Long time no post...

Been a long while since a post on Gjallarhorn but I have not forgotten it!

I have gradually been adding a few more Vikings to the horde but time has been spent on other games and projects. Need to finish the bases on the next batch but when I get around to it I will post some pics. Also picked up a few 4ground buildings and a nice Saxon hall from Timeline Miniatures that I have almost finished painting.

I recently bought the semi-legendary Pig Wars rules but haven't had a chance to read through them yet.

Several of our group have picked up Lion Rampant and the rules look very usable for the period and we have managed to play a quick test game.

Hopefully we will manage to play some dark ages games in the near future!

The Viking Horde...

The Viking Horde grows ever stronger!

Thought I would post a couple of pics after I dug out all my Vikings / Saxons / Dark Age Villagers etc to see what I had.

I was surprised to find I now have over one hundred and twenty painted Vikings! These are mainly Foundry but there are a mix of Artizan, Gripping Beast and Black Tree too.

Above we have the proud leaders of this horde - the old man, Thoruiv 'the Flatulent' and his eldest sons Jarl Ragnar (on the left) and Jarl Grim (on the right). In the background are the berserker Rurik 'the Restless', Sonja 'Queen of the Hill' and 'Big' Bergfinn, brother of the now deceased Bergthor.

Here we have Brother Thomas and some dogs leading some local down-trodden villagers and below are Kraki, Gudrød the Hunter, with Ingulbjörn behind them and the insane old berserker Folkmar in the foreground.

Next is a pic of Thoruiv and his 'berserker' personal guard, with Rurik and Folkmar.

Lastly, a shot of the entire horde including one hundred and twenty plus Vikings, seventy 'Saxons' and twenty odd villager types.

On the workbench, I still have about another twenty Vikings in progress, plus the original batch of villagers and animals that I never finished! Once these are done I also have about another seventy or so unpainted Vikings. As I only ever really intended to play skirmish games I doubt they will get painted up in the near future as I have plenty to occupy my time with Doctor Who and 7TV stuff...see my Level 2 blog.

Commission Update.

Have been a bit behind on everything lately, my daughter was ill in hospital for close to two weeks.  She's up and well now so I thought I'd better get back to our hosts painting request. Here's the latest Mark.

Long Time No Post...

Been off working on other things so the old Viking and Saxons have been neglected of late! Dug a load of it out after concentrating on some WWII, Darkest Africa and Fantasy and decided it was time to get going again.

Just a quick pic of newer Saxon stuff to be worked on and finished with a few old faces...

The Saxon Horde gathers!

Some folk at the club are expressing some interest in playing Saga at some point, so a good motivator to get going again!
The Saxon figures above are mainly Gripping Beast with a few base-coated Vikings by Foundry.

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 - The Black Monks of Glastonbury.

Not a lot done lately but finally made a start on the Redoubt monks. Whilst browsing various figure manufacturers to add to the lead mountain I found yet more monks to add to the growing congregation!

Brother Thomas (on the right) and the newly arrived Brother Cuthbert lead the monks in prayer.

The new recruits joining the Redoubt monks are the 'Brothers of Shrewsbury Abbey' from the Black Tree Design Feudal Characters range. They are Brother Cuthbert and the three from the front row in the middle. They are really nice sculpts and could pass in pretty much any period.

 Cardinal Bertrand and the monks.

So far I have only managed to base them and get the basic flesh done but they looked so characterful I couldn't help take a couple of pictures! Cardinal Bertrand is probably dressed slightly too late for the dark ages period we are setting out games in but I thought I might as well paint him up too as I was working on the rest. With the black undercoat they currently look a little like a group of particularly serious Benedictine monks. Brother Thomas looks much like a Franciscan friar in his brown robes. This of course made me think of the classic book/film 'The Name of the Rose.'

Brother Thomas investigates the murder of Brother Adelmo whilst the horrified monks look on...

The story takes place in Northern Italy, during the early 14th Century A.D. Franciscan monk William of Baskerville and his novice Adso of Melk (narrating as an old man) arrive at a Benedictine abbey where a mysterious death has occurred ahead of an important theological Church conference. William, known for his deductive and analytic mind, confronts the worried Abbot and gains permission to investigate the death – a young illuminator appears to have committed suicide. Over the next few days, several other bizarre deaths occur, and the two gradually discover that everything is not what it seems in the abbey.

Diabolic? Murder at the Abbey!

The title of this blog entry comes from an old Ars Magica supplement about the famous Glastonbury Abbey, a house of the black robed Benedictines since Saint Dunstan instituted it in the tenth century. The monks have fallen to diabolic corruption that threatens to overwhelm them all. 

