Thursday, 23 April 2009

17th Caesarian Cohort


This is my 17th Caesarian Cohort. I bought 20 of the figures on Ebay from "Pool of Paint" who also kindly supplied the transfers I needed to finish the unit, and painted 7 more myself, to match. I'm really pleased with the overall effect; these are my first Caesarians to have shield transfers.

Because they have unfeasibly expensive imported blue paint on their shields, I shall consider them to be one of the Praetorian Cohorts that served in the Civil War that occured after the death of Caesar.

Wednesday, 15 April 2009

Spot the difference!

The eagle-eyed amongst you may notice that in a week's painting, I have managed to half paint a mere 7 miniatures (the ones at the front). I suppose I did also manage to do base the trees below, but it doesn't seem like a lot of progress. :-(

26 palm trees, courtesy of ebay. These are nifty products that cost £1.20 each including postage, but need basing. They stand up to 20cm high. I like the trunks and the fact they are fairly rugged; I need to buy some silfror tufts for the bases.

It has occurred to me that I now have a more than adequate selection of desert terrain, and no desert themed armies. I have started to think of ways around this...

Wednesday, 8 April 2009

Watching Paint Dry...


I'm progressing all-too-slowly with the blue-shielded cohort- it now includes 19 of the 20 minis I bought on eBay, and 5 more I have just painted to match. It'll have an aquila command stand by the time I finish. For all their dubious authenticity, the blue shields do look nice...

The veterans cohort lurks half-painted to the rear, awaiting their command minis, which I hope to start painting tomorrow.

Thursday, 2 April 2009

A Brief Intermission...

I'm in essay writing hell at the moment, and hardly getting anything painted; consequently my painting tray is backing up with painted, primed and part-based figures. Click for a closeup...


At the front is a unit of 20 nicely painted Caesarians that I bought on eBay, and want to retouch and expand to a 24 plus a seperate legion command stand. The LBMS shields look great... behind them lurk a unit of 24 Black Tree legionaries (half the figures are painted) that are going to represent time-expired veterans, recalled to the colours. They are going to be my personal tribute to the 2000th anniversary of Teutoburgerwald. Altogether, around 5 weeks of painting, I reckon, even if I wasn't busy!

Here's a pic of Greg Privat's splendid Innsmouth participation game from Salute. Eldest son and his mate are helping run it.


Hopefully I'll have a bit more time when my essays are in, in 2 weeks time....

Friday, 20 March 2009

Many Completed Thureophoroi...

I do love a mini with a Thureos! Here are two new units of 16 Crusader Thureophoroi painted by my very able mate Nick Speller, and based by me.



Here are my original two units of converted Foundry peltasts; I must say I somewhat prefer these minis to the Crusaders. The figures are slightly taller and very well formed.



And finally... all together! These are the nucleus of my early-Mithridatic Pontic army. I hope that, after Salute, Nick will go on to paint enough minis to complete all 4 units at 24-man strength...

Saturday, 14 March 2009

Thessalian Cavalry



I'm in between big projects, so I thought I'd stick up a photo of a unit I part-painted earlier (mostly painted by Andy Bryant). I experimentally based them in tetrahedrons on long, narrow bases; I was trying to catch the feel of Alexander's cavalry formations. Alas I've not taken to the feel of this approach, and I'm thinking of rebasing them, perhaps at the same time taking the opportunity of giving them shields and calling them Successor or Macedonian guard cavalry.

This week I shall mostly be painting 7 EIR legionaries, and prepping a unit of 24 Auxilia.

Wednesday, 11 March 2009

Completed Galatian Mercenaries!


Galatian mercenaries, hired from the Celtic tribes on the central plateau of Asia Minor, were not uncommon in Successor armies. These depict mercenaries serving the Ptolemies, and are loosely based on the reconstruction in the Ptolemaic Montvert; I'm very pleased with them. The images are clickeable, and previous posts show the various stages of painting.


Is it my imagination, or is the woman in the background, below, smiling as they approach her? ;-)