Vikings, Seks!

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Welcome to another “final models in the set” post, following up from completing my Marauder Slayers recently. This is the final post in the saga that has chronicled me working my way through the Vikings given to me by Cannon last year. I feel like if he hadn’t applied friendly pressure on me to take them, I wouldn’t have then felt so obliged to paint them, and they’d have instead ended up in my Lead Pile, with the best of intentions – alongside all of these 1980’s and 1990’s Warhammer/Oldhammer models I keep pulling out to paint. As it happens, painting them 2 or 3 at a time has been an enjoyable palette cleanser as I work my way through my many other projects, and now I have quite a nice looking little warband of Vikings all painted up (which I’ll sort out a group shot of, soon!)

Wargames Foundry Vikings, 28mm Viking Miniatures, SAGA

The first pair are from Wargames Foundry. I even managed to identify them. The swordman is “Bue the Pious“, who received a shield featuring a second knotted cross.

The second of these two, armed with an axe is officially “Valdemar Snorreson“, Viking Berserker Character – but when I saw the sculpt, I decided that the sculpt bore a striking (to me) resemblance to crazy-eyed WWE wrestler Luke Harper.

Luke Harper, Viking Berserker.

Given that his ring attire at the time was comprised of blue jeans and a (dirty) white singlet, I echoed these choices in his clothing. Marouda also pointed out to me that his girdle-belt looked like a wrestling championship belt, so I painted it in the colours of the WWE Smackdown Tag belt, which he sort-of held around that time under the Freebird rule with Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton…

Luke Harper as part of the Wyatt Family, holding aloft the Smackdown Tag Team Titles.

What’s that?

Why yes, I have gotten back into Professional Wrestling in the last year or so. Thanks for asking. I know it’s not a mature, grown-up hobby like the SRS BZNSS of painting and playing with toy soldiers or video gaming, but I manage to make do… 😉

Wargames Foundry Vikings, 28mm Viking Miniatures, SAGA

Cloaks are exciting, too!

28mm Viking Miniatures, SAGA

I’m not sure of the origin(s?) of the second pair here. The mustachioed model has a age and authority to the sculpt that I felt needed to be complimented by appropriate hair and gear. Hence he’s greying, and his equipment features richer, brighter colours than I’ve tended to use with my vikings, especially for multiple pieces of gear. His left hand was a “lego” hand, and since he already has both a shortsword and dagger sheathed, I felt that giving him a daneaxe filled him out nicely, adding to both his authority and menace – as does his harsh, intent stare.

The blond of the pair has a sculpt that made me think the figure might originally be a Gaulish Celt or similar. While the sculpt could easily be another warchief, not every model can be the boss, so I painted him in much more muted colours so that he can fulfill the role of a veteran warrior.

28mm Viking Miniatures, SAGA

No, really. Cloaks are exciting!

Wargames Foundry Vikings, 28mm Viking Miniatures, SAGA

28mm Viking Miniatures, SAGA

One thing I have attempted to do through this Viking project is to challenge myself to improve my freehand. I’ve been confident for a long time in doing things like script, tattoos, and “paintings” like skulls and whatnot, but patterns that often need to be more uniform, or repeated is something I’ve let fall by the wayside, especially since I want real uniformity in things like Space Marine and Imperial Guard insignia, and so it’s been many, many years since I freehanded Ultramarines’ inverted omegas on models on a regular basis. Obviously, not every viking features something like this, since I still want to have a lot of variety and individuality in the warband, but I’ve been pushing myself to try different designs on them. Sometimes it works out a little wonky, such as the knotwork on the cross above, and other times it works out quite pleasingly, as on the dragon above.

Wargames Foundry Vikings, 28mm Viking Miniatures, SAGA

Here’s the group shot of this batch. I’d planned to also include the full group shot of all my vikings here and took some photos, but I then saw another pair of models that I’d missed for some reason, so I added them into the group and took some more photos and then packed up. When I got back inside the house, I found another one on my desk. At that point I gave up and decided the group shot could be its own post since it was cold, wet and dark by that point.

28mm Viking Miniatures, SAGA

As a little bonus, I added some freehand knotwork to one of the viking axemen I painted awhile ago. I know bisected shields are fine, but it bothered me every time I looked at him, especially as my plan has always been to predominantly have nicer, freehand shields on my metals, while the plastics that I haven’t started get either transfers or more plain shields.

So this draws us to the conclusion of Cannon’s Vikings. No fear! Just as I have many more Dwarf Slayers lined up, I’ve got my own Wargames Foundry purchases to paint, including the ex-Citadel Perry miniatures, and of course, way too many plastics. The warband shall one day become an army…

Discount Gorechosen? Realm of Chaos: Age of Sigmar Starter Khorne Bloodreaver Hero

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Age of Sigmar Starter Khorne Bloodreaver Hero

In the last couple of years under the direction of new CEO, Kevin Rountree, Games Workshop has seemingly remembered that it’s a games company. The results of that has been a flood of new boxed games, most of which have been for the dual purpose of bundling models – i.e: Discounting their overpriced models without actually, officially discounting and also to produce games, which are giving their rules writers some chops and experience in, you know, rules writing. Happily, many of these products are actually good games by all reports.

Age of Sigmar Starter Khorne Bloodreaver Hero

One of these games I’ve picked up is Gorechosen. The game where Khorne’s champions beat one another to death in an arena setting in a very-much-beer-and-pretzels style game that’s reminiscent of a WWE Royal Rumble kind of thing. Well, more like a Fatal Four-Way Elimination match to nitpick, but I digress. It’s quite a good, light, fast game. So for me it was a no-brainer to pick up since I only had one of the models included (via an eBay secondhand thing) and their individual prices are, frankly, horrific (remember, I’m an Aussie – so take your local prices and make them even worse!)

What sucks is that in several regions (including my own), the game appears to not only be sold out, but hit with the dreaded dual “No Longer Available” and “Sold Out Online” stamp, which is a real shame, but speaks as to the way GW is pumping out these games with a very limited and defined shelf life. It also means we’re up a certain creek if we need to replace any components due to loss or damage. Bah. If the game sounds interesting, I’d get thee to a demo game or pick it up while you can. I’m sure there should be copies of it for cheap on eBay with the models stripped out, and as you can see, those are easy to proxy in – so as I said – a worthwhile fun, simple game to add to the collection for a varied session.

Age of Sigmar Starter Khorne Bloodreaver Hero

Anyway, the models are (too) sweet, and not having painted any Khorne in quite some time, I decided instead of getting right into them, I’d choose a few other models as proxies, that while still looking impressive, aren’t quite as expensive or involved as the official models. That way I’d have some things to play the game with while getting my Khorne Mojo going again – and then I can paint the proper models. In the meantime, this guy in WIP form, the Champion of Khorne, Champion of Nurgle, and Khorngor Champion (and a couple of others) have been getting some playtime in.

Age of Sigmar Starter Khorne Bloodreaver Hero

Colour scheme is pretty close to the “official” one, which in turn is pretty much Khorne-standard as established over the last 30 years. When I paint more of these guys and turn them into units for AoS/KoW/etc I’ll probably start to vary them more into something approaching different “uniform” schemes and effects (lacquered armour, etc) for every 8 or 16 of them. Without being too uniform of course, because chaos. I’ve added the little skull to the base not only as an aesthetic choice, but as a “front” marker. Miniatures (and GW’s ones in particular) often seem to have their bodies facing one direction while their heads face another – which is fine – but Gorechosen is a game where facing is a thing, so I’m using skulls to mark the “front” of the models that will be used in the game. The rest of the base is painted in keeping with the arena floor used in the game.