Tumbling Dice - Saxon General Fyrd (AS4)

8 bods in 8 poses with 8 detached shields.
Mostly spearmen, as it should be. One is swinging two axes so either the shield can be attached to his back, or, as I have done, left off entirely.

No flash. Some of them had extra bits of tin from the base to the butt of a spear but that´s the sprue to enable the spear to be fully cast. Easy to remove, snip, snip and it´s gone, although, I recommend using a stanley knife (other brands are available) to cut it free from the spear as using snippers/pliers tends to leave the butt squashed.

Cast in Tin (pewter) as Paul from TD says on his site

In all the ranges figurines or models are designed to be used as games pieces, this dictates the model must have a certain amount of robustness along with the need for historical accuracy. I cast small items in Tin (Pewter) for strength......

This post is the first of quite a few, I´ve got another 25 sets to get finished😊

Corsairs of Umbar (Pt2)

Second up, the 1st set of Corsairs (Purple Pirates ) from Dark Alliance
12 Bods, flash virtually none to deal with.
This lot are expecting a fight and each of them have at least two weapons  Maces, axes, swords, boarding pikes, daggers and throwing knives.

Close ups
Boarding pikes and a boarding hook

The boss and his shieldmen. The leaf design is a bit odd but maybe he pinched it from an elf?

Both sets together. I´ll add a standard at some point but other projects are taking precedence

A Dark Tale

During the time of the plague, Death approached a small town.

An old man sitting outside the town asked of Death "May I ask, What are you doing here?"

To which Death replied, "You may well ask. I have come to collect one person from each house" and he proceeded into town.

Later that day, Death left the town. A crowd, numbering many more than the count of houses, followed him.
The old man once again questioned Death, asking, "you said you were going to take one person from each house but it appears you have taken many more. Why?"

Grinning,  Death replied,  "I did only take one from each house, the others ? They died from fear."
And with that, he went on his way.

Franks crossing the Rhein

Frank Jackson, his son Frank Jackson Jnr. and his apprentice Frank Smythe,  cross the Rhein.

On the other bank waiting for them are Norman Clarke, Norman Huds and his son Norman Huds Jnr

Corsairs of Umbar

Or, as I prefer to call them, the Purple Pirates.
Corsairs set 2 from Dark Alliance, featuring long range weapons.
10 bods and one ballista. Tiny bit of flash.
The colour scheme is my own.

The set divides up into, 4 Archers, 4 crossbows and a ballista with crew.
The Archers

The Crossbowmen

The ballista I´ve covered HERE.

Purple Pirate Ballista

Actually, it´s the ballista and crew from the 2nd Dark Alliance Corsairs set.

The crew.
They seem to be a commander and ammo supplier and niether is actually interacting with the Ballista, although the commander can have his left hand put onto the winding gear.

The Ballista.
It comes in two parts and is held together with two pegs. This works fine although I added some second glue to make sure.

Anglo Saxons - Strelets

Set M003, the second set from Strelets titelled "Anglo Saxons". The first set (016) which came out a couple of years before this lot,  is, IMHO, as titelled Anglo Saxons, a bit of a mess.
Not to say they haven´t got a use,  a lot of them  could  easily be employed as medieval levy types.

This lot are the Saxon  Shield wall bods. As both Vikings and Anglo Saxons looked very similar they could be added to the Viking set M004 to create quite an impressive 24 man Shield wall. Add other bods from the various Viking and Anglo Saxon sets which are holding thier shields to the front and it could be as many 30 bods wide.
Add to that, headswops, weapon swops and Bods from other makes and the wall could get endlessly wide. Something to do one day…...perhaps :-)

12 bods, very little Flash.
The sprue also has A Sword, an Axe, two spears and three shields (two round, one Kite)
Three of the bods carry Kite shields. Two  are already attached but they could be easily replaced with round shields.
The  Kite Shield and one of the round shields have odd looking "riveting" around the rims so I replaced them with ones from the Zvezda Vikings set.
The spears got ditched in favour of one handed weapons.

A couple of close ups

What you get in the Strelets Stamford Bridge big box set if only one of each pose from each sprue is painted and no conversions.
39 Anglo Saxons and 39 Vikings.

The whole Anglo Saxon army so far. 68 bods, Emhar, Tumbling Dice and Strelets

Anglo Saxons before Battle - Strelets

14 bods, quite a mix of armour, and weapons. Tiny bits of Flash to deal with, except, one of the spearman´s spear was a bit too covered in Flash,  so rather than spend ages removing it, I replaced it.

This lot are available as either set M050 (4 sprues)  or with the Hastings 1066; Anglo Saxon Army big box set (3 sprues) or in the Stamford Bridge set (two sprues)
There´s a bit of  possibility for conversions but not a lot so the Stamford Bridge set offers the best value.

