Scratchbuilt Trebuchet.

I have been keen on making one of these since looking at some paintings in the book,
 Arms and Uniforms, The Age of Chivalry, Part 2, by Liliane and Fred Funcken.

Having a castle with walls that need knocking down has also helped to encourage me.

 Managed to fill in a Sunday afternoon a few weeks ago.

 Mostly made from balsa wood.

 Ready to fire.

 The figures are Gripping Beast plastic Dark Age warriors with Perry's Plastic Medieval heads.

 The other two crew members are loading up another sling with a large rock in preparation for the next round.

 I haven't made up any rules for the use of a trebuchet yet, but for now it can just be for decoration on the table.

28mm Trebuchet.

More Dark Age figures

Painted up these guys a wee while ago and have finally got some grass on the bases.

Mostly Foundry figures, I think along with a couple from Gripping Beast.

A view from behind.

I have no idea about the brand of this. Originally it was one piece, but I cut into two models.

From memory these two chaps are from Gripping Beast.

Gripping Beast Dark Age bowmen.

Having a lack of Levy type troops for our Saga games and our other Dark Age games I was keen to add to their number. I gained a box of Gripping Beast's Dark Age warriors a while ago and this box  set provided the figures I needed.

Left over from my slow moving Medieval project were a number of arms from the Perry's (Bows and Bills) box set. I have more than enough archers for my Medieval army .

With the help of a sharp knife and some glue I began adding the Perry Medieval archer arms to the Gripping Beast Dark Age warrior bodies.

The only real draw back is that my Dark Age archers are now armed with "long bows". Didn't even occur to me until I had finished the painting!

I have only made 12 figures as archers at this stage. I plan to do another 12 as slingers, straight from the box at some latter time. Can't rush these things!

Dark Age longbows!

Viking Warlords

Picked up a couple of sets from Gripping Beast a while back. One of which was a Viking Command set.

The other week we had a Dark Age game on and needed some more command figures so I set to and painted these guys.

Nothing too special, a relatively  straight forward paintjob. Based these two on slightly larger bases to help me identify them on the table.

Had another win on a blog giveaway too. More on this later this week!

Dark Age extras

A box of Gripping Beast's Dark Age Warriors provided the recruits for this group.

I was told that these guys would be required for a game in a few weeks time. 12 figures he said, so here they are.

  Six are armed with spears.....

......and the other six are armed with axes and swords.

 Found a container the other week full of "way out of date" Kiwi 2 cent pieces. I thought they were a good size for figure bases so I have used them here. Might have to re-base all my Dark Age troops now!

 The rest of the box will be made up into levy type troops for Saga with a few left overs.

SAGA countdown

On Wednesday night the Southern Strategists will have their first games of SAGA.
With that thought in mind I decided to finish off these two Viking dudes. Given to me by my friend Geoff last year when I was making the Longboat. They were both originally swinging axes but after a fair amount of carving out lead and drilling holes in their hands they are now hauling on ropes to help beach the boat.

I have no idea what make of figures these guys are.

Axes removed and now with ropes in their hands.

 Last weekend I also decided to have a wee play with Photoshop. The thought of having four separate measuring sticks floating around the table during a game didn't sound like a winner to me. So armed with a download of the measuring sticks I cut and moved and rotated them around until I came up with a one piece measuring stick. The "S" and "M" are also staggered so as to be able to quickly see the distance. With "VS" at right angles it is very easy to measure between figures.

It was then a matter of printing it out and glueing it to some cardboard.

My measuring stick

Checking unit formation.

Some levy checking the range to these Berserkers.

Beserkers on the move.

Looking forward to my first game of SAGA.