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?