Here are some pics of my viking army. (I figure it can also do double-duty as Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Danes and Jormvikings.) Most of the figures are Wargames Factory plastic Vikings, but the central figures are the Eureka Miniatures metal Beowulf and Retinue pack.
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| The Warband |
I've grouped the warband into groups of eight or 12, and colored the bases. There are 16 blue-based Warriors. The white unit and the red unit can be used as Hearthguard or Warriors as needed. There are 12 archers for my Levy. I've mounted the Warlord on a big base with some followers.
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| Call me "ibn." |
These are the Eureka figures. They represent Beowulf and his retinue from the Eaters of the Dead/13th Warrior, which is based loosely on ibn Fadhlan's account of his journies in Central Asia, where he met some Vikings. The book (and worse movie) have ibn Fadhlan following a warleader who beats up on some cavemen and gives us the legend of Beowulf. There are so many things wrong with this history, I can't even list them all. But the figs are cool, if anachronistic in their mix of armaments. Ibn Fadhlan is the green guy with the spear.
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| The Archers |
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| The Warriors |
Here are my core figures, by Wargames Factory. I used a pretty simple painting technique. I picked my core colors -- a light green, a dark and a grey blue, a red, and a mustard yellow. Then I painted a bit of each onto about ten figures, mixing them up with each color, so that there were different colors on each model. I then highlighted them with lighter colors in a single layer. Any left over spaces I left black or painted a dark or light brown, again with a highlight. Metal got a single layer, and flesh got two layers with a wash. The shield designs are mostly halves, quartering, crosses, or triskele-y things. I tried to avoid swastikas -- the Vikings had them historically, but the Nazi associations make them just too creepy.
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| My Warlord. |
My warlord is on a freaking huge Warhammer 40k base, and I did some putty work to make the raven banner. I have some smaller Warlord models I haven't painted yet, in case this base proves excessive.
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