Tuesday, 9 June 2009

Pimp my Nellie 3!

Oldbob on TMP unwittingly suggested a new title for this thread. For those (Greg) that believe I'm being too slow at painting my Empire Models elephants, here's evidence of a little progress. They look pants at the moment, but I know they are going to look great when finished.

I keep increasing the amount of time that I expect I will need to be painting these for! There is a lot of surface area, and a lot of detail, which I'm discovering as I paint. I'm very impressed with the way the straps and metal rings that suspend the armour are depicted.

I'm also toying with increasing the number of crewmen on the models to 4 each, as described by Livy for the battle of Magnesia, and adding some figures to the base as "elephant guards".

Saturday, 6 June 2009

Ancient Spanish Cavalry

These are some Foundry Spanish figures that I bought off fellow Muswell Militiaman George and did a rough and ready repaint job on.

I show them here because they illustrate my new policy on basing light cavalry. I don't like the look of LC units where all the riders are two to a base and facing forwards, parallel to each other. Mine are now depicted riding across the front of the enemy unit, with their shielded towards them, and wheeling away. The extra wide base really helps with this. When I find another 6 cheap Spanish, I'll turn the unit into a Cantabrian circle.

This look also works well with horse archers, I'll dig some out next week.

Friday, 5 June 2009

Newly Raised Legions


I've finally managed to finish basing the new legion, which is of newly recruited legionaries. It'll do service either as one of the Gallic legions, or a newly raised legion in one of the civil wars.

Around half of the figures were painted by PoolofPaint but partially repainted by me, and I painted the balance from scratch. My concept was to paint and base them in a more irregular way than the bulk of the legionaries, and I think they look better for it; so I'm hoping to find time to do at least one, and preferably two more units the same (in the summer). The images are clickable.

Tuesday, 2 June 2009

Romans wot I am basing this week

This is my latest Caesarian recently-recruited legion; I'll write them up properly when the basing is finished on Friday or Saturday.

Two days ago I though varnishing was definitely the most boring modelling-related activity; I have to say, though, that applying base texture to 54 figures (as I did last night after this photo was taken) is right up there alongside it.

The seven primed figures at the back are fated to become Tegeans.

Sunday, 31 May 2009

Painting Nellie 2

Not much Nellie related progress, because I'm trying to clear the painting table of the 54 Legionaries that seized control of it around 3 weeks ago. Consequentally, I won't be able to start the elephants for a few more days. However, as a taster, here are some of the primed crewmen (all photos clickable).





The miniatures took a while to prepare, because there is a little assembly required (heads and weapons), and because the metal from which they are cast is fairly hard and needs a bit of work when filing. There are mould lines visible on some of the legs, presumably because the mould-halves are slightly out of alignment, but this won't matter as they will be hidden in the Howdah. Aside from that, they came out very nicely; the detail is extremely crisp. The separate heads (which Mario kindly sent me a small bag of) came into their own, because they enable each figure to be different from the next, and the heads can be posed looking downwards. I sat each of the heads in a little greenstuff and superglued for safety.

I have taken three minor liberties with the elephant models that Mario sold me. The first was to replace the cast pikes provided with wire spears. I did this because I hate cast spears (because they are too thick and yet bendy), and in this case I felt they were too short to enable the crewmen to engage enemy on the ground. The second was to replace one of the crewmen with a spare Empire Model, for the sake of variety, and the third was to swap the shields for Crusader shields, because they are larger and will look more imposing, and because I already have appropriate Crusader transfers.

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!