hems. Those that didn't were more likely to receive a decorated sword sheath. Obviously, I don't want my Dark Age warriors to be as brightly and colorfully patterned as, say, my recently-finished Andalusian Moorish army. I want the decoration to be subtle, and show up mostly when you focused on a single figure.

With this batch, I'm done with Vikings for now. I have started 8 more figs from the Gripping Beast box, but these will be for my Anglo-Dane (or second Viking) army. After those, I will likely pull out the handful of armored figures in the box and supplement my true Anglo-Saxon hearthguards with those. Then...FINALLY...I will be on to the Carolingians!

Viking Archers by the Dozen!

 A dozen 28mm Gripping Beast Viking archers - my first batch of painted figures in 2021!

My first batch of painted miniatures for 2021 was a group of 12 Viking archers. I picked them up last year at one of our Saga game days at the Dragons Guildhall in Beavercreek, OH. Not only did I want to support the store by making a purchase, I realized I needed more Dark Age archers. My Viking, Saxon, Pict and Welsh Saga armies were all sharing archers from the same pool of figures. This would go a long way towards making sure I could field these armies without swapping figures back and forth between boxes.

 I used faded colors for my palette, but with a little bit of decoration that the Vikings were know for

I have since tossed the packaging that these figures came in, but I am pretty sure that these are 28mm Gripping Beast miniatures. The bows needed to be epoxied into the archers' hands, but otherwise no assembly was required. That's one of several reasons why I prefer metal miniatures over the new wave of plastic which require the gluing together of arms, torsos, heads, and so on. I've said it before (and close examination bears this out), I am not that good at supergluing or epoxying things together. So, less of that I have to do the better!

 The pose variety of headgear was great - archers in helmets, knitted or fur caps or bareheaded

The variety in the package was marvelous! A little less than half the figures had metal helmets, others were bareheaded or had fur or knitted woolen caps. There was also some variety in the posing, with archers leaning back, forward, kneeling and even running. I highly recommend theses figures. There was very little flash, they are clean and easy to paint without too much equipment festooned over them. 

 Many of the tunics were painted with fancy borders even if the material itself was a faded color

I mixed in faded colors -- gray greens and blues, dun yellows -- along with a few brighter reds or blues. In Saga, the Viking archers are typically considered Levy troops (which would be the poorest members of society). However, I think that is an oversimplification because archery was a valued skill in Viking training for war. So, I made sure my Viking archers had a splattering of fancy borders on their tunics. They were a colorful group of people known for their love of fine clothing, good grooming, and wearing their wealth. So, I even decorated some of the quivers with stripes, swirls, and runes.

 I think the detail on the borders and quivers balances with the solid color tunics, shirts, and pants

Although I am posting all 12 archers at the same time, I divided them into two batches of six when painting them. I usually divide my painting into batches of six to eight figures. That way, I don't get bored painting huge numbers at the same time and feel like I am making progress as I finish them more quickly. I also base, flock, and seal the figures as I finish them. There's something satisfying about incrementally watching your army of usable figures grow that keeps me inspired...usually!

 The home page for Saga Ohio on Spotify, one of a number of platforms you can listen to it on

What else have I accomplished in 2021? Well, my Saga Ohio podcast just published episode 4, yesterday. The podcast is available (free, of course) on various platforms, including Spotify, Anchor, Apple Podcasts, and more. In my latest episode, my guest was Jim Randall - a local Saga gamer and big fan of the Byzantine Empire. I like the format, talking to my guest and getting them to explain to listeners how they field their army, what tactics they use, and how they best take advantage of the army's special abilities. I find listening to a podcast (or something similar) is a great thing to do while painting miniatures. I eagerly look forward to the newest episodes from my favorites -- Northern Tempest Saga Podcast and Saga Thorsday. If you haven't done it before, cue up one of these (or if I may be so bold, Saga Ohio!), next painting session and give it a try!

Shield Maidens for Lagertha (and Jenny)

A Valkyrie leads Jenny's newest band of Shield Maidens

Ever since Jenny received her painted army from super-painter Ted Bender, she began toying with the idea of filling out her ranks of shield maidens with more miniatures. She plays Vikings using Saga rules and usually takes a point of the mercenary "Shield Maidens" unit. Although you receive only six figures instead of the normal eight for this warrior unit, there are some significant bonuses. The Valkyrie unit commander, the banner, large shields -- all make up for receiving two less figures.

My favorite figure of this batch was the strawberry blonde to the right of the Valkyrie

However, the thing that made her consider fielding them as ordinary warriors instead of the mercenary unit was the rock-scissors-paper of their effectiveness vs. other unit type. Shield maidens get bonuses in Saga against Hearthguard (their superiors) and Levy (their inferiors). However, they get no bonuses against other Warriors. Lots of armies use large numbers of Warriors and she wanted the option to field her ladies as ordinary warriors -- not mercenaries. That meant painting up two more figures, but then she caught the usual gamers disease and said, "Why not 10 more so I can field them as two units of 8 Warriors?" 

The figures came from various sources, but I think they look good together - nice variety!

Jenny acquired various figures to fill out her ranks (thanks, Keith and Don) and soon had 10 unpainted female Vikings. I offered to paint them up for her and she accepted. I decided to do them as one huge, uber-batch rather than two units of five so that it didn't sidetrack my Andalusian army much. Of course, the start of teaching online this school year and selling my house and buying a new one amplified the effects of taking on a big, new painting batch. It took me a lot longer to finish them than I thought, and my Andalusians have been sidetracked for a good 2-3 weeks now. Not Jenny's fault -- I wanted to get them done so she could use them in our Saga Game Days in Columbus and Dayton. My Andalusians were several painting batches away from being finished, so they wouldn't have been done by now anyway!

