An overview of my Saga hobby projects so far…
I looked back over my Saga armies and had a mixture of emotions.
I was surprised that some of the shield designs were better and some were worse than I remembered. The same goes for the general paint jobs as I have slowly gotten better as a painter.
- Anglo Danes / Saxons
My brother bought me a box of Gripping Beast Anglo Danes a couple of Christmas’ ago. The plan was to use these to replace many of the Black Tree Design metal minis that I bought cheaply when seeing if I liked the game. I am wondering if I will repaint some of the force, the metal hearthguard for definite, and replace these with the nice crisp plastic ones. I think the less well armoured common warrior soldiers might be better represented without a ton of mail that comes with in Gripping Beast box Danes though.
I do have a Gripping Beast box of generic Dark Age cavalry that I might use, but I need to read the faction rules again to decide which force they should represent and how they should be armoured and armed.
- Vikings
I have a plan to have a warlord representing Ragnar, Lagertha and Rollo from the Viking TV series on the one base, using the gorgeous Hasslefree minis that look surprisingly similar them. I have only painted Lagertha so far. I also keep seeing lovely Viking minis and my old standard looking Gripping Beast plastics are lacking in dynamism to say the least. I have been an advocate of not dwelling on completed work because you only have so much time and so many minis and fresh projects to paint. I think you get more experience and advancement in painting when painting a new mini from scratch than you do going back and improving on an old paint job. That said I do think there will be some improvements to the paint jobs and some replacements over time. I also think that zombie vikings is a viable use for any units of Gripping Beast Vikings that get relegated from my Saga force.
- Normans
I guess I should give up hating on my Normans and revel in how many battles my lovely painted models have won. 🙂
The last plan I have for my Norman’s is to have an all infantry Norman army and that will need me to paint up my lovely Wargames Foundry shield and sword infantry that I bought a while ago and so far have only painted one. These can be my Hearthguard, easily distinguishable from my warriors with their vicious pointy blooded spears (real blood).
If and when the Norman Victrix cav. and inf. plastics come out I will probably look at these and see if I want an upgrade on some of my Norman Conquest Games plastic minis.
- Irish
I am really happy with the Dark Age Irish Wargames Atlantic plastic box set. With a few additions and a bit of love and converting I have a 6 points war band from the box. There are other minis added to make that 6 points and the force is probably not a super competitive list, but I think the only additions to my force might be some more Hearthguard or cavalry of some description. Though again, I would probably play my Irish as they are, consult the rules and battleboard and see what I am not utilising there well enough after a couple of games.
So as you can see, there is still hobby to come from me for my Facebook group and to share in the project system for my Saga armies. The new Viking, Dane and Norman Victrix sprues look absolutely gorgeous and enticing to further develop and hone my collection. Depending how the wind blows and what I end up doing first, I might give some of my metal original minis (the painting revisited and given some TLC) as a give away thank you for people following my page. Not decided on which to offer away and when, but it’s a serious possibility.
Happy hobbying.
