Valkyries for Pillage

Valkyries!

While in the process of trying to find good figures for use in my Shieldmaiden faction for Pillage (see previous post) I discovered Foundry's excellent range of Valkyrie figures. These are pretty old school and some of them are a bit risque and challenging with respect political correctness. Basically, a few bare-chested women are depicted. Now I like the figures - they are excellent, characterful castings with a lot of clear fine detail - but I'm not a fan of gratuitous nakedness so a little modification was on the cards.

As with previous posts, these photos are taken with a laptop screen providing the background, keyboard covered with a basecloth.

Brunhilde and Thora

The faction is led by hammer-weilding Chieftain Thora who is assisted by her sister Brunhilde whose operatic voice serves as a war horn to the whole warband. I've given them both shields so they will both count as fully armoured for the game. 

Close-up of the gems on Thora's belt

These figures and several others in this faction have gems on belts and weapons and this was the first time I have ever tried to paint them properly. I used Kevin Dalymore's painting guide and it turned out both relatively easy and highly effective in the end. 

Berserkers

Scantily clad (but not indecent) Berserkers. Both have had their weapons replaced with ones from Frostgrave Barbarians. The lady on the right was originally topless but has been made decent with a Green Stuff chain top (not easily seen on this photo) - which of course means she can be considered armoured for the game. OK it's not a lot of armour, but it still counts.

Hearthguards

Three nobles, shielded and in full armour, protect the leaders of the warband with their begemmed, fancy headed spears.

Warriors

With a variety of hand weapons, and varying amounts of armour (some of which is constructed from Green Stuff for the sake of decency) these ladies form the mainstay of the warband.

 

Axe-wielders

And with a variety of sizes of axe these warriors are ready to attack. There is some useful overlap here with the Shieldmaidens as most of these are interchangeable between either faction.

I haven't found figures for Valkyrie archers yet but am working on it. For the time being the Shieldmaiden archers will be on double duty.

This post was originally prepared in May 2026

Shieldmaidens for Pillage

 

The Shieldmaidens

I've always liked the idea of some Shieldmaidens and with the possibility of using them for Pillage took the plunge and bought enough (too many, in fact) for a Pillage faction. 

The intent was that this faction would look like Lagertha's warband in the TV series Vikings. Maybe not historically accurate, but cool looking regardless. In deference to the TV trope of being able to distinguish sides in a fight, their shields are all the same design, intentionally based on Lagertha's. 

Figures are mostly from Bad Squiddo Games but there are a few Foundry models in there as well.

If you were wondering, the photos are taken with a background image on a laptop screen, with a basecloth covering the keyboard. 

Chieftain and her bodyguard

These figures are quite variable, with some excellent castings (e.g. third from the right above, which I use as the Chieftain) and some a bit ropey (notably the extremely long arm and sword on the far left) but they all paint up pretty well.

Armoured spears

Bad Squiddo figures all, these are lovely castings. As with all the spears in this warband, I have replaced cast spears with 1mm brass rod, with tips flattened and filed to make spear heads. The extra effort required to make these is very small and 1mm brass rod is far less likely to bend or break than cast metal. Well worth the effort!

Unarmoured spears

Essential to have these for Pillage as they're very cost effective.

Unaroured, hand weapons

The Foundry model on the right is quite excellent and works alongside the others perfectly well.

More hand weapons, and a Dane Axe wielder

Spot the odd one out, with the different shield. She's properly a Valkyrie and belongs to a different article.

Archers

No Pillage warband would be complete without some ranged weapon support and all things told you can't do much better than bows. Again, some lovely figures from Bad Squiddo.

What, no Berserkers? I hear you cry. I'm still on the lookout for decent Berserker figures to match this lot so for the time being will be using regular Shieldmaidens or Valkyries (to be described in a subsequent post).

On the Field 

I had the good fortune to be able to field this warband against some Picts recently so for your amusement here are a few (not very good, and not enough) pictures of them in action.

Ambushed!

A group of overenthusiastic spears charges enemy slingers, with some archery support, but are caught by a flank attack, which they fail to survive.

Bad dogs

Meanwhile, on the right, the enemy dog handler is shot dead, and the dogs choose the wrong target.

No need for mushrooms

While on the left, a Berserker (who had completely forgotten about her mushrooms) deals with both of her attackers without any cause for alarm, while friends look on.

This post was originally prepared in May 2026