III/71 Anglo-Danish, 1014-1075AD
IV/3 Anglo-Norman, 1072-1181 AD
IV/3 Anglo-Norman, 1072-1181 AD
This 28mm DBA army started when I picked up two boxes of HaT's 28mm plastic El Cid Spanish troops. The completed Anglo-Dane army required one box of heavy Spanish infantry and one box of light Spanish infantry. When the El Cid cavalry issue, it should be possible to morph this army into Anglo-Normans.
Out of the heavy infantry box, I put together three bases of 4Bd and two bases of 4Sp. The hard plastic is nice but fairly brittle so there were several broken spears along the way. The plastic did react just fine with regular Testor's plastic model glue.
I then filled out the extra 4Sp units I needed from the light infantry box, interspersing some left over heavy infantry. I spent a fair bit of time trying to make the four poses from each box look different by varying the weapons as well as mixing up the shield patterns.
I built three bases of missile troops: two bases of 4Bw and one base of 4Cb. These can be shooters in a HoTT army or stand-ins for the Anglo-Norman missile units.
I also did two bases of 2Ps skirmishers. The slinger poses are half good and half lousy.
I had originally thought these might mix with the Wargames Factory, Gripping Beat and Conquest Games dark age figures that are emerging but they do not. The height matches well enough but the HaT figures have retained a thin (probably more realistic) built akin to 1/72-scale figures. Above I have compared the HaT (centre) figures with GW Bretonnians (left) and Zvezda Royal Guards (right--similar in build to WF, GB and CG).
Overall, the HaT figures allowed me to field a 28mm DBA army for $28. And I expect morphing the Anglo-Danes into Anglo-Normans will cost another $14. I think this is a pretty good deal. But they take a lot of work to pretty up. The close up above is the result of a black undercoat, some careful block painting and a dip. It won't win a golden daemon (!!) but it is good enough for gaming.
