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.