"Wargames Factory Vikings - a Review" Topic

I got some of these in the mail last Friday. I've had odd moments to work on them since that time and now they are painted.

They came in the mail with my order for zulus and zombies. The zz's I guess you could say.

There were three sprues of them. One of the sprues had heads and weapons on it, another sprue had chain mail bodies and arms, the last sprue had unarmoured bodies and matching arms.

The weapon and head sprue contained 8 shields, 2 bows, 12 different heads, including one horned one for fun, two double handed weapon arm sets, 4 axes, 4 swords, 4 spears, 2 quivers, one standard pole and one horn.

The body sprues contain 4 different bodies and about 22 different arms.

As far as detail goes they are as superb. They are right up there with the best plastics that are currently on the market. The chainmail has been done in such a way that there is very little softness on the sides. The faces are great. They are as good as the Foundry vikings I've painted so many of. The poses are animated without being too animated.

The figures could easily be used as Saxons as well. I will definitely be getting some more to expand my Saxon army.

They are about the size of larger 28mm figures, like Foundry or Crusader. Not so big as the Renegade figures.

I'm very impressed with these. The quality of the Wargames Factory figures continues to improve and these are the best I've seen yet. There is also no reason why you couldn't mix these figures with the WF ancient germans with the naked torsos to make Berzerkers.

If I don't get called out today I'll probably put a couple of them together actually. I have 4 spare Viking heads that I can put on the German bodies and at least a couple of weapons as well as shields.

Overall these are some of the best plastics I've seen. They are a match for GW's stuff and even give the Perry French a run for their money, although it is a little difficult comparing the latter two as they are so different types of figures.

I'm not sure what the pricing will be on these, but I'm betting they will be worth every penny.

I haven't made a viking army before but it might be time to start one to fight my saxons.

These are some sweet figures.

link

Did they make the shields any larger than in the renders?

Yes. The shields look the right size to me on the figures. I didn't notice that they looked small on the computer models til you pointed it out just now though. I made one of mine in the same position as the one in the bottom picture on that link. The shield goes to about the shoulder and down to the slightly bent knee.

Hi Everyone – Thanks Scott!

To avoid any confusion – the Vikings are not available yet, but will be making their debut at GENCON this year.

We sent a few test sprues to Scott and some other great painters to see what they thought of them – and of course to use the pictures on the packaging! Scott is (I believe) the first to complete them (a couple sets are winging their way across the "Pond" as I type).

With each set, we've been progressing on the level, depth, and crispness of detail – and also working to completely eliminate mold lines. Numidians are good, Zulus better, Ancient Germans better-er, and Vikings the very best we've achieved to date.

We'll be unveiling bits and pieces of the Vikings as we move closer to release. You can see a piece of the sprue here: wargamesfactory.com

Stay tuned!

Thanks everyone!

Tony

Tony Reidy
Wargames Factory
wargamesfactory.com

They sound really great.

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The figures could easily be used as Saxons as well. I will definitely be getting some more to expand my Saxon army.

If I don't get called out today I'll probably put a couple of them together actually. I have 4 spare Viking heads that I can put on the German bodies and at least a couple of weapons as well as shields.

I noticed that a lot of the components of the early Germans look generic enough to use for later Germanics as well. I think your idea of mixing & matching bits from the two kits would go a long way to giving some variety for a number of different armies.

A bit like their "Numidians" provide a lot of generic pieces, I think some of these other kits have a lot of cross-over potential.

Looking at the vikings and the zulus today I had a thought. What if they made a set of plastic orc heads that would fit on these figs?

Then you could have plastic savage orks by popping an orc head on the zulu body. You could have medeival orcs by putting them on the viking or ancient german bodies.

I suppose orcs aren't just men with different heads necessarily, but some orcs aren't really much more than that. Heck if you made both the pig nosed orcs and the more GW looking orcs you could cover all of your bases.

A while back I thought about doing a fantasy orc army as I had the giant and a bunch of goblins but I wanted to do the savage orcs and they only made them in metal. It wasn't a project that I was that dedicated to so I thought "sod it." But if they had them in plastic that would have been a different matter.

Mixing plastic orc heads with zulu bodies would go a long way to making that a reality.

Plus I'd probably like them more than the over muscled GW orcs anyway.

That's a pretty interesting idea – with one sprue you could do heads, standards, shields, weapons, etc etc and have some pretty interesting conversion possibilities.

I thought it was a nifty idea. I've always wanted some savage orcs in plastic. This would be a good way to do it.

I'm already eyeing some of these zulus up for 40K conversions too. Some ork heads on there and some sci-fi guns, maybe some scrap metal looking pieces as "armor" and you'd be away.

So two sprues then – one for Fantasy conversions and another for SF ones and Bob's Your Uncle.

But…but…I have enough Vikings…really…I do…

Oh, who am I kidding? I need enough for two large armies, anyway, given how much they fought amongst themselves. Yeah, that's the idea.

Good to see the quality improving – would like to see them in the flesh as opposed to the digital masters. Will keeep an eye out here in OZ.

Recent TMP posts of painted WF products like the Celtic chariot and the Numidians do look impressive and a big improvement on the early Romans. Wonder if they will be re-done to the current standards?

Orc-zulus or orc-germans will probably look more in-scale with smaller fantasy or historical figures.

Compare the WF zombies to GW zombies, for example.

I hope this link works:

picture

and a big improvement on the early Romans. Wonder if they will be re-done to the current standards?

No love for the Romans? I still think they're pretty decent figures. ;)

I like the Romans myself. The detail in the chain mail on the sides is not as crisp as it is with the vikings but overall I think they are good figures.

Sounds interesting – I look forward to seeing more about these models!

However, shouldn't this rather be on the medieval product reviews section?

Griefbringer

I guess it should and the plastics board too. I will post it there as well now.

I think Orc bits for the Vikings and Zulus are a great idea too. They would go great against the Roman Fantasy army thats third on my list, after my Zulu force and Zulu Brits.