I am ambivalent about how Lagertha's blue and black shield design came out

I offered to paint the ten figures with Lagertha's (from the History Channel Vikings miniseries) shield design. Lagertha is the quintessential shield maiden, and her distinctive black on blue design would be cool on the tabletop, I thought. Honestly, I like how most of the miniatures came out, but I wasn't 100% crazy about how the shields did. Jenny said she liked them, so I guess that's what's important. I experimented with one figure and gave her strawberry blonde hair and really liked how it came out. I wished I'd been more confident and painted more that way. Oh well...another combination to add to my palette! So, the shield maiden interlude is over now, and Jenny has 10 more warrior women to fill out the ranks of her Saga army. I look forward to getting back into painting my Saga Moors (Andalusians), but am honestly not sure when it is going to happen with my busy schedule. Until then, enjoy these shield maidens -- and I apologize for the crappy pictures taken at a game shop prior to their first battle!

Viking Bondi from Footsore Miniatures

My favorite shields that I painted for my Footsore Miniatures Viking Bondi - Thor's hammer and the worm Ouroboros

Awhile back, when Jenny was ordering her Viking army from Footsore Miniatures, I decided to join in on the order. Nearly all of my Vikings have chainmail -- most from Old Glory miniatures. There are some from various other sources, including Gripping Beast. When I am playing Saga Dark Age skirmish rules, I like my opponent to be able to tell the difference between my Hearthguard, Warrior, and Levy class troops. My idea was to have the mail-clad figures be Hearthguard and those without armor the Warriors. With the Vikings, the Levy are obvious because they're armed with a bow.

My new Viking Bondi pillage a Celtic monastery, preparing to loot the church and beehive huts

My plan was to order enough for 24 unarmored warriors, and luckily Footsore produced six packs (4 figs each) of unarmoredViking Bondi. The North America store showed four of those packs on their website, so I ordered those. Jenny chose to order from the UK site to be able to order from their full Viking range, and get the Saga package deal. I had her add the two packs that North America did not have to her order. As it turned out, the North America site was really struggling filling my order. After two months of waiting, I just cancelled the order. So, these eight figures are the ones that arrived (in a week or so) with Jenny's order.

More Viking Bondi from Footsore Miniatures, looking for treasure to steal and monks to capture as slaves

I have seen many others post pictures of Footsore Miniatures on Facebook or their websites, and the figures are indeed cleanly cast and wonderfully posed. There is a great variety among them, which is perfect for a skirmish game like Saga. I am a little disenchanted with the fact they don't come packaged with weapons. By scrounging through my unpainted lead, and chopping the weapons off some figures that had the weapons cast on, we were able to equip her army. I've been told the UK website has weapons packs you can order, but why not just toss in a variety in each pack?

I really like the clothes the front two Vikings are wearing -- the quilted one on the right and animal skin on left

Another thing that turned me off a bit was that the fists that you need to drill out to put in those weapons are rather undersized, in my opinion. The sizes are probably anatomically correct, but when you have to use a pin vice to drill it out and then place a 28mm scale weapon in the hand, a larger fist would make things MUCH easier. Or casting them with open hands, like some manufacturers do. When drilling out and equipping Jenny's troops (and mine), there were a number of fists that cracked and had chunks break off.

More Footsore Vikings prowl through a Celtic monastery - I like the execution of the shield design in the center

Still, the figures do look great when completed. Another thing I like is that they are not festooned with tons of extra equipment. Some don't even have a knife at their belt or a sack for carrying supplies or whatever. In addition to being cleanly cast, they are cleanly equipped, if that is a thing. I like that. Maybe I'm just scarred from painting all those 28mm Eastern Woodland Indians with more straps, bags, sheaths, and miscellaneous stuff festooned on the figure that I appreciate painting a figure that is not over-equipped!

Any monks hiding in their cells are going to be disappointed when these warriors burst in on them

All of the shields are hand-painted, too. I know that decals would look nicer, but I just haven't gotten into using them, yet. The few times I've tried I really struggle with the process of getting them positioned correctly and cleanly. I used a variety of faded colors for their clothes, for the most part, and really like how they turned out. So, if you don't mind drilling out the hands and buying or supplying weapons yourself, they are quality miniatures to add to your Viking army.

Dark Ages archers

28mm Dark Ages archers for games of Saga or Tribal

Sometimes, a set of figures you begin painting seems to take forever to finish. This group of 13 Dark Ages archers was one of those. I began them months ago -- after I had played a game of Saga at Game Table Adventures. I realized to field more than one force, I would need to paint up more figures to use as Levy archers (which are in 12-man groups). So, I scoured through my unpainted lead and assembled this batch from various manufacturers and lines. Some are Viking, some are Pict, others Briton or who knows what!

I used muted and faded colors for these archers and really like how they turned out

After priming them, I quickly got their flesh done. Then they sat, and sat for quite some time. More than two months later, they are finally done. Other things jumped in line ahead of them, both miniatures from my Modern Street Gangs project, as well as terrain. I purposely set out to make them usable for a number of Dark Ages armies. So, no distinguishing Pictish checkered patterns, or other flourishes. Another thing that made this batch go very slow was it was much bigger than what I normally paint -- 13 28mm minis take awhile. Especially when you consider that virtually every color I applied also had dry brushing or other highlighting.

What's up next? Some more terrain, I think. But whatever it is, it probably won't be in a batch of 13!