Showing posts with label Elephants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Elephants. Show all posts

Friday, 13 August 2021

Ipsus Elephant Screen

As well as yesterday's post I have also been working on the huge Ipsus game for the London GT. Most of the work has gone into this new elephant screen, which will cover the 20' plus frontage of both phalanxes. 

14 of the elephants are finished, and Shaun McT returned four more to me yesterday. I have "pre-based" these latter (they fit on the four elephant-less bases) so it shouldn't take long to detail (dry-brushing and adding skin-pigment issues) to complete them. All of the elephants are Aventines, although the most recent four have Relic heads to introduce a little more variety. When deployed, these will be accompanied by roughly 240 light infantry which are 90% finished and which I'll show later on.

There will also be another 15 elephants on the table, representing Seleucus' herd.

The first outing of the huge Ipsus game will be on 25th September at the London GT in Edmonton. If you fancy taking a turn as Antigonus, Demetrius or Seleucus you can book a ticket here! You'll also get to play chum Tim's Trebia scenario.

Thursday, 20 May 2021

Ipsus Nellies WIP

I'm getting not one, but two new herds of elephants ready for the huge Ipsus game at the London GT in September. On the left are fifteen "Indian" Indian elephants, and on the right fourteen "Macedonian" Indian ride-on elephants. 

The reason I need 29 more elephants is that we don't believe the howdah was in use at the time of Ipsus, and most of my previous elephants have these, so it's a perfect opportunity to collect more models. When these are finished and "in the field" I'll have six different elephant herds. As well as the two above, I'll have Successor Indian elephants with towers, Successor African elephants, Seleucid armoured elephants and Carthaginian African elephants.


The "Indian" Indian elephants are a real mixture. At the front are seven of the relatively new resin Aventines, lovely light models. Further back are some veteran Vendel and Essex elephants, and other pachyderms whose origins are lost in the mists of time. I still need to add crews and finish the basing. After Ipsus, these will, later, form the core of Porus' herd when I do the Hydaspes next year, or the year after. These were mostly painted by Dan Toone.


Here are the the "Macedonian" Indian elephants. They will be crewed by a mahout and a single pikeman and escorted by Greek-style archers. They will form an elephant screen across the front of the two Ipsus armies. These still need some detailing, weapons adding and basing. These were painted by Shaun McTague and Dan Toone. They are such lovely models that I'm tempted to add a few more, before the game, if time permits.


Above is an earlier version of the Ipsus game that I'll be running at the London GT in September. The new version will be 50% larger than this, with around 3000 minis on a table almost 6m wide, quite possibly the largest ancient battle run at a show- certainly the largest I've ever run by some margin. The pike phalanx alone will include some 1500 minis. 

Both this and chum Tim's Rome vs. Hannibal Battle of the Trebbia will be ten player games. They will be played at the London GT at the Lee Valley Athletics Center, on Saturday 25th September. You can book tickets for it below- there are only 20 tickets in total, and some have already sold, so don't leave it too late! If you come, you'll get to play both games and see all the other things going on at the event. 


There's a big TtS! tournament on the day after, Sunday 26th, too, the details of that are below. Why not make a weekend of it? I certainly plan to. :-) I'm prepping minis for a secret army.


It's been far too long since we have gamed properly! I hope to greet the post-apocalypse in some style- and I hope that some of you will be able to join me!

Monday, 16 March 2020

Indian elephant progress


I'm plugging away at two new herds of Indian elephants, for the Ipsus game, This is the first, and more advanced, herd, consisting of Indian elephants with Indian escorts. The nellies are painted and based, but need more tufts and crew to be added- oh, and one elephant is still with the painter, although the base is done (there's a first!). The elephants are mostly Aventine with some Essex and Vendel. The Aventines are superb.

The second (similarly-sized) herd will have Macedonian ride-on crews and Greek archers escorting.

Obviously in the current difficult times, we don't know whether Salute is still happening- I hope so- but if not I still plan to have the minis finished in time and will run the game at the earliest opportunity once normality returns. Stay safe, everyone!


Tuesday, 31 December 2019

New Year, New Herds!


Over Christmas I've been working on three new herds of elephants, two of which are for the new Salute game (Battle of Ipsus)  and the third for the previous-planned Salute game (Thapsus, which I've pushed back a year). The new game, Ipsus, should enable me to get the better part of thirty howdah-less nellies on the table. There may have been as many as 575 elephants at Ipsus.

