Foundry Miniatures Vikings.

I just can't get enough of SAGA! This game is fantastic, and I'm clearly addicted to painting Vikings at the moment. Here are some models put out by Foundry Miniatures. I think they are far superior to the derpy Gripping Beast Viking models - but that's, like, just my opinion, man. Not much else to say except that I can't wait to play a game with them. Oh, I've also recently gotten into Frostgrave, a fantasy-themed skirmish game with wizards, spells, and treasure. I think these guys would work well as a wizard's retainers. Hmmm, I think I have a Reaper wizard lying around somewhere waiting to be painted...

SAGA Viking Warlord and First SAGA Battle Report

Here's the first post of 2016, and as promised, here are a couple shots of my recently finished Viking Warlord. I spent the last six weeks or so painting this army, and yesterday I had the opportunity to match up against a seasoned Viking player. I had my work cut out for me.

First, here's the Warlord:

I hand painted the shield (and all of my Vikings' shields). I went with the raven symbol of Odin, with a bit of battle damage for good measure.

 I was pleased with how the cape turned out. I'm not sure how historically accurate a Superman-like cape is, though.

Now, on to the battle report:

Our Warlords and their men had a bone to pick with each other. Words could only resolve so much, however, so out came the spears, swords, and axes. This feud needed to be settled in blood. 

A bird's-eye view of the battlefield right before things are about to get nasty!  

The two sides staring each other down, spewing insults, banging their axes against their shields, and preparing to attack.

My brave bondi warriors, in a shield-wall formation, are ready to receive a volley of arrows from those levies before charging in.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the board, that lone bondi warrior there with the black and yellow shield was the only survivor in a melee against those enemy hirdmen. My warriors managed to take out two with them, but the hirdmen hacked seven of my bondi to pieces!

 The 12-man unit of bondi were unscathed by the arrows; now they're ready to spill some blood.

Despite their best efforts, they couldn't take out those levies--they're tougher than they look!

More hack 'n slash on the other side of the battlefield.

My bondi then  shifted their focus and tried their darndest to take out the  enemy Warlord, but he was a resilient motherf*cker!

My impetuous warriors are now all pushing up daises. 

Again, on the other side of the battlefield, my berserkers were lagging behind in this fight. Perhaps they consumed too much magic mushroom ale beforehand?

Hirdmen are still escorting my Warlord until the right opportunity to strike presents itself.

Finally, it's showdown time. Don't send in boys to do a man's job, as they say. My hirdmen vs. the enemy Warlord...

 ...but they lost one man and retreated back.

 And then the other Viking player rolled well enough to get Ragnarok. All hell broke loose, and my army no longer stood a chance, thus ending the game.

My Warlord and most of his men are now feasting with the gods in Valhalla, but it was a blast and satisfying as hell to see my guys in action! Maybe I'll have better luck next time.

Until then.

Goodbye, 2015, And SAGA Vikings Are Done!

As of this writing 2016 is only a mere few hours away. My fiance is currently halfway across the world, and I'd rather not deal with the headache of going out and dealing with abysmal crowds, thanks in part (read: mostly) to my misanthropic nature. I'm happy enough staying in, sipping on some good ale, and reminiscing about the last 365 days. A lot has happened in my personal life since December 31, 2014--getting engaged, moving back to the U.S., and starting grad school, for starters--, but as this is a blog dedicated to my adventures in painting little metal and plastic soldiers, I'll spare you, the reader, (if there even are any!) my contemplative meanderings outside of hobbying.

Aside from the craziness that is my life, the time I devote to painting and gaming has seen a bit of a paradigm shift this year. This can be summarized in five words: I'm done with Warhammer 40,000. Okay, okay, I know those are some pretty hefty words there. In all honesty, I'll more than likely keep painting GW models, at least. I got some Space Wolves for Christmas that are just too awesome to keep in the box, and I'll still play my beloved Orks every now and then. But the pay-to-win and keeping-up-with-the-Joneses aspect of the game has taken its toll on my sanity (and bank account!). I don't mind losing games, but when I lose with my Orks against Tau, Necrons, Daemons, or a plethora of other armies with a final score of 0-68, I know something's wrong.  There are just so many better, balanced games out there. My more recent posts have hinted at the fact that I've gotten back into historical miniatures and games. SAGA has currently been my poison of choice, and I finished up two more Viking berserkers today, officially finishing my 4-point army; I still need to paint the Warlord, though. I'd like to expand the Vikings to a 6-point army, so I'm not completely done, however. I think I'll get another unit of Hearthguards, some Levies, and definitely a named Warlord. I've been watching Vikings and The Last Kingdom, so I'm partial to Ragnar Lothbrok, but Harald Hardrada is pretty bad-ass, too. And his ability to add a unit of Dane-axe-wielding Hearthguards sounds like too much fun to pass up.

