28mm Huns

My Gripping Beast huns are done. I am very happy with the way they have turned out. 

 Commander: Average                                                                                            

1x CM Nobles (Gen)-  Comp Bow C

1x CM Nobles- Comp Bow C

6x  CL Huns- Comp Bow B

Total points: 244    

The nobles- medium cavalry.   

 The light horse.

 Now I need a couple of stands of Gothic cavalry to start their allies... and to find some opponents :)

Craig

28mm Huns

A couple of years ago I bought 20 Gripping beast Huns as one of those projects that I didn't quite get started. So last night I decided to start painting them.

The army will be:

2x medium cavalry (nobles)
6x light horse

They will be supported by a second command of Gepid heavy cavalry and infantry for a bit of variety. 

I really like the animated poses of these guys, lots of variety. I also decided to try a new basing for these guys too and try to get the impression of them charging across the front line, loosing arrows before darting back to safety. .

Craig

Gripping Beast Dark Ages Village

I ordered from War and Peace Games in Australia and they took less than a week to arrive- since the were out of stock on the GB site I was not sure they'd have any in stock but at $20 Aus or less + postage (fixed rate to NZ) they were a damn good buy!

I don't have much in the way of 28mm terrain and at present with so many figures to paint it isn't high on my priority to make any- although I am starting to think about ideas for camps. Anyway, these fill a much needed gap and I will probably add a few more of them in time, I am very happy with the price and the quality of the buildings.













All are painted with a mixture of test pots from a local DIY store.

I intend to make balsa doors for the two with open doors and also make a palisade and watchtower to complete the village- but I' not sure when these projects will get done!

Gripping Beast, Crusader & Old Glory 28mm

I've decided to build all my Dark Ages forces up to 400pts for Impetus. I really enjoyed the game the other night and it had a much better feel than DBA where all the Dark Ages armies tend to be a bit bland. I never finished my DBA 28mm Viking army as I could not face the prospect of playing a boring army with 10+ Blades! I tired it once in 15mm and wasn't my idea of a fun army to play.

To fill out my ranges I've ordered a Gripping Beast Army deal- 4 army unit packs for 100pds- I've decided to go with Irish, Welsh, Viking Bondi and Viking Huscarls. I've the start of a Welsh army already and want to complete it. The Bondi will be lighter armed troops in my Viking army and the more heavily armed huscarls will be interspersed with the GB plastic vikings and also make a couple of stands of Veteran Huscarls as well.

Gripping-Beast Norse Irish. These are my favourite range, I love the poses and figures. In fact I've just ordered more. This is the frist time I tried a single shield colour and really like the impact on table. Probably not realistic but it ties the unit together nicely.


Crusader Irish. Personally I don't like these guys. My issue being that there are only 4 different poses in a pack of 8 figures so they tend to lack a bit of variety. I intend to use these guys as kerns, although technically they probably should be more heavily armed noble or bonnachts but really can't see them getting much use! I've got 2 packs of the new Crusader Scots range which I was going use with my Welsh army and now intend to mix them with the GB Welsh I've ordered. Also I've decided I prefer plainer shields for the regular troops so will focus on plain, dark colours in future and leave fancy sheild designs to the nobles and veteran troops.


Old Glory Scots. I've a few OG figures/range and some I don't like- especially the Moor Cavalry I started last year. However, these Scots are one range I absolutely love. Great poses, really animated and to my mind they capture the ferocity of the Scots and to me they simply look right! I also am a real fan of the shields, I love the detail on the wooden shields especially. This is one OG range I'll happliy get again! Although I bought them for my Pre-Fuedal Scots, they'll morprh into allies/extras for most of my Dark Ages forces. Alas the Scots is the one 1000AD force I want that is not included in Extra Impetus 2, so I intend to make my own list combining elements of the Welsh and Irish lists and using the DBA list as a guide.


I think units of 4 bases (24 figures) looks great and are a good base for building larger armies as time goes by.

From right to left: Gripping Beast Irish, Crusader Irish, OG Scots.

