O Lord protect us from the fury of the Northmen

I wanted some figures with a bit of story behind them to go along with my standard Vikings, so took at look at the fabulous figures over at Gripping Beast and grabbed their VIG11 Save us O Lord set containing a praying monk, a viking axing the monk and carrying a torch, a viking carrying a chest and a viking with a torch and a hapless dog.

These superb figures scald up perfectly amongst the rest, which is no surprise as most of mine are the gripping beast plastics.

The monk in this set then spurred me on to a new idea- a scenario for Saga in which rival war bands compete to kill and enslave as many of the the Lord's flock as they can, all the while trying to show their fighting might in true Viking fashion. The scenario "Bash the Bishop" will be up soon.

So these are the monks that I have gathered so far:

The Gripping Beast CIV1- Monks parading cross

So thats a vicar looking guy, two cowled monks and a monk carrying a holy cross.

The next set was CIV7 - defenders of the faith

This contains a senior monk in a chainmail hauberk, a hooded monk drawing a knife from his robes and two junior monks in fighting poses. Two swords, an axe and three shields are supplied to arm your holy warriors.

The final Gipping Beast set I got was the CIV4-Bishop and attendant

This set was a pair and included the Bishop, his crook, and his attendant who looks particularly shady and greedy, with his hood up and gripping his Bible close.

I also bought some figures from Redoubt Enterprises. I had only recently heard of this company but I am really impressed by what I recieved.

In their RX28 pack, which can be found in the renaissance extras, you receive 9 monks- one of which is a dead casualty. 

These come in a range of poses- one is carrying a cross staff, one is kneeling, one is carrying a candle, one a box etc. the detail is amazing across the lot.

They are slightly larger than the gripping beast monks but are still realistic when ranked up or in a large rabble.

Obviously if you alternate between redoubt and gripping beast you get an unatural crennalated effect...

....but as you can see here they mix well in large groups.

Overall I'm thoroughly impressed with both companies figures and am glad I opted to buy from a range of producers, despite the minor scale difference.

I've got some Perry Miniatures monks coming in the post at the moment so will see how they scale up next.

I have returned!- Perry Miniatures Medieval Cottage unboxing

After a year of incredible highs and stressful lows I am now a fully fledged primary school teacher!

Thanks to everyone thats checked out my stuff in the mean time, means a lot.

I've been hard at work collecting and building an expanding Saga collection and finally have a bit of time to show some of it off.

So lets get on with it.

Perry Miniatures Medieval Cottage

Easing back in gently I would like to show something that arrived on the doorstep a few days ago from my dear brother over at Famous Gaming and his fancy new site : www.famousgaming.co.uk

Check it out, hes doing custom terrain commissions at the moment and is making some lovely stuff. Tell him Mr Odinson sent you and expect a cheeky discount.

It's the Perry Minaitures 1300-1700 Medieval Cottage set. Yes thats a bit later than the Viking era but take a look, this could represent a Saxon homestead ripe for a ruddy good pillaging as long as you don't get all that caught up on medieval architecture and spend more time doing important things like rolling dice and killing Bretons. 

When i opened it up i was surprised to find something extra that I hadn't known was coming when I placed the order.

You get the building parts as expected: 2 gables, 2 sides, 2 roof parts,a door and an optional smoke hood for 1600 onwards, and even a little shelter for animals/ tools BUT you also receive a wattle fence sprue that is ideal for creating animal pens, makeshift defences or even just plain fencing to break up open expanses of fields.

First thing I did was cut off the sides and gable ends as these would obviously be the main frame of the building. The corners of the building have slight male and female parts which needed filing to join up but this wasn't any major stress. Hopefully you see what i mean here:

But within 2 mins all was sorted and they easily got to this stage:

Lovely.

The roof slots on and glues at the middle nice and easily, with the roof peak being sealed with one long thatched section. 

And in no time at all you reach this stage:

The doors were nice and easy to whack on. Each door has 2 parts- a frame and an actual door.

They glue on the inside of the building- perhaps would have been easier to do before constructing the main body but atleast now they can be hinged and move around during games to show occupation. 

The finished door.

Aaaaand the constructed building, along with some Gripping Beast raiders. And an unfortunate monk.

Awesome set,  nice and affordable, easy to construct and good to scale and suitable for a range of historical eras.

Will definiately be buying more!