Saga Anglo-Danes

I bought these figures at Warfare 2012 at the same time as the Vikings from my earlier blog post. At the time my intention had been to but the Anglo-Danes as my army – the Vikings were cheap opposition (hence the plastic box set), but for some reason in the end the Vikings got painted first. As with the Vikings these figures have been painted for a while but it's taken me ages to put their pictures up here.

My Anglo-Danes were a 4-point Saga box set from Gripping Beast which I supplemented with the Harold Godwinson blister and (though bought a year later) eight metal hearthguard with spears from Crusader Miniatures.

My Anglo-Danish army (minus Harold and his brothers)

Not exactly the best of army lists – some levy would be handy - but quite pretty anyway!

Anglo-Danish hearthguard with Dane Axes

On the painting table immediately after my Viking berserkers, these four Dane axe armed hearthguard were some of the earliest 28mm figures I painted, probably because of some trepidation about facing shield designs. They’re not the best paint job in the world, but they’ll do.

Anglo-Danish warriors (1)

Next up were the two lots of eight warriors. I reasoned that these would give me some good practice at basic shield designs, but wouldn’t need to be particularly detailed (reserving that for the hearthguard).

Anglo-Danish warriors (2)

If I did these again I would replace the lead spears provided by Gripping Beast with ones made from brass wire – which looks a bit less like they’re armed with telegraph poles.

Gripping Beast Anglo-Danish hearthguard with spears

 The four Gripping Beast hearthguard with spears were next. Nice figures and I managed to get some reasonable detail on them. Again, I’d replace their spears if I were to do them again, but I’m pretty happy with them anyway.

Crusader Miniatures Saxon Huscarls with spears (1) – used here as Anglo-Danish hearthguard

Crusader Miniatures Saxon Huscarls with spears (2)

Though completed a few months later, I’ve put the Crusader Miniatures hearthguard here so that they’re alongside the others. My painting has definitely improved! But the big difference is that these chaps are armed with spears made from brass wire. After detailed comparison of different wires (as you do) I settled on 0.8mm brass rod, which is about half way between the cast lead spears that come with the figures, and the pre-made brass spears that you can by separately. There’s no satisfying some people! These were cut to the length of the Gripping Beast spears (although this is too long when you think about it), then one end is flattened by hitting it with a hammer and the tip is then filed to shape. It sounds fiddly but only takes a few minutes and is well worth the effort as I think you will agree.

Anglo-Danish warlord

I had a bit of an issue with the Anglo-Danish warlord because his open hand was miscast – so it was amputated and replaced with a plastic one which I think actually works a little better with the Dane Axe. I doubt if anyone will notice. This chap not having a shield to tart up, I tried to get some good detail on the rest of the figure, in particular the hem of his cloak and his stripey trousers.

Harold Godwinson and his brothers

Harold and his brothers ended up being a work in progress for a long time. The brothers were completed pretty early, as was most of Harold to be honest – hence the paint job is not the best, but I was really unhappy with Harold’s base for a long time. Finally I bit the bullet and converted one of the few spare plastic Vikings into a dead body for him to gloat over, and that seems to have sorted it out.

Harold gloating over a dead Viking