More SAGA Vikings And A Bit More BattleTech

So I got a box of plastic multipart vikings from Hammer of the Gods The Dark Ages line.  It's a nice plastic kit from Wargames Factory that will make 32 figures with plenty of options between spears, axes, swords, bows, and shields.  There are only 4 body options in the box, but plenty of head and arm choices that you can still easily avoid models looking repetitious.

The first order of business was to assemble three archers to finish off the 12 man unit of bondi archers.  This gives me a full point of missile troops for my Vikings Warband.

Next up was 8 more warriors for the fourth and last point of my starter warband.  The first unit is mainly spears with a couple axes and swords mixed in.  I did this unit as half axes and half swords.  I'll have my Warlord, a unit of Hirthguard, 2 units of warriors, and the unit of bondi archers.  Should give me plenty of bodies and a good mix of troops for learning the game with.  Painting still continues plus I need to get the newly assembled models primed.

The other thing I'm excited about is that a while back I worked out a deal with a fellow out of the Vancouver area to get some BattleTech models painted.  I've never been able to paint white models, much less attempt white models with a camo aspect to it.  In the original CamoSpecs book for BattleTech there is a 20th Arcturan Guard mech in a snow camo scheme that I've always loved so that's what he's doing for me.

This is the command lance of the 1st Company, 2nd Battalion, 20th Arcturan Guard.  He's currently working on the Alpha Lance and I've got the other two lances to ship to him in the near future.  This will make a nice change of pace unit from my Eridani Light Horse, though with the Lyran mindset, I think it still qualifies as a scout battalion.

Command Lance
Major Victor Waering, Company CO, Battlemaster
Captain Oliver Maulthier, Company XO, Atlas
Lt. Petra Collier, Zeus
Lt. Richard Fischer, Thug

Alpha Lance
Lt. Gregory Mannstein, Fafnir
Emily Sydon, Novacat
Wilhelm Rache, Fafnir
Kevin Scopes, Mauler

Beta Lance
Lt. Alois Hennessy, Battlemaster
Charles Korolev, Stalker
Katherine Baniche, Stalker
Eddard Wolcott, Atlas

Charlie Lance
Lt. Heather Reed, Orion
Todd Lloyd, Zeus
Brian Showforth, Blackjack
Elliot Borodin, Hunchback

That's all for now and next week I'm hoping to post up progress on how the painting is coming on the Vikings.  I also need to show the US Army troops that I've picked up for Bolt Action as well.  See you all next time.

SAGA Vikings Progress and Some BattleTech

So I've started getting some paint on my Viking war band the last couple days.  I've also been rereading through the rules over and over while watching some of the battle reports out there.  The more I look over it, the more and more I like this system.  No one upmanship due to list building, just seeing who has the best tactical instincts.  I got one model mostly finished today to try out colors, though he still needs basing and a bit of touch ups.  Apologies about the blur on one end of all the photos, my phone's camera lens has acquired a scuff.  Fortunately I'm only a bit over a month away from my next upgrade.

 

 

I'm using Vallejo blackened steel and tarnished steel for the metal bits, and then will be using bronze to make the warlord and some other leaders stand out a bit.  Other colors being used are flat yellow, medium fleshtone, clotted red, and flat red.  GW gryphonne sepia is the wash I'm using over the hair and flesh and then GW badab black over the metals.  The baal red and devlan mud washes will also get a bit of use.  I'm not happy with how dark the Vallejo intense blue is and think I need to find a different shade.  I'll keep working on these fellows a color at a time and will keep posting on their progress.  I'm satisfied with how it's starting to progress, but it's starting to come together.  I've also found some small wooden barrels that I've started to use for terrain for SAGA.

The other project I've made a small bit of progress on is in BattleTech.  Needing a break from painting SLDF green on the Eridani Light Horse, I've started assembling a force of Wolf's Dragoons, Black Widow Company to be precise.  I've got a Robotech Warhammer to assemble for Natasha Kerensky's ride that will be added to the force as well.  It isn't precisely the canon force listed in the FASA books, but it'll work for my interpretation of them.

That's all I've got going for now, work is keeping me a bit busy plus I'm still slowly unpacking stuff from the recent move.  Suggestions and advice are as welcome as always and I'll see you all next time.

SAGA Vikings Warband

So my SAGA Viking starter box arrived and I've begun to get it all assembled.  Also being my own fluff writing self, there is a bit of foundation being written for the warband as well.  I'm liking the clear basic style rules that SAGA is written with that has really balanced armies that force you to think about which abilities you want to use on your board and which tactics to use on the table.  It's more of a tactics driven skirmish game rather than one you can win from list building.  Or at least that how it seems from reading the rules and from the battle reports I've been watching.

My warlord is Jarl Hrothgar Einarrson, known as the Black Crow.  His father was on the losing side of a feud near present day Oslo which lead to his relocation with his remaining followers northward of Bergen to found the village of Ravensmyrr.  This village is strategically located at the mouth of a modest sized river and hidden around a sharp turn at the end of a long bay.  Jarl Hrothgar took over leadership of the village when his father was killed in raid against the Saxons.  Hrothgar is a cruel and cunning viking who lives to spread the fear and name of the Norse gods throughout the lands.

I've based him with a banner bearer who also acts as his personal guard.   Hrodgeir Thengilson is Hrothgar's childhood friend and close companion.  They were both blooded on the same raid against the Danes.  When Hrothgar became Jarl, no one other than Hrodgeir would suffice as his personal banner bearer.

Next up is a unit of Hirthguard.  These fellows are Eirleif Vornirson, Bersi Magnusson, Hakon Fasoltson, and Saebiorn Sigvaldson.  All skilled warriors and veterans of many raids, each is capable of being a leader of men.  When at sea, they captain Hrothgar's longships and when on land they form his iron fist that drives the warriors and bondi forward.

Then we have a unit of bondi archers being put together.  The starter box came with the full 12, but I'm only using 9 of them and need to find 3 replacement models.  The ones with fur lined caps are a bit too Rus or Slavic looking for my tastes and I want to find a few Viking archers with helmets to use instead.

The last unit being worked on currently is a unit of 8 warriors.  Once the shields are good and set on the models, I'll be adding swords, axes, and spears to them.  Once this unit is done, I want to look at doing one more unit of 8 warriors to round out my 4 point starting warband.  I think two blocks of 8 warriors give a good number of troops and some decent hitting power when looking at the Viking ability board.

Other things I'd like to do once these troops are all assembled is a unit of 4 berserkers (counts as a type of Hirthguard unit for Vikings).  The start box I got came with 4 models to use for this, but I'm not really digging the wolf pelt look for them.  I'm still browsing for different options to use.  What I'd like to find are a quartet of bare chested vikings armed with a mix of large two handed axes and pairs of single hand axes.

For color scheme on this force, I want to use primarily black and dark metals with pale dark blues for a bit of color and maybe a little red for blood on weapons and such.  Plus various wood colors for the bows, spear shafts, shield backs, etc.

As to other projects, I've been working on an idea for a repaint for my X-Wing Imperials but it isn't working out and is back on the drawing board.  Also have a couple BattleMech projects in the works and need to show off the new Americans I got for Bolt Action.  That's all for now and I'll hopefully be back with another blog next week.