All of the Indians at the front (mostly superb Aventine resins, with some nice old Vendels, painted by Dan Toone and Shaun McTague) need to be finished and based or re-based. The six Aventine nellies at back left, and eight more not shown, need to be painted- they will be Macedonian ride-ons. The ten nellies back right (and below) are Aventine resin Africans, painted by Kevin Lucas). 


Below are some of the Indians. The riders are magnetised and can be removed; I'm not entirely sure whether that is necessary, but it is kind of cool. It might help with storage, and gives me the option of replacing Indian riders with Macedonians. They are all on my crinkly-edged batbases.


A very Happy New Year to all! I hope this finds you and yours well. A couple of chums are going through challenging times at the moment, and I'll be thinking of them at midnight. I hope we all have a rip-roaring Twenty-Twenty! 

Monday, 9 December 2019

Thapsus elephants


It's been the longest time since I posted images on minis- real life stuff has kept me too busy. But normal service will henceforth, hopefully, be resumed. Here are some WIP images of one of the projects I've been busy on. Six of these beautiful Aventine elephants (along with two other beauties for another project, not shown) were painted for me by chum Kevin Lucas- I just added some highlights on the howdahs and crew. The Aventine elephants are resin with metal detail and are beautifully light. I have rebased two very nice Agema elephants from my Numidian army, to join them.


The un-textured areas of base will take the screening light infantry, which aren't yet painted. These eight will form the screen for my Pompeian army for the Salute Thapsus game. I'll take proper pictures, when they are finished in January. I think I now have 31 elephants on bases, altogether, with another 15-20 painted but not yet based, mostly intended for a projected Classical Indian army.

Tuesday, 7 August 2018

Leviathans


Here are the latest additions to my herd (all photos clickable). These lovely Aventine Miniatures Seleucid elephants are protected by seven Wargames Foundry and one Polemarch elephant guard with nifty Relic shields. The elephant armour is stunning; Adam at his best! I think we can legitimately argue "escorted, veteran" status in TtS! ;-)


I'm really pleased with these. Shaun McTague painted all the minis; I merely did a little detailing, shading and based. He did particularly great work on the blankets.

These bring the herd up to 26. I'll be adding a very big native Indian contingent in the autumn. I'll also, eventually, need four to six more Seleucid elephants for when I do Magnesia in 28mm. 


If you'd like to see these two, they will be in a display (not to be missed!) alongside my chum Ian's 15mm Magnesia "To the Strongest" game at T'other Partizan on August 19th. We still have two spots for players in the AM game, and lots in the afternoon game- if you'd like to play, you can email me at the address to the left.

Oh and David Imrie and I are also taking bookings for the "To the Scottest!" TtS! gaming event in Leven, Fife on 22nd/23rd September- again, please drop me a line for details.

Thursday, 12 July 2018

Elephant brigade



Today I've commissioned three more elephants into my Hellenistic army. These are beautiful Aventines (the old metal ones- the new resins are even better), painted by Shaun McTague with some detailing and basing by me. The elephant guards are Wargames Foundry peltasts; photo is clickable.


Above and below are the seven Hellenistics. I was pleased that I was able to successfully match the basing of the four earlier elements. I like to depict the skin pigmentation failure that one sees on older Indian elephants.


I now have the seven Hellenistic Indians, four Indian Indians, five Ptolemaic Africans and eight Numidian Africans, for a total herd of twenty four pachyderms. I plan to add at least a dozen more by Christmas. To fight all of the Hellenistic battles, one needs a surprising variety of elephants of different species, with/without howdahs and with different crews and heraldry. So rather more will be needed; I might well end up with 50-ish. Luckily for the joists, the new Aventines are resin!

In other news, I have put my To the Strongest! Ancient and Medieval rules on sale for a few days, you can find them here! https://bigredbatshop.co.uk/collections/all/on-sale

Friday, 19 May 2017

Nellie news

Aventine have produced some new ride on crew for their new resin elephants, and Keith kindly sent me some photos which I reproduce here. 







