Vikings ... (for Mother's Day!?)

Some say it with flowers, others with chocolates... but Mrs Matt was delighted with these Vikings. All Gripping Beast figures. This means she now has a 6 point warband for Saga.

All painted using my dip and highlight technique. Which is basically as follows.

o Undercoat white
o Metal - black then heavy drybrush with GW Chainmail or GW Shining Gold.
o Flesh - GW Dwarf Flesh then drybrush with any light flesh colour (I use Foundry Base Sand Light)
o Everything else gets one block colour mostly using the lighter shades from the Foundry range.
o Apply the dip (AP Strong Tone) with a brush taking care to avoid pooling.
o Leave 24 hours to dry!
o Brush on Windsor & Newton Matt Varnish (more reliable than sprays)

Finally, here's the stage that makes all the difference. Use some of the original colours to highlight tunics, hair, fur, etc. This stage is surprisingly quick and very easy as the shading from the dip shows you exactly where to put the highlights

Here's some closer shots.
 

The shields are Little Big Men Studios of course!

I reckon these figures take me about a third of the time of my usual black undercoat and layering method. Plus I find the technique much easier.

An extra axeman to fill out a hearthguard unit.

Here's the warlord, named "Snorri Ragnarsson". I did a little extra highlighting on some areas - he is the boss after all! The figure is the GB limited edition Viking Warlord figure that came with the early Saga deals. A real pleasure to paint.

As he's a warlord I put him on a larger base as suggested in the Saga rules.

This gave me an opportunity to make the base a little more 'scenic' than usual.

As with all newly painted figures he didn't make it through his first battle but in the second game he (with the help of his hearthguard) tore through a unit of Norman Serjeants and then slaughtered a group of knights; like a successful Viking Warlord should.

Saga is a simply superb game! I cannot recommend it highly enough. It really is eaasy to learn but will prove very difficult to master. There are so many potential strategies and ploys. Give it whirl!

I'll be posting some pics of our warbands along with battle reports in later posts.