A while back I picked up a few frames of Gripping Beast plastic Saxon Thegns off eBay. I'm not really sure why as I had no plan to build a Dark Age army. You know how it goes. Impulse purchase. I suppose if I have to justify it, I was a bit curious about plastic figures and their potential for customisation and wanted to find out what all the fuss was about. (Okay, I have a lot of catching up to do). This seemed a cheap way to find out and if I messed up completely it wouldn't hurt too much.
So, the figures arrived and were duly put away in the wargames cupboard where - you guessed it, they remained untouched for many a month.
Fast forward to the past month and I finally got around to putting some of the figures together. I know some wargamers find putting plastic figures together a trial of patience, but I found it rather therapeutic and relaxing. There's something about the smell of liquid polystyrene cement that wafted me right back to my childhood days of Airfix kits. (Serious note - inhaling the fumes isn't recommended. Bad for your health, right). Of course back when I was in short trousers the cement was stringy stuff out of a tube that oozed out of seams and joints, got all over your fingers and always made mess of clear aircraft canopies. We have progressed. Yes, I could have used Cyanoacrylate 'Superglue' but it just doesn't have the same nostalgia and anyway, experimenting with repositioned heads and limbs is a pain with contact adhesive. And I hate sticking my own fingers together.
So, after a happy hour or so I had put together a dozen or so Thegns. Not the greatest sculpts. The poses are a bit limited, which did reduce my options a bit. Some of the faces tend to be slightly cartoony and detail is a bit soft in places but, hey they're perfectly acceptable for the price.
After basing and priming I got down to painting. Stay tuned. Progress reports to follow.
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