TAGCON 2011
At the club on Wednesday night the guys asked if Kent and I were intended to run a comp or evena demo game at TAGCON (Sept) this year. We may look at putting on a 28mm Impetus demo game, I like the idea of refighting either Hastings or even Brunanburgh (which was covered in Wargames Illustrated 271). The advantageof the latter being a bit more variety in troops as we could use Norse-Irish, Viking, Scots and Anglo-Saxon figures/ranges. 2x 400 pt commands per side would make for a very impressive game on a 6x8 table!

Craig

Vikings Finished

I finished rebasing the vikings tonight. It is the first time I've used static grass, usually I use woodlands scenics grasses and ground foliage for texturing but have decided that I like the look of static grass, which means at some point I need to rebase all my other Dark Ages forces!

Here are a few shots of the Vikings- all are the new Gripping Beast Plastics (except the stand closest to the camera in the second shot- they are GB metals).




The flag I downloaded from Ray's Don't throw a One blog.






These guys are probably too spread out on the base.



On the left is a stand of 8 figures, on the right the new 6 figure version. The figures on the left are mainly Gripping Beast metals but at least two are Artizan. This stand is one of my Norse-Irish Viking Blades for BBDBA or Viking allies in Impetus- the LBM Studio Celtic shield designs showing that these Vikings have been influenced/assimilated by the local Irish culture- and so I can tell them apart from my regular Vikings.

As you can see two less figures per base doesn't impact too much visually- and when ranked up as in some of the earlier shots still looks suitably animated.


I need to get a few Gripping Beast metals for the Bondi I want about 4 bases worth (24 figs) for Impetus, so when I do order them I might also get some of their Welsh range to finish off my Welsh army too. I have some of the new Crusader Scots range I was going to use for the Welsh but want more variety so hopefully they'll mix with the Crusaders okay.

Organising the Vikings
My next dilemma is how to diffentiate different unit types. Under Impetus the army is made of:
0-2 FP (Foot Protected i.e heavy foot) Guard Huscarls
0-6 FP Veteran Huscarls
4-24 FP Huscarls
0-36 FP Hird
0-2 (skirmishers) Archers
0-2 (skirmishers) Javelinmen

The hird will be unarmoured bondi figures while the guard will be easy- they will have standards. The armoured huscarls will be the GB plastic hird. So the issues is how to differentiate the veteran huscarls. Maybe a dead body on each base. Another idea I had was to give them uniform shield colours, but different designs- eg black and white so that they stand out from the crowd. With my Irish auxilia/Bonnachts I've given them all a plain grey shield which may not be accurate but ties them together nicely and I think a similar system for the Norse veterans could also work.

Craig

28mm Gripping Beast Vikings

I've finally finished the Gripping beast Vikings.





Craig

28mm Gripping Beast Vikings

I have painted 5 stands of viking this week (40 figures). I am now waiting for some Little Big Man Studio transfers to arrive so I can finish the shields.

This is half the force I will need, and once done means I'll only need some Normans to finish my 6x 1066 armies. I really like the way the vikings go together, they are great figures- nicely animated and proportioned. Each sprue has a few spare heads as well (which I'll use when it cmes time to making some bondi figures).

Once again they re a bit shiny under the flash and look much duller to the naked eye.










My plan is to start putting together 200pt Impetus forces (about the same number of stands as a regular DBA army) and run a few games with Kent.

Future Plans
On our way to Southcon Kent (Galpy's Paint Shack) and I were talking about doing a BIG 28mm demo game, problem is what period to do. Kent is keen for a Trojan wars theme but we haven't finalised it yet- an I'd be keen as it is a period I know nothing about. The plan would be to spend most of next year working towards it, builkding armies and tables etc and run it as a demo game at TAGCON and possible Conquest later in the year. We will see what eventuates but I'm keen for something.

In the meantime I'm hoping to run a game of Basic Impetus (Imperial Romans vs Ancient Britons) with Kent at TAG next week to see if he likes the rules and to see if we can drum up any interest in the rules with our DBA stalwarts.

