Vikings Join the Painting Queue

[I wrote most of this on Friday - but spent most of the weekend without Internet access...  As you can see I'm so worn out that I have haven't even bothered to take the required photos.]

I've been rather taken up with health issues this week, so I didn't get the chance to report the arrivals of new goodies on Wednesday.

A little while ago Annie at Bad Squiddo Games made the inspired suggestion that if I ever wanted any of her fine stock we might do some swapsies with the fine stock I carry over at Diplomatist Books.  Well, some of will remember that my plans for Tribal include a box of Hirdmen...  Accordingly, (a mere 15 e-mails later) Annie has now a shelf's worth of books on  women in history and I have the following splendours:

So I thought I'd share my impressions on these.  Don't worry!  I'm not going to do one of those rambling opening-the-box reviews in which some YouTuber spends twenty minutes on why he thinks figures are best done in brown plastic rather than grey, neither am I going to get my gauge out and state that 23mm to-the-eye is preferable to 22.5mm.   But, yes, I am going to ramble.*

* I can't remember who said that the main selling point of my blog was the stream-of-consciousness randomness of it all - but, you're welcome!

Neither am I going to go on about historic verisimilitude.  First, because I'm not qualified to, but mainly because I don't care about it.  There are many fine people out there who do care that their figures and games are 'right' - I don't mean to belittle them in any way*.  But these toys (and this blog) are for my own use - I'm not going to put on any great showpiece displays - and I'm not an historical player.  Frankly, my hirdmen are more likely to encounter Doug McClure, dinosaurs or Cybermen than they are to meet Rus or Skraelings.  If on their encounters with 23rd Century time-travelers they have picked up a taste for Plus Twos and Argyle socks**, who am I to deny them?

* There are also some pretentious wankers - they I do intend to belittle.
**As we all know, a 23rd Century time-traveler wouldn't be seen dead in Plus Fours!

But, to recap, my needs for Tribal are some Chiefs, Heroes and units of  five Warriors each.  All to be armed with either 'short' or 'long' weapons.

[...and here I petered out. ]

The quick-and-dirty version of the un-boxing review is:-

•  "Gosh, isn't there a lot in a Gripping Beast box!"  
• <insert rant about buying boxes that mainly contain empty space>
• Duplication in the GB frames and the fact that the eight frames are identical (plus two identical 'Command' frames) and almost symmetrical along their long axis.
• <insert comments on the flexibility of the having bodies in two parts, a la Frostgrave soldiers>
• But conclusion that, you've still got a lot of plastic for your money and that worries about variety will probably be dispelled once I start taking them off the sprue.

Despite the half-arsed nature of this review, I'm am pleased with my 'purchase' and looking forward to getting to grips with them (it's just that I feel I need several nights' good sleep first...),

Tribal Plan - Update

Thanks for all the comments on yesterday's post.

My cunning plan has worked.  After a flurry of e-mails this afternoon a proposed 'arrangement' has become concrete, and I should soon be the owner of a box of Gripping Beast Viking Hirdmen.  As an extra (a wholly welcome) bonus, there'll also be some Bad Squiddo Shieldmaiden Berserkers.

You've got to love an 'arrangement'  ;)

Paint Table Saturday

Apologies for the lack of blog updates, which is down to business, some family health concerns and general lack of mojo.  But not only am I back but, as the subject of the post indicates, I've got some hobby stuff done.

As some of you may be able to make out (I know that some like to pour over the details of these thing!) I'm on a bit of a Dr Who vibe again.  I hope to be able to submit some to the Painting Challenge on Tuesday.

The Dr Who theme means I'm again experiencing the delay gratification that comes from ordering from Black Tree Design - the order went in on 18 Feb and I'm still waiting.  Fortunately, there are other suppliers of lead satisfaction - an order that went in on the same day with NorthStar arrived two days later.  Equally, an order placed with Gripping Beast on Thursday arrived yesterday - my first order with GB, and I'm very pleased with the figures and speed of service.

With the latter, the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge FaceBook page deserves a shout-out.  Not wanting to to order BTD's UNIT figures I asked for a suggestion of British soldiers from the 60s and 70s.  Among the several helpful suggestions RoyW pointed me to GB's Falklands troops.  Although not perfect (I'd like something without Bergens if anyone knows of anything), they are very nice sculpts.  Also while on GB's site I found the TCWD Specials from Woodbine Designs - these include the NOT-cast from the Dr Who episode 'Family of Blood'.  So I've a few of those too!  They're so nice I might order the rest next.

Edit

I'm getting in a tangle describing what I'd like for UNIT.  These would have been perfect, but they're 1/72 scale.