These are really great minis- all the heads are separate so it is possible to introduce extra variety. I plan to mount my crewmen on magnets so that I can interchange them with Indian riders; my elephants will be able to do double service, under Poros. It may also be possible to mount a howdah on the same magnets, which will give even more uses for them. Excited, I am!

Friday, 3 March 2017

Stunning New Aventine elephants!

Chums at Aventine have produced some new resin elephants (metal tusk and tail) which I received samples of, yesterday. These are Keith's pics but they are identical to the models here in the BigRedBatCave.



The new elephants are the same size as the previous metal ones, but superior in several respects:-

  • there is less assembly as the body is solid
  • the skin texture is really great- better than before- lots of shallow creases in all the right places
  • the legs are thinner; more realistic in my opinion
  • they weigh virtually nothing (which certainly cannot be said of their metal brethren!) - easier to carry and cheaper to post.

I gather the separate metal howdahs should be available in the next few days and a Macedonian rider with pike is to follow. I will encourage an Indian variant.

I must confess to a personal involvement in this as I  introduced the casting company to Aventine, so I am feeling more than a little smug. :-)

Sunday, 8 January 2017

Elephant reconditioning


I spent a happy couple of hours this week reconditioning and extending my Numidian elephant herd. 

I have added two Agema elephants on the left (still awaiting mahouts). I had a hand in the design of these, and they are, consequently, the most accurate forest elephants of the various types shown. I still need to flock and tuft the bases to match the Savannah steppe mat on which they will be fighting. They are on Batbases of my own design. Better photos to follow when they are finished.

The battle they are intended for at the Wargames Holiday Centre Ancient weekend will be Ruspina 46 BCE, This was one of Caesar's closest shaves; a most unusual engagement which pitted a couple of Roman legions against an absolute horde of Numidian light horse and, later, a mass of formed troops. It is little known but has long been a favourite of mine because of its asymmetric nature.

Wednesday, 12 October 2016

Nellie B

I'm sculpting an elephant as a master for next year's planned Successor battles. I have called her nellie B because I sculpted an elephant once before. She'll be a female Indian elephant; no one makes one, as far as I know. As such she will be a little smaller than the Aventine males that I favour, and tusk-less.


So far I've made the armature (from paper clips) and bulked out the body with a mix of Milliput and green stuff. The next stage will be to add the ears and trunk. After that I'll need to see if I can manage wrinkly skin.

Tuesday, 1 March 2016

Raphia Elephants

No, not ones made out of twisted straw but rather of tin and lead!


Here are the four new elephants for the looking Raphia Game. All of the elephants and most of the crew were painted by mate Shaun McTague although I added some detailing, notably the skin pigmentation, washes and based them. All of the photos are clickable!

Three of the elephants are superb Aventine Miniatures and the fourth (on the right) is a solid lead beast from Timeline Miniatures with an Aventine howdah and crew. She weighs an absolute ton!


Above and below, Shaun did a magnificent job on the drapery.


I have finished these with a Pyrrhic vibe- later I plan to get some specifically Seleucid armoured elephants painted up, with proper red ears.


Above, Indian elephants tend to fade to pink as they get older; think bald patches. These are very old nellies, being part of Alexander the Great's own herd, passed down to Pyrrhus like family heirlooms through several generations of Successor owners. 


The elephants are escorted by Wargames Foundry javelinmen that I bought from Steve Marshall.


Last but not least the tusk-less cow (above) is a Timeline Miniatures model with an Aventine Howdah. I think of her as Mrs Jumbo and that is, of course, Dumbo behind her. At the battle of Beneventum the Pyrrhic elephants panicked after such a cow became concerned for her calf and rampaged back through their own lines.

There will be 11 elephants altogether in the Raphia game. Because there is no room for baby Dumbo at the Salute Inn, the battle will instead be fought exclusively at the Wargames Holiday Centre over the weekend after Salute (22nd-24th April), along with the Sabis (thousands of Celts; I bloody hate Celts!), Leuctra (with a spanking new Theban army), the vast Cremona 69AD game and a Late Roman bash. A weekend at the Wargamees Holiday Centre is a very fine experience, indeed, and Mark tells me he still has a couple of places left... you can book here.

Friday, 22 November 2013

Flocked Indian


Last night I finished basing the Vendel Indian Elephant that Raglan very generously gave me. It is a resin model, with metal crew, and very nicely sculpted. 


