Saga - Vikings

[Ragnar]

Excellent warband Michi.

[FierceKitty]

I suspect that green could have been sold for the price of three ships in the dark ages. It certainly wasn't something anyone would have seen before!

[Ragnar]

...green... It certainly wasn't something anyone would have seen before!

Just curious, what is your basis for this statement?

Edit:  Here is a study with citations saying that green was known.  https://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/vikdyes.html

[Cubs]

This was interesting, something I'd never considered - "The chemical evidence of textiles from several different sites seems to point to a preponderance of particular colors appearing in particular areas: reds in the Danelaw, purples in Ireland, and blues and greens in Scandinavia proper".

[FierceKitty]

There are plenty of sites showing the colours you could get from pre-industrial revolution sources.

[Mindenbrush]

Various greens could be achieved by dying materials with common yellow dyes and over dying with woad or indigo

[Duncan McDane]

Interesting link, thanks for sharing. Also, note that trade was widespread during that time, so especially the elite troops could afford a wider range of colors than local available.

[Michi]

I live under the impression that particularly the Vikings were great traders as well as ruthless plunderers and loved to show their wealth to both their kin and everybody else. If any dark ages folk would have had access to anything I can image it would have been them. I will continue to clad them in bright and gaudy fabrics and give them vividly painted and ornamented shields... 

[Amalric]

Michi,
These are great looking Vikings!
I'd hate to run into them on a dark and stormy beach.

I love the hand painted shields, especially  the monster face [dragon?] on the one third from the left in the photo below.

[Maniac]

I live under the impression that particularly the Vikings were great traders as well as ruthless plunderers and loved to show their wealth to both their kin and everybody else. If any dark ages folk would have had access to anything I can image it would have been them. I will continue to clad them in bright and gaudy fabrics and give them vividly painted and ornamented shields... 

Vikings were the 'metros' of their time.  Contrary to popular belief, they bathed more often than most Christians, generally favored bright and flashy clothes if they could afford them, and spent a lot of time on personal grooming (tiny spoons to clean out ear wax have been found in grave goods as well as combs, razors, tweezers, and more).

It was a way to display wealth and importance as well as considered good social form (offering a weary traveler a hot bath to wash the grime off was considered good form).  Blonde hair, as an example, was more prevalent due to using lye to wash their hair and kill off lice.  Not because they were all intrinsically platinum blonde.

At any rate, really excellent freehand work on the shields.

[bluewillow]

Great stuff Michi, love the hand painted shields also, particularly your monster.

Cheers
Matt

[Michi]

I love resurrecting my own old threads... 

Therefore I painted more Vikings. This happens from time to time and one can never have enough variety to choose from for the composition of the best warband to deploy against a specific opponent. So like every good Viking chieftain I like to pick my warriors from plenty of the best to man my longboats!






 

[Blackwolf]

“The tide is high but I’m moving on”

Very nice

[Atheling]

Charming brushwork 

Who makes the miniatures with the Dane axes? They look very familiar but I cannot place them 

[OSHIROmodels]

Great stuff