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!

Workbench Update - More Saxons.

Despite the major distraction of primarily working on some WW2 bits for our planned Troops, Weapons & Tactics campaign over recent weeks I have made a start on the next batch of Saxons/Vikings etc and thought I would put up a quick post.

Above are 12 new Saxon types and an early Saxon Chieftain to the right. The are all Gripping Beast miniatures from the 'Saxon/German Tribes' range. I have managed to get most of the basic painting done on them so only need to think about detail and flesh work. Slightly anachronistic but in the background are some partially done Crusader Miniatures WW2 Germans and a wonderful Foundry sentry with his rather upset alsatian guard dog. Also on the back line are some Musketeer 'Inter-War Period' minis and the stunning 'Male Werewolf' from Reaper, probably one of the best werewolf sculpts I have come across.


Figures by Gripping Beast, Crusader Miniatures, Wargames Foundry, Musketeer Miniatures and Reaper Minis.

Saxon Unit Almost Finished!

Finally feel like I am getting somewhere! I am practically dreaming in viking at the moment...
Thought I would put up a few photos of the Saxon unit nearly completed. Couldn't originally decide if they could be Viking bondi but they were looking far more 'Saxon' as time went by so I have put a few Saxon LBM transfers onto the shields. Still need to do a little finishing work on the painting and a bit on the bases but almost there!
Only another 19 Vikings and 9 villagers to go after this, then I can finish all the bases on the previous 50 or so already done!

I might actually get to paint something else soon...

Viking Progress...

Finally managed to do a little more work on the Viking mob thats been sitting on my workbench for a while. Thought I would put up a couple of pics! About 40 or so in various states of completion (I really should just finish a batch before I start on a new one) so plenty of work to be done on these chaps...

"Grrrrr..."

Weekend Work!

Managed to get a little bit more done on Sunday and took some more pics (of course) I need to actually sit down and get painting as I keep spending all my time doing prep work at the moment!

Dug out the Revell Viking Longship at last and began the basics on the model. It looks good and the scale (1:50) seems to work fine with 28mm. Clearly it needs a good paint job and some modifications - not too sure about the plastic sail. Some folk have also worked this as a waterline model and it looks great but I am not sure if I am brave enough to do this as I have been a long time out of modelling! Check out Herrodadog's Viking Longship & Kevin Barrett's Longships among others for some nice examples of how the ship can look.

As far as being an accurate model I found a helpful quote by 'J Tilley' from Model Ship World -
"The Viking ship kit was based on a full-sized replica that stood at the time in Lincoln Park, Chicago. That replica was, in turn, based on the Gokstad Ship, one of the two major Viking ship "finds" now preserved at the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo. The Revell kit is a quite accurate reproduction of the Gokstad Ship - with a few parts simplified (e.g., the insides of the gunwales, where the straps on the shields are supposed to be hooked) and a few others based on speculation and inference. The most obvious in the latter category are the "dragon's head and tail" at the bow and stern. The actual Gokstad Ship was buried in a funeral mound, and the bow and sternpost projected into a higher, more acidic layer of soil. When the archaeologists excavated the ship in the late nineteenth century whatever ornaments had originally decorated the bow and stern had rotted away. The ones on the Revell kit are reconstructions based on other Viking artifacts of about the same period."

A few pics of the model...

Basic hull of Longship constructed (with Bolli onboard getting rather excited at the prospect of going 'viking')

Another view with the mast in place.

Before I went any further I decided to give the hull an undercoat before I started any of the fiddly stuff! I also took the opportunity (and advantage of the nice weather) to basecoat my final group of Vikings.

The motley crew and longship apparently stranded on a garden chair.

Looks pretty good - the basecoat brings out the grain quite nicely. Now I have to decide if I am going to risk destroying the model by cutting into the hull for that waterline look...

Progress this week

Actually not that much done this week to be honest! Little bit more painting done on the Gripping Beast Saxon / Viking warband (still can't decide what they are yet...) and some bases started.
Also selected what I think will be the final batch for painting - some more really nice Foundry and Artizan figures plus a few 'villager' types. No doubt I will paint more at some point as I still have a mix of old Citadel Norse and some remaining Gripping Beast shieldwall folk but for now I want to finish what I have done and get to work on the Revel Viking longship I recently picked up!

 The GB Viking / Saxon warband (one figure complete!)

 The final warband group to be painted (for now anyway)

The villagers (Foundry Vikings) plus a few stragglers in the background from the old Citadel 'Norse' range.










Group shot!

Another Pic!

Found another pic of the current painted Viking situation. Still need to finish the majority of the bases but getting there...
Will try to take some better pics when they are properly based.