The escorting light infantry are miniatures that I bought already painted, in 3 separate lots, though eBay. Luckily they matched pretty well.  I painted the crew lighter-skinned, as I picture them as being higher caste.


In the "To the Strongest!" rule-set I'm developing, a generously-sized escort postpones the inevitable moment when one's elephant rampages back through one's phalanx.  ;-)


I'd like to add a second beast, but unfortunately this range is no longer manufactured in the UK. Should anyone have any Vendel Indians lurking in their lead mountain, I'd be very pleased to swap or buy some. 

Monday, 18 November 2013

Indian nellie WIP


I couldn't resist posting this WIP shot of a Vendel Indian elephant that I've just painted. I still need to add the rest of the crew, and base with the escorting archers and swordsmen.  

Raglan very generously sent me the miniature.  The elephant is a very nice model, and I now regret not buying more Vendel when they were in the UK.  Their Indians were nice, and the Persian heavy cavalry, also.

Monday, 20 May 2013

Ptolemaic Elephant Corp


Last night I completed basing the Ptolemaic Elephant Corp, for Raphia.  Ptolemy deployed 73 of these African elephants in an attempt to counter the rather larger number of rather larger Seleucid Indians.  Unfortunately he failed to put them through the elephant equivalent of assertiveness training, and most of them subsequently routed back, through his own forces.  As usual, all photos are clickable.


The magnificent beasts and crews are from Aventine's range.  I painted the elephants, and my good friend Nick Speller, the crews (beautifully).


Nick also painted the escorting Cretan and NeoCretan archers, who are a mixture of Foundry and Gorgon miniatures.  You may be able to see that they are in several different shades of red.  In the game these will form 5 units, each of one elephant and two stands of escorts.

Saturday, 6 April 2013

Aventine African Elephants WIP II

Since my last post, I have finished the howdahs, stained and varnished.  I was very pleased with how the howdahs came up, Rawhide!  Now they just need crews, and escorts...


I based the trapping colours on those of a rug I bought in Marrakech 10 years ago, that is on our lounge floor.  Post Raphia, when time permits, I will probably go back and add some more detail to the trappings.


When the crew are added, I might add a very fine dry-brush of dust to the completed models.

Thursday, 4 April 2013

Aventine African Elephants WIP


A quick WIP shot of my new Africans.  The beasts and the cloths are painted and stained.  I've added padding under the howdahs, as suggested by Olicana Lad.  Hopefully I'll finish the howdahs tonight, and then the project can wait until Nick can do the crews for me.  At the moment I'm not going to bother with shields, we'll assume that the rawhide towers offer sufficient protection to the crew.

Sunday, 31 March 2013

Nelliphants II

These will be the "tanks" of my Ptolemaic army,  Unfortunately, as they are relatively small and skittish African Forest elephants, they are fated to be M13/40's to the Seleucid's Matildas.


These are Africans from the excellent Aventine range.  I'm falling behind in my painting plan, so will need to work out a way of painting these VERY quickly... luckily they are relatively simple models.

Friday, 29 March 2013

Elephant Brigade

I've recruited 5 African elephants from Aventine into my Ptolemaic army, to represent the nellies at Raphia.


These are lovely models, with 2 head variants, and two bodies.  The howdahs look particularly convincing, and depict rawhide stretched over a wooden frame.  My only slight reservation about them, is that they feel just a bit on the large side for how I picture an African Forest Elephant.  Still, though, they are noticeably smaller than the Indians Craig will bring.  Some are temporarily propped on Irregular Miniatures 2mm Pike phalanx.

There was next to no flash or vents, and it took me four sessions to assemble them.  

Here's one from behind.  The tail is a separate piece, and plugs up into the elephant's posterior.  This assembly process very much reminded me of an episode of "EuroTrash", I saw years ago, which featured a "Pony Club"....   The most challenging element of assembly was fitting the small bell under each elephant's neck.  I'll paint the pachyderms, and I'm hoping that Nick will paint the 15 crew.

Wednesday, 10 March 2010

Numidian Elephants

I realised today that I haven't posted a picture of the elephants that will stand (possibly all too briefly!) before the Carthaginian front line in the Zama game.  Here are 6 of the 10; a mix of Essex, Gripping Beast and (converted) Renegade.  The other 4 are in the collection of Dr. Simon.