More Anglo-Dane Hearthguard Painted...

In my trek towards completing two SAGA warbands to roll out to my club I made another stride today...finishing up four more Hearthguard figures.

Three of the figures are from the Gripping Beast plastic thegns box set and one(second figure from the right) is from a GB metal Anglo-Danish command blister pack.  I probably won't start out playing with the war banners rule as I get the basic rules down but I wanted the pageantry of some standard bearers on the field(thus the two shown above). 

For the banner-bearer I intended to make a custom flag, but after I painted the figure and his shield I couldn't pass on using one of the two designs that came in the Thegn box becayse the colors were a great fit for the shield.  For the longer poles(middle two figures) I used pikes made by GB that I cut down to size. 

Here are a few singleton shots...

And a close-up of the Dragon standard...

While I wait for the new Gripping Beast "Dark Ages Warriors" set to arrive in the mail, who will serve as my Anglo-Dane warriors to round out my units, I am working on the two warlords(one Viking, one Dane). 
Since I am on the topic of "Danes", time for a rant...
Though the phrase "Anglo-Dane" is historically accepted, and a somewhat apt descriptor for the civilization in Eastern England in the late Dark Ages, I can't help but lament the lack of "Saxon" in the nomenclature.  There's likely more Saxon than either Danish or Angle blood in the "Anglo-Danes" but "Saxon" just doesn't make the hyphenated cut...COME ON!  I suppose if we called them Saxon-Anglo-Danes that would give us an acronym of "SAD". However, we should really save S.A.D. to stand for "SAGA Addiction Disorder".  O.K. rant completed...

Thanks for viewing,
Gareson