Warlord Games plastic Celtic Warriors- unboxing, review and sprue inspection

This review is for the Warlord Games Celtic Warriors boxed set

Bought two of these in the past when my army was originally going to be a WAB celtic warband many moons ago. I think they make great bondi, thralls and beserkers for your viking armies though. 

You get 40 high quality figures spread across 4 sprues- 3 standard and one upgrade.

Lets look inside:

You get these adhesive shield covers to apply to shield faces for easy and speedy decoration. Nice celtic patterns but would also suit Dark Ages armies.

This is the standard sprue, flipped so you can see both sides. As you can see torsos and legs are separate allowing for loads of combinations. You get 10 torsos per sprue- 2 of which are in chainmail with an awesome mail collar. The detailing is great and very little clean up was needed before putting the kit together. The torsos come with arms already attached, and most already have weapons in their hands. The hnds can be swapped for gripping east plastics vikings very easily and look great as simple conversions.

A few poses are tricky to work with as they hunch quite far forward, making ranking them up quite an issue so I tend to use the hunched guys as permanent skirmishers mounted on round bases. 

The heads glue on to flat plateaus just above their adams apples. They do combine with the gripping beast heads and bodies with a bit of work but its not a perfect mix and tbh you get a lot of heads with both sets so theres no need to go swapping around.

Along the bottom of each sprue you get your weapons and shields. They combine perfectly with all other 28mm ranges, which is ideal! Nice mix of shield shapes too. 

This is both sides of the upgrade sprue. Unfortunately I took a few guys off here before photographing it, but that shouldn't get in the way. Its almost identical to the standard sprue but this one has a command section where the heads usually are. 

Instead of heads you get a choice of two pagan banner poles, a large carynx war horn on the shape of a boar, two severed heads, a decorative bird and a mane of hair to attach to your leader. The detailing on the standards is great- the boar even has celtic tribal patterns on it. As my army are pagans they fit right in.

There are no bases supplied but check out Famous Gaming for all your basing needs. They've got everything you'd want, as long as it's in stock!

So for your money you get 40 multipart posable figures, with a range of weapons, shields and heads and an upgrade sprue. They mix well with other 28mm ranges and although they are designed to be celtic they make perfect thralls, bondi or fyrd. With some minor converting they could also make great beserkers as quite a few of them are half dressed.

Detailing & sculpting: 9/10- barely any mould lines, great detailing, but lack of poses and joined arms.

Scaling: 9/10- scale well with most other 28mm ranges, could be slighty chunkier but overall good.

Amount of bits: 7/10- dont get an abbundance of bits, although what you get is of a good standard.

Ease of construction: 10/10- incredibly easy to build.

Value for money: 9/10- 40 men in a box is great, although id like to see more upgrade parts!

Over all: 44/50 - pretty good!

Will definitely be investing in more of these as my army grows!

Thanks for looking, to see how these figures scale up against other 28mm dark ages miniatures please check my other posts.

Crop field scenery project for 28mm Dark Ages wargaming- Part 2

Okey doke so this is the second part of the post following my attempt at making a crop field for my 28mm dark ages gaming. After making the crop tufts earlier, I then went to my nan's for a cuppa and found she was throwing out some horrendously tacky placemats. Horrendously tacky placemats ideal for turning into scenery bases! So I'll be using one of them for this build, along with the tufts from before. Theyre about 6mm thick, fine corkboard with a card backing so shouldn't warp but are easy enough to get through.

^thats the parts I started out with + a glue gun

THE IMPORTANCE OF BUYING GOOD TOOLS. I picked this up in poundland and it broke almost right away, what crap! 

So I switched to this much more robust stanley knife. The rectangles at jaunty angles on the board were  from me testing the size of unit bases against the whole mat to check whether it would be worth making one huge field, but I decided that that would be just too big for realistic gaming. I then marked out two rectangles and cut into them. If you use a similar material for yours dont expect to get through it in a single cut, I repeatedly scored mine with quite a bit of force before I got through.

Until it reached this stage.

I hate scenery with a 'step'. What crop field has a neat step up all around it?? None Ive ever seen. So i added a rough bevelled edge around the perimeter with my craft knife.

I then remarked the size of two unit bases- one 100mm x 80mm renedra movement tray, and one war of the ring infantry movement tray full of archers. its important to mark down the size of your units or else you cant fit them in- it may seem obvious but so many people make these mistakes!

Then arrange your tufts around the base as you like! Glue them down with a hot glue gun when youre happy with their arrangement.  I have purposely left gaps between the crops for an easier time when i base and paint the model

Both pics show some of my vikings sat happily amongst the crops ready to strike!

Ready for basing & painting!

Crop field scenery project for 28mm Dark Ages wargaming- Part 1

Hi there! This is the first of many posts I'll be making to document my recent foray into the world of Dark Age wargaming in 28mm.

In this first one ill be showing the beginning stages of a field of crops ill be using during my games. 

They also make awesome tufts of long grass for individual placement on scenery and bases.

It's a really simple build, using minimal equipment, materials and skill.

^ This is everything I used. So that's a pair of modelling clippers, a hot glue gun with a few spare glue rods, an old scrubbing brush from the shower that had seen better days (dried out) and some of the paper backings from sticky labels. The cutting board was just so I didn't wreck the tablecloth.

I wanted to make some crop- like pieces to later glue on to a board to make a simple corn field.

Gradually working my way through the scrubber.

After experimenting I found that cutting the bristles off before adding glue was a nightmare and they flew everywhere, so opted to add glue to the tops of the bristle clumps in strips making it a great deal easier.

Its ok to be liberal with the hot glue, you need to make sure the sides get coated to stop the bristles coming loose and going everywhere. It doesnt matter if a bit gets on the sides as it wil be painted as wet mud and any thick glue clumps at the base will be disguised with sand later.

Smooth the back of the sticky label over the glue while it is still warm to give it a flat base. This will make it much easier to glue on our board later.

Peel back the paper and cut off the clumps either in strips, groups or singly. If you've missed any parts add a blob more glue- its worth checking! Gently rub the clumps to remove any stray bristles and keep the loose ones for later.

This is the finished product ready for applying to the board to make a field. The one on the left is left straight and the one on the right has been bent carefully for a more wild, realistic look.

This shows how many tufts I made from under half the scrubber. The bottom left shows 2 cut bails i made from putting a small dab of glue on either end then wrapped a thin piece of wire around the centre.

Will be posting again soon for the next stage!