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I paint small metal and plastic figures and rarely get to play with them. But that is fine with me.

26 May 2015

Jarl Ikea! (A very sensible, no-frills sort of Viking.)

Not much done over the long Memorial Day weekend due to health crap (again), but I did finish up the Viking Lord (From this day forth to be known as "Jarl Ikea" - thankyou Zzzzzz) and decided to spritz up my Star Wars: Armada Victory Star Destroyers a little too.

First up the Jarl himself. I looked up "Viking tunics" on Google and found some handy results to help make sure that what I painted didn't just look ridiculously incorrect. I'd already decided to make him a blondie and wanted a colour that would contrast well with his hair/beard. The green I chose was Vallejo Dark German Camo Green or something for those interested. The edging was a simplified knot/swirl taken from a far more complicated design I found, but knew my crappy free-hand skills were in no way up to the task of emulating. I think it'll do though. 



Last minute I slapped on a watered down red wash to his skin as I wanted to try to give him a "fresh-off-the-long-boat" look, with exposed skin all pink from the North Sea winds. I also painted his beard darker than his hair because really, there's not too many of us manly men who's beard matches exactly to the mop on our heads. (Assuming that one can still grow a mop.)


I also attempted to paint a simple wood grain on the shield and axe haft. I think it looks okay, though perhaps could have used a less bright tan.





In this picture you can see his scabbard is empty. I like this as it gave options as to what to do with this part of the model - add a sword to his right hand (It was sans weapon out of the box), fashion a sword grip and pommel to fit in the scabbard, etc. 


I instead left it empty and decided he had been in battle already, bending his sword over some Saxon's shield edge beyond repair and so discarded it upon the ground. 


During my googling, I read that Viking shield designs were not all that complicated in the main. This will be great going forward once I start painting up the regular rank and file. But I wanted my Lord to stand out some and so searched about for a cool design to slap on his shield. The result is a crow type icon (Originally found on a blue shield in Google images) that I think translated okay on my mini. 

This hovel is mine! 

I'm now working on the Saxon Lord with a completely different colour pallette. Updates on him to come.

Here's a quick picture of the Victory Class Star Destroyers for Armada. I picked up the 2nd one last week and added some mid-grey to random panels on one of them to help differentiate between the two. I also tried to get creative and add some depth to the engine glows for both. I think they both look far more interesting in general now. 





22 comments:

  1. Hey Dawg! I heard you like Star Destroyers with your Star Destroyers with added Star Destroyers ;) heh

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    1. If you've got to destroy a rebel outpost, then you do it right. :)

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  2. If I had a Star Wars/X Wing army (fleet ?) then Star Destroyers would be the way I'd go. Loving your fleet, Dai.

    And Jarl Ikea is quite wonderful - beard, eyes, weapons, shield et al. Very good.

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    1. Thankyou on all accounts.

      The fleet will get bigger, once FF releases the proper job Imperial Star Destroyer. Then I will rule the galaxy with an iron (plastic) fist.

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    2. Hunt down the rebel scum

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  3. I really like the freehand work. The chain on the tunic turned out fantastic. Well done.

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    1. Cheers Dave. Freehand's never been my strong point, so I doubly appreciate the comment.

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  4. Painting Ikea's beard a slightly different color than his hair was a stroke of genius. One of those little touches that I'd not have thought of, but makes the mini more realistic. Well done.

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    1. Appreciate the kind words, thankyou.

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  5. This Viking is most impressive, excellent job!

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    1. I hope he'll prove to be as impressive on the tabletop! Cheers!

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  6. Great paint work on the viking - he looks excellent.

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  7. Looking bloody lovely, very impressive - does he have a fondness for meatballs and flat-pack longships?

    And those star destroyers are hefty buggers, wanted to try X-Wing for a while

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    1. He does! And also well priced Köttbullar!

      Try Armada instead. Control the entire fleet, not just he pesky gnats. ;)

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  8. Ikea looks AMAZING mate! (great name too.)

    I've never painted blond successfully: how do you do it, please?

    And forget those of us who might not still have 'mops' - my hair's not going anywhere soon, but by crikey I could not grow a beard if my life depended on it! Seriously: at 34 I still cannot even grow sideburns. Ridiculous.

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    1. I'm going to have to craft my eventual SAGA force around the central conceit that my opponent will ALWAYS have more impressive facial hair.

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    2. Funny.... I can grow a beard in a VERY short amount of time. But my hair left my head 15 years ago and seems to have migrated instead to my back and shoulders...

      This flavour of blond was painted with a dark sand colour base. Then cream highlight. Wash with sepia (I used GW's one) and highlight with the cream again.

      Simple as that.

      Your Saga force would have to be Crusaders then - they all seem to be very well shaven fellows. (Though I far prefer the Viking age stuff.)

      Thanks mate.

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  9. Dai you have no idea how jealous I am of your freehand skills! Jarl Ikea is bloody brilliant!

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    1. Well then thankyou very much. :) You can't see it, but right now I'm blushing. Not all that manly, but appropriate.

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