Tuesday 28 April 2015

Little_Lano Reviews: Ax Faction Miniatures- Viking on a Bear (?!)

"Ax Faction- a company with Vikings riding bears and Elves riding giant rabbits.  Creativity and passion fused effortlessly into a range of miniatures"

Early 2014, I saw a Facebook advert for a newish miniature company offering miniatures with a cool, dynamic mix to them. I saw females posing on top of giant heads, and elven Rangers riding on top of rabbits.
A little later in the year, I cursed myself for not making a note of the company as a few of their miniatures would have been perfect for a few systems I now play. 

Fast forward to Salute 2015, and I am happily reunited with the company, and to be pleasantly surprised with newer miniatures ranging from Badgers with Axes... HUGE Orc warlords and other premium quality sculpts.  I had to tear myself away not to walk away with a miniature as my spending for that day had already hit the dizzy heights.
Fast forward again by 5 minutes and my good friend from Gazette Games, Grant, meets up with my group and shortly gives me a proposal (ooooh errr *wink* *wink*).

He would like me to apply my painting Skills to a miniature from Ax Faction for his review website and as payment i get to keep the model.
DEAL
Didn't need to think about it, I said deal and he gave me the miniature.
Considering I'm aiming to get myself aViking  Mordheim/Saga army... I was ecstatic with what I was given...

A Viking riding a mother fucking BEAR! 
My thoughts instantly turned to his Hordes counterpart Borka, a troll who also rides a bear into combat.



So let's get down to the nitty gritty. At £25, this is a premium model considering the size of it. While it's not huge, it is very well scaled in relation and will fit into most human based armies/ games.


The miniature itself is very well casted, and requires very little to no flash removal.
The bear comes in 3 parts (body and two arms) while his drinking buddy does have his hand detached from his arms which is also separate from his torso.

Now with his paint job, I was determined to do a fucking amaze balls job. Considering this was going onto another website and the quality of the model needed to be appreciated.
So 14 hours later, and many many layers of thinned paint, I finished with this.




Firstly, what a pleasure to paint. 
The lack of imperfections meant applying paint was a synch and gave me an opportunity to try different techniques.
Firstly, Non Metal Metal (NMM) is something I never really used. A lot of effort when I can just use Leadbelcher Paint. But I stuck to it and 10 layers later I was happy with my metallic look.

The plan for this guy is my Warlord for Saga (can't wait to see Riots face when I bring this guy out) and an Ogre Mercenary for my Vikings in Mordheim.  And to be honest, I am just happy to own a miniature like this.

In relation to Ax Faction. I can sense from talking to them at Salute that they want to produce miniatures that are different and outstanding from their market competitors. All the products in their line have a flare of originality that is very difficult to match. This originality and model quality does come at a slight premium price, but is at one that I would very happily pay. 

While I am here, go check out Gazette Games.
They are a great review group.
http://www.gamesgazette.co.uk/gg/main.php

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