Victrix Vikings

News has been trickling out over the past few weeks that Victrix Miniatures are moving into a new era - the dark ages. It seems that the first range will be Vikings. I have also read that Saxons and Normans are to be produced.

Now we have a little more detail announced on the Victrix facebook page. The box will contain a mix of armoured and unarmoured warriors, four of each on a sprue. There's usually six sprues in a set, plus extras on a command sprue, so about 50 models in a pack. Enough to man a viking longboat!

The release date is sketchy, I suspect that they are not even sure themselves as yet. I might have read late 2018 somewhere. This picture shows one of the body sculpts coupled with different head and arm options.

For me, this is just the ticket. I can look forward to well sculpted, affordable minis. If the rumoured Saxons and Normans are anything like this first view, I will be knee deep in dark ages minis.

May The What?

Incident at Hab Zone 161

May the Fourth Be With You. It's a thing, apparently.

I am not really much of a Star Wars fan, but I do like a good pun. To celebrate this great day for geeks everywhere, I put my sci fi collection together with my newly painted  rocky outcrops for this little image which I have grandly titled Incident at Hab Zone 161.

The figures are from the (long forgotten?) Sedition Wars range. They painted up really nicely and would make a great little force for a skirmish game. I really should get some more of them painted.

This is the kind of sci fi look I prefer, less Star Wars or 40K, more Moon Base Alpha.* The base in the background is the start, potentially, of a little side project, just primed at the moment. I really should not get distracted, this is what happens when you tidy your garage!

*from the series Space 1999, with hair styles courtesy of UFO

Rocky Outcrops

Having a tidy up in the garage, I came across these random shapes. I had made them some time ago, from gap filler foam - the stuff used by builders and plumbers to fill in holes. It comes in a tube and I just sprayed a few blobs on to greaseproof paper (baking parchment). When they were dry I peeled off the paper and removed some of the weirder lumps with a hobby saw. Then I partly brush primed them white, fearing that solvent primer would simply melt them, then left them to dry. And then found them again several months later. With renewed resolve I speedily painted them, using army painter primer and some cheap craft paints. The primer did not seem to affect the foam as I had feared. Quick and easy rocky outcrops to add to my desert terrain collection. Now I just need some figures to explore this new wonderland!

With shrubs and (real) rocks

With spaceship wreckage

Battlefield in a Box - ooh catchy, somebody should register that name

Shadespire : Magore's Fiends

Regular readers will know that I have a small collection of Khorne Chaos Warriors, mostly plastics from the newer Age of Sigmar range. The latest set of the red armoured, axe wielding maniacs is designed for the skirmish game, Shadespire - and that's how these are shown here. Straight from the box I have painted them for ebay. If you know of anybody who might be interested, please share the link to the auction.

The figures would also make a nice addition to my square based force. The three chaos warriors should slot in easily - though ranking up would probably be an interesting challenge. The bare headed figure makes a nice change, good to see the crazed warrior under the mask. The hound could well be a useful filler figure or possibly added to a cavalry unit. It would be nice to think that at some stage we will see a plastic set of the hounds released. Having just sweated over the intricacies of the painting of this set, I won't be adding it to my collection too soon, but certainly may do so at a future date, maybe in the winter when it seems more appropriate to paint my snow based army.

If you crave more images, there are many more photos on my facebook page - Nord's Painting Saga.

Viking Bondi WIP

Over the weekend I built some more of the wonderful V&V miniatures. For me, these are the absolute best historical miniatures available on the market. They are so well proportioned with really fine details, top notch sculpting and casting, really easy to clean up. Assembly is generally straight forward, with lugs and sockets on all the joins making it idiot proof. I did have some difficulties with the spears and replaced a couple with metal rods. I also swapped out the supplied resin bases for my usual two pence coins - they add a little heft and stability to the model, and are magnetic. I cannot wait to get them painted, they are just so nice!

Berserker Brace

What could be more scary than a viking berserker rushing headlong toward you with a huge axe? Two of them, of course.

These are V&V figures. I have previously reviewed them on my blog, but it's worth repeating that they are rather splendid. If you like your soldiers to be realistically proportioned and finely detailed, then check out the V&V website.

I wanted a nice little project to tinker with over the Easter weekend and turned to four bereskers I had already assembled. I concentrated my efforts on these two - the other two have shields and I have not yet worked out what to do with those.

The topless warrior wielding two axes is particularly imposing and I added some simple tattoo effects on his skin. They are not designs as such, just random squiggles to suggest intricate inking. He also has a Thor's hammer necklace which I though was a nice touch. The skin is very pale and the bases are sparse and cold looking, to reflect their northern European roots.

With a little luck I will soon get the other two berserkers painted, then there will be four ready to charge into action in Saga games. I have never used them before, it will be interesting to see if I can keep them alive long enough to smash them into the enemy. No doubt the opposition will be very keen to loose their bolts and arrows at the idiot who came to battle with no shirt on.