Nordic mythology

 We're still in a heat wave here in south-eastern France, so I will keep on displaying winter scenes to cool my mind, if not my body.

If you are a regular visitor of this blog, you may have noticed that I am interested in mythologies from all around the world. Among many projects, I wish to paint mythological armies for HOTT, which allows me to use historical and Fantasy figures together. 

The first 1/72 Fantasy figures appeared on the market in 2007, originally made by Caesar and related to Heroic Fantasy. The first batch consisted of 6 sets: Dwarves, Elves, Undead, Adventurers, Goblins and Orcs. They were soon followed by another Manufacturer called Dark Alliance (or maybe Alliance, since we have the dark and the light sides) who produced their first Orcs in 2009. Their main source of inspiration was the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, so Heroic Fantasy once again.

Alliance proved to be the most prolific manufacturer. Most of the range is related to the Middle Earth, but they also produced unexpected sets related to Greek and Egyptian mythologies: Centaurs, Minotaurs, Cyclops, Amazons, Mummies, Anubites. These new sets gave me the idea to create three armies inspired by a video game, Age of Mythology. But how to represent the Viking army without dedicated mythologic sets ?

The answer is simple: most mythological creatures are bigger than humans, they can even have the size of a monster. And to find big creatures is very easy: you just have to look at 28mm figures ranges. And for other creatures, you must remember that Heroic Fantasy such as Tolkien's opus is inspired by Nordic mythology.

And here we are the result, in Cinemascope :)

All right, what do we have here ?

 

Two frost giants, always attractive (for painters) with a blue skin. The right one was painted several years ago as you can see in this post. The left one was painted last year. As the previous one, it is a soft plastic figure from a boardgame called Zombicide: Black Plague.

You know what? Painting 32mm figures (ie big 28mm) is much easier than 1/72 - it depends on the quality you want to get, of course :)

I've also painted a representation of Fenrir as a giant black wolf. In the Norse mythology, Fenrir is one of the children of Loki, and it is foretold that he will kill Odin during the Ragnarok, the battle at the end of time. There are several wolves in 28mm figure ranges, and I've chosen one among the first boardgames I offered to my children, Dungeons and Dragons (see a description of this game here).

Not the biggest of the Wolves, but good enough on a wargame table.

Last figures, more classical: three dwarves (some Nibelungen ?) from the Caesar set.

As a conclusion, I could say that, together with my DBA Viking army, I have enough figures to create a 12 elements warband for HOTT. But it is always possible to add figures for more options, and I've planned to paint the followings one day or another:

- Valkyries on horse ("Modern" Amazons by Dark Alliance)

- Bersekrs (various vikings and germanic warriors with wearing wolfskins)

And of course, I need to base them all :)

Viking shieldwall

 I have been working on my Viking army these days, and painted enough warriors to assemble 8 Bd elements for DBA.

Here you are the result:

 

 You'll spot figures from several manufacturers: Strelets, Zvezda and Emhar.

 I still need 4 elements for a complete DBA army. But my first purpose is to gather a mythological army for HOTT, so the 4 last elements should be:

- 1 frost giant

- 1 giant Wolf (such as Fenrir)

- 1 element of Dwarves

- 1 element of mounted Valkyries

The first two elements are done already, and I'm working on the last two. See you next time to have a look at the whole army :)

2020 Advent Calendar: Day 9

When winter was here, you had snow everywhere. And, hidden behind the snowy trees... Invaders!!

For Day 9, we are full of fear as we discover... Vikings !!!

Ok, I probably watch TV too much. Why would Vikings attack a village in winter ? It's far easier to raid in summer... That's true, but for an Advent Calendar, winter scenes are very nice, so... I'm the boss here, my Vikings have to attack this village right now, and that's all.

So much violence... maybe some more civilians, next time ?

Frost Giant

First of all, let me announce you that you are reading the 100th article of this blog!!

Everything began 2 years ago, in december 2016. After having watched so many cool blogs dedicated to minis, I was not sure that I had something more to add... but I tried anyway, and I receive enough feedback from you, dear readers, to believe that it was, and still is worth updating it regularly, and that it really helps me to paint more and more.
And I particularly enjoy to write to,and read from people from all around the world. 

So: thank you very much !!

Well, ok, let's go to the subject: the Frost Giant !

The Frost Giants are characters mentionned in the Scandinavian mythology, in which they are called Hrimthursar. They are endlessly fighting the Gods. Their ancestor is Ymir, the first of the giants. They are the oldest inhabitants of the world, of which they know every secrets and magic.

This giant is probably the last mini that I will paint this year. Here you a few other pictures, alone and with a Orion viking for size comparison.

This mini was originally designed as a character for Zombicide: Black Plague boardgame. When I first saw it, I immediately imagined the color scheme to turn it into a blue giant, and I must that the result does not disappoint me.

What do you think of that big guy ? Your comments will be once more very appreciated. Oh, he is meant to have a fellow giant, but I will paint that one next year. Happy new year everyone :)

Vikings

Not a big shieldwall, but a shieldwall nevertheless !

Figures but Zvezda, Emhar and Strelets. In spite of the differences, they all fit well together.