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| The Axeman Cometh |
Another slight conversion of the Anglo-Saxon Thegn plastics - replacing a spear haft with an axe head, to give the impression of a two-handed weapon.
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| The Axeman Departh |
The Dane-Axes are allowed their armour save for missile fire, so I assume that means they have shields, but sling them for combat. Sometimes intent is hard to read with the SAGA statline - each troop is merely given a number - which does at least give you some freedom to model.
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| The woodwind section. |
I'll once again extol the virtues of the Gripping Beasts plastics - a nice amount of detail to work with, but still very quick to paint. As with the warlord, a black undercoat set me up and I was off and away with the drybrushed metal and the earth colours.
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| My most ambitious attempt at shield freehand. This is why I stick to geometry. |
My other attempt at converting looks less impressive - I'm not sure the axe is being held in a convincing stance, or a convincing way. Still, he looks like he could be posturing for effect.
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| Power stance. |
I mentioned the details on the miniatures. There are some great belts and buckles, and most of the torsos come with crosses (so I'll assume these Danes have been converted from their pagan ways - or else are really big fans of the arithmetical symbol for addition).
The last huscarl is armed in a more straightforward way: regular axe and shield. I have some Hammer of the Gods bitz from Kraken, which includes double-handed weapon arms, so I'll be able to build some proper Dane Axes eventually.
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| 'Tis but a small chopper. |
Since this one still has an axe, I figure I can use him in either configuration, should I need to (like splitting three points of Hearthguard into two groups of six, one with Dane Axes and one without).
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| He could even be throwing that axe (assuming he is a fan of Kirk Douglas in The Vikings). |
And that's one unit of Huscarls finished.
Eorlas fornoman asca þryþe wæpen wælgifru,
I painted a real life viking shield once, back in the day when I was a reenactor. My helm is off to your freehand, sir, given that even with a full-sized version I managed something that looked like a green fried egg.
ReplyDeleteAlso, what did you paint that horn with? It looks particularly horn-like. Horny, perhaps one should say.
Thanks, I struggle with painting in two dimensions - if I can't ink and drybrush it, I'm all at sea.
DeleteI don't think I did anything special with the horn: Ushabti Bone base, and then a wash of Agrax Earthshade - although I did try and manoeuvre the ink into position, rather than just slap it on. I also tried some light and shade into the hole, to try and give depth (would have been easier to drill it).