Saga - Pagan Rus Warrior Priest and Hearthguard

Finally back to painting Saga after a few months of distraction. Still don't have a process that I'm fully comfortable with for these guys, but I'd say they're coming out alright. And it turns out that audiobooks, while not normally something I go for, are a great way to zone out for a few hours and crank through some progress. I've finished two more points for my Rus vikings, bringing me up to a respectable three. Just eight more warriors and the warlord to go for a playable four point force!

Warrior priest of Odin, accompanied by his mystic ravens

This was a simple conversion of the Gripping Beast Jomsviking Warlord model.
Weapon swap to spear and shield, and some fur around the helmet and chainmail coat.
The two over-sized ravens were sourced from the Zombicide Murder of Crows. 

First point of hearthguard. For some reason the skin especially on these gave me a lot of problems
and I'm not super happy with it.

Models are a slightly converted Gripping Beast Jomsviking, a Gripping Beast Pagan Rus Varjazi,
and two slightly converted models from Saxon Miniatures Viking and Saxon Warlords packs.
Shield transfers are, of course, from LBM Studios. 

I'm hoping that I'll manage to find a partner for the Saga Doubles tournament at Adepticon in March and get to bring these guys. So far though it's looking like they may be limited to more local pillages for the foreseeable future.

Cheers!

Saga - Pagan Rus Warriors

My first finished Saga unit; what a joyous sight! 8 Pagan Rus warriors who'll also see double duty in Jomsviking and Viking warbands. Now that's 1 point down, 7 more plus 2 warlords to go by the end of March.

"CHARGE!"

"Run away! Run Away!"

Lined up for scale: Fireforge, Saxon Miniatures, Gripping Beast, and Gripping Beast



Cheers!

Saga - Irish Personalities (WIP)

Who doesn't love the Irish? They're just so...heroic (and bristling with little pointy sticks).

Here's a collection of WIP Irish builds for some of the more dramatic elements of the warband:

Warrior Priest. This bad boy is built off of the Gripping Beast Irish standard bearer and wooo is he BIG. That's a 40mm base and even at the extreme running angle he still stands taller than most of the other Irish lads. The better to put the fear of Jesus into his enemies! And of course he needed a little friend to help spread the gospel.

Next in line are the Curaidh; the clans heroes. These fellows started life as a Welsh standard bearer (left) and a Christian priest (right), both from Gripping Beast. A few javelins and some hairstyling later, we've got this.

Finally the Warlord. I used the Fat King Robert from Darksword Miniatures as the warlord himself, with a standard bearer from Curteys Miniatures and attendants and a dog from Footsore. All-in-all the base will be quite busy, but it should also be impressive. No one gets close to the king!

Cheers!

Saga - Rus Test Model

Nothing too flashy, but here's the first test model for a Pagan Rus/Jomsviking/Viking Saga warband:

 

 

I'm experimenting with zenithal priming (go here for a great explanation) and a quicker technique blending washes and line highlights. The results aren't outstanding, but they're certainly passable, and more than minimum tabletop quality. And as a bonus I think once I really get the hang of it, models painted this way should take about half as long as what I'd done in the past.

The only thing I'm really hung up on is the shields. LBMS transfers are the gold standard for Saga shield designs, but unfortunately they don't make anything that fits the Rus rectangular shields. I had hoped to use one of their larger round designs in the middle of the shield and either fill in the edges or just have it be a design that didn't fill the whole shield, but after getting a painted model and a cut out transfer I just don't think it'll look right. This means I'm going to either:  

- have some models with bare wooden or metal shields

- need to hand paint some fancy-pants designs

Either one could look incongruous against the models with round shields who DO get transfers, so I'm still up in the air. I miiiight order some smaller transfers and see how it looks if the whole design fits as a circle in the middle of a big tower shield, but I'm skeptical that it'd work.

Looking forward to getting this warrior some painted friends though! I need to finish three more by the end of the month to meet my Tale of Saga Painters goal.

Cheers!



