Viking/Saxon Shield Wall

Finally, after a long period of inactivity, something to post.

33 Bods of different makes, Emhar, Strelets, Airfix, Tumbling Dice

Wounded or dead bod from the Airfix WWI British Infantry set. 

Archers and javelins at the rear

Interestingly, whilst basing,  the line, due to overlapping the shields,  backed up to the right. Maybe due to the thickness of the bods shields or did it happen in real life? Or did they compensate by slightly tipping their shields inwards at the left to form a straight line? 

Flag from Ray over at Don´t Throw a One Blog.

 It will all be alright in the end. If it´s not alright now, then it´s not the end :-) 

Anglo - Saxon Fyrd - Strelets

 56 Bods x 4 Sprues x 14 poses.

There´s a bit of flash on some of the Bods but  it´s not a lot so not too much effort to remove it. 

Bows and Javelins

Spears

Axes

Swords...sorry, Scramaseax. 

The review at PSR on this set  isn´t exactly glowing. Apart from the Bod swinging his Scramaseax with both hands and the Bod holding his spear with both hands (Right of the pic with the Spearmen) I like them and there is room for conversions. 

William FitzOsbern

William FitzOsbern, 1st Earl of Hereford
One of the few who has been proven to have fought alongside William I at the Battle of hastings.
He commanded (alongside Count Eustace of Boulogna ) the right wing of the norman army.
I don´t know what make the Bod is. Metal though
The nag is from the Italeri Teutonic Knights set

Oddly, he looks a bit like Mr Bean....😏

My 1/72nd collection.

How many have I? * Good question. Audit time!

First medievals in thier boxes

From top left;
Normans. 139 foot, 51 mounted
Vikings 118 foot, 14 mounted and also in the box, 21 turcopoles
Seige/artillery. 113 foot, 1 mounted, 21 guns, 2 rams, 5 seige mantlets, 2 catapults
Transport. 40 foot. 12 wagons, 15 packmules and 3 limbers
100 yrs War French. 75 foot, 46 mounted
100 yrs war english. 108 foot, 25 mounted
Hussites/Clubmen/Revolting peasants. 170 foot, 8 mounted, 5 wagons and 2 guns
Civilians. 142 foot, 4 mounted. Another 130 foot are unbased in the boxes. 7 market stands
Crusaders. 51 foot, 43 mounted plus general medieval soldiery, 53 foot and 2 mounted.
Saxons. 94 foot and 11 mounted.
Total so far.
1233 foot, 236 mounted, 23 guns,  17 wagons.
Display cases

Total in both.
Medievals. 113 mounted and 322 foot, 4 guns and 2 carts
Ancients. Romans - 16 mounted and 19 foot. 2 carpentum and a onager. Greeks 149 foot and 1 ballista. 5 mitanians and chariot. Britons - 2 chariots
Napoleonic. 79 foot, 3 guns and 2 limbers
Modern. 16 foot and 2 APU´s.
Bodstonia - 3 foot, 1 mounted, 1 gun with limber and ammo cart.
Fantasy. A dragon, a troll,
Odds and ends . 16 renaissance peasants, 13 guards band, 12 daleks,
Oh..and 5 ships on top

Second display case

Medievals 67 foot, 2 guns, 12 catapults, 1 seige tower,
Modern . 15 foot. WWI Planes 16, 4 Tanks
Bodstonia. 15 pirates and 11 Bodstonians, 5 boats
ACW. 1 Observation balloon
Khandibar - 1 boat
Fantasy - 4 Balrogs

Next lot, ACW and a box of odds and ends

ACW - 376 foot, 66 mounted, 8 guns, 6 limbers and 2 wagons
Odd Bods - 161 foot, 6 mounted and 2 chariots

Also, I knew I had to have more medievals somewhere and I´d totally forgotton this lot!!
The Bannockburn bods and WotR´s cavalry.(Box top left)

Another 307 foot and 129 mounted
Imagi-Nations
Bodstonians and Khandibah

Bodstonians - 23 mounted, 269 foot, 11 wagons and 6 guns
Khandibah -   46 mounted, 147 foot, 4 guns and 1 wagon
69 mounted, 416 foot, 10 guns and 12 wagons

Fantasy

78 mounted, 452 foot, 11 Trolls, 2 catapults and one cannon
Ancients
Romans, Gauls, Celts, Egyptians, Greeks, Carthaginians etc.

99 mounted, 1712 foot, 10 elephants, 11 Chariots, 4 scorpians


Total
Medievals/Dark Ages - 478 mounted, 1829 foot, 27 guns, 14 wagons. 14 catapults, 3 limbers, 1 seige tower, 4 ships
Ancients - 115 mounted, 1901 foot, 15 chariots, 10 elephants, 4 scorpians, 1 catapult
Napoleonic - 79 foot, 3 guns and 2 limbers
ACW. - 376 foot, 66 mounted, 8 guns, 6 limbers, 2 wagons and 2 balloons plus ground crew
Fantasy - 78 mounted, 452 foot, 4 balrogs, 1 dragon, 12 trolls, 3 catapults and 1 cannon
Bodstonia. - 24 mounted, 310 foot, 7 guns and 1 limber
Khandibar - 46 mounted, 147 foot, 4 guns, 1 wagon and 1 boat
Odd Bods - 173 foot, 6 mounted and 1 ship


Absolute total---if my summing up is any good..😋
4991 foot, 882 mounted, 50 guns, 12 limbers,  17 catapults, 28 wagons/Carts, 15 chariots,10 elephants

Making this post took a while with all the counting so more have been added since. ...and I´m missing some, Celtic cavalry for instance.

