Some Gripping Beast Saxons: some of the first metal figures I painted, about ten years ago and not up to my current (however low that is) standard
The very first metal 28mm figures I painted were some Gripping Beast Vikings. I also painted some Saxons and both have seen service in my early days at Guildford Wargames Club. I recently discovered half a dozen of these early Saxons (technically, of course, late Saxons!) and they look very poor indeed. I was hoping to touch them up a bit with static grass bases but they need much more than that and there is nothing more tedious than repainting figures!
Dark Ages figures are some of the most time consuming to paint because of their literal lack of uniformity. There are armies which are worse, high medieaval and Celts, for example, but what with random colours and seperate spears and shields it is hard, for me anyway, to do a lot at a time. Added to this, other than Normans and Carolingians, the points value (in WAB at least) of many of the troops means you need large numbers of them. So why do I keep buying them?
Partly the reason came out of a long interest in Vikings due, in large part, to my part Scandinavian heritage; one of my great grandparents came from Malmö. Partly, I was seduced by the splendid displays of beautifully lit Dark Ages figures I saw on the Gripping Beast stand at my first Salute. Mostly, however, it was the appearance of the various WAB supplements: Shieldwall, Age of Arthur, EL Cid, Fall of the West and Byzantium: Beyond the Golden Gate. All of these were full of lovely painted miniatures which I have been unable to resist.
The number of WAB armies I am concurrently painting is a running joke with Mike Lewis (who owns Black Hat Miniatures) at the club and was my main opponent for Dark Ages games. I've decided to list the ones I am working on just to try to sort out where I need to put in some more effort to progress, however, slowly, some more units. Part of my problem stems from the fact that I always want to paint both armies; at least in the Dark Ages.
So, chronologically let's see where we are:
Late Romans
I bought some surprisingly nice figures from Black Tree Designs (their figures are very variable) some years ago and have painted, er, none (although I have started a few). Part of the reason for this was that I was looking for a suitable opponent and didn't fancy Persians. This has now been solved with Musketeer Miniatures lovely new Goths.
Goths
I bought a couple of packs of these from Musketeer when they first came out but have no idea where they are (I take all my figures out of their packs immediately and put them in boxes).
Gripping Beast Romano-British. The first figures I based with static grass. I had to hand paint the shields; no LBM then!
Romano British
The purchase of these was heavily influenced by my reading of the Bernard Cornwell Arthur novels and, of course, Gripping Beast's range is based on these, even including characters from the books. I got these directly from Gripping Beast's shop when they had their brief stint in Richmond upon Thames a few years ago. It was very exciting to be able to actually go into a shop and buy historical figures. Even more exciting was the fact that I had an ex-girlfirend who lived just over the river in St Margarets. Trips to Richmond were doubly fulfilling, therefore. I have also bought some of Artizan's Romano British and am now tempted by the new Musketeer Late/Roman/Romano British/Early Byzantine figures.
Musketeer Early Saxons
Early Saxons
I also bought some of Gripping Beast's Arthurian period Saxons (not very inspiring) but then of course the Musketeer ones arrived and I bought quite a few of these. I have actually painted a whole unit of these and, like all Musketeer figures, they are lovely to paint so it wouldn't take much persuading for me to do some more. Whilst taking some pictures for this post I discovered I had also finished half of this unit of Musketeer Early Saxons, which I had completely forgotten about. I know I have the other half unit somewhere!
Gripping Beast Saxons, painted a long time ago.
Mid Saxons
I read the first couple of Bernard Cornwall's novels set in the period of Alfred so I started picking up a variety of Saxons from a number of manufacturers but none of them were really satisfactory. Surprisingly, the recent Foundry figures are very nice but it's an expensive way to buy a mass army.
A mixture of Gripping Best, Foundry and Artizan Vikings
Vikings
I bought Gripping Beast of course but many of their figures are not really compatible with each other as regards size. I bought some of the Foundry ones, despite them being a bit "fantasy" and also quite a few Artizan ones which go well with the Foundry ones and aren't quite so fantasy-looking. Despite all this I can only field two units of them. Vikings are a useful Dark Ages army, though, because of their multiple opponents (including each other). I have about 75 painted. Incidentally, the medieaval history tutor of one of my ex-girlfriends at Oxford insisted it should be pronounced "Vikkings" with a short "i"!
Carolingians
When these Artizan figure came out I bought quite a few thinking they would make a good opponent for the Vikings. I have only painted a dozen though, although I do like them as figures. The cavalry are lovely but the spearmen just won't rank up as they are waving their spears around at funny angles. I will need to re-base them and maybe try to bend their arms a bit.
Andalusians
I bought and painted eight crossbowmen in a week for a game we were having at the club but then I was ill on the day and they never got used. I'd like to do some more and recently watched El Cid on DVD which led me to buying a pack of four spearman at Colours last month. I actually based them this week so may get them done soon. Very nice figures indeed!
Late Saxons
Fortunately you can use the Middle Saxons for these with the addition of some axe wielding Huscarls and the odd kite shield. The big problem remains the unexciting Saxon ranges around. Still, I have around fifty painted figures.
Irish
I have a few of these Crusader figures somewhere but in WAB you neeed buckets of them as their points value is so low.
Normans
I was never that keen on Normans, as I thought they were a bit stolid and colourless, until my poor Saxons took a pasting at Guildford from someone's Norman milites. I think I bought the first pack of Crusader figures at a big discount at one of the shows prompted by my son doing the Battle of Hastings at school. I finished my first unit this week, have done some archers and some mounted milites. The new Conquest Games plastic mounted figures are very nice and, apparently, foot figures are on the way. These are gradually building into what could be a functional army and they can be used, of course, to bolster El Cid Spanish (except I haven't got any yet).
Turcomen
Guildford were participating in the Society of Ancients games day when they did Dorylaeum. I painted 30 Perry Miniatures Turcomen horse archers as my contribution but never made the game (although my figures did) as I had to fly to Los Angeles on the day. This is my biggest cavalry unit from any period and I am often tempted to use it as the basis of a full army.
Perry peasants
Crusaders
Of course I would then need some Crusaders and I painted a few peasants for the SoA game. I would love to buy some more of the Perry figures but that would mean, essentially, collecting two Norman armies at the smae time. I wouldn't mix the manufacturers as their proportions are so different and I paint the bases different colours. Can't have European muddy bases in the Holy Land!
Crusader Byzantine archers
Byzantines
This was going to be a great project and I even set up a seperate blog for them but I got frustrated with the quality of the figures available; particularly unsatisfactory cataphracts (nothing worse, of course). I painted a few and keep wondering about going back to these. The new Musketeer figures are from a much earlier period but at present they have only done infantry and what are really needed are bow-armed cavalry with lances. Unless these come out I'm not setting off down that route.
Early Gripping Beast Early Saxon (as opposed to the more recent range)
So that's 14 armies (13 if we amalgamate the mid and late Saxons). None of them can yet be fielded as a stand alone wargames army although I have enough Vikings and Saxons to contribute a small force to a bigger game. Of course if I had just stuck to one or even two armies I could have fielded a proper army by now but that would be boring! I'd like to do another unit of Dark Ages figures, having finished the Norman unit recently, but am not sure whether to do more Normans, some Vikings or some Early Saxons. I have quite a lot of based Normans on my workbench at present but think I will put the Norman spearmen away and perhaps do a unit of eight crossbowmen who should be quicker to do as they have no spears and shields. There, I have talked myself into it which is what these blogs are for really, to help me think about what to paint next!
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