Lagertha, legendary Norse shieldmaiden

Lagertha's tale is recorded in passages in the 12th-century text, the Gesta Danorum, a work of Danish history by the Christian historian Saxo Grammaticus. 

He wrote that "Ladgerda, a skilled Amazon, who, though a maiden, had the courage of a man, and fought in front among the bravest with her hair loose over her shoulders. All marvelled at her matchless deeds, for her locks flying down her back betrayed that she was a woman."

Her name is variously written as Lathgertha, Ladgertha, Lathgerda and other forms, all  derived from the Old Norse original Hlaðgerðr, otherwise Hlathgerth.

There is no historical evidence for Lagertha, although Saxo records that she was married to the equally legendary Ragnarr Loðbrók, i.e. Ragnar Hairy Breeches, also written as Ragnar Lodbrok or Lothbrok. Saxo records that, ultimately, Lagertha slew her husband and ruled alone in his stead. However, Ragnar was also supposedly captured by King Ælla of Northumbria, who had him thrown into a pit of snakes, where he perished.

Ragnar had sons who are attested historically, but his own existence is rather debatable.

Anyway, on to Lagertha. This figure is from Bad Squiddo, and comes in a blister pack with a mounted Lagertha, who I will be using as the commander of my mounted shieldmaidens, when I get round to painting them.

So, here is the dismounted version. I have kept my palette quite simple here and it is not dissimilar to the way the figure is painted on the Bad Squiddo website.

Her shield design is a triquetra, somewhat similar to a pagan Norse valknut (which is more usually seen as three interlocking triangles). It is also similar to a simplified Thor's Hammer motif.

Lagertha is going to be part of my Shieldmaiden army, whether that is for Dragon Rampant, Saga or Saga: Age of Magic.

I have finally finished all my Freyja's Wrath shieldmaidens

Well, it has been a bit of a long job, mainly because I really wanted to do these lovely figures justice, but I have now finished them. I have enough for a Saga Viking warband, with some optional changes to the basic band.

Anyway, here are the final sets of figures. First, here are 12 archers, who will be classed as bow-armed Levies for Saga;

Next, eight unarmoured Warriors with axes;

And finally, eight unarmoured Warriors with spears;

Obviously, I will be fielding these as Vikings, but they could also serve as Anglo-Danes or Jomsvikings (without the archer levies).

Regarding the colour palette I used, once again, I wanted to keep a few unifying touches, therefore, the spear-armed shieldmaidens have predominantly black and yellow shields and the ones with axes have shields that are mostly red and black. I also kept to a basic set of three or four main colours for the clothing and I did a fair amount of dry-brushing to tone down the brightness of their appearance. I think that this has worked pretty well, they are not too subdued overall, but they are reasonably understated.

Now they are finished, I have a game of Saga arranged for next Sunday at the club.

These will also find a place in my Dragon Rampant plans for 2019.

Freyja's Wrath - armoured Shieldmaidens and more

Well, I've made excellent progress with my lovely Bad Squiddo Shieldmaidens and I am really happy with the results. If I use these for Saga, they are all going to be classed as Hearthguards. I've tried to stick to a relatively simple colour palette, with the same few colours being used across all the figures, including on their shields. 

First, here are four Shieldmaidens with axes. I really love the one with the chainmail veil over her face. She looks like she is ready to dish up some serious trouble to someone.

Next, here are four Shieldmaidens with spears. These make a nice contrast, being bare-headed.

Next, here are the rest of the armoured Shieldmaidens. These are brandishing swords.

So, these 12 figures will probably be my default 3pts of Hearthguards for Saga, but I also have the option of fielding a group of four Berserkers, and here they are, wild women clad in animal skins and waving some big choppers about. I really love these figures, really dynamic. I suppose they could also be used as a Reduced Unit of Bellicose Foot in Dragon Rampant, with each figure having 3 lives.

Finally, here is my other Thorrun mini, painted to fit in with the colour palette of my Shieldmaidens, together with Morgana, who I see as a magic user, but who my partner described as "that weird nature priestess". I think that Morgana is a really terrific figure. I love her staff, and I've tried to paint it as though it contains some kind of captive Green Man spirit entity. To keep the nature/fertility theme going, her base has actual tufts plus a lighter green flock with coloured bits that (to my eyes, at least) looks like a carpet of young grass and tiny flowers.

Latest Freyja's Wrath figures - WIP and completed figures

I've finally got round to working on my Bad Squiddo Freyja's Wrath figures again. I am initially working on the armoured Shieldmaidens, who will all be Hearthguard for my forthcoming Saga Vikings, plus various other figures which will be used for a variety of things. Below you can see four each of spear, axe and sword armed Shieldmaidens, four Berserkers (in bearskin clothes), Fenrir, a big scary wolf, Morgana, a user of some kind of nature magic, Skalmöld the Valkyrie (with the severed head in her hand) and two models of Thorrun, an earlier Bad Squiddo model. The reason that I have two of her is that I want to paint one up for my Frostgrave warband. There are also shields to paint.