Anyway, I'm already getting ahead of myself. I didn't get to paint this year as much as I'd have liked to, but I definitely enjoyed every stolen moment to do so. I worked on plenty of 40k Orks, a Reaper bard (who now currently has grown a beard; my painting/gaming pal Nils says he's a hipster.), an Age of Sigmar Retributor (I painted three but only posted a photo of one), a Reaper Bones Bugbear, which I'm calling my best work of 2015, and spent the last two months or so on these Vikings (while consuming much more time than the Bugbear, still coming in at a close second).

I'd like to continue this post, writing about my future plans for 2016, but the ale (Bootlegger's Golden Chaos) has started to take its effect, so I better wrap it up here. For now I'll post a picture of my Viking berserkers. A full shot of the entire 4-point army will be my first post of 2016.


Happy New Year!

I had a blast wrapping up 2015 by painting these guys. And, yes, the guy on the right IS straight out of Dragon Age! (He's a berserker; there's gotta be some blood here, c'mon.)

First Viking Hirdmen

Here are two (of four) of my Viking hirdmen for SAGA. These guys function as the Warlord's personal guards. I'm still chipping away at this army, but currently being on winter break should help me reach my goal of having the entire army complete by New Year's.

I'm slowly making the transition away from GW paints to Vallejo. I traded in a bunch of old RPG books at my FLGS and got about $200 store credit! This allowed me to pick up quite a few new colors. The Vallejo Model Color paints are a lot thinner than I'm used to, but they make painting thin layers and subtle highlights so much easier. These fellas are painted with said paints; I really like the results.

I've been researching online about the Vikings so that my army can be (somewhat) historically accurate. That being said, I'm not afraid to take liberties here and there. Aesthetically and artistically pleasing models are more important to me than factual faithfulness--the shields, for example.

Zzap Gun

I've been having a lot of success blowing stuff up with Mek Guns in my Ork army for 40k. I don't use the models put out by GW, though; they are just waaay too expensive. I bought some cheaper figures put out by Kromlech a few months back that I use as Kannons and Lobbas. Apparently, I also bought this figure (put out by Mantic Games. I think it's called a Hailstorm cannon - or something like that) along with those models but completely forgot about it until I found it a few days ago hanging out it in my bits box. I had some free time yesterday, so I decided to spend my lazy Sunday working on this model. It was a relaxing afternoon goofing around with highlights, paint chippings, and some kind of laser thing-a-ma-bob glow along the barrels.

SAGA Viking Warriors

I love history. Ancient, the Middle Ages, the Machine Age, the Post-war era, you name it and I'll find something about it that draws me in. But I am in no way, by any stretch of the imagination, an expert. I think this fascination with the past came from my dad. Growing up, our house was filled with history books ranging from ancient Mesopotamia to the War of the Roses to the Vietnam War. Looking at all those maps, photos, and drawings of battles, weapons, and uniforms filled my head with unpronounceable names of long-forgotten places, mighty commanders, and strange instruments of death. Painting historical miniatures reacquaints me with those days spent in the living room browsing the pages of those massive tomes.

I very recently got into SAGA, a historical game set during the Viking Age, beginning in 793 when Vikings raided the monastery on Lindisfarne, a small island off the northeastern coast of England, and ending during the Battle of Hastings in 1066, when William the Conqueror defeated King Harald of Norway at the Battle of Stamford Bridge.

I decided to build a Viking army (other SAGA factions are Anglo-Danish, Welsh, Normans, as well as others from subsequent supplements), and this is my first unit of Warriors, essentially the Viking militia and men-at-arms. My complete army will have another unit of Warriors, one unit of Berserkers, one unit of Hearthguards (the Warlord's personal retinue), and, of course, a Warlord.

A friend of mine described these figures as "cute." I think their pudgy hands and exaggerated qualities lend them well to a high-contrast painting style. For these Warriors, I stuck to earth tones for their clothing: deep green, grey, dark blue, sand, and reddish brown. For highlights, all I did was add some bone color to the base color. I added more bone color to each successive highlight--I think there were about 2-3 highlights on average for each color. I used the shields as an opportunity to individualize the figures a bit and add more color. The shield damage was done by painting a quick line of bone color in a random direction, and then painting dark brown next to it. I then dipped a bit of sponge in dark brown paint, wiped most of the paint off, and dabbed the shield with the sponge. Finally, I did the same sponge technique with Citadel's Blood for the Blood God, trying my best not to go overboard.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the final result, and I'm looking forward to painting up the rest of the army. The goal is to have the entire army ready (and another blog post) by New Year's Eve. Wish me luck!

Krazy Killa Kan

I've had this guy sitting around unpainted for a few years. I had a bit of free time this afternoon, so I did a bit of a speed-painting session. I didn't try to attempt to reinvent the wheel here; I just wanted to get him ready for a game I have tomorrow. (I needed one more Killa Kan for my army list.) Check out the blood on its right foot. What could it have recently crushed?