Stockholm Trip

I am back from my holidays and settled in at work again, so it is time for another blog. Last time I left you with my commander Viking and the promise that the other one would be done when I got back from Stockholm.

First I will show you a picture of the other Viking commander I promised. Again, the base was sculpted with modelling clay to create a more dramatic look for the commander unit.

My holidays in Stockholm provided me with all sorts of ideas for painting and modelling, especially my visit to the Swedish National History Museum and the Vasa museum kickstarted my creativity engine. In the History museum I found some plates of a Viking stronghold including a detailed plan of a great hall. I know there are a lot of great hall models out there but they miss the thing I want to see in a Viking building, which is the curve of the roof; all of the reconstructions I have seen have the distinct boat like shape of the Viking halls. So, guess what my next project is going to be aside from painting and customising my Viking warriors…

In the same museum there was a great model of the Viking town of Birka. I can’t say a lot about the scale, just that the buildings were between 15 and 20 cm high. The model came with an audio guide explaining several features of the town and a light show indicating part of the town. This made is difficult for me to get some good pictures, but if I tell you that this picture was just a third of the model you get the general idea of the size of the model.

During my stay in Stockholm I also visited the Vasa museum which houses the Vasa. The 17th century warship is stunning, even when seeing it for the third time. This time the 1/10 scale model took my fancy, it shows us how beautifully decorated the Vasa was right before it sunk. All I can say is, Kudos on the paint job, wow!

Besides all the historical wonders, Stockholm also has a great Scifi bookstore. And to my surprise they had a fairly extensive Wargaming department. Most of the places I have been just have some GW figures and Vallejo pai nts, but this store had the usual GW miniatures and gear, but also Gale Force 9 supplies, Warlord figures and loads more non-standard kits. Eventually I picked up some GW chaos cultists, no I am not a covert, I did it because they were cheap and wanted to paint them in crazy colours.