Vikings Wear Eye Liner

And other fascinating tidbits on the famous dark ages raiders...

A small band of vikings have invaded Rheged and set up camp. Rather than looting and pillaging, they seem content to charm the locals with displays of their combat prowess, weaving skills and culinary talents.

I visited a viking re-enactment over the weekend. There was a small number of vikings and Saxons engaged in mock combat, a camp of about a dozen tents with various occupants. It was a nice way to spend a couple of hours. Chatting with the participants is always informative, they seem very knowledgeable, though they do bust a few myths! I took a selection of snaps for inspiration for our toy soldiers.

I was unable to get close shots of all the combatants, probably just as well because they looked far from fierce! Notice that the garments are quite drab and that most colours are not particularly vibrant.

Samples of dyed wools on the left, while on the right woven ribbons used to decorate tunics. Those yellows look quite bright, while the reds seem more brown or tangerine. Rich red was probably hard to achieve. If you want your toys to look authentic, better paint them in pink pastels!

Some of the dye materials, which were various dried and ground plants, tree bark and minerals. Colour would also be picked up from the pot used to dye the wool.

A richly decorated scabbard, probably the property of the lord or one of his close circle.

Swords and helmets were the property of the richest members of society. We were told that a sword would cost about £80,000 in today's prices - not sure how they arrived at the figure, it seems very high to me, but I think we generally agree that swords were for the few, not the many. If your little toy bondi are wielding such blades, they probably shouldn't be - unless they pinched it from a dead lord! I'm not sure the shield device is accurate, lifted from the Vikings TV series.

The star of the show for me was this fine looking fellow. A viking berserker you cry! Actually, he was the camp cook and spent most of his time stirring a huge cauldron of bubbling pork stew. He made his own silver jewellery, which was based on various treasure hoard finds. Note also his well groomed facial hair and clean appearance. Vikings were probably very popular with the local ladies - they bathed every Saturday and took pride in their appearance. There's even some grave evidence that they wore eye liner to improve their looks. Little wonder then that there's plenty of viking DNA mingled in with our own.

Lord of the Old Forest

Hobbying has taken a back seat recently to summer activities. Apart from an hour last weekend, it's been almost a whole month with nothing painted. However, as I had the camera out to photograph a commission piece, I thought I would dig something out of the glass cabinet.

This is an old metal Beastmen figure, I think it was a unit champion back in the day. I added the plastic antlers and the (probably very impracticable) flail to the weapon handle. It was painted purely for fun, there's no army for him to lead (yet....).

At the time I think I was experimenting with monotone palettes. It certainly is that! If I was painting it today I would make the skin paler and the armour darker.  I have always liked this simple conversion, maybe I should repaint it at some time, make it a bit less mono, a bit more toned.

The Red Death

A blood red moon hangs in the night sky as the Lord of Bleak Fell continues his journey into the ancient catacombs deep inside the Helsridge mountains. More spirits have been awakened. These creatures were once executioners, the swish of their scythes the last thing heard by many a victim, their robes stained red over a lifetime of bloody decapitations. The Red Death has been unleashed.

Four more spirits added to my Undead army. These wraiths are lovely models - they have so much movement and animation, a great improvement on the clunky old metal figures. When it came to painting them I was torn between two possible schemes. I did think that they were little bit like Harry Potter dark wizards, black robes and mist floating through the sky. But I thought that might be a bit dull and not really fit in with the rest of the army, which is quite colourful considering it's dead! So I went instead with an old school vibe of red robes, coupled with the ochre brown tones from the Warden's robes.

In truth I am unsure if the scheme works that well. I can never quite decide if high contrast is a good thing - the dark red and the light blue mist are poles apart.There's also a slight gloss sheen on the robes that I cannot get rid off which is distracting my eye. I am going to put them to one side, call them done for now, maybe tinker with them again at some future point.

They took a while to get painted, what with the recent heatwave and the usual summer time distractions. There's a handful of figures still to do from the Soul Wars set, including the pick of the bunch for me, the mounted spectral knight. Hopefully I can get them painted before another distraction comes along. I am already starting to think about another two factions to add my fantasy collection!

