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?

Age of Sigmar Retributor Stormcast Eternal

       That title's a bit of a mouthful, huh? The latest incarnation of Warhammer Fantasy is here, and I think I might be the only person on Earth who actually likes this game. Yes, I know it's been "dumbed down" and all that jazz. But I, for one, am happy to have more of a casual wargame to play with friends while drinking a few beers. Don't get me wrong, I love the complexity of games such as Warhammer 40k, but sometime's you're not in the mood for filet mignon; sometimes that cheap, greasy burger is the only thing that'll hit the spot. And that's exactly what Age of Sigmar is.
        Love it or hate it, more people seem to agree that a lot of the new models look really, really cool. Here's a Retributor that came in the box set. I decided to go with the standard color scheme, using the new GW gold paints Retributor Armor and Liberator Gold. While they're a bit pricy (GW products pricey? No!?) they go on super smooth and look fantastic. I had such a great time painting this figure.

Stop.....Hammer time!

Reaper Bard

I started this figure up around two months ago, quickly setting him back on the shelf to collect dust while I played an insane amount of PlayStation 4 games for the rest of the summer. Now that vacation and all that fun stuff is over, I figured the best way to send off the end of this (f@cking ridiculously ) warm and carefree season was to get this guy done. I'm glad I finally did. I'm more or less happy with how he turned out, but I really don't like how the lute strings were modeled; I painted them over and over, but since the sculpt wasn't that good, I could only do so much... I took a lot of time messing with progressive highlighting and glazing--especially on the tunic, which I think came out okay. Now that he's done, I'm really excited to start my Stromcast Eternals for Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, the game that everyone on the Internet seems to hate. Come at me, bro.

Some More Lootas and an 80% Complete Dakkajet

 I'm still working on my 15mm Ancient Britons, but I took a little detour and painted some Ork Lootas for a game last week, and then I got a really good deal on a dakkajet, so I started working on it. Here are a few shots...

Not a whole lot to say. I had some extra red primer, so the dakkajet got basecoated quickly. The lootas remind me of the Mutant gang from the 80's Batman grapic novel The Dark Knight Returns.