"Converting Warlord Plastic Barbarians into Vikings" Topic

I'm thinking about converting some Warlord Games plastic barbarians into Vikings for SAGA. Which of the different boxes (Ancient Britons, Celts, Dacians, Germans – or are some of these the same plastic sprues ?) will get me the most useable bodies ? I think I will be able to use all of the bodies that don't come with chainmail armour. The ones with naked torsos will become beserkers and the ones with tunics will be unarmoured warriors. I'll be adding shields, weapons and heads from the Gripping Beast plastic Vikings. Has anyone done any similar converting ?

They all have the same base plastic sprue (i.e. the Celts one) with varying metal add ons (for ones other than the celts) The Germans give you several bare torso's with fur cloak type things and large clubs, they are the only ones I have seen in person.

The plastics use the same type of head to body attachment as the Gripping Beast vikings, I've used a couple bare viking heads on my celts already. I haven't used weapons/shields but the shields would definately work and imagine the weapons would as well so long as you transplant the hand at the wrist. If you are just interested in the plastics the Celts are obiviously the way to go, other than that I would recommend the Germans as the metal bits in that set have beards, where the Britons have moustaches.

OK, thanks. I assume the box contains two of each type of sprue, and it looks like there are 2 chainmail armoured warriors on each sprue, so only 8 out of the 40 would be unusable as Vikings.

Given that I can get the Ancient Britons, Germans or Celts for the same price, which would be the best. The German set only has 30 figures, compared to 40 in each of the others, so do the extras in the German set make up for the less figures ?

Weren't the Vikings barbarians to begin with?

Many vikings would be more lightly armored. Some of the Wargames factory Germans with pants and tunics work well for light troops. The bare chested guys are not so good as things had cooled off by the dark ages and running around like a crazed sports fan without a shirt

I've been using the Wargames Factory Germans to make my levy troops for Saga. I've thrown in some slingers and javelins just to mix things up. And of course I have 4 bare chested beserkers waiting on paint to morph my Danes into Vikings. It gets hot raiding in the summer. Winter, not so much.

A peon in tunic and trews is a peon in tunic and trews whether it is western Europe in 500 AD or 1300 AD. They die just as easily.

Have fun gluing the different bits together. It's the one thing I like about this hobby beside playing the games.

I'd double check the price of the Britons, if it's the same as the plain celts box you may be getting an earlier box that only contains 30. Either way I wouldn't go with the Briton box as the metal bits it contains aren't really useful for Vikings.

I'd only go with the German box if you are interested in using the barechested fur clad guys as your berserkers, and/or you have some extra legs (you end up with 10 extra if you get a box of celt cavalry) to put the extra metal torso's on to, closing the model difference between the boxes. Otherwise just go with the plain celt box.

What exactly do you get in the German box ? Is it three of the normal celt sprues plus extra torsos and heads ? How many extra torsos ? Because yes, I do want barechested figures as berserkers(and beast skins sound useful on them), and the heads may also be useful if not helemeted.

Unfortunately most of my models (inc the Germans) are ~10,000km away and will be for the next 6 months or so, so I am unable to give you an exact count. Frist, yes, it is 3 of the normal celt sprues, I believe there was ~6 extra torso's with weapons and heads attached (a couple you couldn't really do weapon swaps with but some you could) There are several extra metal heads (~6) and some metal shields.

There is also three command figures, as seen in the front rank here

The standard and chief are complete models, the horn is just a metal torso.

If you get 3 complete Celt sprues plus the standard and chief models, surely that's 32 complete figures, not the 30 advertised ?

Does anyone know if there would be a noticeable difference between the celt / ancient german swords included with these figures and Viking swords ?

The German chief and standard bearers both look like they could pass as Vikings (obviously changing the standard to a flag – does that seem reasonable ?

Ok, I have to ask, why use them when WF and Gripping Beast do plastic vikings already?

Is it because their boxes are either mail or not? If so surely there is someone here planning a simular project that you can go halves with?

The WF box has bows and stuff in as well, and they both have the correct headgear and shields which I do not think is the case for the "barbarian" sprue from Warlord.

Sorry if I missed something obvious somewhere, and good luck with your project either way.

Perhaps he is particularly after the naked torsoes, which are not to be found in any of the plastic Viking sets available?

I've already got some GB Vikings, but as you say, these are all armoured. I bought a full box and sold half, which gives me all the armoured guys I need for a SAGA warband. But I need some without armour and some beserkers, and that's where these come in. I'll use some spare heads and shields from the GB Vikings, and use some of the non-helmeted heads from the Warlord Germans, so they should hopefully look like Vikings.
I know WF do unarmoured Vikings but they don't look very good to me. The poses look rather strange and un-lifelike.
I ordered the Warlord Germans yesterday, so I'll get started on them this weekend.

WF tends to have lower quality plastics compared to WL which may explain the preference

I went through a similar dilemma; the end result can be found here: link

I kit-bashed Gripping Beast Hirdmen weapons (axes, swords) and Wargames Factory Viking shields..the armored Celts work great as warriors/hearthguard.

As far as the Wargames Factory miniatures, they do allow for a wide variety of poses, so no, they don't have to look as awkward as the ones on the box art! However, their heads are not sculpted as well as the Warlord Games/GB, and the WB/GB heads are not compatible with the WF bodies (too large). I used WF Bondi and WG Celts for levy, and GB for warriors and hearthguard.

I received the Warlord Germanic Tribesmen and was quite dissappointed to find that they are not quite the same size as the Gripping Beast Vikings. They are noticeably smaller, so not really compatible to do head swaps and conversions using the two sets of parts. It's a shame as some of the Warlord heads would have added a bit of character and variety to the Vikings (not that they need much added character, as the GB plastics are excellent sculpts). Luckily the seller I bought them from accepts returns, so back they are going. I'll just have to wait for the GB unarmoured Vikings set to be released to complete my Viking warband.