"Come on, let´s be avin ya!!"

Fyrd types. 

I didn´t add a bowstring as the bod would probably string his bow just before the Action started. 

Axes and a mace. 

The mace threw me a bit, did the Saxons use maces? 

They are shown in the Bayeux tapestry, (pic 49B) William I with his mace over his shoulder and another mace flying through the air during the battle (top left Corner 51F)*

Ok, the Tapestry is older than the period the bods above are intended for, especially if they are part of the two big box sets but it´s an obvious weapon. 

Also, the Stone attached to a stick as a throwing weapon. On the strength of a comment  that what is shown is a "flying mace" I tried this out. Not going to the effort of making a hole in a Stone  but adding a stick makes the same Stone fly a lot further than without…..you get an added leverage Advantage (?)


*interestingly, one of the soldiers is Holding his axe the wrong way around. Mistake on the part of the Person who embroidered that bit or was he shown to be About to throw it?

Housecarls of King Harold - Strelets

One of the "unique" sprues (the Brown plastic ones) from the Stamford Bridge big box set or,  as they were later brought out as  a set of 4  "normal" sprues in the Housecarls of King Harold M141.

14 bods on the sprue, one of which is a Streltsi Bonus Bod. He does have a dark ages look to him and I ´m considering using him as is or transplanting the arm holding the eagle onto another Bod. Time will tell.
Tiny bit of mold lines to deal with but it´s minimal.
I replaced the banner as it looked too Viking like and replaced it with a more Saxon looking flag.
As with the "unique" Viking  sprues in the big box set,  the poses don´t lend themselves to creating a shieldwall. Two of them can be used for such but that´s all.
I went for a slight Colour scheme of blue/White to give them an elite unit look.

Close ups

Command Group. The bod with his Sword raised doesn´t really say King Harold to me so I will use the Crown wearing bod from the second Unique Vikings sprue from the Stamford Bridge box set

Some of the grunts

Vikings 2 - Stamford Bridge - Strelets

The second lot of Vikings from the Strelets  Stamford Bridge big box set.
As noted at PSR, some of the armour is of a later period than The Battle of Stamford Bridge but they are Vikings* and that´s what Counts.
13 bods, two are joined as a pair, tinsy winsy bit of Flash.

Not intended for building a Shield wall, not one is holding his Shield to the front.
A bit of a mix. Unarmoured bods through to heavily armoured ones dripping in chainmail and lamellar armour.

At PSR, the lack of armour is put down to the Vikings being taken by suprise so they had no time to get fully dressed. I think the unarmoured ones make  decent beserker types.

King, Standard bearer and on the left, some poor guy who´se got an arrow shot through his neck.

My favourite poses from the set

The Great Heathen Army...so far.
Strelets, Emhar, Zvezda and Tumbling Dice. 72 infantry and two mounted

*Or could be Saxons.

Knights of the Round Table (Pt 7)

Merlin and Guinevere.
I was going to give Merlin a nag with caparison so I could use his C-o-A , Sable, a fess Argent, 3 owls argent, a made up set of arms but what isn´t about the Arthurians Coats of Arms.
Anyway, I decided against it and he and Guinevere are mounted on normally tacked nags.

Guinevere riding side saddle? This is High medieval fantasy so why shouldn´t she?

The Merlin bod is from the Dark Alliance´s Half orcs on Wargs set . He was originally holding a bomb in his Right hand but I´ve removed the fuse and made it into a Crystal ball.
Could he ride a nag whilst Holding a staff in one Hand and a Crystal ball in the other? Of course he can, he´s Merlin!!
Guinevere is a Valdemar bodette from the Medieval Lovers set and her nag is from Odemars Carpentum set.

Incredible dio time. 1/35th scale "Sturmpanzerwagen 563 "Wotan"
Bods scratchbuilt, the tank super detailed, (interior as well) HERE
I´ve got this listed among my top ten favourite dios
The build thread is worth a look as well

Vikings - Strelets

Another Batch of Vikings, this time the Strelets set MOO4 .
12 poses, not a lot of Flash. Some of the bods have ring Hands which are meant for the weapons attached to the sprue, 3 spears, a sword and an Axe.  The axe provided was fine, the spears and Sword not so.   I used a spear and axes* from the spares box.
Two of the bods had wings/Horns on thier helmets, these got removed.

This lot can be formed up to make decent looking Skaldborg (Shield Wall) with the shields overlapping etc, though my basing doesn´t allow that.

 Couple of close ups

*The excellent Site Hurstwic, reckons spears were a more common viking weapon but, if at all possible,  I really like my Vikings armed with swords and axes.