Norse 5 - Erik Ulfeygr

The fellow above is Erik Ulfeygr, Hersir of my first unit of Bondi, The Ulfeygr. He is another old Citadel/Foundry mini, and an absolute favourite. I'm starting to run a little low on these old Citadel Vikings, and they are a joy to paint. Still, I have a few left that need the brush. 

You can't really see it from this photo, but Erik has eyes sculpted under the eye-slits of the helmet, and, yes, I did paint them, though I washed them back so they are darker, otherwise he'd look shocked all the time. It's a little Easter egg for anyone that take a REALLY close look at the mini. 

He's a lovely but simple enough sculpt, all in all, so I picked out the embroidered trim to the little bit of cloth we see under his mail for some pop. Then a nice big Foundry shield, and done. I have a nice set of earthy tones now for cloth, with a few more vibrant colours for leaders, hearth-guard and such. 

More Bondi soon, as Erik needs seven stout followers for his unit, and I think I'll add a banner. One unit in a Saga force can carry a war banner, and it's kind of a must-have.

Sjáumst!

Norse 4 - Berserkers

Continuing with the Norse warband, next we have a unit of berserkers. You can't really have a Viking force without them, can you? Again, these four loons are old Citadel or ex-Citadel Foundry minis. Lovely sculpts, with that particularly iconic sculpt of the berserker looking skyward. There's a Norse dwarf version of him too, such is his fame. It was nice to finally get them under the brush.

I've established most of my palette for this force now, so painting was a little quicker. Added to that I love painting faces and skin, so it was a lot of fun. Adding chest hair to the crick-in-the-neck berserker was a new thing for me, but I think it worked out. Again, the LittleBigMen shield transfers were great little time-savers, and look cracking.

Björnulfr here is a simple mini, but a classic Oldhammer sculpt. He is named after the alter-ego of Prince Amleth from The Northman. I had a crack at chest hair and a little blood-spatter to taste. He looks on the verge of a stroke-out, or he's gazing up a a particularly massive enemy with feverish joy. 

Uðólfr is the leader of the pack of berserkers. Decked out in a wolf pelt, he's an Ulfhednar, or wolf-coat. There's some differences in the kinds of berserkers that appear in Norse mythology, but I have yet to reach the bottom of that particular rabbit-hole. He's another fun sculpt regardless.

This next fellow is Brothsköldr. I liked his hair and handlebar tache, so he got a place in the unit. The placement of the shield boss on this sculpt is not ideal, and it was impossible to fit one of my Foundry Viking shields onto it as his head got in the way. Happily, I recalled the myth of berserkers as shield-biters, so I went and dug up a shield from one of my undead sets. It's meant to represent a rotted shield, and I still had to remove more of the metal edge so Brothsköldr looked like he could see past it. It also just looks like his shield has taken a mad battering, which fits the berserker image just as well.

Agmundr is the last of my berserkers. Saga elite units, or Hearthguard, are very small, often as small as four members. Agmundr is the least zerky-looking of the four, bit stripped to the waist with a headband and double-handed axe is good enough for me. I refined my red hair recipe a little on this mini, adding some more layers of glazing to raise the vibrancy of the red just a scooch.

So, that's my frothy boys. I have three units done for my wee Viking warband now, though with recent rules-changes, berserkers are going to be additions for warrior units rather than units in their own right. I need more bodies though, so next up is the first of two units of standard warriors for the berserkers to be embedded into.