The Warden and the Awakener

The Undead are stirring from their slumber. In the long hot summer days, life is good and few mortals give any thought to the terrors of the dark. And yet, deep in the Helsridge mountains, untold horrors are about to be unleashed. The Lord of Bleak Fell has been searching in the cool darkness, for burial crypts long forgotten. Protected by magical wards even he cannot fathom, these tombs are the resting place of powerful warriors and dread sorcerors. He must find the Warden, the Key Keeper of the burial grounds. Only this creature can locate and unlock the ancient sarcophigi. Even then, the spirits entombed will remain at rest. And so the Lord of Bleak Fell also searches for the Awakener......

The lure of the new Games Workshop nighthaunt range proved too much for my weak resolve to not buy any new figures. In my defence, these are my first major purchase of the year. I thought they would make a nice addition to my Undead force. These are a couple of the models from the Soul Wars beginner boxset. I have kept a few of the spirit models and sold on the rest, to keep the cost of my impulse manageable.

I managed to carve out a little hobby time over the weekend and rattled through this pair in a couple of sessions. The Warden I imagine to have been a lowly prison keeper in his time. When death came, his spirit wandered, unable to rest after the unspeakable cruelties he had inflicted during his miserable lifetime. The palette had to be something a bit grimey and dark. The green cast of the ghostly vapours echoes the green glow I have used on all my undead figures.

In contrast, the Awakener was probably a sorceror or magician in his lifetime, perhaps attached to a royal court or palace. His purple robes reflect a comfortable, opulent existence. His magical staff is now used to rouse the spirits that the Lord of Bleak Fell requires for his army. A magical servant in life, unable to escape his role even in death.

I am really impressed with the figures from the Soul Wars boxset. The fact that they are press together models is quite astounding. I did actually glue mine, as much to disguise the joins as to keep them together. Some are a bit fragile looking, hopefully they will stand up to the rough and tumble of transportation and gaming. As usual with my own collection, they are glued on to two pence coins rather than the supplied bases.

Here's a picture of the Lord of Bleak Fell with his bodyguard and new recruits, heading deeper into the catacombs in search of more spirits. And maybe a few more mundane troops too. Who knows what else they will find in the deep, dark places?

Farewell to Middle Earth...

....for the time being at least. After painting up a fair number of dwarves over the past few weeks, it was nice to get them on to the battlefield. Round at the wargaming dungeon, they faced their hated enemy, the orcs of Sauron. I would have liked to have tried Strategy Battle Game, but we could not remember the rules so settled on the much simpler Dragon Rampant. It's not my favourite ruleset for a number of reasons, but it's always useful to have an easy to play system.

I didn't manage to get too many decent photos, which is just as well because the dwarves suffered from some poor dice rolling, which (to my mind or maybe it's my imagination) always seems far more punishing in this ruleset. One or two failed activations can really swing a game in a drastic fashion. Suffice to say, there was few things to celebrate in the hold that night. This pint was only half drunk! Still, it was good to get the dwarves showing off their freshly painted kilts and stretching their little legs for a change.

A couple of days later and I was heading out to a local cafe for a coffee and consolation cake (after England were knocked out of the World Cup the night before). The cafe is positioned above a second hand bookshop and in the main entrance I found a copy of Tolkien's Children of Hurin. A lovely clean hardback copy at a third of the cover price, which was more of a consolation than the cake could provide. Every cloud has a silver lining (this one illustrated by Alan Lee). Some reading to look forward to later in the year - I always think Tolkien is best appreciated in the autumn.

So it's a fond farewell to Middle Earth for the moment. I have moved on to another of my painting projects. I still have more dwarves and orcs to paint, hopefully I will pick them up again later in the year. I am also trying to develop a game system of my own, initially based around these two foes, so they will be out of their boxes a few more times throughout the year. The road goes ever on and on.......

Tolkien Stamps

I reached for my copy of Lord of the Rings the other day, and was surprised to find this set of stamps in there. They were published by Royal Mail back in 2004, not sure if that was a Tolkien anniversary or a tie in with the films. They were probably bought by my wife, she used to have a thing about stamps.

The stamps are held safely in a pouch, which folds out and gives a potted life story of Tolkien. Each stamp contains an illustration by the author.

I once read that Tolkien was very insecure about his illustrations. He wanted the books to be published with art, but was not confident in his own efforts. Like many artists, he probably under-estimated his talent. Even the simple line drawings are very evocative. 

Finally, a key to the illustrations. As a Tolkien nerd, I was very happy to make this chance discovery. The more I see the author's own artistic renditions, the more I marvel at the man's achievements.