Anglo Saxons Tumbling Dice - Complete range

39 foot and  11 Mounted bods.
All 7 sets that go under the titel Anglo Saxons on the Tumbling Dice site as shown at the Tumbling Dice site  HERE.

AS1 Huscarls Danish Axe
Close ups of the set HERE

AS2 Huscarls Spear
Full set review HERE

AS3 Select Fyrd
Full set review HERE

AS4 General Fyrd 
Close ups and full set review HERE:

AS5 Saxon Skirmishers
Close ups and full set review HERE

AS10 Mounted Huscarls
Close ups and Full set review HERE

AS20 Anglo Saxon Command
Close ups and Full set review HERE

The entire Tumbling Dice Anglo Saxon Army*

Huscarls to the front and centre

My entire Anglo Saxon Army - so far as the Strelets Housecarls of King Harold set bods are not yet painted.
TD, Strelets and Emhar. 93 foot and 11 mounted.

Left wing

Centre with reserve behind.

Right wing

*without using repeat poses from the sets.

Anglo Saxon Command - Tumbling Dice

Set AS20.
3 mounted Bods in 3 different poses and 3 nags in 3 different poses, 2 foot Bods.
3 round (lenticular ) shields, 3 kite shields.
3 standards -  1 triangular, 1 square and a draco.
The three nags are poses from the C1066 H3 Palfrey/light Horse set.
I added two kite shields left over from other sets.

I changed the flags for printed ones. The metal flags are ok but too heavy and, TBH, the printed ones are easier and quicker than painting them myself.

The Draco I painted with a Blue-Gold drybrush to give it a shine. Works in reality but doesn´t really show in pics.

Anglo Saxon Mounted Huscarls - Tumbling Dice

Set AS10.
8 Bods, 8 shields (4 lenticular, 4 flat round) 4 swords, 3 spears and 2 axes.
Thier mounts are 2 sets (each set has 4 Nags) of  C1066 H2, Destrier / Heavy Horse.
The 8 Nags from both sets have 5 different poses, a similar set up to the nags provided for the Mounted Vikings, so rather than repeat what I wrote there about the possible pose selection, my review can be read HERE.

I was going to give  the bods Lenticular Shields left over from other TD Anglo Saxon sets. My fisrt thought was that using the Kite shields, wether historically correct or not, would, IMHO, make them look way to similar to Norman Cavalry. But then, I thought, they are Late Anglo-Saxons, and Huscarls and also, they could be used as Norman cavalry...so they ended up with Kite shields
Also, they got the same regimented look as the foot Huscarls.
I´ve also swopped the lances for home made ones.

Close ups.
The diferent Nag Poses that come with both sets are numbered.
Number 1 in pic two should be 5

Wether the Vikings used Cavalry in combat is..?..not so provable but Anglo-Saxon Cavalry? Yep, they did have them. See HERE

Anglo Saxon Huscarls with Axes - Tumbling Dice

Set AS1. 8 bods in 7 poses and 8 kite shields.
These are "Late" Anglo Saxon shields,  carried by the great majority of the figures representing the "English" as shown in the Bayeux Tapestry.*
As they are the leaders personal Body Guard and elite soldiers I´ve painted them as a "uniform" bunch.

Close ups

The two on the right are the repeat pose. The axe head is in the original position on the bod on the far right.

Rear view

 *  "Wiley Blackwell encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England"    under the titel "Arms and Armour"(2nd edition available as PDF - pages 69 onwards)
and N.P.Brooks "Weapons and Armour"  in the "Battle of Maldon AD 991"
The only description of the colours of Anglo Saxon shields  is from Beowulf which tells of the shields as being "bright" and "Yellow".
Yellow? Plain wood ? Saxon shields are described in English Poetry as being made of lime wood (yellowish) and a range of shields using different wood types have been found. None though showing signs of being painted.

Usefull pdf on Viking /Saxon / Norman Shields HERE.

Anglo Saxon Select Fyrd - Tumbling Dice

Set AS3.
8 bods and 8 kite shields. Two poses were repeated so didn´t get painted.
This lot are the "rich kids", landowners, freemen so unlike the huscarls they have thier own colours on thier shields.

Close ups
Pose on the far right is one of the repeated poses

 Pose on the far left is one of the repeated poses

As with a lot of the infantry sets from TD, wether the repeat poses are the same in each set isn´t clear. If I had got two sets of the above, it could have shown wether they have the same repeat poses or wether the repeat poses are random.