Thor, the mighty God of thunder - Painting challenge bonus round "Myth"

For the next bonus theme during Curt's painting challenge I went into Nordic mythology and chose Odin’s mighty son to be my entry. Thor is one of the best known Nordic deities and has thunder and lightning at his disposal. I tried to catch a bit of his ferocity in this miniature.

The figure:

It’s a 40mm figure which was made by Wargames Foundry ages ago. Actually I wanted to have it for a Of Gods and Mortals warband but finally I mounted it on a large 60mm circular base which is probably too large to use it for playing. Anyway the figure is very well sculpted and excellently cast. There were a lot of fabulous details on it but on the other hand enough space to create freehands. I used my humble skills to try that on the cloake.

The colours:

As usual I employed Vallejo Model Coulors to paint Thor. For the choice of colours I drew my inspiration from pictures from old Marvel comics about the superhero Thor. I thought it might be a nice idea to connect the mythical figure with the modern superheroe. Anyway this time I didn’t use Armypainter Quickshade or something like that but built up every colour from three or more stages. For the coat I used five mixtures of different red tones to blend the folds smoothly. For the embroidery on the coat I used different shades of metal and non-metal colours to create an idea of ornament. Unfortunately I reached the limits of my skills there…

The base:

When I saw the figure with its blowing hair the idea of Thor standing on top of a mountain unleashing a mighty lightning storm came to my mind. Therefor I cut off the metal base just below his feet and mounted him on a pile of several pieces of slate. To accommodate all this stuff I chose a 60mm circular MDF base from the outstanding range of Warbases. After painting all the basing stuff I used a mixture of white paint and PVA glue to add corundum sand on the snowy spots. In addition I added some snowy static grass to complete the scene.

I dearly hope that you like my humble work because honestly it’s probably one of my best results so far.

Challenging warlords and tasty Federweißer --- A SAGA game report.

A couple of weeks- actually months - ago my friend Christian and I met to have a game of SAGA. Although it is widely known as a nice beer and pretzel game we decided to follow an old German tradition and had Federweißer (young wine) and Zwiebelkuchen (onion pie).

Federweißer is a delicious, sweetish, slightly sparkling, young wine which is available in October. It has very little alcohol and is very palatable. It's traditionally accompanied by Zwiebelkuchen which is a kinf of pie or pizza with steamed onions. For me a must have every autumn and a sure sign that winter is coming. Most of the time Mrs Monty and me combine this meal with a gathering of friends and so this time Christian showed up and brought his SAGA warband.

This time we decided to play the Challenge scenario and set up the table in cooperation rather then using the rules from the rulebook. Once more I noticed that I really have to improve my terrain stock:

Anyway the stage was set and thus both warbands entered the field. Five points each because I haven't managed to finish another unit of warriors yet.

Immidiately after the game started both warbands strove to the middle of the battlefield. First our warlords clashed in close combat and we gathered the first victory pouints. By the way we interpreted the scenario in the way that the warlords aren't removed as casualties but deliver victory points for each unsaved wound they suffer.

However Christians Anglo-Saxons rushed forward with all their power but I held back my Vikings slightly. Actually I wanted to bring the berserkers into his flank and see how much grief they could sow there.

The first units that clashed were warriors. Christian chose to field his warriors in two units of 12 men rather then three units of 8 and so they were hard nuts for my smaller units. But my boys made him pay too dear and caused more casualties then they suffered.

Only his second large unit was able to erase the remaining warriors of this unit.

During the next turns the game wobbled hither and thither. My bowmen prickled his levies and on the other flank my berserkers and my second warrior unit advanced.

Finally Christian sicked his warriors on my warlord and collected a lot of victory points. Actually I thought that might be the decision...

But I was able to strike back during the last turns of the game. First my berserkers rushed out of the woods and hit his warriors hard. Although two of my daring followers fell they were able to slay five Saxons.

Afterwards Christian slaughtered the two remaining berserkers with a warrior unit which was in the majority.

But the decision came in the very last turn of this exciting math. Christian was in the lead with one point and there was a heavily battered warrior unit of his which was in movement range of my warlord and which was wirth one and a half points (three warriors worth half a point each). Thus I staked everything on one card and let my warlord rush into melee once more. Luck was with me and so he smote all three opponents with his sword. The day was mine by an eyelash !

As for the game and the evening I must say it was gorgeous. As for the scenario I'm a but undecided. On the one hand it is a good choice for people want to come into the SAGA rules. It has no game ending conditions and you can try all the basic rules and become familiar with your battleboard. But on the other hand it was rather unusual for me to play without a real mission...

Anyway we had a great time and I'm looking forward to our next SAGA match. Maybe I'll manage to have some more terrain finished to garnish my rather empty board.

A unit of Viking Warrios for Saga

There are two entries for the Painting Challenge which I haven't presented here by now. The first are eight Bondi for my Saga Vikings:

All eight figures are metal ones from Gripping Beast's nice SAGA range. Some of them look slightly old fascioned and stiff but altogether they are really good.

As all SAGA miniatures I know so far these Bondi have open hands to glue the weapons in. So most of them got spears. But I used steel wire spears rather then the leaden ones provided by Gripping Beast. Absolutely outstanding are their faces which make it easy to bring out some expression.

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.

The other entry missing here on the blog is the desperado I painted as "Curtgeld", the entry fee for the challenge. But I'll save this one for my review of the painting challenge I'll post during the next days.

"Last Stand" - Gudmund the Dauntless inspired by Cynwit

How time flies !

It seems that Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge just started but in fact that was nearly three months ago. Because all good things come to an end we're coming down the streth now. There's just one week left and last weekend the final forthnight bonus round took place. This time "Last Stand" was the theme.

Actually I wanted to enter some Napoleonic troops for this round. Either some more 1812 French or Old Guard for Plancenoit or some riflemen of the 2nd Light Battalion KGL definding La Haye Sainte. But during the last weeks the Vikings conquered my mind and I pored on Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Stories once again. In the first book The last Kingdom the author describes the Battle of Cynwit and has the main character, fictional Uthred of Bebbanburg, fight and kill Ubba Ragnarsson. So the idea of an epic fight between two Viking warlords caught me and I wasn't able to stand up to painting some SAGA figures to replay such epic quarrels.

So we have my new Viking warlord Gudmund the Dauntless accompanied by his last surviving followers, a group of eight Bondi warriors. They are surrounded by a huge force of Anlgo-Danish foes. These are lead by a gruesome warlord who raided Gudmund's settlement and slaughtered all other Vikings without mercy. At the height of the battle Gudmund and his last fellows drew back to a hill nearby and the two warlords meet in an epic fight.

They dance around each other exchanging blows while the warriors make way for their warlords. With the last of his strength Gudmund manages to overcome his enemy and turns the turns the tide of the battle. Discouraged by their warlord's death the Danish line crumble. Finally the Vikings win the day and banish the attackers...

I hope you like this little story for the last theme of this painting challenge. The figure is a metal one from Gripping Beast's nice SAGA range. Although some of the older figures look a bit stiff I like this warlord very much. He looks very dynamic and eager. There are two tiny conversions I made: I changed the hand to a more detailed plastic one and I added a shield with additional spears to have him look even more dangerous and daring. Absolutely outstandingly sculpted is his face which makes it easy to bring out some expression.

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, but for the first time I dared to paint some freehand embroidery on the cloak. I used brwonish and yellowish colours to create an idea of embroided Viking runes.
For the bases I used my habitual combination of sand, static grass and tufts.

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.