I am inches away from jumping on to the dark ages wagon as well at the moment. Only I can't decide wether to go for Vikings (any scandinavian wargamer ought to have at the very least a viking warband, in my opinion), Saxons or Arthurian British (Which would of course be a very much earlier period. But theres some cool minis)
How did you find the Gripping Beast plastics? From the pictures, they look pretty great - You've got some really good results, as these pictures demonstrate! I am thinking of just getting one of the newly launched plastic starters from GB, but something somewhere in my mind is telling me to go for much less affordable metals. Castingroom miniatures (foundry) Saxons look particularly tempting, especially since they have free shipping for the rest of 2015.
Thats a rather longwinded way of asking for your opinion on those plastics
Anyways - Always great to see things you paint.