"Looking for 1:72 Scale Vikings and Irish" Topic

Hi, this is my first post at TMP but I've lurked for a long time. I'm hoping someone might have some advice on helping me find suitable figures.

I'd like to do a small-scale diorama representing a Viking raid into Ireland. Probably would use a Viking ship and no more than a couple dozen forces on each side. The idea is that this Viking ship has made it pretty far inland in a river and has met some local opposition. Probably around 1000 AD or something similar.

I'd like the figures to be 1:72 or something close. Plastic soldiers are totally fine (in fact, I don't want to use metal due to the cost). I'm looking for a Viking ship, a Viking force, and the Irish combatants.

For the Vikings, I found a couple possibilities:
link
or
link

And for the ship, this could be a possibility:
link

But I'm completely stuck on the Irish. I can't find anything suitable.

Any tips for the Vikings and (especially) the Irish?

Thanks!
George

I know you want plastics but Tumbling Dice do some nice metal Vikings that are fairly cheap and at the right scale. They paint up well as well.

link

Their mini start packs are great value but I can't seem to find them in the website. May be drop them an email.

Nobody does plastic Irish of this period – or if anyone does, they've escaped the notice of plasticsoldierreview.com. Perhaps some of the Red Box Picts might be usable, though they're not the most wonderful of figures – link

On the Vikings – would use the Zvezda over the Orion.

On the Irish – I think the best thing is to look through Plastic Soldier Review under Dark Ages and Medieval and see if any sets meet your needs. If the Irish are basically civilian then ther medieval's are probably the best places to find suitable figures. Even some of the Roman civilian sets from Linear-B may be useful – but there's not an ovious one box does it all set unfortunately.

For a more martial look – many of the venerable Airfix Robin Hood figures are very "generic" and useful to adapt : link

HaT also do a "mini-box" of picts. link

Red Box Wars of the Roses Irish are quite distinctive. Not sure how well they represent Irish of 600 years earlier, but I'd use the helmeted figures for nobility and the lightly clad and armed figures plus Picts or similar for the rest.

Have a great day, FPR

Yes, Picts or even Welsh are your best choices for Dark Ages Irish. Also, check Irregular miniatures 20mm ranges. I don't know myself, but others tell me that they are "true" 20mm and may be smaller than 1/72.

Newline Design do 1.72 Picts in metal, which would be fine for 'Dark Age' unarmoured Irish. Depends what you want your Irish to look like. They should probably be untrousered or wearing short breeches. I don't know of any 1.72 figs other than the Picts from Newline or the ones mentioned above which have bare legs.

I would avoid the Orion Vikings. In plastic Emhar do a good set which will go with Zvezda. link
For a different look in the same scale you could go for Strelets Vikings and Saxons.
link
link

Thanks for the advice everyone!

Thanks to those who recommended Plastic Soldier Review! What a great site. Added to my favorites.

Gurkhan – You're right, those Picts aren't THE best looking figures, but they just might do the trick. They're on my list now for consideration.

20thmaine, Hobhood – Thanks, I'll avoid the Orion Vikings and go with the Zvezda.

Foxtrot – I saw that earlier and never considered it due to the time period. But upon closer look, some of those may be OK.

I think I'll take the advice of a few people on here and look at possibly Picts as the Irish.

Thanks everyone.

Here are some pics of a better longship, from Emhar, as well as Emhar's Viking oarsmen--

The Zvezda Vikings are great--I use them in conjunction with the Emhar set, which are made of plastic that is 'pose-able' and easily takes on glue, making them a breeze to convert. (Though keep in mind the shields straps are wrong in the Emhar Viking set, which is odd, because the 1/32 version of the same set has the historically correct type of shield-boss 'handles')

link

You also can't go wrong with Emhar's Saxons, which are made of the same good plastic (and have the correct shields) with many of the poses easily converted to stand in various Dark Age folk, even the Irish.

link

Also--the old Esci set of Germanic barbarians (now reissued by Italeri I believe) contains some poses that might be used as a stand in for Dark Age Irish, as well as others…

link

…And the same goes for Caesar's ancient Germanic tribesmen.

link

Hope that helps!

Mayponce, thanks for this information! Of all the links you provided, my favorite is the Emhar Saxons. I think this might be what I end up using for my Irish soldiers. It seems pretty good for a 10th century Irish warband mainly because:

1) Lots of spears & shields
2) Few swords
3) Few bows
4) No armor

I'll take a look at the ship and see how much it's going for.

Thanks again!

I found the Emhar longship on Ebay for $27 USD + $9 USD shipping. So $36 USD total. I think that's a reasonable price. I couldn't find it on U.S. Amazon.

I strongly suggest Zvezda and Strelets

They look fine together and give you lots and lots of variation

link

With Respect
KTravlos