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.
