SAGA: My Saga begins - 1st point of Hearthguard

The next Point for my Gotlanders - the first 4 Hearthguards, all 4 Figures are from Gripping Beast.

If playing my Gotlanders as Anglo-Danes (so I can use Daneaxes) there will be 2 units of Hearthguard, 6 Figures with normal weapons and 6 more with the mentioned Daneaxes.

Accordingly, here are 4 Guards with normal hand-weapons and shields; as with all my SAGA-Figures before: all shields are freehand:

As this will be the last post for this year, I wish you all God Jul / a wonderful festive season and a Happy New Year; or as we say in Germany to the latter: Einen Guten Rutsch ins Neue Jahr!

Read More

SAGA: My Saga begins - 2nd unit of warriors

After a break that lasted a bit longer than expected (job and family left almost no time for the hobby), at least here are one more point for my Gotlanders - 8 more warriors.

This time the figures are a mixture of Gripping Beast and V&V, the latter are made from resin and very cleanly cast ones with many outstanding details; a real joy to paint them!

Without further ado, here are the pictures:

First an overview:

The 4 Gripping Beast figures:

And here are the 4 figures from V&V:

Next one will be the first unit Heathguards - I hope this time it will not be that long again before this unit gets ready ;-)

Hope you enjoy it!

Read More

Spielbericht / AAR: Black Powder AWI - Somewhere near Harlem Heights

Last Friday we had a small game using Black Powder rules, which was intended to bring 2 new players to the rules.
So we set up nothing fancy - a simple meeting engagement with small woods, a sunken road, fences and so on.
Both sides had equal forces and we didn´t use special rules for the different units, just 1st Fire for the regulars, skirmnishing for the lights and - well, militia for the militia ;-)
Miniatures and terrain from Holger and Heinz. Rudi and Robert (the new players) commanded the British, Georg and me the Americans.

It was an exciting and fun game with a clear victory from the British who have completely defeated our right flank - the dice gods were definitely not on our side *gg*

Read More

SAGA: My Saga begins - 1st unit of warriors

The next part of my future Gotlanders - the first point of 8 warriors, miniatures are Gripping Beast, Shieldwall and Wargames Factory.

This is also my first attempt to depict damage and dust on the shields and as you can easily see, I still have to practice a lot, but that´s life ;-)

And here are the pictures.

Read More

SAGA: My SAGA begins - Archers

One of my next projects, which will certainly keep me busy for the next few months, is the painting of a troop for SAGA.

Since I had been in the reenactment for a long time and had built up a gotlandic representation for the beginning of the 11th century by means of grave finds, my first army will orient itself accordingly.
However, I will play my Gotlanders not as Viking, but as Anglo-Danes - reason are the corresponding grave finds in the various graveyards, in which quite often axe heads of Daneaxes have been found.

As far as equipment and clothing are concerned, my Gotlanders will have an Eastern influence.
There are hardly any finds of helmets and garments on Gotland, but I am guided here by the representations of the numerous sculptures on which repeatedly pointed helmets, bobbing trousers etc. are recognizable.

Some of the mentioned pictures from Gotland:

And here is the 1st point (of the planned 6) for my Gotlanders/Anglo-Danes - a unit of 12 levy archers.
Miniatures are a mix from Wargames Factory, Gripping Beast and Shieldwall Miniatures.

Read More