...so I'd been planning to paint a load of EIR Auxilia this year, and then a Hellenistic army after that; but it turns out that the next SOA Battle Day in 2010 is going to be Zama and I've decided to change everything.
I've never yet managed to field an army for any of the SOA days (there isn't usually enough notice for my slow painting), so this year, given plenty of notice, I have decided to go for it in a big way. My EIRs and my Foundry/GB Successor pikes will all need to go on the back burner and instead I'm going to need to raise a couple of new armies. I had always intended to do a Polybian Legion or two; they have just moved up the painting order! Should tie in with the Aventine minis I'll be starting in 2 weeks.
I want the game to be really big, so I'm going to forge an alliance of friends and other clubs in order to raise the requisite armies.... if you are thinking about going to the Battleday next year (in Bletchley on 24th April, 2010), have DBx-based 28mm figures and either play Command and Colors, or want to find out about it, please do drop me a line!
Wednesday, 17 June 2009
Sunday, 14 June 2009
Pimp My Nellie 5
I was particularly pleased with the "rear elevation"; the crevices in the skin took a wash very nicely. All in all these are splendid beasts and I'm itching to get them finished...
Late Roman Figure Size Comparison Shots
First I should apologise for a little distortion in the photo; on the table, all the figures were lined up with the bottom of their bases parallel. Also I don't have any of the Crusader http://www.crusaderminiatures.com/list.php?cat=13&sub=29&page=1 Late Roman figures, yet, which I would certainly want to look at, if I was considering building a Late Roman army in the near future.
There is clearly quite a wide variation in figure height. The Gripping Beast Range http://www.grippingbeast.com/shop.php is the tallest, perhaps 4mm taller than the Foundry http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/main.asp . Black Tree http://www.blacktreedesign.com/home.html are interesting, because there is some variation in the height of the range; the middle figure is at least a millimetre taller than the 4th figure along, and more heavily built. I briefly wondered whether it was from GB and had got into the wrong bag. On the other hand, the 4th figure from BTD is only around 3mm taller than the Foundry on the right and feels to me like it would work with the Foundry range (as Allen showed in his heritage photos of Dave Imrie's units, where Foundry and BTD are successfully mixed).
My personal feeling is that whilst I'd mix most (but not all) BTD minis with Foundry, and certainly mix BTD and GB, I certainly wouldn't mix GB and Foundry. And the BTD horses, of course, are pretty ghastly...
Friday, 12 June 2009
Etruscan/Polybian Roman size-comparison shots
Keith at Aventine very kindly sent me some samples of their new Etruscan/North Italian range, which I will be reviewing and painting in a few weeks time. In the meanwhile, I thought people might find it useful to see how they compare with some other manufacturers ranges, and also to see how their horses compare with other manufacturers. All pictures are clickable.
I should at this point apologise that I don't have any figures from the marginally smaller ranges, such as 1stCorps or Gripping Beast; here at the BigRedBatCave, we only stock bigger 28s!

The largest figure of the four is the Renegade http://www.renegademiniatures.com/regrom.htm on the left; it would probably be even taller, if it was standing fully erect. The Aventine http://www.aventineminiatures.co.uk/ is the next tallest; I measure 27mm from the feet to the eyes; 30mm to where the top of the head would be. Marginally smaller is the Crusader mini http://www.crusaderminiatures.com/list.php?cat=13&sub=29&page=1 . The anachronistic Foundry Caesarian is a broadly similar size, and I've included it because the range will be familiar to many viewers.
I'd judge that sizewise Aventine, Crusader and Foundry would match each other well, however the Renegade miniature is in a class of its own, being both taller and different in style (the limbs are very awkwardly posed).
Horse wise, the Aventine mount is slighly lower in the hindquarters than a Foundry World of the Greeks horse, but slighly fuller in the body. At the same time it is not quite as rounded as the A&A horse. In fact it feels to me like a sort of average between Foundry and A&A... and would work well with either range. I really like it...
I'll conduct a proper review later on but would say now that my initial impressions of the Aventine miniatures are very favourable. Here's a link to Aventine in case you should want to see more... http://www.aventineminiatures.co.uk/ranges.html
I should at this point apologise that I don't have any figures from the marginally smaller ranges, such as 1stCorps or Gripping Beast; here at the BigRedBatCave, we only stock bigger 28s!
The largest figure of the four is the Renegade http://www.renegademiniatures.com/regrom.htm on the left; it would probably be even taller, if it was standing fully erect. The Aventine http://www.aventineminiatures.co.uk/ is the next tallest; I measure 27mm from the feet to the eyes; 30mm to where the top of the head would be. Marginally smaller is the Crusader mini http://www.crusaderminiatures.com/list.php?cat=13&sub=29&page=1 . The anachronistic Foundry Caesarian is a broadly similar size, and I've included it because the range will be familiar to many viewers.
I'd judge that sizewise Aventine, Crusader and Foundry would match each other well, however the Renegade miniature is in a class of its own, being both taller and different in style (the limbs are very awkwardly posed).
I'll conduct a proper review later on but would say now that my initial impressions of the Aventine miniatures are very favourable. Here's a link to Aventine in case you should want to see more... http://www.aventineminiatures.co.uk/ranges.html
Thursday, 11 June 2009
Pimp My Nellie 4
Tuesday, 9 June 2009
Pimp my Nellie 3!
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
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
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
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.
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...
Monday, 25 May 2009
Painting Nellie 1
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.
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.
Wednesday, 13 May 2009
King Juba
Tuesday, 12 May 2009
Caratacus
Monday, 11 May 2009
Aquila and Vexilla Stands
Sunday, 10 May 2009
Titus Labienus
Saturday, 9 May 2009
Commander of the Armies of the North...
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