Hastings 1066- The Saxon army in 20mm for Impetus rules

The conquest of Saxon England by William, King of Normandy is a fascinating story. I became even more fascinated by it when in ... let me check PSR... ah, yes, in 1989, Revell released its two sets clearly designed for Hastings 1066. 

Since then I amassed a good quantity of both boxes - Saxon and Norman - in order to be able to make the Saxon shield wall and the three Norman divisions that charged up Senlac Hill (some say Caldbec Hill, in a more recent theory). Recently I based all the figures in Impetus Rules bases, ideal both for massed heavy horse and shield walls and painted a few more. 

Both boxes have good figures for the Housecarls armed with two handed axes of which three were made. Some of the figures had small pieces of plastic added in order to extend the lenght of the Dane axe and plastic shields. 

Also using chain mail, the Thegn figures used had plastic shields added some round and others with tear drop shape. Some of the Thegn figures on the back row (standing with spear) are the Saxon horsemen cut in half and glued to Esci Roman legs. 

King Harald Godwinson was made from the Revell Russian Knight commander with converted card and broom stick banner. This picture was obviously taken before the arrow that pierced his eye and brain. The colors came from a British reenactor photo found on the web. 

The Saxon Fyrd was also made from both boxes but with many more from the Saxon box. A total of five stands of Fyrd were made but I hope to make at least as many in the future as the Fyrd was more than the double of both Housecarls and Thegns. Also two bases of Lithsmen are on the cue. The arms were bent by fire in order to produce figures with the shield protecting the body and the next comrade, thus creating a shieldwall. Also many of the swords were replaced by spears as these were much more common and less expensive. 

One of the two Thegn stands had a few Revell Russian knights mixed with Saxon and Norman figures. The Russian knights are also good for many XI/XII century conflicts throughout Europe and mix well with Crusaders, for instance. 

Not much is known about Saxon archers, slingsmen or javelinmen at Hastings but there were some for sure as there is even a theory that its a Saxon arrow that kills King Harald. I made three stands of them also using the helmetless Norman swordsman ( a relatively useless figure, good for Robin Hood movie scenes) to produce a few javelinmen. Their sword was cut and a small needle and shield were placed instead. 

This one is just for you to see that the arms can easily be changed with the help of a hot iron for the making of the shield wall. 

In this selection of figures from the PSR site you can see that the 1st and 2nd figure to the left can have its left arm heated in order to protect the body and create the shield wall and the 3rd and 4th figures can have easily added shields on the Thegn stands. 

Next: The Norman army for Hastings but more probably a video on the German WW2 "Panzer Grey" period as the whole Norman army still has to be built.