Hills

I've decided to refurbish some old GW hills, to match my Zama Boards.  

My plan is to partially texture them as above, spray them to match the terrain boards, and then add tufts for a bit of variety.  The nice thing about these are that they are hollow, and so will sit nicely on top of my very textured Zama boards (which are currently doubling for Mexico, and which will very likely also stand in for Napoleonic Spain).   If anyone can suggest where I can get some more (perhaps larger) hollow hills, please do comment below.

Sagittarii

These are the chums of Tuesday's slingers; I painted 4 to match an eBay purchase (from Solway Arts and Crafts IIRC), and based.  They were pretty quick to paint, using Army Painter.  Mine are the ones with blonde hair.

I usually double-depth base my light troops, but did these in single depth so that they can support a (projected future) unit of legionaries. 

250K Page Views! And some Slingers.

A kind thank you to all my visitors; my page count (since March '09) slipped past 250K this afternoon!  Please do keep dropping by here, and to my very new Horse'n'Musket blog, on which I next expect to post, tomorrow.

Here's a (clickable) unit of late Roman slingers I just finished.  I bought eight painted on Ebay, painted four more to match, gave them shields based on a Notitia design, and based.

I converted 2 figures to have staff slings, or fustibalii, and you should be able to make them out, below.  These started as spearmen.  I repositioned the arms and made the slings with twisted fine wire and a tiny bit of greenstuff.  They came out very well, I'll do more at some stage.

Ultimately, these will be in a separate army to my Late Roman Perrys, because they are rather larger minis, and I am nothing if not ruthlessly sizeist.  I aspire to a second army of mixed Black Tree, GB and Muskateer, like Jon's.

My Very Own Spanish Ulcer

I've started a new blog, that I'll split off posts about Horse and Musket Period games into; I've called it "My Very Own Spanish Ulcer", because I can see that this will constitute a painful distraction from Ancients... 

So far I've bought around 400 Napoleonic Minis, mostly plastic, and I expect to start painting them up in 2 or 3 weeks time.  I've some innovative ideas about how to roll out a French army for the Peninsula, very quickly.... more anon.

Exercitus

Here's my small Late Roman Army, so far.  I've collected three Auxilia, one (understrength) unit of archers, and some heavy cavalry.

There is a new unit of Heavy Cavalry, below (well a very old unit, really, I've owned it at least 5 years).  Could someone remind me what the name of the unit below is?  I can't see it in the Notitia.  (Update: Terreblanche tells me they are the Schola Gentilium Seniores).

I still need at least one 48 man legio, and some light horse.  And some skirmisher types.

I'm very taken with the Perry's.  I would like another army in larger 28s, too, though.  I will very likely end up with two Late Roman armies.

Leones Ivniores

I've finished the Leones Ivniores, the latest unit in my small Late Roman army.  I'm very pleased with how they came out; not the best photo, though (although clickable).

They are Auxilia Palatina, a cut above the first two units, the Martenses Seniores and the Armigeri Defensores Ivniores.  Every man fully armoured!  Hang the expense! 

Tomorrow I'll post the other units. 

Black Powder

A quick post-play posting- tonight we played our second test game of Black Powder.  It went well.  At the moment, in order to get to grips with the rules, we have just been using infantry, but next week we'll add some guns or cavalry. 

This bodes well for Hail Caesar, which shares a lot of the same mechanics, but which I've not yet tried, becuase I find the style in which they are written makes them hard to learn from the rulebook.  Still I will get there...

Young Lions

This is a clickable WIP shot of the Leones Iuniores, my latest Late Roman unit (Auxilia Palatina).  The painting is just about complete, although they still need assembling, varnishing and basing.  These have only taken six (albeit rather long) painting sessions; I only started painting them on Monday!  I must be getting faster!

After these, I hope to knock up a few quick supporting units based around some Black Tree figures I bought painted on eBay, a few years back...  and I'll need to pause to make up a big batch of bases, as I'm almost out. 

Celtic Horse

These are some cavalry I bought/painted around 6 years ago, recently retouched and with three additional painted by Nick.

The new 3 (below left) are the newer Gripping Beast Picts painted by Nick.   Nick's painting is way better than mine, especially the shields, but I don't like the blocky style of the newer slighly larger Gripping Beast figures as much as the older, more naturalistic ones.

Nick really nailed the shields (can only see one, properly, below on the right).  I was pleased with the way the windsock came out.

And now all together!  Who's got the mead?  Off to Cattraeth! 

Arthur of the Votadini

These lovely minis were painted for me by Nick Speller (I merely based them).  I think they are some of Nick's finest work, especially the cloak and tunic on Arthur.  Fabulous.

This particular Arthur will be a warleader of some post-Roman celtic cavalry, that I'll be posting shortly (I started painting the units around 7 years ago, finished them last week!). 

 

Gotta love the hound, too.  The Arthur model is one of Gripping Beast's finest, super work I reckon.

WIP Late Romans

I'm still finishing off old stuff, and here are 24 Romans from 4 different ebay purchases, that I'll work on this week, who will become another unit of Auxilia.  They are in a pretty shocking state... to be honest it would be better to strip them, and start from fresh, but I'm too lazy.