Mixed medieval conversions.

The Bod drawing his sword was the top half of a rider from the Strelets English Cavalry of Edward I (Top row, second from the right) and the bottom half from the Strelets The Scottish army of Wallace set  (Third row from top, second from right)

The Bod with the Axe and dagger was a rider from the Strelets Army of Henry V set (eight row from top, far right) 

The saxon is from the Strelets Anglo-Saxon Fyrd set and has his sword swopped for a spear

The saxon is from the Strelets Anglo-Saxon Fyrd set and has his sword swopped for an axe.

Female, who is supposed to be Empress Matilda, is made up from the top half of the Airfix  Maid Marion and the Bottom half from one of the females in the Italeri Medieval "Battle sets"

The Viking with the spear is from the Zvezda Vikings set with an added head swop.

I´m still not as productive as I used to be..Life and things are still getting in the way of the hobby. 

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. 

Medieval Russian Militia - Strelets

Like the Medieval Russian Peasant Levy from Strelets, I´ve looked at them over at PSR and thought "Yuk!" but got both sets after seeing some conversion potential in the Peasant levy set. Not too many conversion possibilites with this set....so far.

One was holding a square shield, that got swopped for a round one.
The javelin thrower had his, what looked like a stiff snake, swopped.
One of the repeat poses has been converted to the standard bearer with a printed flag.

Anyway, they´ve been hanging around waiting for paint  for a while so they´ve finally got some.
Tiny amount of Flash to deal with.

Things for  stabbing and chucking

Things for hacking

Things for clubbing and bashing

Standard bearer and I reckon the one in the great coat is the boss

Medieval Russian Peasant Levy - Strelets

Full  (and correct) titel "Russian Peasant Levy in Winter Dress".
I´ve looked at them over at PSR a few times and dismissed them as ..well, being way too ugly and, what would I possibly do with Russian peasants?
Anyway, I decided, after seeing some conversion potential and that they could possibly be opposition for vikings, I got them.

Basic colour scheme, even thier shields I´ve painted as plain wood without any symbols on them..

Close ups

The Bod far right had his arm repositioned (hot water) and him and the one on the far right have had metal spears added. The one second from right has had a new javelin* added.

Conversions. New weapons, a couple of head swops and one has had a shield swop

They´re a poorly armed bunch. Each one of them only has a single weapon, so the one lobbing a javelin*  has little hope after chucking it,  apart from;
1. Knock down one of the opposition with his javelin and pinch his weapon. Not that good a plan, as the opposing bod would more than likely be a distance away.
2. One of the opposition chucks a javelin. Hopefully, It doesn´t cause him or one of his mates  any damage and it´s not broken so he can re-use it. If one of his mates gets hit,  he would have to be close enough to be able to retrieve the javelin.
3. One of his mates gets knocked down making his weapon available. Again, his mate would need to be near him.

Edit;
Another conversion. Bow arm taken from Strelets Army of Henry V set (one kneeling, right side third row down from the top), mace removed, hand trimmed a bit and then squashed with pliers to make a fingers like imprint. Arrows from the Zvezda English Infantry of the 100yrs war.
Ok..he isn´t using a classic russian recurve bow but, hey- he´s a peasant.

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.

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.

Vikings - Stamford bridge - Strelets

This lot come from  the two big box set, Stamford Bridge . As noted in the review, they could work as either Vikings or Saxons but I´ve employed them as Vikings.

14 poses, a Tiny bit of Flash.

Three I´ve painted the shields with Lagertha´s Colours and...

.. another three in the Colours used in the Vikings series for Harald Finehair´s faction.

Half the set use axes as thier main weapon, and at least half the set could be Bondi. They can´t be formed up to create a Skaldborg (Shield wall) but can be added to the Strelets Vikings set which has all the bods posed with thier shields facing front.

The bod on the Right, his fur cloak is interesting as it has a wolf´s head over his shoulder..or have I interpreted it as so?

British Infantry in Advance 1701-1714 (Strelets)

I had to get them and they were to be drafted into  Colonel Jerimiah Coleman´s Fusiliers but they are a wee bit smaller than the bods already used , ie; From Zvezda or Italeri.
Still, they are lovely sculpts and as  Bodstonia could do with some sort of foe to keep them on thier toes,  they have been re-assigned as troops from Zvezdonia, a principality on the mainland of Plastasia.

The 1st Regiment of the Zvezdonian Imperial Army

44 bods, 4 sprues of 10 inf per sprue and one command sprue with 4 bods.
Pictured are Just the marching poses. The rest will get used up on another Regiment as and when the other sets appear. 

The molded Flags I removed. Easy enough in this case with minimal Damage to the bods but, I´ve said it before, why do manufacturers even bother to add them? At least this lot don´t have a molded pattern on them but still, painting them, even flat ones without a molded pattern,  is a complete pain. Even simple patterns are difficult, as shown on the painted versions over at PSR (HERE)
Easy rules;
1. Just label the bod as a Standard bearer and give him the flag pole without any flag or just a ring Hand so a flagpole can be added.
2. Don´t drape the flag over the bod making it difficult to remove or paint.
3. Have the flag, wether flat, draped, with or without a molded design,  seperate from the bod so the flag can be easily removed by cutting the flag pole.

The designs. I went for something  with a bit of an  "Imperial" and mildly menacing look and  Fitting  to the mid 18th Cent. IMHO, two headed eagles fit the bill.
The yellow version will be the Zvezdonian Imperial flag. The green one is the regimental one  to match the Cuffs.
I know. The flags are actual ones but now they are Zvezdonian
The Cords were made with the  thread that is used to hang up the  X-Mas tree chocolate decoration Things.

The officer sprue,which includes the two Standard bearers,  had a lot of Flash and removing it was not that easy, leaving the bods with a "bitty" appearance

Grenadiers

The Colour scheme I picked is a bit X-masy which fits to the time of year. The basing won´t stay like it is. 

Oh!..and happy X-mas :-)