Today we have the next couple of figures from my Viking project.
I’m not sure of the origin of t̶h̶r̶e̶e̶ two of these models, as once again I got them from Cannon at work. They’re smaller than the Foundry models, so I know that much. As per usual, painting the shields was one of the more enjoyable parts of these models, despite being a slow process of researching appropriate designs that look good and are achievable. The guy on the left is my first attempt at painting knotwork at this scale, within the arms of the cross. I also figured I probably needed at least one more Raven shield in the mix, so there’s that as well.
The figure with the knotted cross on his shield is actually a conversion. Cannon had replaced the original head with the one with braids and domed helm, and also sculpted the fur cloak over his shoulders. He’d also changed the weapon to the (plastic) axe. If you can’t tell it’s a conversion, it speaks to what a good job he did with it. It looks pretty seamless to me!
Clothing colours are always hard for me with these Viking figures. Wanting to strike a balance between clean, colourful clothes (as we believe they favoured) with not getting too bright and “90’s Games Workshop” and being aware of the limitations of the natural dyes of the day, and the fact that they (naturally) faded over time, while wanting to retain some earthy tones in there, which would have presumably been the colours of majority of the easily-produced cloth… We know that for much of history, reds and purples were signs of wealth – especially strong tones. Blondie here obviously spent most of his money on his luxurious crimson cloak!
The lad looking a little mode berserker-ish here than the others, with the honking great axe is from Eureka Miniatures’ Beowulf line. I mentioned the fur that was sculpted on the guy with the knotwork shield above; I think he’d also sculpted the fur on baldy here as well. I honestly can’t remember since he’s been undercoated and WIP for so long now, but I remember a couple of them had sculpted fur on them, and without knowing their origin to look them up to check, I really cannot tell. Update! – It turns out not, as “baldy” is actually Gripping Beast’s own Jarl Sigvaldi, Jomsviking Hero. Are any of the other models I have here amongst the three hearthguard that he comes with? I have no way of knowing since, uselessly, Gripping Beast’s website doesn’t show them at all.
Obviously one of these guys is well suited to the Berserker role, while the Jarl Sigvaldi is set up more nicely to be a Hearthguard (which works well, since that’s what he’s supposed to be!) I was in two minds on going so bright with the blue cloak, but decided that he looked like a veteran of many battles who would in turn have earned enough wealth for a nice looking cloak.
Finally, the group shot of this small cohort of axemen. More vikings to come, soon!
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
Great work on these. I love the attention to historical accuracy as well, that link was really interesting!
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Thanks Mikko. What I’ve found over the past few months of working out how to paint these guys is that there’s a lot we know, and a lot we “think”, but also a hell of a lot we don’t know for sure. We know that Vikings were fond of “patterns” on their clothing as well, but I haven’t found enough detail to make me safely want to try and produce something yet, as I’d rather go simpler than Warhammer Dwarf/Elf on them…
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Cracking job mate, those shields are really cool!
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Thanks Alex. They’re simultaneously the most and least fun parts of painting these models!
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I hear you dude 🙂
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Excellent pal. Your skin tone and face detailing is so impressive!!
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Thank you. I credit discovering how effective Vallejo Model Air 075 – Sand – can be a couple of years ago as the biggest single thing behind my improvement on skin tone. Closely followed by Citadel Swamp Brown (nowdays Vallejo Model Color 034 Burnt Cadmium Red) as a wash a decade or so ago.
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Shields look really good. Color choices are pretty nice and skin tones are great.
Now, a bit of nitpicking 😀 By my limited knowledge of period dyes, blue (indigo) is somewhat complicated (rare luxury in Greece and Roman times because of source in India) – it would indicate relative wealth – or captured cloak. A tad different tone of woad would be more commonly available. Anyway, now you have back story for the guy. 😀
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Cheers Tichy. Actually, it fits in pretty much perfectly with my thoughts and notes on him and the original colour choice. I do appreciate the details though. I’ve got some more viking blues coming up shortly that I view as more typically readily available. (And another bit of what will no doubt be Varangian loot!)
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Excellent work. The knot design came out well and the furs look beautiful. The conversions indeed look seamless. Overall very cool warband.
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Thanks. I’m trying to keep varying the furs and working on the freehand. I agree, he did a great job on those conversions. I’ll have to have him over soon to see what he did!
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Great work on an impressive war band. May they have calm seas and good looting!
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Thank you Mark. I’ll have this first set finally finished and posted shortly. Then onto the next ones. If only it’s warm enough to spray prime tomorrow….
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Nice painting you have done, I don’t know if I can paint at that scale with such fine details. I have been painting figures that are 1/32 in scale. I started paint again here and there the last 2 years, after I had stopped for over ten years. I started using Vallejo paints and like the results. Most of the things that I have been working on are from the Age of Vikings.
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Thank you for the comments. 1/32 aren’t really that much bigger, so you probably could do, it would just take a little time to adjust. Vallejo paints are excellent, and one of the major ranges I use a lot of in my own painting. I would also recommend picking up the set of Army Painter washes. They’re a very useful tool and work well with the Vallejo (and are better than the Vallejo washes).
I’ll be painting a lot of different stuff on the blog, but I also have a lot of Vikings yet to paint (and then Saxons, Normans, etc) so there’ll be Vikings and their contemporaries to come for years here yet! My aim is to have a nice SAGA warband, then a pair (so they can fight, or one can be used as Jomsvikings, or Saxons, etc), and eventually into an army, suitable for smaller games like KoW.
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I have to take a look into the Army Painter washes, who makes them? I just started fooling around with the washes, and I am having some nice results. I hope to have the figures that I am working on finished by the end of June. I will post some pictures when I am finished. I will have to try and paint some of those 28mm figures one day.
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They’re made by a company called Army Painter. Here’s a pic of the set, though you don’t need to get it from a UK store. There’s plenty of places in the US who sell them.
https://store.warlordgames.com/products/quickshade-washes-set
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Thanks, I will look into getting some of those soon.
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