Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors, Painted and Based

I've finished what turned out to be a good week for painting and terrain, and should have several posts in the next few days to show for it.  First up is a Jomsviking Warlord by Gripping Beast.  Fun to paint, and I am finally starting to feel that my basing is acceptable.  The raised base is a plaster casting, with some sand and PVA glue added on.  Then I dry brushed it and added some Army Painter grass clumps.

 Here are some shots of the first eight of Gripping Beast's Dark Age plastic warriors completed.  I mostly wanted to get the variety of the box with these first figures.  So I went with a few spearmen, some slingers and a musician.  These are some of the best plastics to paint, and the detail on the faces really pops out when adding a light wash.

For the rest of the box, I plan to focus on getting some discrete units.  Twelve slingers are a must for a SAGA levy unit, and some of the axemen will be painted in a Hiberno-Norse style.  

As enthusiastic as I was in my original review, the only further critique I can add is that at least one of the heads needed a phrygian cap.  It was standard period headware from Anglo-Saxon England to the Byzantine Empire, and it is pictured on the box art multiple times.