Saga 2 Points of Vikings

Whilst I was on my weeks holiday I managed the last few bits on 11 Vikings allowing me to have two points of a warband. My son has 4 points already of Anglo Danes but these are not quite finished, these are going to be finished by me over the next week or so.

The image above includes the test figure I painted earlier in the year. All figures are Gripping Beast Plastics, from the Viking Hirdmen boxed set. I doubt I will paint up all 44 of them as I don't need more than 32 of them for a four point army, though I would more likely use even less than that.

 Six figures carry axes with the other six armed with swords allowing some flexibility as to how they will be used. Whilst the test figure had a lot of time spent on it, these are basic table standard as I expect them not to stand up to the rigours of playing games with my seven year old. Over time I will replace them with metals and will do a better job on them. Indeed I have 24 Blacktree figures on order as unarmoured versions to make up the 4 points. Of course my son also has a further 24 figures also coming, can you see where this is going?

The shields have the Battleflags shield decals that are made to fit these figures shields and after a few mistakes started to work well. I started with trimming them with too much of the clear decal left on. I recommend keeping close to the actual detail, less than 1mm overlap is best.

One figure in each group has a shield with two spears clasped in the shield hand these add a certain something to the group, I guess if I use them with other rules these could be used as minor commanders or such.

The right hand figure is the originally painted figure and looks a lot sharper when you check him against the others but really not so you would notice if just playing a game.

I like the various combinations you can get with the different bodies and arms etc allowing you to have a reasonably mixed force from the box. You also end up with a lot of spare parts for later use or just dumped in that bits box!

So overall I am a lot happier with the plastics than I thought I would be. I have based them on 2p coins which gives them some weight which I hope will be enough to keep them together fr a few games at least. The usual wash on top of a one colour base, in this case Nulan Oil from GW.

Three of these were used Saturday in a roleplaying session, they did not stick round to actually fight the players as they had dispatched the orc's with reasonable ease, well all except the female scout who took a kicking but that was the exception.

So my view on the plastic figures have moved in their favour to an extent. OK I still am not 100% fan but they add a good filler to your armies and can look rather nice. The biggest issue being the making them up but that was actually faster than I expected. I had got these finished except the shields weeks ago but that final stage was just an evening. Makes me wonder why I did not finish them sooner really.