Saga Review - Kraken Skulls Consortium

As part of my headfirst dive into Saga: Dark Ages I placed the following order with Kraken Skulls Consortium:

Product	Quantity	Price
Irish Measuring Sticks for SAGA	1	$8.00
Pagan Rus Measuring Sticks for SAGA	1	$8.00
Fatigue Tokens-Knotwork Triskel (10)	1	$3.50
Fatigue Tokens-Norse-Gaels (10)	1	$3.50
Jomsvikings Measuring Sticks for SAGA	1	$8.00
Viking Measuring Sticks	1	$8.00
Viking Raven Tokens (10)	1	$3.50
Fatigue Tokens-Jomsvikings (10)	1	$3.50
Subtotal:		$46.00
Shipping:		$3.50 via Flat Rate
Tax:		$0.00
Payment method:		PayPal
Total:		$49.50

So. Was it worth it?

Irish Measuring Sticks

The pattern and design are splendid!  Depth on the tooling is a bit inconsistent though, and overall it doesn't stand out nearly as much as I'd hoped.  Also I keep thinking it says "He Irish" rather than "The Irish." The final look is pretty good, but would have really benefited from being darker. 

★★★☆☆

Viking Measuring Sticks

These have much more consistent and darker tooling than the Irish sticks, so a big plus there. I was a bit leery about the design of the medium stick when ordering, but now that I've got it in person I rather like it. The short stick, on the other hand, tries to pack in way too much detail and really suffers for it. It's gorgeous if viewed from a few inches away, otherwise it just sort of looks like a swirly blob. The long and very short sticks came out well, with conservative but thematic designs. 

★★★★☆

Pagan Rus Measuring Sticks

Definitely my favorite of the lot. They're simple but still convey the theme of the faction, and their design plays to the strengths of the material. Even the rough wood grain feels like it was intentional. My only complaint is with the thin relief lettering, which is uneven once you get close enough to really inspect it. From a gaming distance they look great though.

★★★★☆

Jomsviking Measuring Sticks

The poor sweet Jomsviking sticks tried, they really did; unfortunately, these just aren't great. The tooling is the least consistent among all the sets, with the very short being almost unreadable except in the best light or from very close. Some of the designs elements are great, while others look very amateurish, with the best designs (the little Joms on the large stick and the excellent detailed scene on the medium stick) being too small to really appreciate except up close. And for some inexplicable reason the medium and short sticks are asymmetrical and, for want of a better term, lumpy around the edges. 

★☆☆☆☆

"Official" Gripping Beast Measuring Sticks

How do the "official" Saga sticks (made by 4Ground and sold by Gripping Beast) stack up? First, they're actually finished wood. So no rough, course texture, no loose little splinters of wood, and consistent tooling that's nice and dark. In terms of production quality these are the clear winner. Of course, they're a lot less artistic and exciting than Kraken Skulls' faction-themed sticks, and are like little billboards covered with branding. But they do certainly feel official, and you'll only ever need one set to play any/all of warbands you own.

★★★☆☆

Fatigue Tokens

As with the measuring sticks, Kraken Skulls has some cool designs, but the production quality is rough. Both the coloration and tooling differs dramatically between the different tokens sets (with the Triskels especially being a gorgeous reddish color that just happens to not-at-all match any of the other products). There are enough little bits of loose of wood that I'm going to need to take some light sandpaper to the edges to avoid splinters, but that's an easy fix. Finally, as you can see, the Kraken Skulls tokens are larger and much thicker than the "official" ones (bottom right), closer in size to the Jomsviking wrath token (bottom left).

★★★☆☆

Summary

Well, the Kraken Skulls accessories are pretty much...okay. They've got some good with some bad, but the potential to be great if they upped the production quality. However, it is worth noting that they're actually cheaper than their official counterparts! They do also offer three higher-end wooden products, in antique heart pine and solid walnut. Both of these are hand finished, and so presumably don't suffer from quite as many literal and metaphorical rough edges. Unfortunately, the heart pine is mostly sold out and unavailable until further notice, and the walnut comes with a premium price-tag (and a dark coloration that will likely work better for some factions than others). They do offer clear acrylic sticks as well, but those just feel out of place in a game like Saga. Shipping was reasonable and quick, and I didn't have any problems with their website. Overall I'll probably buy from them again and might even try the walnut, but my expectations have been tempered. Solid product, but only recommended for those who really like to theme their accessories. 

Final score: ★★★☆☆

Cheers!