Saga - Wargame Factory Woes

Hello everyone!

I've been building my Saga models.  And unfortunately the Wargames factory Saxons I am using for my Anglo-Danes here are just not what their Persians are.. they pale in comparison!  All my photos are my assembled models and some work still needs to be done on each of them.. Well... Here's what I've got out so far:

As you can see, I've got a mixture of Wargames Factory Saxons Fyrd and Gripping Beast Dark Age warriors.  All will serve their purpose in my upcoming games of Saga.  But there's a number of issues I have with the Wargames Factory models that I'd like to share with you all.

First of all, please note the size.  Above you can easily tell which models belong to Gripping Beast and which belong to WGF.   The Saxon Fyrd are much taller in comparison though proportion wise they're somewhat similar.  The Dark age warriors a little shorter, but hey.. that's quite okay.  If you look at any pictures of modern day military there is no one single size or height for their soldiers. Whoever can play war just does so regardless of height!

 Wargames Factory made some really good models. I love their ancient Persians.  But their Roman's and their Dark age fellows were some of their first models ever designed... they eventually improved model quality and style before they shut down their web storethough...

Anyways, here's the first of my comparisons and issues:

#1  - Stupid Ball Necks 
    A) The Good:

Here are two of the Wargames Factory Saxons that I feel are somewhat decently put together.  There's a bit of touch up work to do, but I'll use them.  The necks seem to pop out of the body at a somewhat more natural look.  

  B) The Bad:

 

  Notice how the axe-man on the left's head isn't quite center? And then the middle fellow's neck looks ridiculously thick in comparison with the rest of proportions of his body and how it also doesn't really .. well, he looks deformed and seems like he has a turkey neck?  Finally, the last spear man has a very long neck for the body I chose. He's the tallest.  I feel the last miniature could be forgivable - some people have really long necks!

  Anyways - The ball necks seem alright at first glance and for facial expressions and epic mustaches, helmets, and hats they are excellent! . However, when applying them to the body, they're quite awkward since the ball, length, and width of each neck varies from piece to piece... I feel if they would number the right heads to the right bodies it would make more sense.. but no - the hobbyist is going to have to play with each of them and figure out what looks good to them and then have to second guess themselves when they check out other folks who post beautiful pictures of their Saxons online.  I personally will have to build multiple /  a few guys and play around a lot longer than I thought to get the proper, natural flowing head I'm going for.

#2 The body's inner neck grooves are attached to the point you have to cut away from the sprue 

    Notice how the sprue cut off point drives directly into the neck's back part? This is extremely frustrating because as you can see in the second photo, when you cut it you get a big lob of plastic that still sits there. You have to file it completely down without wrecking the back collar of the shirt in order to fit the ball head piece properly.... Many companies connect in this way, but the neck piece where you glue the head to is flat! So much easier to file down!  So in order to get a natural looking head, you have to pick the proper head that's going to fit with the proper body, then file it all down and also be careful not to damage the detail on the back part of the neck which is still visible...  I mean, you could file the neck / ball piece on each head too, but that's a lot of work that could be put into paint and play time! =P  In any case, to make them look good that is what I'll have to do. File the hell out of these !!!!

#3 Hard to assemble the arms to match the bodies...

Here is a photo taken from a forum: http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=290987

Notice how.. these guys look like they're dancing or busting moves in their formation?  Why is that spear man in the back charging with the side of his spear?  That flagman is going in for one hell of a stab!!!!   You must figure out natural poses for each arm to match the stance the body is in!  This is not easy as the sprue contains MANY unlabeled arms meant for holding spears, flags, swords, axes, shields , and bows!  This is problematic as some poses look more natural for archery, others for an over hand sword slash, a spear thrust.. etc.. but if a fellow doesn't need any archers or spear man or what have you, what point are a good chunk of the bodies if you cant put them together in the right sort of look?  

#4 The detail

These models are not the best detailed and I believe after primed will be hard to paint as well as some of their later miniatures.  Luckily I've chosen my Fyrd bodies to have only dark age clothing instead of armor!  Some of the boot wraps and knives on these guys look strange.  The wrapping looks like it goes all over the place unnaturally, and the little knives on their sides attached to the body look odd.

#5 Dinky little spears. 

Just check this posts photo.. their spears are very short, probably the minimum for the Dark age times.. and they're skinny and plastic.  I'm waiting for them to break.  then I'll pry them out of their hands and replace them with thicker metal things... that or I should Just use the metal ones I have lying around, right? 

Well, those are the woes out of the way... Luckily, with a lot of patience they can and will pass for my first force of Saga! And the odd one does look decent. You just need to put in a lot of effort and have a really good eye to make them look good!   Warlord games currently sells the sprues for real cheap if anyone wants to pick up a game of Saga without breaking the bank.. Just check their Hail Caesar - Dark age section on their store..  Here's some more comparisons of Gripping Beast dark age warriors and these WGF Fyrd...As well as some positive notes

  

Positive Notes:

To be fair, these models do have some good points that I should add here.  It's better to leave on a positive note over a negative one, yes?

I do have to say - For the "multicultural" Anglo-Danes (Being mixed of peoples from Danish vikings that settled England for a few years, New comers out of Scandinavian countries , and anglo-saxons that had been in England for  many years before) at least the head options are there. With the WGF saxon box sets you get many types of standard helmets, Saxon hats, as well as fellows with nice beards and, most importantly for the Anglo-Danes, all sorts of cool mustaches.

Gear wise you get a lot of options. You get an Anglo-Saxon Dragon Standard flag thing, horns, lots of swords both sheathed and unsheathed, arrow quivers, a nice large lumber / two handed axe (still short compared to the Danish Axe), some large Saex,  and three great shield variants (two round ones and one kite shield).

Finally - They're pretty cheap and have been re-released from out of production in the Warlord Games website.   Heres the major sprue option but there are also two other purchasing options that are even cheaper as well.  That and Warlord games has many promos quite often. Here's a website...

https://us-store.warlordgames.com/collections/dark-ages/products/saxon-fyrd-warriors-frames  

In closing!  Gripping Beast is really the easier option for assembly.  The heads go on flat necks that take minimal filing, and the weapons and stances make sense in most ways of assembly.  Although gripping beast fellows appear short and look somewhat squat  I feel the variety of heights and different proportions  will be alright on the battlefield when they're alongside my Wargame Factory fellows.

I'm getting Gripping Beast Vikings tomorrow.  The mail man left a card so I am expecting to have those assembled and shown off in my next blog. I'll probably share my opinion on Gripping beast in the next post as well as show off some of the terrain I'm working and planning on selling!

Thanks for checking in and reading!