Vikings, Fjórtán!

Wargames Foundry Viking Berserkers

So it has been a little while since I last wrote up a post – even though the most recent post just went up a couple of days ago I had actually written up a batch of posts last weekend and queued them up so that they would publish throughout the week using the WordPress scheduler. I haven’t done very much painting in the last week either, as I am a little bit burnt-out with the whole painting and blogging thing at the moment. I don’t think the August Challenge has worked for me all that well either unfortunately due to a combination of tiredness, work(ing late every night) and annoying weather. Usually around this time of year – September-November-ish, I’ve gotten the painting doldrums as well, so I guess that’s on cue as well.

Anyway enough of my bitching. Today I have a few more Viking models to share.
Wargames Foundry Viking Berserkers
Wargames Foundry Viking Berserkers
These models have been on my desk for a while now – basically since I completed the last completed Vikings that were shown awhile back. The way I’ve worked on my Vikings for the past 2 or 3 years is that there’s always a half-dozen to twenty of them on my painting desk, and as I complete the final models in one batch, I choose, clean up, base and start on the next ones – so there’s always some Vikings there to pick away at. Now, all 5 of these Vikings are berserkers – 3 male and 2 female from the various pre-set blisters available from Wargames Foundry.
Wargames Foundry Viking Berserkers
Wargames Foundry Viking Berserkers
While painting these models I wanted to go for a slightly more desaturated palette than usual and tone down on the amount of rich dyes that the figures were using – figuring that berserkers would be a little bit less concerned with looking Viking Fabulous and more concerned with practicality or looking a bit more workmanlike. For the same reason, their Shields are a bit duller and attempt to show some off the wood grain underneath the paint. They are also not so clean and pristine like the Shields on the rest of my Vikings, and the free hand designs are both simpler and a little rougher.
Wargames Foundry Viking Berserkers
Wargames Foundry Viking Berserkers
Naturally in Saga these figures would all be armed with daneaxes and none with shields or dual weilding, but these are the figures that I have – so what are you going to do? They will be able to work as a unit in quite a few games, I’m sure and I don’t think anybody that I’m likely to play in SAGA is really going to bitch about them all that much.
One thing that’s probably worthy of note is that these berserkers are all wearing wolf pelts rather than bear pelts. A couple of the other Foundry models are clearly wearing bear pelts, but surprisingly few of them! I will show those ones off once I get them painted. Eventually. Anyway that’s enough of my rambling for today – hope you enjoyed the figures and hopefully I will have another post sorted for tomorrow!
Edit September 13: IRO posted a comment about the skin tones I’d gotten on these guys. I noticed when I saw his comment that the twitter sidebar had an image of Kota Ibushi from something I’d retweeted from New Japan Pro Wrestling. I’ve reposted the image above, because it really stuck and surprised me in terms of the skintones when I saw this pic on the sidebar next to the models – and stuck with me .

Vikings, þrettán! Viking Book Two Complete

Wargames Foundry Vikings, Michael and Alan Perry Vikings, Citadel F8 Vikings

Finally, I’ve finished these metal Viking models. These are the final five of my Perry-sculpted Wargames Foundry rebadged 1986 Citadel F8 Vikings. This little group  also completes “Book Two” of my Vikings. “Book One” can be found here. They were intended to be the last of the models I completed for Squad: March, but it didn’t work out that way. Because Shields.

Wargames Foundry Vikings, Michael and Alan Perry Vikings, Citadel F8 Vikings

The last time I finished any of these Perry/GW/Foundry Vikings was actually last August, so these guys have been siting around partly done for a bloody good while there – so these monthly challenges are definitely working for me in terms of helping to motivate me to finish off stuff that’s been sitting around.

Wargames Foundry Vikings, Michael and Alan Perry Vikings, Citadel F8 Vikings

The “money shot” for my Vikings – the freehand shields.

Unfortunately, getting sick for over a week with this throat -> chest infection really messed up my painting plans for last month, and now I’m just tired and grumpy all the time as I work my way through the endless cough that it left me with.

Wargames Foundry Vikings, Michael and Alan Perry Vikings, Citadel F8 Vikings

“Book Two” of my Vikings, finally completed!

I’ll get some larger group shots of my Vikings done soonish. For now, enjoy the “Book Two Complete” shot, and I’ll get a full-group shot of all of them together at some point in the near future. I’ve selected the models for “Book Three”, and so far I’ve cleaned up the metal castings, primed and based them. Now they just need to be painted. 😡