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| A dramatic image of Vikings fighting Skraelings |
Since I first heard
of Gripping Beast's limited edition Skraeling boxed set, and realised it was no
longer available, I've been hankering after some of these, and recently reading
The Vinland Sagas has only made me keener.
You can download the rules and a battle board for the Skraeling faction in Saga from Studio Tomahawk.
The Vinland Sagas -
the original tales of the Viking adventures in North America - are two
separate documents, both of which are recommended reading that won't take you
more than about an hour to get through. The Saga of the Icelanders and The Saga
of Erik the Red are both very short, and the bits that take part in Vinland
even shorter, only a few paragraphs in each tale in fact. Both sagas also tell
pretty much the same story, at least as far as Vinland is concerned.
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| The Vinland map (which may well be a fake) |
Vinland (named so
after the vines that were found there) refers to an area of coastal North
America and Newfoundland beyond Greenland. Its precise location and extent is
still subject to controversy. Vikings referred to many indigenous peoples they
came across in their travels as Skraelings (a derogatory term meaning something
like "barbarian", or "foreigner"). The Skraelings we are talking about
here were most likely to have been woodland Red Indians of a culture that was
later to become part of the Iroqois nation. They might have looked something
like the later Mohicans, although there are no contemporary depictions to
confirm this.
With the Gripping
Beast Skraelings unavailable, all is not lost. Two manufacturers currently
produce 28mm Skraeling figures, and there are other figures available that are
strictly more modern but which could be used with some conversion, for example,
those made for the Muskets and Tomahawks game, which I am not going to go into here.
Footsore Miniatures
(formerly Musketeer Miniatures)
These look to be
very nicely cast figures, depicting very (stereo)typical Red Indian types, which are on the large 28mm side. They're priced similarly to Gripping Beast
and there's a good choice of figures to use giving a reasonable amount of
variation of poses. I chose not to use these simply because I preferred the
look of the CP Models Miniatures, but that's just my preference.
CP Models Miniatures
These are on the
small 28mm side and have a really tribal look about them, most of the figures
wearing loincloths and very little else. There isn't a huge amount of figure
variety (only three different archer figures, and six different poses of
warrior, excluding the command figures), but once the army is put together this
really doesn't matter. They are lovely figures and I
think they look superb.
Army List
CP Models sell
their figures in packs of three, which may not be ideal for Saga, but they're great
value, and even better there was an offer when I placed my order, so I bought a few more than I had originally planned.
To give plenty of
flexibility, and to minimise the surplus unused figures I would end up with, I
set out to make a Warlord, four units of 8 Warriors, and three units of 12
Levy. A total of 69 figures (23 packs) altogether, giving some flexibility
in the 6-point list I might field, and coming in at an extremely reasonable price.
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| Some CP Models Skraelings, straight out of the box (plastic bag, in fact). Neat castings with very little flash and no significant mould lines. |
Levy
These were simply
cleaned up, based and painted as is. Nice figures all in very similar positions
standing with a bow at the ready, three different figure poses altogether.
I painted their skin
in Valejo Mahogany Brown highlighted with a slightly lighter brown, hair Black
Brown and clothing a variety of dull cloth colours.
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| Levy unit #1 |
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| Levy unit #2 |
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| Levy unit #3 |
Warriors
The CP Models Warriors come with separate weapons and shields, which allow for more variety
in their finished poses. I decided to replace their weapons with scratch-built
javelins made from brass rod. To get a tribal effect (similar to the look of the
spears that came with the figures) I tied dressmaker's wire around the bottom
of the spear head and fixed it with a drop of super glue to give the impression
the spear point was tied in place. I made some extra javelins so that some of
my warriors could carry spares with them in their shield hands.
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| Spears during construction |
The figures were
painted as the Levy. Shields were painted black and dry-brushed with grey to
get some texture, after which I added some home-made tribal designs - lines of
spots, zigzags and hand prints, to give each Warrior a unique design.
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| Warrior unit #1 |
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| Warrior unit #2 |
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| Warrior unit #3 |
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| Warrior unit #4 |
Warlord
To make the Warlord
stand out from the rest, I gave him a rock to stand on (along with a bit of dead vegetation), and equipped him with a mace rather than a shield. The mace
is a weapon head from the weapons supplied with the CP Models figures but with its shaft replaced with a short length of brass rod. I also gave him a few extra feathers
made of green stuff in his hair and tied
to his javelin, as befits a minor chieftain.
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| Skraeling chief, from front and back |
War Paint
After one failed attempt to
get this right I decided not to paint war paint on the bodies and faces of any
of my Skraelings. While it initially appealed to me (in my appreciation of the stereotypical Red Indian) my efforts to paint it on just didn't look right at all. Anyway, after checking images of early native Americans (from
the time of the pilgrims and conquistadors, at least) there are very few illustrations
that show war paint or the like at all. So if I am asked, I'll say my
Skraelings have been caught by the Norsemen by surprise and haven't had time to
put their war paint on yet.
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| The completed Skraeling army. Six points for Saga comprising four units of Warriors and two of Levy. |
Very nice, all the extra effort surely pays off.
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