The great two-handed axe in this warrior's hands has one of the longest pedigrees of any medieval weapon. It is the "Dane axe" — a long-hafted broad axe of the Viking age, the mark of the fighting elite. Anglo-Saxon housecarls swung it at Hastings in 1066, and the Bayeux Tapestry shows it almost only in their hands. Norsemen — and, after the Conquest, exiled Englishmen — carried it east to Constantinople, where the Byzantine emperor's bodyguard became famous as the "axe-bearing guard." It never really went away: Richard the Lionheart himself was recorded wielding a Danish axe at the relief of Jaffa in 1192.

King & Country's axeman is a crusading-era heir to that tradition — a mail hauberk and coif under an orange surcoat crossed by a yellow sash, a rounded helmet on his head, both hands taking the long axe back for a downward blow while his shield hangs ready and a sword waits at his belt. Trace the weapon's line across the range, from the Viking Torgny attacking with his axe to the Anglo-Saxon housecarl of the shield wall, and remember that Richard the Lionheart swung one himself at Jaffa. In a diorama he is the man who breaks a shield wall open — axe high, the instant before it falls. This is a retired King & Country release, now down to the last piece.

Model: MK192 (retired) / King & Country / 1/30 (60mm) scale / matte finish / 1 piece set