Monday 30 June 2014

Gripping Beast Plastic Vikings

As I flutter from project to project I alighted on my box of Gripping Beast plastic Vikings.
I think this may be inspired by the Viking Conference I went to at the weekend

Anyway, I have half a plan to make a Viking army to play against my Saxons - the first historical army I collected and one that I have never used as an army, only parts of it have seen action in SAGA games.

So whilst retrieving Boarboyz from the loft I grabbed a sprue of these to make a start.

I have to say that I found them quite fiddly to put together and am not entirely convinced by the resulting poses (some of which is my fault, but I think the kit has to shoulder some of the blame) and some of the heads seem very out of scale to me. I enjoyed glueing the Orcs together considerably more.



Anyway, I've assembled these ten.

To see if a lick of paint improved my opinion I've slapped some basic colours and washes on three.





I like them better now, and they were pretty simple to paint (though they need a few highlights). But I'm still not convinced by the poses. I think I'll finish this box, but the rest of the army (ha, as if I'll ever get that far!) will be mostly metal.

For rules I'm thinking of using the Crusader set I bought several years ago and seeing how that works out.

6 comments:

  1. I have to agree, these are not the best models in the world. GB saxons are quite nice, but the vikings (even their metals) are poor. It's a tough job finding decent affordable vikings.

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    1. I was thinking of you and your experiences with the box as I typed this!
      Think I'll get some Crusader ones next, I generally like Mark Sims sculpting-nice and chunky.
      Tom

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    2. I may have some spare Steve Barbers too if you're interested.

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    3. Thanks Matt.
      Fairly sure my muse will wander off somewhere else before I even get these finished, but I'll bear it in mind.

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  2. I went with Drabant Miniatures in the end and am very pleased with them, available in the UK from Old Glory. Worth a look!

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    1. Yes someone posted some of those on Lead Adventure, they don't look bad.

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