Vikings miniatures

Viking STL Miniatures: Norse Warbands for 15mm and 28mm Wargaming

You want to play the Dark Ages and you’ve hit the same wall everyone hits. The armies are small, which is good, but the ranges are patchy, the prices are silly for what you get, and half the units you need for a proper warband simply aren’t made in the scale you play. Printing your own fixes all three at once.

Our Viking range is part of March to Hell: Dark Ages, available in 15mm and 28mm as digital STL files.

What a Norse force actually needs

Viking armies weren’t uniform and they weren’t large. What they were was layered, and a warband that ignores that layering plays badly.

The hearthguard are your professionals: a lord’s sworn men, better armed, better armoured and the only part of the force you can rely on to hold. Below them the warriors with axes, spears and round shields who make up the numbers and the shield wall. Berserkers and raiders sit outside that structure entirely, and whatever the sagas are actually describing, on a table they’re the unit that goes forward and doesn’t come back. Archers and slings thin the enemy line before contact.

The warlord and his command group matter more here than in most periods, because Dark Ages rulesets tend to treat leadership as an active resource rather than a passive modifier.

Rulesets these work with

The models are sculpted to standard wargaming proportions and drop into the systems built for the period, including SAGA and Lion Rampant. Neither publisher is affiliated with us and neither endorses these models. Compatibility here is a question of scale and basing, not licensing.

Those two reward Norse forces differently. SAGA is built around faction-specific battle boards and the way a warlord spends his dice, which suits an army whose whole identity is the gap between hearthguard and levy. Lion Rampant works at a slightly larger scale of action and handles the raid-and-response scenarios that define the period.

How the shield wall plays

Everything in early medieval warfare comes down to two lines meeting and one of them breaking first. That sounds dull and isn’t, because the interesting decisions all happen before contact: where you commit your hearthguard, whether you hold the berserkers back or send them early, and whether you accept the fight on the ground you’re standing on.

A Viking force wants to be the one that chooses. Between the eighth and eleventh centuries these were raiding armies that picked their engagements, and the scenarios that work best on a table reflect that. Coastal raids, river crossings, an ambush on a column, a fight over a settlement rather than a set-piece battle on open ground.

Who they fought

The longships reached the British Isles, France and eventually Byzantium, which gives the collection unusual scenario range. Anglo-Saxons for England, Normans for the later period and the 1066 campaigns, Irish for the Sea Kingdoms, Carolingians for the Frankish coast, and Byzantines if you want to follow the Varangians east.

All of them are in the Dark Ages range and sculpted to the same proportions, so the two forces on your table belong to the same collection rather than looking imported from different manufacturers.

What else you’ll need

Bases aren’t included, and Dark Ages rulesets vary considerably in what they expect, so check yours before buying in quantity. Terrain matters more than in most periods: these were raids and skirmishes fought around settlements, woods and watercourses, not on open plains, and a bare table loses most of what makes the period interesting.

The files are optimised for both resin and FDM. Around 0.03mm layer height on resin covers gaming figures at either scale, tilted 30 to 45 degrees for drainage. Spear shafts and axe hafts are the fragile parts, and Viking sculpts carry more dynamic poses than a formed infantry range, so orientation deserves a look before committing a plate.

Frequently asked questions

How do I paint shields when the designs weren’t standardised?
Freely, because that’s the historically correct answer. Norse round shields carried personal rather than unit devices, so a warband where every shield differs is more accurate than one painted uniformly. That’s genuinely liberating: simple geometric patterns, quartered designs and spirals all work, and none of them need to match. Paint the shields separately from the figures if the model allows it, since a flat disc is far easier to work on than one already glued to an arm. Keep the basing consistent across the warband and the variety reads as individuality rather than as inconsistency.

How many figures make a playable Viking warband?
Fewer than almost any other historical period, which is one of the main attractions. Most Dark Ages skirmish systems run on twenty to forty models a side, and SAGA warbands sit comfortably at the lower end of that. A complete force is a realistic weekend of printing rather than a season’s project, which is why the period suits people who want to actually finish an army. Build the hearthguard first, since they’re the core the rest supports, then add warriors for numbers and berserkers or archers as your scenarios call for them.

What resin should I use for models with thin weapons?
Something with a bit of toughness in it. Standard photopolymer resin is brittle, and a Viking range is full of spear shafts, axe hafts and outstretched arms that snap the first time a model goes back in the case. Tough or ABS-like resins survive handling considerably better, and many people blend a proportion of flexible resin into standard for gaming figures specifically. The tradeoff is slightly softer detail, which matters far less on a warband you’ll be moving around a table than on a display piece.

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