Dark Age Update

So the month of June is nearly over and so time for a progress report for the Skjaldborg Dark Age armies.
First of all I needed some more specific 7th-10th century terrain for our future battles. So I picked up a couple of 4ground (https://www.4ground.co.uk) Early & High Medieval range of buildings, the High Medieval cottage and the Anglo-Dane hovel.

Basically straight out of the box, except for textured paint on the floor and some broken up twigs for logs on the fire pits and the pile of firewood in the corner of the cottage.  I'm so impressed with these kits I've gone and bought 3 more buildings from the ranges, so i'll post more pictures once i have the whole hamlet built up.

So the Thane and his Huskarls have a spot of paint on them, just the base colours and wash for now.

Some reinforcements have arrived from across the sea, From the excellent Gripping Beast (http://www.grippingbeast.co.uk) in the form of a pagan priest and some Ulfhednar

Also for a scenario I came up with, these fellows came along....

On the weekend past the Vikings mounted a raid on Normandy to capture the pigs shown above,  unfortunately the raid was total destroyed and very few Norsemen made it back to the long ships.  After the first game of Skjaldborg I have gone back to the army list and made some major changes, including the addition of some archers and a Berserker. 
The archers are from Conquest games (http://www.conquest-games.co.uk) and this set is also very impressive.  I've made 8 with the slight conversion of bow strings added, I used fuse wire for the string.

So this weekend I shall get some more Norsemen painted up and hopefully make another update. As for the Normans.............some of them were undercoated and had the mail painted silver, so i'll try and get my bro to get some more paint on his figures this weekend too. 

Re-purposing a Brummbar and the Dark Age challenge

So in the theme of resurrection my first modelling project is the re-purposing of an armoured vehicle that had been ruined by a spray can.

The vehicle in question is the Sturmpanzer or Brummbar assault gun, this is a nice kit from Warlord Games but it had an unfortunate accident with a can of Army Painter desert yellow spray which went on too thick.  Spray can paint is a bit of a nightmare in Auckland as it has to be the the right weather (not too Humid, Damp, Cold, etc) for the spray to go on without issue, and I sprayed at the wrong time......

But after languishing in a tub of simple green for months I decided that a wrecked tank is in order for my ruined village, and I was inspired by this picture.

    

So after finding the correct ruin and a bit of chopping and sanding here is the end result...

So the next step is to get some paint on the thing.

In other News.....

So I have been trying to get my gaming group sorted with war gaming in the Dark ages/Early Medieval, 800AD to 1100 AD. We are using a variant of the Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit Strategy battle game we have called Skjaldborg!

Anyhow my Brother (Sam) and I have chosen our armies, Sam will be the stinkin' Normans and I will be the Norsemen! 

The Army of Henri ‘le boucher pieuse’ Picard

The Longboat crew of Ulf the Red

Sam will be completing for the Normans, 5 knights (including the Noble) 11 spear and shield infantry, 6 Crossbow men and 1 Daneaxe armed infantry.  

My Norsemen include 1 Thegn, 3 Hersir (elite warriors)  with sword and Shield, 1 Hersir with a banner, 2 Hersir with Daneaxes, 8 warriors with Axe and shield and 8 warriors with spear and shield.

We aim to have all this painted by the 31 August 2016 so we can have a game and post pictures of the skirmish, watch this space!