Tuesday, 26 May 2009

On the painting table...

These are the 2 units of recruit legionaries I've been working on over the last month; not far from completion, now. Just shields, varnishing and basing... more anon.

Monday, 25 May 2009

Painting Nellie 1

This series of posts is goint to be a mix of review and painting log for the Empire Models armoured Successor elephant.

The Empire Models Successor Elephant stands a mighty 54mm at the shoulder, is 85mm long from tip of the trunk to hind feet and is 84mm to the top of the howdah. The model comes with 4 crewmen, which I'll deal with in a later posting.

The elephant is very easy to assemble, just requiring the head and metal trunk and tusks to be attached. I have left the tusks off for the time being, because it will be easier to paint with them absent. I had to do a small amount of filling on the join of the head and body, as you'd expect. There were a number of tiny airholes in the casting; less than I would have expected, though, and I easily filled these with greenstuff. One very minor issue with the model is that there are small crevices along the edges of the howdah; I filled these, too. After assembly I primed white.

I wouldn't claim to be expert on elephants, nor Successors, but this is an imposing beast. I estimate that, compared to a Foundry World of the Greeks miniature, it must represent a creature around 10' to 10'6", at the shoulder, not far off the maximum 11' height that Wikipedia suggests Indian elephants grow to.

Paul was asking on TMP about the size of the model. Now I don't have a Newline elephant to compare it with, but I've taken a shot next to a couple of Foundry figures. This is a big bull, and isn't going to be very useful if you have 25mm scale phalangites; it'll dwarf them. I think, though, that a couple of these will make fantastic centrepieces in a bigger 28mm Successor army such as Foundry, Empire or Polemarch.

In general the model is very well cast, and the detail is extremely crisp. The scale armour and the draperies are beautifully depicted. I'm very much looking forward to painting them (I have two)... going to be a big job, though, because they are fantastic pieces that will warrant careful attention!

Tuesday, 19 May 2009

King Masinissa


This is the Numidian King Masinissa, who changed sides before Zama and thus sealed the fate of Carthage. He's based on a Connolly reconstruction, which I think was sent to me by Allen around a year ago. I think he is a more historically correct figure to lead my Numidians than the Juba model.

The mini is a converted A&A rider on an eBob Crusader horse. The hornblower is Crusader.

Monday, 18 May 2009

Wot I am Painting this Week


This (clickable pic) is what I'm up to at the moment; one of my new, smaller 48 man legions and a couple of Aquila command stands. This legion will be a recruit legion, as used in the Gallic or Civil Wars; my second.

About half the minis will be ones I picked up from Pool-of-Paint on eBay, and partially repainted (shields, weapons), and the balance are being painted by me from scratch. Should take a couple of weeks...

Sunday, 17 May 2009

M. Caelio Centurio XIIXth.

What with it being the 2000th anniversary of Teutoburger Wald, I thought I'd make up a special command stand as a small personal memorial. This is based on the one of the late lamented Angus McBride's super-dooper illustrations, and depicts Marcus Caelius, who was a Centurion of the XIIXth, and who was killed there.

I'm pleased with the standard, which I made from scratch. The two figures are Crusader, with a converted Foundry Caesarian on the left.
This is an aerial view, which shows the writing I inscribe on all my Command stands.

Wednesday, 13 May 2009

King Juba

Juba commands one wing of my Numidian horse. He's a GB casting on an A&A horse, and his drummer is from Crusader. I painted this one, Greg! ;-)

I'm not entirely satisfied with the model, as I picture him in Roman/Greek generals gear, and the blue tunic didn't quite work. But I like his beard.

Tuesday, 12 May 2009

Caratacus


Today's post is a Renegade Fantasy figure, that I liked enough to allow into my historical Celtic army (the armour and shield is a little OTT). He is a repaint of an ebay purchase.