Koyote's SAGA Britons, Irish,Late Romans, and Saxons

[Koyote]

Remarkable stuff. Love the conversions and paintwork. Do you rate the new Gripping Beast Irish plastics?

I haven’t seen the GB plastic Irish in person, but I have seen photos of the sprues and of assembled figures.  Also, I own and have assembled minis using many of GB's other plastic kits  (i.e., Dark Age Warriors, Late Roman Infantry, Arab Infantry, Arab Heavy Cav), so I am familiar with their products.

Since Wargames Atlantic released their own Dark Age Irish kit last year, a comparison between the two kits will help highlight some of the shortcomings of the Gripping Beast kit.

COST

The Gripping Beast kit sells for £18 ($25) and includes 25 models, which comes to £0.72 ($1) per model.

The Wargames Atlantic kit sells for £25 ($34) and includes 40 models, which comes to £0.63 ($0.85) per model


OPTIONS

As you can see from the side-by-side images below, the Wargames Atlantic sprue includes a greater variety of weapons, shield options, and fun 'extra bits' than the Gripping Beast Sprue.  Just look at all of that empty (wasted) space on the Gripping Beast sprue that could have been filled with extra bits.  What a shame.

The Gripping Beast sprue has one more cloak than the Wargames Atlantic sprue, but two of the Gripping Beast cloaks have extra details (e.g.,tassels) that were not executed particularly well, so I am going to call the ‘cloak contest’ a wash.

From the perspective of a SAGA player, the one thing that Gripping Beast got right that Wargames Atlantic got wrong is the decision to include dane axes (heavy weapons) on the sprue.  On the other hand, Wargames Atlantic includes missile weapons on its sprue (e.g., a sling and a thrown rock), whereas GB does not. Wargames Atlantic doesn't get full credit for this because, as I've stated before, I would MUCH rather that Wargames Atlantic had included a second sling than a hand throwing a stupid rock.  Or if they insisted on the rock, then ditch one of the javelins and include a second sling.

As a SAGA player, Wargames Atlantic scores additional points by adding two wolfhounds to each sprue, but for non-SAGA players I can imagine that the wolfhounds may not be much of a selling point.

Also, I f*cking LOVE the blackthorn shillelaghs (cudgels) on the Wargames Atlantic sprue!  It's such a novel and well executed choice of weapons for Dark Age Irish.


Gripping Beast Irish Sprue (left) Wargames Atlantic Irish Sprue (right)



SCULPTS

The Gripping Beast bodies and poses are mediocre, uninspiring, and thanks to their short necks, appear slightly hunched.  The spear shafts are too thick and the spearheads too large. The sword hilts and blades are blocky and boring. A couple of the heads are okay, but most are meh.  The arms are generally short and stubby, and the hands are not well defined.

The Wargames Atlantic bodies and poses are in an entirely different league than the Gripping Beast bodies.  The clothing is much more varied and their wide stances make the models look more heroic.  The size, scale, and design of their spear/javelins is a huge improvement over the Gripping Beast spears. The sword hilts, blades, and scabbards are more more refined and interesting. Most of the heads are quite good and overall there exists a good variety of head and facial hair styles.  The facial features are bit cartoony, but in my opinion, this makes them easier to paint.  Overall, the arms are a good length (a few are a bit short) and the hands are well defined, but the size of the fists on the bodies and the fists holding some of the weapons are a bit mismatched.


Overall, Gripping Beasts's Irish kit is no worse than its other plastic kits, but IMHO, with companies like Victrix and Atlantic Wargames now producing Dark Age/Viking Age plastics, Gripping Beast needs to stop making plastics kits like its still 2013.  To make their plastics competitive, Gripping Beast must improve the quality of their sculpts, figure design, and sprue design. 

[RedRowan]

That's a really great comparison of the two sets.

I have some of the Wargames Atlantic Irish but the Gripping Beast set just didn't appeal to me which is a shame. Agree that they seem a little dated when compared to some other modern plastic kits.

Steve

[Ogrob]

Also thought GB missed the mark on their set, and looking at the sprues you are very much correct about the empty space on there. I mean, 7 different heads for 5 different bodies is really quite poor.

[Grumpy Gnome]

I quite agree with you guys. Great comparison Koyote, very informative.

[Koyote]

Here are my first four lightly converted (see page 20 of this thread) Wargames Atlantic Irish slingers. 

They were a delight to paint.

I f*cking love this kit! 

[Ninefingers]

I bought a box of the GB Irish and they mix in alright with my two already built boxes of WA Irish, but I did find myself using a lot of left over bits from the WA sprues to make the GB models better and more varied. I think I would have been disappointed if I had just bought the GB on their own.

[Little Odo]

Slightly off-topic - My son got a box of the WA Irish for Christmas, and I agree they are lovely sculpts, but the box says 32 miniatures - there are only 30 (plus 10 hounds) that I can see (5 identical sprues with 6 warriors and two hounds on each). Have I missed something or was this a printing mistake on the box?

[Koyote]

Slightly off-topic - My son got a box of the WA Irish for Christmas, and I agree they are lovely sculpts, but the box says 32 miniatures - there are only 30 (plus 10 hounds) that I can see (5 identical sprues with 6 warriors and two hounds on each). Have I missed something or was this a printing mistake on the box?

The hounds are miniatures.  They are too large to be mere base decorations.  As such, 30 warriors + 10 hounds = 40 miniatures.

[Little Odo]

Thanks Koyote. We must have got an older box (says 2nd priniting on the side) that mentions 32 miniatures? Main thing is, he has got the right amount according to what it says on your box below.

[Koyote]

Definitely add a blacksmith mate.

Below is an excerpt from an 8th or 9th century prayer of protection ascribed to Saint Patrick, titled: Saint Patrick's Breastplate.

I have set around me all these powers
Against every hostile savage power
Directed against my body and my soul
Against the incantations of false prophets
Against the black laws of heathenism
Against the false laws of heresy
Against the deceits of idolatry
Against the spells of women, and blacksmiths and druids
Against all knowledge that binds the soul of man

My warband represents an early Viking Age warband from a clan that has not (yet) converted to Christianity.  And since warband already includes both women warriors and a druid, it would be a shame not to add a blacksmith.

[Grumpy Gnome]

Great work mate!

[Ajax]

Fantastic topic, great work !

[glenning]

Awesome stuff, very inspirational to say the least! Keep up the great work!

[Axebreaker]

Beautiful work on the whole collections!

Christopher

[Koyote]

Four more slingers completed, four to go.