Some guys going berserk...

The good news about Saga (read here) last week gave me a real push for my own warband. Finally I finished some further figures for a unit of Hirdmen and a unit of Berserkers.

Today for the Berserkers:

My unit of Gripping Beast Viking Berserkers.

The miniatures are by Gripping Beast and belong to their nice range of Saga figures. Although some of their figures are slightly old-fashioned these berserkers stick out a bit. They are very dynamic and with the wolf hides over their shoulders they look really fierce. Only their hands are a bit tricky because the weapons have to be glued inside. On the one hand that seems a bit unfirm but on the other hand it offers the chance to equip the guys individually. So I chose to substitute the leaden spears with steely ones.

Very exciting to paint were the faces of the figures. They've been sculpted with a lot of expression and fine detail in them. So it wasn't too hard to work out the eyes, the beards their hair. The clothes - if present at all - were rather plain so for the gifted painter they present lots of space for freehand sketches. Although I wouldn't count me to this illustrious category I'm really pleased with the striped trousers. The result really encourages me to try more patterns like this from now on.

As usual I painted the figures with Vallejo Model Colours and shaded them with Armypainter Quickshade (Dark Tone). The fine artworks on the shield are decals from Stephen Hales' Little Big Men Studios. For the bases I used my habitual combination of sand, static grass and tufts.