Anyway, that was where I started and now I have three completed figures. Skalmöld the Valkyrie, Thorrun (for Frostgrave) and Fenrir. First, here is Thorrun. I wanted to keep her looking quite sombre to fit in with the general theme of my Frostgrave warband. I will be using her as a Knight, or maybe as a Woman-At-Arms. I really like her fox fur collar.

Next, here is Fenrir, who is a very Big Bad Wolf indeed. No huffing and puffing required by this guy. He'll just knock your house down with a few swipes of his paws, and as for the Three Little Pigs, well, what can I say? Those guys are clearly just going to be snacks.

And finally, Skalmöld the Valkyrie, clearly a woman who is not to be messed with, as the chap currently missing his head found out.

As I have said before, these Bad Squiddo Shieldmaiden figures are absolutely fantastic; lovely crisp detail, virtually no flash and really lovely to paint.

Freyja's Wrath painting update - Freyja is finished

Well, there is always an upside to bad weather, and here is the proof.

Freyja will, naturally be the Warlord of my Saga Viking warband, so she has to be on a larger base, but because she is such a fantastic model, I wanted to make the base a bit special, so I added on two of her special cats. The name Freyja is Old Norse for "The Lady". She is associated with love, sex, beauty, fertility, gold, seiðr (a kind of Norse sorcery that Freyja, a member of the Vanir, taught to the Æsir), war, and death.

Freyja is the owner of the necklace Brísingamen, rides a chariot pulled by two cats, is accompanied by the boar Hildisvíni, and possesses a cloak of falcon feathers. I did a bit of googling and discovered that a colour often associated with Freyja is russet, so I clearly had to paint her robe in that colour.

Anyway, this model is really lovely, I think that her cloak, with its feathers, is pretty amazing and I love the way her hair has been modelled. I really didn't want to overwork her, so I kept the range of colours to a minimum, but I wanted to link her cats into the overall colour scheme, so one is a similar russet to her robe and the other matches the grey of her cloak.

My first Freyja's Wrath figures are finished

A week or so ago I posted that my Freyja's Wrath Kickstarter had arrived, and therefore I really had to get started on painting a few figures. I knew which one I wanted to do first (My Heroine, a personal favourite), but I wanted to work on a few all at once, because that would give me plenty of other things to paint while I waited for work done on one figure was drying.

The minis I chose were the My Heroine vignette, The Seer, Svala the Standardbearer and Dagmar the Champion. I also undercoated Freyja herself, but she is still a work-in-progress.

Here are the four finished figures together;

And here they are separately. First, My Heroine, a Shieldmaiden home from the wars greeting her girlfriend;

Next, Dagmar, a Swordmaiden champion, with a hand-painted shield design. As she is modelled with two swords, I am thinking that the one in her hand might be a legendary blade she has captured from a recently fallen foe;

Next, the somewhat sinister figure of The Seer, a supernatural creation from the chthonic darkness which is at the heart of much of Norse mythology;

And finally, Svala. Her banner is hand-painted, but taken from an image based on one interpretation of the raven Landeythan (land-waster) banner of Harald Hardrada, downloaded from the internet. I know that many images of this are triangular, but this one fits the model better.

I am really happy with how these have turned out. The castings themselves are incredibly clean and have lovely sharp detail, but are not unrealistically ornate. They are simply what Annie Norman does best, offering us believable and realistically-proportioned female miniatures.

Now, I can't wait to get stuck into the rest of these gorgeous figures.

Woo Hoo! The postman brought me a present

OK, so it wasn't a huge surprise, because I'd already had the email, but the postman delivered my Freyja's Wrath Kickstarter today. Here is the box;

Then the nice friendly extras that makes shopping with Bad Squiddo a fun experience;

And finally, the shiny bits. I have lots of lovely new toys here. Enough for a Saga warband with extra shieldmaidens to give me a nice choice of units, plus a few extra that I bought simply because they are really nice models, but which I am certain will find a purpose, because nice models always deserve to end up on the table. I am not going to stop with Saga. These women are going to crop up a a fair few futures projects, I'm sure. I just need to decide how best to use them.

The minis themselves are lovely crisp castings, with virtually no flash. The poses are terrific and there is plenty of detail to paint, which I reckon is definitely a Good Thing. I know which ones are going to get painted first, so they are heading for the front of the painting queue already.

So, shipping the Kickstarter was delayed a bit, but there are perfectly good reasons why that happened, so I'm not going to complain. Good things are worth waiting for, and these are certainly good things. 

