Dan Becker's Baueda Viking Leidang 15mm DBA Army Figures

Here is a photo of the Viking Leidang army from the left.

The DBA rules give each opponent 12 units and a camp or baggage area for the battle on the table. However, each army has variants in the units, and part of the game strategy is to select the right variants to put on the table.

In DBA game terms, the units available to the Viking Leidang DBA3 III/40c army are blades (Bd), auxillia (Ax), warriors (Wb), archers (Bw), psiloi (Ps - loose formation harassing troops), and hordes (Hd - masses of lesser levies and untrained rabble, for the Vikings this was "thralls" or captured slaves).

Option	Amount	Description	Type
	1	General	4Bd
	2	Huscarls	4Bd
	6	Boendr/Bondi	4Bd or 3Ax
	2	Boendr/Bondi archers	3Bw or Ps
	1	Raiders or Lapps or Thralls	3Bd or Ps or 7Hd

In the terse language of author Phil Barker that unit list is "1x4Bd(Gen),2x4Bd,6x4Bd|3Ax,2x3Bw|Ps,1x3Bd|Ps|Hd".

The Viking Leidang army from the right.

For playing DBA with 15mm figures, each unit has a base width of 40mm. The base depth can be 20mm (infantry), 30mm (mounted), or 40mm (camps). The number of figures on a base help determine whether the unit is a fast or solid unit.

This photo shows the Viking Leidang leader and huscarl units.

On the general's stand, there are also three warriors with blades and armor. The two side stands have mailed warriors with large axes. There represent huscarls or the general's retinue and body guards.

Viking Leidang leaders and huscarls from the left.

The Baueda miniatures are truly 15mm from the head to the feet and are similar in scale to Essex miniatures. They might look smaller next to some "heroic" 15mm figures such as Old Glory and Corvus Belli.

Viking Leidang leaders and huscarls from the right.

My painting recipe for these 15mm minis is to prime them with black paint. I then used Vallejo Model Color acrylics thinned down to block in the major colors. Details such as armor and weapons and horse harnesses are painted in. The shields are hand painted with various Viking motifs. I opted not to use any wash or shade for the final step. They might look a little cartoony with these close up photos, but the colors of these tiny miniatures do look a bit brighter from an arm's length away.

This photo shows a row of Viking Leidang spearman. Most of the sculpts are very nice with good detail in the faces and clothing.

However, I think Baueda made a slight mistake intending these for the Viking Leidang armies. The DBA lists state that these should be bondis of four blades or in Finnish auxilia in groups of three.

Perhaps I should have cut the spears to form blades. Or perhaps I should have based them in threes to signify auxila. In either case it would have been nice to some inferior looking vikings for these units.

During a gaming event, you would just say "those aren't spears, those are blades" or something to that effect.

Viking Leidang spear group 1 from the left.

Viking Leidang spear group 1 from the right

Here is the second group of Leidang spearmen. Despite not being blades or auxilia, they sure do look nice all in a row. Notice that some shields have smooth metal covers and some are rough wood.

Viking Leidang speargroup 2 from the left.

Viking Leidang speargroup 2 from the right

This photo shows three units of Viking Leidang bow. There are several models with various head gear, weapons, and poses

The bases are thin plywood from Litko on the top and thin sheet metal from Wargame Accessories on the bottom. The reason for two bases are the wood on top makes it easier to paint and apply basing material. The metal on the bottom provides weight, prevents tipping, and is magnetic. The storage boxes and trays for these figures have vinyl magnetic sheets which grab the units safely during transport and storage.

Viking Leidang bows from the left.

The basing material is adhered with simple white PVA glue. Then I sprinkle some fine stones on and shoot some short 2mm grass flock from a squeezy bottle so the grass tends to stand up.

Viking Leidang bows from the right.

This photo shows the Viking Leidang psiloi warriors. In DBA, psiloi units are any loose order group of javelins, light bows, slings. They are mainly used for harassing the enemy and then dropping back.

The Baueda DBA Viking Leidang army variations generally need only one or two bows and one or two psilois. The army pack was generous enough to make 3 bows and 3 psilois.

Viking Leidang psiloi from the left. I love the wicker shield for the one warrior. Also, they provided fur hats for the Lapp short bowmen.

Viking Leidang psiloi from the right. The details are nice for such small 15mm minis. These warriors often have an arrow quiver, short swords, and various belts and packs.

This photo shows two Baueda Viking or Saxon style tents in the center and two camp denizen figures with various bits of camp equipment. On the flanks are seven thralls (farmer levies or slaves) that are called "horde" in the DBA world.

Viking Leidang camps and thralls from the left.

I did experiment with a design on the tent fabric, made with fine-tipped Micron ink markers.

Viking Leidang camps and thralls from the right.

This 15mm Viking ship model is not included with the Baueda army pack, but I did purchase it for any battle scenarios. The ship might mark an entry or exit point, or it might make an objective for the troops.

The ship is a resin print from Etsy vendor CentrionStudio. The vendor can print the model at 15 or 28mm scale. It was quite inexpensive at about $15. It included the resin oars and sail. However, I added some cargo and some ropes to make it more interesting.

Many other societies also used these type of shallow draft boats for transport, trading, or raiding. The Volga Bulgars of this era used these ships for sailing up and down the rivers. They called them ushkuy.

Viking Leidang ship from the right.

This photo shows how I sorted all the metal minis from Baueda. Here you can see the metal minis and the Viking ship in their unpainted state.

This photo shows how I handle the painting of minis. These painting handles save you time by not having to pick up and set down the minis one at a time. For 15mm minis, I like to paint 6 minis at a time. This is light enough to handle and short enough to spin around to many angles.

The handles are made of a 6 inch length of balsa wood with 6 flat headed nails at 1 inch intervals The minis are hot glued to the nails. The hot glue is easy to peel away from the mini and the nail at the end of the painting.

This photo shows the 15mm models primed. For these small figures, I just use black - no fancy two tone priming here. I try to let the black show through to be the shadow for the figure.

In the back ground is the DBA entry for the Viking Leidang. A good short history and organization to remind me of what I am painting here.

This photo shows how I store my 15mm DBA figures. This is a translucent plastic fishing tackle box from Plano. One box is enough to store two DBA armies. The boxes lock shut, but you can still peep inside at what is there.

The tackle box is 13 by 9 inches by one inch deep. Plano provides adjustable dividers to keep things organized.

I mostly base my figures with ferrous metal bases. I put self stick magnetic vinyl in the bottom of the storage box to keep the figures in place with no flopping around during transport.