Oathswarn Miniatures 'Project Pantheon' Kickstarter

Hey Internet,

I have just backed my first ever 'Kickstarter' project!

I don't think that I've muttered about it on here much before, but I've never been a fan of kickstarter (and other crowd-funding systems) in our little hobby.

I love the idea of it - a way for people to share their enthusiasm and get new projects off the ground - but I couldn't help but feel that some companies have turned crowd-funding into a sort of glorified pre-order system.

I mean, there’s nothing inherently wrong with that; I just feel it gives out a vibe of dodgyness. I can't escape the feeling that placing all that money in the hands of small companies will go awry at some point...

But, yes, anyway. I've made the leap and backed 'Project Pantheon 1: Odin, Lord of Asgard' by Oathswarn Miniatures.

Its a simple very simple project with a nice low buy-in of £22.

For that small investment I'll be getting a very pretty looking 40mm scale model of the Norse God Odin, mounted on his eight-legged horse Sleipnir, which I will of course be putting into my 'Of Gods and Mortals' Project.

At first glance, £22 felt like a terrible lot for a single figure, but I've since had no problem justifying it to myself - its huge and its bloody lovely.

I have no idea how well this new addition will fit in with the converted OOP Spartan Games 40mm Greeks that I have been using as Gods so far, but really I don't care. Even if there is a noticeable disparity, I'm only ever going to have one or two Gods on the table at any one time, and even then, they are flipping Gods after all, so it hardly matters.

Much to irritation of my bank manager, the sculptor has already got his teeth into their next Norse God sculpt, Freyja, brother of Freyr,riding her dire boar Hildisvini. If she ends up looking as good as the fellow I've put my money down for already, I fear she will too find herself in my possession before too long.


Mr. R. C. Marx

My God - Freyr

Hey Internet, 

I've very much been looking forward to putting this model up online - my god for 'Of Gods and Mortals' - Freyr.

Some WIP pictures of this model can be found HERE.

The model itself is a converted 'Jason' from Spartan Game's short lived 40mm scale Greek Mythological skirmish game. I absolutely love this model - and that not a thing I say often. Perhaps it is because I've never worked on a 40mm scale model before, but I was awed my the level of detail and character that the model possessed - particularly the intense, piercing stare of the eyes.

"Freyr (sometimes anglicized Frey, from *frawjaz "lord") is one of the most important gods of Norse paganism. Freyr was associated with sacral kingship, virility and prosperity, with sunshine and fair weather, Freyr "bestows peace and pleasure on mortals". Freyr, sometimes referred to as Yngvi-Freyr, was especially associated with Sweden and seen as an ancestor of the Swedish royal house.

In the Icelandic books the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, Freyr is presented as one of the Vanir, the son of the sea god Njörðr, brother of the goddess Freyja. The gods gave him Álfheimr, the realm of the Elves, as a teething present. He rides the shining dwarf-made boar Gullinbursti and possesses the ship Skíðblaðnir which always has a favorable breeze and can be folded together and carried in a pouch when it is not being used.

The most extensive surviving Freyr myth relates Freyr's falling in love with the female jötunn Gerðr. Eventually, she becomes his wife but first Freyr has to give away his magic sword which fights on its own "if wise be he who wields it". Although deprived of this weapon, Freyr defeats the jötunn Beli with an antler. However, lacking his sword, Freyr will be killed by the fire jötunn Surtr during the events of Ragnarök."

[The text above is an edited extract from this Wikipedia entry.]

Although I was initially daunted by the prospect of painting the centrepiece of my force without ever having painted a model of this scale before, I found the process to not only be incredibly enjoyable, but incredibly simple too. I didn't 'read-up' on painting 40mm figures before tacking him, so just painted it as if it were a 28mm model, using the same colours and techniques. As it turns out, it is exactly the same - you simply have far more space with which to blend colours on flat surfaces, and any fiddly details are much, much larger, making them also far easier to paint.

The final thing worth mentioning are the glowing eyes. I probably spent half of my total painting time for this model researching how to paint glowing 'directional lighting' effects on-line, and 'um-ing' and 'ah-ing' over whether to give it a go or not. On the one hand, I was very fearful that I would screw-up my otherwise completed model if I hacked blindly at the eyes with a paintbrush, while on the other I thought a glowing eye effect, whilst far more Greek than Norse, would set Freyr apart from his mortal comrades-in-arms. In the end I just went for it, and I think it looks really quite all-right. I think I did good.

A little out of focus, but I think it shows the eyes pretty well.

My next step towards completing my Norse project will be painting up Freyr's alternate form on the table-top, Skíðblaðnir, his dwarven forged, magical long-ship.