Eccentric Miniatures as SAGA levy?

[Whitwort Stormbringer]

I kinda remember when this company released their knights, and I wasn't overly impressed (although they are certainly affordable!), but the manufacturer was recently brought to my attention again and I wanted to see what folks thought of them as possible figures for Dark Ages SAGA levies?

http://www.eccentricminiatures.com/retemb0015.html

I was thinking of using these fellows as levy for whatever warbands can have bow-armed levy, and making sure to do plenty of them with beards (GS or head swaps, lord knows I have enough spare bearded heads lying around...).  The dress isn't perfect, but I'm not of the "counting buttons" caliber of historical accuracy when it comes to my minis, either.  I would probably avoid the hooded head, but for Normans, Anglo-Danes, maybe even Vikings...?

[TWD]

I'd say insufficiently hirsute and the bows are too big for Dark Ages.
They're aiming for a Long Bow look and DA armies would have used smaller bows than that.
More suitable for Lion Rampant middle and later Middle Ages than the SAGA (early) period.
But if you swapped in some bearded or moustachioed heads from the GB boxes you could kind of get away with it.

Personally I don't think they're very nice models (though an improvement on their foot knights) and would just buy some metals. Life's too short to assemble and paint models you don't like IMO. You only need 12 levy for most SAGA forces, so buying ugly models seems like false economy to me.

[Whitwort Stormbringer]

Any other suggestions other than Gripping Beast for levy?  I've never been overly fond of most of their metal archer minis, and they're a bit pricey for my tastes.

I'm not dedicated to plastic, but I am trying to keep my SAGA warband building on a fairly strict budget.  Seems like Old Glory would be only marginally more expensive than the Eccentric plastics, and would require no converting, but it's very difficult to tell how good the minis are from their photos.

[Sir_Theo]

For affordability ypu can't beat the Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors plastic set,  or the Saxondale Fyrd, Viking Bondi wargames factory sets. You can make warriors or Levies with the options available in all 3.

[v_lazy_dragon]

You could wait until Black Tree have their Saxons or vikings on sale? They're often on up to 25% off...

[Whitwort Stormbringer]

Thanks for the suggestions!

I do like GB's unarmored Dark Ages warriors, but they're not really very good for archer conversions.  The poses are just too restrictive, and the left arms molded against the body make arm swaps difficult.

I like the WGF minis, too, but even though that set comes with bows none of the arms look very natural holding them, IMO.  Maybe those guys with bow arms from somewhere else?

I'll keep an eye on Black Tree for sales, too.

[Timbor]

I don't see why they could not work with some head swaps and a decent paintjob.  Once they are painted and based and seen from tabletop distance, you should be fine with the eccentric ones.

That being said, you could always troll the sales threads or ebay for some second hand stuff... I am sure you will find some stuff to suit your needs eventually.

[Vermis]

Rise, thread.

I've only just noticed these myself. I was considering Eccentric's shield and weapon sprues for adding to Perry, GBP etc, for ASoIaF northmen and Night's Watch, coming relatively close to GRRM-approved examples like this and this, and thought these might be somewhat useful for mixing things up too. (not their heads, though, and I could probably get all the bits I want from Perry HYW and GBP DA anyway, but meh) I don't suppose anyone's sampled these since the topic was started?

or the Saxondale Fyrd

Who's Fyrd...?

[Garanhir]

My auto-correct tries to do the same with the word "Saxon".

[Atheling]

I'd say insufficiently hirsute and the bows are too big for Dark Ages.
They're aiming for a Long Bow look and DA armies would have used smaller bows than that.

If I may interject..... the Norse were using bows of the same proportions as the average archer during the HYW- perhaps not the same draw weight but certainly made of Yew and of the same design.

Obviously they were not used in sufficient numbers to cause the havoc that the English Warbow was to cause later on but they were around and weren't uncommon. The same goes for the archers at Hastings, they would have used a similar bow.

I hope that helps?

BTW, I don't like the miniatures very much, they appear too stiff. Maybe it's the paint jobs? Anyway, each to their own as they say  

[rumacara]

Or you can wait until the plastic dark ages archers are released from Conquest Games.

[Whitwort Stormbringer]

Or you can wait until the plastic dark ages archers are released from Conquest Games.

Yeah, that's the new plan!

[Atheling]

Yeah, that's the new plan!

Yeah, probably a much better plan than buying for the very wooden looking Eccentric miniatures- the irony of the stiff sculpts and their name, Eccentric, is not lost on me! 

Darrell.

[DrunkenSamurai]

I used Wargames Factory plastics for my archers.  They are mix of the Viking Bondi and Saxon Fyrd sets.  I think they look pretty good but the Saxons have really long necks that should be cut down a bit.

http://dspaintingblog.blogspot.com/2014/12/wargames-factory-dark-age-archers.html

[Atheling]

I used Wargames Factory plastics for my archers.  They are mix of the Viking Bondi and Saxon Fyrd sets.  I think they look pretty good but the Saxons have really long necks that should be cut down a bit.

http://dspaintingblog.blogspot.com/2014/12/wargames-factory-dark-age-archers.html

I'm not too keen on their mini's either..... still, as I said earlier, each to their own

Darrell.