28mm Gripping Beast Vikings

Gripping Beast are one of my favourite figure manufacturers so I've been wanting to get some of their new Vikings since they were released. one of the guys in Dunedin has just started importing 28mm figures and a box of Gripping Beast Vikings arrived on Friday, the same day as we got into town for Southcon so naturally enough I had to buy them!

What can I say, the figures are everything I was hoping they would be. Sure, as with most plastics, they can get a bit fiddly to fit together but they look in proportion, and more importantly, match well with the metal range. Here are a few photos of the first, and not yet completed stands. At 44 figures per box it will only take me 2 boxes for a DBA size, big base, army. My plan is to once the Saxons are released convert up a few Saxons into the hird as all the figure sin the box are wearing chain mail.




And Grpping beast metal Vikings painted up as Norse-Irish.


A side shot gives a good comparison.






Craig

DBA III/46 Norse-Irish Completed!!!!

The Norse-Irish army is complete! I was going to order a few more of the Gripping Beast Irish range for the psiloi but had a couple of the new Wargames Factory Viking sprues so thought I'd try those instead and see how they look.

Eventually I'll add some Gripping Beast figures for this but the WF figures came up alright- a variety of German Cavalry and Viking heads. The figures looked a little stilted and "Thunderbirdish" to me before being painted but I was surprised at how much better they looked after a coat of paint. Most have Gripping Beast shields and spears.

The rest of the army are a mixture of Gripping Beast Hiberno-Norse, Irish, Saxon and Viking ranges. The big bases give a nice feel of an army of irregular troops on the move and I think captures the right look for such a force.

The complete army is:

• 6x Auxilia (including general)
• 4x Psiloi
• 2x Blades

The stand on the left are all Gripping Beast, on the right Wargames Factory- sizewise they fit well together.


The figure on the far left is a Gripping Beast Saxon, the rest are all from the Wargames Factory Vikings sprue.


Auxillia General flanked by Irish-vikings/Ostmen. The figure taking a swig from the jug is probably my favourite.


And from another angle- gotta love the Little Big Man Studio Celtic shield designs- I wanted my Norse to be suitably Irish-a-fied, so they'll be easy to tell from the "proper" vikings whenever I get round to painting them up.


And again. Spot the Irish- Danish-Anglo-Saxon huscarl in the front rank.


6 stands of Auxilia, including the general.


And from another angle.



The army assembles behind a screen of skimishers.


and one again.

Hopefully in the next few days Finn and I will get to test them out vs the Anglo-Danish


I'm really happy with the basing I used for these guys- simple but effective.

My Basing technique:

• Sand from a nearby beach painted and dry brushed.Reasonably fine but has some coarser stones in there as well. Gives a nice texture.
  
• Rocks are either real stones from the garden or barkchip which was covered thin a layer of PVA and left to dry (seals it but more importantly makes a protective coat that prevents the barkchip from flaking off- however after a whiled decided the stones were even easier to do an didn't require hanging round waiting for the PVA to dry).
• Woodlands scenics flock- a mix of course and fine
• Woodlands scenic dark green clump foliage
  
• Silfor grasses, late autumn range.

DBA III/46 Norse-Irish

The first figures for my Norse-Irish army arrived from Gripping Beast- part of their Dark Ages Irish range. I've still to finish the bases but here is the first stand of axillary infantry.

I decide to have them armed with spears so that they can also sub in as Pre-Feudal Scot spear, or even as welsh warband. I hope to complete a couple more stands tonight.

The army will be:

• 1x Aux (General)
• 5x 3 Aux (or in my case 6 Aux)- Bonnachts or Irish mercenaries
• 4x Ps (Kerns)
• 2x 4 Blade (Ostman or Irish Vikings)

Until the rest of the army is completed they will be used as spears for the Pre-Fuedal Scots. I've decided to give the Scottish warband more of a Celtic flavour via the LBM shield transfers.