My quest to finish my 1st edition backlog has come to a close. Below the Norse-Gael, Welsh, and (small) Scots contingent. All done for Age of Vikings now!
Category: SAGA
I had a burst of energy to paint all my left-over figures for Saga Age of Vikings. These are joining armies painted ~15 years ago so I had to match my paint style of that time. While painting these, I realized that I had been misinterpreting the Gripping Beast plastic shields as “rimmed” shields. Instead, I think they are meant to represent shield covers stretched over the entire shield front and secured in the back. Armed with that knowledge, I of course absolutely had to repaint all of the shields in my Saga collection! Each shield had the edges painted to extend the colour scheme of the original transfer. Fiddly work but satisfying.
First the new additions: Various legenday warlords, Jomsvikings with and without Dane Axes, Jomsviking Dreng, and assorted add-ons to existing units.
The old figures with repainted shields:
Just for comparison, this is how the shields used to look:
Over the last few weeks I have been painting an Ordenstaat force for Saga. These are the Teutonic Knights who invaded Prussia and gradually displaced the native tribes. Still missing the knightly cavalry, but there is a decent foot force done.
The medieval Scots are joining my collection. I still need to paint some men-at-arms but a horde of pikemen are ready for duty.
This also concluded 2025 for me as I am off for a trip. The year so 2,092 figures getting painted with my Napoleonics (1,306) and Saga Age of Chivalry (677) making up the bulk of new additions. I have another ~600 Prussians to paint for Waterloo – then ~5k French later. For Saga, it is now on to the Age of Crusades where ~400 figures away on assembly strips. Add a few extra projects and that will make for a delightful 2026.
Over the last little while I painted some old boxes of Conquest Norman figures for a warband purchased over a decade ago. Working down the mountain…
Finished up some mercenaries. Irish Kern and Gallowglasses, Stradioti riders for the Condottieri.
I recently acquired the tools to make high quality decals – both printing them and generating suitable images. Where possible, I like to support artists so most of my shield decals and flags are from commercial suppliers, but I am now able to cover designs that aren’t available. Below are examples from this month. All for Saga Age of Chivalry.
Papal States Pavisiers and Swordsmen
German Pavisiers
French Pavisiers (with commercial decals)
The Irish have arrived…
I went with a wilder, more bare-skinned look to distinguish them from their other anglo-centric cousins. Also, lots of green and yellow tones to go with the style of the shields. Finally, I trimmed down all the shields to be more like bucklers – reflecting the faster “hit and run” style of the Irish.
More Valkyries. A command Hearthguard unit as well as one with Dane Axes. The heroes cover the general Warlord as well as any Heroes that my daughter might want to take. In their first game, the Valkyries/Jomsvikings soundly trashed my sons Vikings!
Wargaming Workshop 