Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Medieval Adventures => Topic started by: Antonio J Carrasco on May 27, 2018, 03:19:09 PM
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Finally! After a long, long time, today I've finished my Saga Vikings!
It has been a long story. It started 22 years ago, when I first bought, on an impulse, the first Vikings that Gripping Beast released. I fantasized about painting an army, but life intervened and never did. However, I didn't forgot. So, when Wargames Foundry announced their own Viking range I joined their Standing Order system -you got one of each blister, a month earlier than the general public, and always they gave away some extras-. I painted about 12 figures and stopped. Again. They were there, alone, waiting for their mates to be painted. Sometime in the summer of 2008 I decided to give them another try and painted another 12 miniatures... but then my wife got sick -a very aggressive lung cancer- and passed away. To be honest it took me a while to recover the interest in miniatures -or anything else... luckily I had my kids and they kept me sane!-. Anyway, then, last year, I learnt that Saga 2 was about to be published, so I thought that having those 24 painted Vikings, plus quite a few unpainted, I could give them a second (third) chance and see if I could finish the warband this time.
Well, I did. Today, this morning, I gave the final touches to the bases of my three last army points: two of hearthguards (Footsore Miniatures) and one of berserkers (V&V Miniatures). The rest of the warband is composed by 5 points of warriors (40 miniatures), 1 point of levies (12 archers) and, of course, the Warlord.
A picture of the last guys to join my Viking warband!
(https://i.imgur.com/bAwOVxY.jpg?1)
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I have a couple of comments to make here. 1.Your figures are superb. The colours are so subtle. They look amazing and are a real credit to you. 2. The bases. Again, outstanding. I have tried for years to achieve something similar and consistently, fail. I have hundreds of painted but unbased figures boxed up because I can't get it right. If you could find it in yourself to share your secret here on LAF, I for one would be eternally gratefull. It's up there with the best. Thanks for showing.
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They look fantastic - well done.
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Really good looking minis, please upload some more pics of your army
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Very nice :)
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I have a couple of comments to make here. 1.Your figures are superb. The colours are so subtle. They look amazing and are a real credit to you. 2. The bases. Again, outstanding. I have tried for years to achieve something similar and consistently, fail. I have hundreds of painted but unbased figures boxed up because I can't get it right. If you could find it in yourself to share your secret here on LAF, I for one would be eternally gratefull. It's up there with the best. Thanks for showing.
Hi!
First of all, thanks for your compliments.
Bases are really simple. I have been trying a lot of different combinations for ages, until, finally, I found one that I believe it works.
I use Vallejo Earth Texture Dark Earth (26.218) as the base. It is a dark fine sandy texture. It contracts a bit when dry. While still wet, I drop a few coarse "rocks". I use Army Painter coarse sand because the pebbles have the right size and they have irregular shapes, but cat litter (you want fine litter rather than coarser) should work. Remember that here less is more: just three or four "rocks" are enough.
Then I paint the base with Vallejo Beige Brown (875). I use a drybrush, but very generous, as I want to cover practically all the darker base.
Second hand is Vallejo Brown Sand (876). I also drybrush the whole base, but this time a little bit more controlled.
Finally, I give a very, very light drybrush of Vallejo Dark Sand (847), concentrating in the edges of the "rocks".
I finish the base with a couple of tufts, usually to cover some mistakes -where the brush slipped and made a mess of a boot, for instance- or just because they look good there. Again, less is, usually, more. A couple of tufts work well enough. I use Gamers grass tufts (Dry Green and Lavender flowers, in this case). They are a small business in Portugal that, in my humble opinion, make the best tufts for wargamers (just put another order!)
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Really good looking minis, please upload some more pics of your army
Thanks! Will do!
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Superb flesh tones and shading! Thanks for the basing tutorial, very useful!
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Thanks for the heads up on your basing technique. I will give it a go myself this week. Maybe the search will finally be over....
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Sounds like it’s been a long and hard journey. They look great. Well done :)
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Wonderful painting and great basing. :-*
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Congratulations to have them battle ready at last! The really look good!
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Great looking Vikings! As others have said top notch basing too!
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It’s lovely when a project comes to fruition. I particularly like the blonde hair and skin tones on the Nordic types , the clothing ,the mail and the steel items are all well handled . 10 out of 10 .
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Really wonderful looking figures - very well done and please share some more pics of this force ;)
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Thanks for the compliments, guys!
I must say that working with figures with the quality of Footsore or V&V is a real joy. They ease the painting process a lot.
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Sounds like it’s been a long and hard journey.
This. truly a "real life's project" this and brilliantly executed. Great choice of colours, nice work on the bases. Love it :)
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Very beautiful!
How do you think V&V and Footsore scale? I have the V&V Normans and the Footsore Normans and imo the size difference is very noticeable.
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Very beautiful!
How do you think V&V and Footsore scale? I have the V&V Normans and the Footsore Normans and imo the size difference is very noticeable.
Thanks!
As you see in the picture, they are relatively similar in size. V&V are slightly bigger, but it's hardly noticeable once painted. I can't say if Normans are different, as I have neither. Maybe is a different sculptor for their Viking and Norman ranges? I know that Normans are from Paul Hicks, but I don't know if he did also the Vikings. They don't look his style, but I can't say for sure.