In the Grim Darkness of the Seventh Century A.D. |
There is only Moody Posing |
Another quick change of pace. Here are some models from Mierce!
I'm a big fan of their range, although their prices are nasty. The resin they use is very light and crisp, rather brittle actually, and although they don't have a good reputation on some forums (Kickstarter nonsense, apparently), I've had a good experience of the product.
Their humans are actually a little smaller than GW Heroic Scale. Weapons and details are extremely fine, which makes them daunting to paint. Many of their heroes are a good match for Warhammer, though, and their monsters are generally huge! And also extremely good sculpts.
First up is the foretold replacement Viking Warlord, one 'Knutr of Hrafn'. Mierce have an absolute bee in their bonnet about difficult to pronounce model names, Canute of Raven here being no exception.
This double-handed axeman is clearly unimpressed by the foe. Just casually hanging tough, thinking about the good old days, when beards were beards and bases were square. The raven on his shield is moulded on, not freehand, and a right shit to paint. The shield is about 1mm thick, like a fingernail in consistency, and the ridges on the bird are half that. Bleh.
Small base, so not ideal for a SAGA warlord. Mierce bases have a raised lip, too, which is a bit wierd to fill up with flock. Luckily, I had a second one to try out (and to put on a bigger base).
Horses for Norses |
Same paint scheme, just plus a big grey horse. And some breaking ice for base flare.
The dappling isn't quite authentic, because that would be too hard. And it ought to have a white face. Hey ho (neigh ho?) - can't have it all.
Next up - Trollface!
This whole selection is a grab bag of misformed resin they were flogging off cheap. My lucky dip came up trumps, with some tremendous chunks for the bits box (including a headless, armless giant) and several complete if mildly flawed models. There will be more trolls to come, once I can find replacement limbs that do the bodies justice.
The armoured carapace on this one made me think of a crab, so I went with crab paste orange. Ah, happy sandwich memories from my youth. Top sculpt, this, amazing detail on the axes and shields.
A white belly, in keeping with the crab idea. |
Finally, something for my long-neglected Chaos army.
The Norwegian Blue. Beautiful plumage. |
The bits bag was Norse themed (can you tell?) and the outlier model was this giant raven man. He's a shoe-in for a Tzeentchian Prince, so I've painted him like a massive parrot. Obviously.
His loincloth and fingernails are Polished Green, one of my remaining and cherished pots of Citadel novelty metallics from back in the day. The base flare is made from somebody's banner pole (Chaos Knights, I think) and a spell effect marker base from Heroquest's brilliant Wizards of Morcar expansion. Pat on the back for you if you spotted that.
Back to Space Marines next week!
I suspect there is some extra negativity tied to Mierce because of their relationship to Maelstrom Games, who didn't depart from the scene in the most popular way. The models are certainly nice.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's what I'd heard. Same CEO or something, right? Also I think some of Mierce's Kickstarters have been a bit uncommunicative and slow to their backers. Nothing that's bothered me, though, and the models are fantastic.
DeleteVery strong Viking warlord, and that Troll looks awesome (would fit in well with the LotR ones, depending on the scale) - and all this came from a grab bag of rejects?
ReplyDeleteAye! I am very pleased indeed with it. The troll, for example, is missing one toe claw. Raven dude doesn't fit together quite as well as nature intended, and is missing a pommel. Viking man has a tiny hole in one shield and a fractured horse ear (green stuff replacements). And I've got enough torsos to build a massive giant, three more trolls, assorted viking serfs and (best of all) two Bloodvores!
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