Tuesday, 5 February 2013

Gripping Beast - 28mm Saxon Thegns

Box Art
The second release from Gripping Beast sees a box containing parts for 44 spear armed Thegns, plus additional sword and hand-axe arms to allow for added variety.

The set also includes command figures to allow the building of up to two Saxon Lords and two horn blowers and two 'Dracos' standards. Also included in the boxed set are two paper banners to allow the conversion of a additional two spearmen into standard bearers.

The figures are very easy to put together and have virtually no flash to deal with, Saxons would have formed a predominantly spear armed Shield Wall and the choice of arms available reflects this. That said there are not enough spear arms to enable the whole box to be so created


Figure Frame

All figures are armoured with chain mail, representing the 'middle' Anglo-Saxon period (8th-10th centuries), most bearing a crucifix pendant to live up to the boxed set's 'Defenders of the Faith' sub-title! As they are middle period Saxons - you will not find kite shields of axe wielding huscals in this set (not a problem but a heads-up!).

Now to the frames, each set comes with 4 identical frames, each containing 10 figures, each figures is a basic torso with legs, though some have an arm pre attatched, to which a range of arms and heads can be attached to give the required variety

Command Frame

There are also two command frames included, containing two figures each, with a range of weapons, horns and dracos etc