Freyja's Wrath Kickstarter - a short update

 

For people who are interested in this, you can check the actual Kickstarter here. So far, three stretch goals have been unlocked and there are some nice updates on what the actual minis look like once painted. The next stretch goal is going to be "Freyja on Boar and Foot", which sounds pretty good to me!

There are 11 days left to get pledged.

I have to say that I am very excited about this, the minis are terrific and are going to look great on the table.

Freyja's Wrath - my sample figure is painted

I really wanted to paint up the sample Kickstarter Shieldmaiden that Annie sent me on Saturday, so this morning I primed her with Tamiya light grey spray primer and once the primer was dry I set to work.

First, I just blocked out the various areas in base colours, with the chainmail hauberk in black. After sticking the figure on a 2.5cm round base I set to work with the detailed colours, highlights and dry-brushing, before finishing the figure off with a wash of Windsor and Newton Peat Brown drawing ink.

I painted the shield separately and superglued it on before the ink wash stage. Once the ink was dry, I flocked the base and added a couple of small clumps. Finally, I varnished the figure in matte spray varnish and gave the finished article a good spray of Testor's Dullcote. Unhappily, this never seems to completely remove the shine in close-up flash photos, but I can promise you that in the flesh, she has a proper matte finish.

Anyway, here she is;

OK, not as professional a job as Ralph Plowman or Paul Sanderson could achieve, but I am pretty pleased with the results. Now, all I need to do is logon to the Kickstarter once it is open at 18:00 tomorrow (23rd January).

Freyja's Wrath - A Bad Squiddo Kickstarter

OK, now this is really exciting stuff. Annie Norman of Bad Squiddo Games is launching a new Kickstarter on 23rd January. 

I am sure that many people already know Annie's company and the kind of figures she sells, but for those who don't, here is Annie's own description of Bad Squiddo;

"Hello! Welcome to Bad Squiddo Games, home of Believable Female Miniatures, Baggy the Bag and Annie - The Dice Bag Lady. Bad Squiddo Games provides gamers and painters around the world with the largest selection of female miniatures out there. As well as manufacturing my own line, I carefully hand pick stock from over 50 different manufacturers. This means you have as wide a choice as possible to get that perfect miniature, and it’s a great way to bring many companies to work together in what is a small and friendly industry.
Just like a large portion of the industry, Bad Squiddo Games is a one-person business set up, owned and run by me – Annie Norman. However, I do work with some absolutely outstanding sculptors, casters, painters and concept artists – both in talent and personality – which make up the “Bad Squiddo Family”.
Phil Hynes, John Morris, Alan Marsh, Shane Hoyle, Jo Brumby, Tim Prow, Martin Baker, Delaney King, Kev White, Mark Evans and Andrew May are the putty pushers behind the madness so far, with Paul Cubbin and Andrew Taylor (and John Morris again!) bringing them to life with stunning paint jobs. They all deserve a mention and clap here as the company would not be what it is without them.

The number one aim for Bad Squiddo Games is to create and supply the miniatures that would have made the hobby far far better for my 10 year old self. To welcome more young girls and women into wargaming and miniature painting, as well as providing diverse options to the entire gaming community. And yeah – cool toys!"

So, on to the Kickstarter news. I had a hint of what was coming when I chatted with Annie at Reveille II last November, at the time it was all hush-hush, but now, all can be revealed. The Kickstarter is a comprehensive range of Norse-themed 28mm figures, entitled Freyja's Wrath; Swordmaidens of all kinds, archers and slingers, beasts, goddesses, the range is going to be huge.

Bad Squiddo already has a range of Swordmaidens, and very nice they are too, so it is great news that these new figures will be completely compatible with the existing ones.

I am lucky enough to have been sent a preview figure, and she is fantastic.

My first impression was "Wow!" The casting is incredibly clean, absolutely no flash at all and the detailing is crisp and unfussy. One thing that I love is that her spear is a steel wire one rather than a moulded piece (which are fine but do tend to get bent). I am really looking forward to painting her up (which I hope to do ASAP in the week) and getting some pics posted, but for now, here she is with her shield attached with a blob of Blu-Tac.

Yes, she is a Viking warrior, but I can see lots of other possibilities for these figures. After all, when it comes to Late Antiquity and the Early Mediaeval, there are plenty of similarities in the dress and equipment of most of Western, North and Central Europe. These could also feature in all manner of fantasy armies, from Middle Earth to Frostgrave.

For me, the first things that spring to mind are Dux Brittaniarum and Saga (and there is a new version of Saga being released by Studio Tomahawk very soon), but I am sure that everyone has their own favourite set of rules. They would easily work in a Sword and Spear (or S&S Fantasy) setting too.

So, if you want to get on board, the Kickstarter will be active at 18:00 (UK time) on 23rd January.