icm 1:16 Viking (9th Century) - ICM

[James H]

1:16 Viking (9^th Century)
ICM
Catalogue # 16301

 

 

Vikings is the modern name given to seafaring people primarily from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and settled throughout parts of Europe. They also voyaged as far as the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Middle East, and North America. In some of the countries they raided and settled in, this period is popularly known as the Viking Age, and the term "Viking" also commonly includes the inhabitants of the Scandinavian homelands as a collective whole. The Vikings had a profound impact on the early medieval history of Scandinavia, the British Isles, France, Estonia, etc. 

The Vikings spoke Old Norse and made inscriptions in runes. For most of the period they followed the Old Norse religion, but later became Christians. The Vikings had their own laws, art and architecture. Most Vikings were also farmers, fishermen, craftsmen and traders. Popular conceptions of the Vikings often strongly differ from the complex, advanced civilisation of the Norsemen that emerges from archaeology and historical sources. A romanticised picture of Vikings as noble savages began to emerge in the 18th century; this developed and became widely propagated during the 19th-century Viking revival. Perceived views of the Vikings as violent, piratical heathens or as intrepid adventurers owe much to conflicting varieties of the modern Viking myth that had taken shape by the early 20th century. Current popular representations of the Vikings are typically based on cultural clichés and stereotypes, complicating modern appreciation of the Viking legacy.

 

The kit

Something a little different for LSM in that we don’t usually look at figures, and especially 1:16. This is the second of two releases from Ukrainian company, ICM, that we’ve recently looked at. The approach for this is quite simplistic in that while it’s generally easy to gauge an armour or aircraft kit, you really need to be something of a buff on military antiquity to judge how authentic the dress of a Roman or a Viking, for instance. This review will simply look at what’s in the box and the features. We’ll have to trust ICM on how much research has gone into the various items of dress.

When I was a kid, I used to build the large-scale Airfix historical figures, and I loved the artwork on these. ICM’s box illustrations are certainly next generation in terms of depiction, and the boxes are certainly sturdier with that glossy lid tightly sitting on top of a whole box with a tabbed lid. The box art on this kit shows a Viking raiding party hitting the shore. All parts to build the Viking figure itself, are provided on just two sprues of light grey styrene. Another sprue contains the upper and lower base ‘lids/caps’, and a single part is the base itself. The oval base parts are moulded in black styrene. All plastic parts are provided in the same cellophane sleeve. No PE parts are included/needed with this release, and that is very typical of ICM kits. 

Of note are the instructions which simply depict the competed figure from front and rear, with the part numbers pointing to specific locations, and of course, the illustrations are in colour, so they double as your painting guide. Supplementary illustrations are supplied which show details for the helmet, shield handle and also some enemy arrows that are planted in the front of the shield! The latter items are optional, but certainly would look good on a figure with a pose such as this.

The figure itself is quite easy to build, comprising od only 31 parts, so almost 20 fewer than the Roman Centurion we recently looked at. Whilst the upper and lower torso comprise a front and rear part each, the legs and arms/hands (with the exception of the fingers). Sprue C generally concerns the limbs, torso and head of the soldier (although not exclusively so), while Sprue D is for equipment and also the multipart helmet. This can be depicted with an upper face shield if desired, or just with the simple nose guard that was typical of helms of this period. The shield is moulded as a large circular part, with full detail except for the boss that needs fitting to the centre, plus the handle.

All moulding is superbly executed, and whilst there will still be minimal seam removal, ICM have made a very nice job of not needing to add lots of supplementary stuff, such as the old styrene belts that we saw on the Airfix kits of yore.

 

Conclusion
Another very nice figure from ICM. This one was actually released in 2018, but we thought it would be good to see another historical figure to accompany the Centurion release we showed very recently. The later Vikings down seem to be a little paired down when it came to how they dressed, compared with earlier iterations. If that is the case, ICM will have captured this character very well. Currently selling for just over £20, so go treat yourself.