Work in Progress Viking Longship. Some work left to do. I’ve ended up painting over the decals, but they need touching up, and maybe replace some of the worst ones. I replaced the sail decal for one of my own, but in the end I opted for a furled sail, using a wet wipe for the canvas. I added more rigging, strengthening and thickening the ones in the kit with unwinded hemp twine. Because it is unravelled, it is a bit frayed, but I can wipe it down with PVA to pull it together once it’s dry and set. The blades of the oars also need painting.
Then I’ll look at dry brushing and highlighting.
That’s to say nothing of the 30+ crew, or the base. I’m thinking about having a Diorama style base of cresting a storm driven wave with the fore deck and first oars sticking up out of the sea, in that moment before it crashes down in a spray of water.
it is at that point that a more cautious person might put down his tools and say, “Stop while you’re ahead.”
Me, on the other hand…
Great job so far! I can never get enough complicated ship builds, looking forward to seeing your crew set in…
many thanks Kelly.
So the plan is to have both a diorama base for Kings of War, and a stand alone seascape diorama when I add the two side parts to the ship itself. And hold them in place on a larger diorama base
I’ll need more nomorenails or clear silicone sealant to create the tips of the waves and the frothing around the oars
The footprint of the main base is 200mm x 80 mm , perfect for an infantry horde in Kings of War, although generally a bit deep for Hail Caesar Vikings which would only need 40mm deep, (2 ranks deep)
Apart from a crew, the Viking Longship in stormy weather is pretty much done, (although I might give the plaque another wash to bring out the writing. ) With the extended base complete, I can field a horde of Bondi, using just the Longship and crew, in KoW, or slot it snuggly, and carefully between the rest of the seascape to make a full Diorama.
Also, the first five Vikings are done too: a Thane and four Ulfhednar berserkers. I have the first 20 Bondi half painted.
Almost complete, I reviewed my Viking Ulfhedhar berserkers and can split them into two units of 10 skirmishers or 2 troops of fanatics. One unit with two handed axes, the other with hand weapons and shield.
With the 20 berserkers getting their final touch ups, i decided make a full HQ diorama with the Jarl and his personal bodyguards,including a Battle Standard Bearer and a Skald, with the Jarl’s base dropping into a upside down base to sit comfortably or be removed if needed on a smaller base.
Another ten crewmen added to the longboat. As luck would have it i finally found a good angle to photograph it to really capture the original concept of the ship cresting the top of a stormy wave
Some changes on my Viking Longship. I was unhappy with my first attempt to put decals on the shields ( next time, I’ll prime the shields front and back and add the metalwork paint, before adding the decals, and only then put them on the model . (Ship or warrior. )
Also I wasn’t really happy with the oars floating above the stormy sea. The model has both a full sail and a rack of oars on each side, but in reality that isn’t very common. From what little I know of seafaring, the ship needs to be either tied up/beached or moving into the storm rather than bob around at the whims of the wind and waves. As the sail is a bit naff I opted for oars and tied up an homemade sail. Given that I wanted to still use the sailors as a horde of Bondi for Wargaming, the diorama is in three parts so that the middle section is detachable as a horde, so I changed the oars to mainly be in the sea, trimming them off to slip the ship end to tuck under the shields when fitted together. …thankfully that works.
Four small units of light infantry/ Bondi: 2 each of archers or hand weapon and shields to make either troops or 2 regiments. One of each are Shield Maidens using left over Northern Alliance half elf heads ( a few Miaids.)
The wash had made them shiny so ill need to matt finish them
From the look of it, I may have used up all my Bondi, Next off the production line are 16 hirdmen for a regiment of 2 handed axes, primed and ready to start painting.
I’m hoping to purchase some of the Krumvaal Northern Alliance from Shieldwolf Miniatures: who make some great Shieldmaiden Infantry/Rangers as well as Valkyries
My Viking army is coming along nicely, with the following units:
1 Viking Lord/Jarl
The longship horde of Bondi (Light Infantry)
2 troops of Bondi archers, (One of which are Shield Maidens)( Light Infantry)
2 troops of Bondi with hand weapon and shield, (One of which are Shield Maidens) (Light Infantry)
A troop unit of Hirdmen with hand weapon and shield (Heavy Infantry)
A regiment or two troops of Two handed ‘Dane axe’ weilding Hirdmen (Heavy Infantry)
and 20 Fanatics Ulfhednar.
I’m currently building 20 more Hirdmen, which will be either spear and shield.
and still have a spare 16 Hirdmen to build. (some of which will help bolster the Longship crew, as there are only 25 crewmen on it so far.
There are a few extras from my Northern Aliance army, (The non Mantic bits) that could bolster the army as extra heroes or shaman : Seidr / Volve for example.
The Vikings would obviously fit snugly into the Northern Alliance force, but for the fact that I already have a strong Mantic models heavy option for that.
Looking at the non historic armies in KoW, I’m now leaning more towards Kingdom of Men rather than Varangur.
My challenge will not be as much what units to use in KoW, but more what to use that will also be permissable in Historic too.
Also, in building units, historically, any Norse 'army/raiding party would be armed with a variety of weapons and armour within a ‘unit’, so i have tended to build my units thus, while giving some unit preference to try and have a unit theme to identify them easily.