Here you go Beccas

Size comparision of Saxons from various manufacturers

Beccas wanted a comparison if West Wind miniatures with Gripping Beast, so I grabbed whatever miniatures I had and took a photo.  What you see are four miniatures from different manufactures of 28mm Dark Age miniatures.  I am building up a Saxon army which can be used as an early and later Saxon army.  The first (L-R) is a West Wind miniature.  These minis come with different head combinations, I really like the poses and variations.  Next to it is a Gripping Beast, Late Roman which I will be using as a Saxon, basically because early Saxons used much Roman military equipment that they either bought, were supplied with or stripped from the dead after battle. The next is an Early Saxon from Musketeer Miniatures. Lovely miniatures, but the big beards and hair give them a little fantasy edge, still I think they are great.  Finally is a Renegade Miniatures, Late Saxon, the bulkiest of the selection displayed and probably the least exciting range in regards to poses.

In conclusion, I feel that they all fit well together, especially the Gripping Beast and West Wind.  My Early Saxon units will be a combination of GB, WW and MM, which will be added to by RM when I make up a Later Saxon army.

Oh, I also have some Crusader Miniatures Varangian Guard, which I will be using as Huscarls in a later army.  Both the RM and CM are bulky, but en mass it’s not going to make too much difference.

Hope that helps Beccas!

More Saxons

Miniature painting has been a little slow this week, mainly due to a mixture of being too busy and being too fussy with my painting, trying new things and slacking off.  Anyway, I ordered a handful of Gripping Beast miniatures a couple weeks ago and they arrived early this week.  They were, a packet of GET1 Armoured Command and LR23 Late Roman Leaders.  I just wanted to see what the Gripping Beast Barbarians were like and how they compared to the Musketeer Miniatures that I have.

One Late Roman miniature in particular captured my attention and all painting on the Musketeer Miniatures, Early Saxons stopped, while I concentrated on this Gripping Beast mini.  I’m going to use some Late Romans mixed in my Saxon units, referring to the WHAB Age of Arthur book that says: “May of the helmets of earlier warriors will have been ‘liberated’ or copied from the Roman empire, so you can quite happily use a few suitable Late Roman models”.

I am also going to get a few Wargames Foundry Saxon miniatures, to see how they combine and then figure out how I will make up my final Saxon force.  I really like Musketeers range, so my dilemma is whether I combine all makes into each Unit, or do I make some all Musketeer and mix others… Hmm, not sure yet.

Here is the Late Roman figure I’ve been talking about, next to the last Saxon I finished.

More Saxons

As you can see the Late Roman is less hairy and doesn’t have the same Barbarian feel, but when mixed into a Unit, it won’t matter.

I saw a similar shield design in a book and decided to paint the shield myself.

Let me know what you think.