Workbench Update - Yet More Work in Progress.

We seem to have several different strands and ideas going on at the moment with different projects our group keep discussing. The ideas range from WW2 skirmish (we now effectively have enough figures painted for anything up to platoon level, even pushing to company level with a little more work!) to Darkest Africa (the Zombie Master has a large amount painted already) via the occasional fantasy figure (probably for RPG stuff) or Rob's 15mm Sci-Fi game.

In among this I have still managed to add bits and pieces to the growing collection of Dark Ages stuff. I would guess we now have enough painted figures to be getting stuck into a few games (approx 80 vikings and 60 saxons plus a handful of villagers) and really want to actually get gaming with them! Other than one playtest game, "The Battle of Ulvik Fjord" we haven't really had much chance to schedule in a proper session. Perhaps over the Christmas period...

 Anyway I thought I would put a quick update of a few bits and bobs I have going on in the background.

First up is a few Viking horsemen I previously picked up from Simon of The Big Red Bat Cave.

I have cleaned, based and undercoated the five of these chaps so far. They are pretty far down the list of 'stuff to do' but I thought I would make a start. Nice Foundry figures that don't seem to be available anymore, so many thanks to Simon for them.

Next is the old Citadel C28 FF12-2 Mountain Giant with Battle Axe.

Really like this figure - not a great paint job (one of my old attempts) but passable. I have now based him so just a little bit left to do. And yes, that's a couple of Scorpion Men in the background.

Next is the progress I have made on the Foundry cart.

Based and first layers of colours done. As you can see, I based the two oxen together on a round base and the cart on its own one. I wanted to seperate them from the cart itself in case the scenario demanded it and felt it offered a bit of flexibility.

Really enjoying working on this!

Finally a quick snap of the 'Metal Chocolate Box Lid of Painting' and the delights held within.

In the selection above are the Monks of Glastonbury from my previous post plus a menagerie of various Foundry and Gripping Beast farm animals and the next batch of Saxon villagers, again a mix of Foundry and GB. At the back/right of the shot are the two Reaper werewolves. Still not progressed on the first one but finally got around to basing and glueing the second one. He took a bit more work as his right arm fits at a funny angle - I managed to avoid pinning but needed a copious amount of greenstuff to get it looking right!

Workbench Update 2 - More Work in Progress.

In addition to the new Saxons I have also made a start on various other minis to swell the growing ranks of Vikings and Saxons.

First up are a few 'Viking Heroes' I bought from Simon of the Big Red Bat Cave. I have based and undercoated some of them including a Thor figure, the huge 'Rollo the Granger', 'Brogger the Bold', 'Happy Thoruiv the Flatulent', all from Foundry and Gripping Beast's 'Sven Forkbeard' swinging the large Danish axe. I feel sorry for the ones standing behind Thoruiv the Flatulent...

"What's that smell??" (middle row l-r) Brogger, Thor, Sven (front l-r) Rollo and Thoruiv.

Next are a small unit of Viking archers (also from Simon) all from Foundry.

Sigurd indicates which direction to fire in...

Lastly are a few Saxon villagers and an oxen pulled cart from Foundry, plus an unidentified plastic pig that I have no idea where she came from. Based and undercoated she seems to fit ok as a big ol' sow though!

Some Saxon villagers go about their daily business, blissfully unaware of what lies in wait for them.

A quick snap of the whole lot...



Figures from Foundry and Gripping Beast.

Our group are still leaning towards the Strandhogg system for our rules of choice, despite the release of Saga. They look to be a simple but effective set - for a great detailed review of them check out Cor Blog Me!