Tuesday, 24 November 2009

Gloranthan Army Miniatures Encyclopedia

Mon ami Greg has set up a blog where he's going to store images of figures painted/converted for the world of Glorantha (the world in which Runequest was set).

A lot of images of very nicely painted miniatures will be going up there.   It should be a great Blog!

http://gloranthanarmy.blogspot.com/

Sunday, 22 November 2009

Plains of Zama

These are some of the components for the 18' long table I need to make for Zama.

I'm using 9mm MDF for the boards, with a 10mm thick laker of styrene to be stuck on top using No More Nails.   Later, hexes will be inscribed into the styrene.  I have another 30 or so sheets of the styrene down in the cellar. I'm designing it so that it can be used for either an 18'x4' table, or an 8'x8'.


The MDF was surprisingly heavy to carry 200 yards to my car, and when I measured it later at home, I discovered that the chap in the shop has cut it to the wrong size (604mm wide instead of 600mm; it doesn't fit the styrene), so I'm going to need to carry it back!  Grrr.  At least he didn't under cut it, I suppose.

Saturday, 21 November 2009

Updated Parthian Size Comparison Shot

After I posted last week, someone suggested that I include Bear's Den, and Chris from there has very kindly provided samples.  I've included these and also put the cataphracts onto this page, too, for convenience.


The new Vendel horse is from an Ebob master, I gather, and it is beautifully formed, with very slender legs. The reins are beautifully done; not a single piece casting as on most horses, but a pair with a gap between, something I've never previously encountered. The rider is also very nice (I worry a little about the potential fragility of the realistically slender bow, but all four were fine on the samples I received). The horse and rider are, however, slightly smaller and slighter than my personal preference for miniatures, which tends towards larger 28s; this won't be an issue for most sensible wargamers, though. In style terms, they make me think of some of the Perry ranges, such as their Crusaders. They would be ideally-sized opponents for 1stCorp or Gripping Beast Caesarian-era armies. A real departure from the previous Vendel style; rather exciting. Can't wait to see the cataphracts...

A&A miniatures produce an extensive Sassanid range, which includes several packs of the earlier Parthians. Earlier, I featured the same A&A Parthian cataphract  in the Seleucid Figure Size Comparison page. I really like the poseable horse archer figure. The horse is a little short and thick in the legs in my view, but I really like the decoration on the horses mane. I have used quite a lot of A&A horses in my Numidian and Gallic armies, and have a soft spot for them; solid wargaming steeds that work fairly well alongside the bigger Foundry ranges.

The new addition to the shot is one of the Bear's Den Parthians.  The mount looks like another Ebob horse, to me, but larger than the Vendel one.  As with A&A the legs are cast on, which I think would save preparation and painting time.  The bow is straight and would need to be bent into a recurved shape, which might be a little fiddly.  The rider looks in good proportion to his horse, which is a very nicely sculpted mount.  This mini is the largest of the three, and would probably be a happy size to ride up and  down skewering my Copplestone Roman cohorts with arrows! 


Above we have the Bear's Den and A&A cataphracts (the Vendel isn't out at the time of writing).

The Bear's Den steed is longer than A&As, but a similar height; the rider seems a good match for the size of the horse.  Bear's Den have gone for the very moment of attack, whilst A&A's rider is cantering forward with his lange upright, presumably some distance from the enemy.  The Bear's Den lancepoint is going to stick out 4-5cm in front of the horse, which may be slightly inconvenient on the wargames table, but which would look very dramatic. 

Thanks very much indeed to A&A, Vendel and Bear's Den for providing the samples!

Friday, 20 November 2009

Down Mexico Way...


Last night we playtested Dr. Simon's Mexican War rules; all the above figures are his, and rather splendid they looked too.

The above shot is from behind the Maximillian Government's lines.  Government lancers have just charged up the hill in the foreground and are about to rout their Republican opposite numbers.  The infantry in the forground are Mexican regulars, and facing them are elite Republican units (sorry I can't recall the unit names and backgrounds).  I had ex-Confederates in one unit in my army, and the enemy included a fair number of French.



Here's a shot from behind the Republican lines, with my irregular cavalry moving up in the foreground.  Shortly after this shot, the Government lancers broke through and captured my general who was commanding them.  The game turned out to be a draw with both sides being ahead in some sectors, and we came up with some useful tweaks for the rules that Dr. Simon is writing.

Thursday, 19 November 2009

Numidian Cavalry ready for basing


30 yes 30 cavalry!  And I painted all but 2.  I'm going to need to leave them for a while before basing, as the linseed oil on some of the horses is still not fully dried.


My Aventine reinforcements have arrived.  The left two columns are my two new Pyrrhic nellies, and a selection of spare parts that Keith has sent me which I'll use for conversions... more anon.  I appear to have enough crew for 5 elephants!  The centre two columns are reinforcements for Zama, and on the right are a host of beautiful transfers from LBMS.

Tuesday, 17 November 2009

Timeline Miniatures Indian Elephant

I met Barry from Timeline Miniatures at the weekend.  He very kindly showed me some samples of his 15mm and 28mm Indian elephants, and has very kindly left me one to paint.  His elephants are intended for Siam and Burma, but he is thinking about developing some other ancient ranges using them.

Here's a painted Timeline female elephant.  You don't see a lot of female elephants.  If I recall correctly they were used in war, so it is nice to see one!  I particularly like the head of this elephant.  The model is a very solid one-piece metal casting, but Barry has plans to produce them in resin at a later stage.

The same female with elephants from Timeline's 15mm range.  I have plans for one of those...


And finally here's a different Timeline female (left) alongside an Aventine royal elephant (right: thanks Keith!) for size comparison purposes (n.b. the Aventine isn't fully assembled, and comes with trunk, tusks, King of Persia etc.  Well worth a look if you've not seen it).  The Timeline is very similar to the Aventine in terms of overall size.  Barry left me the unpainted figure above left; I have a plan forming for what I shall do with it...  

Barry hasn't got any of the 28mm elephants cast for sale at the moment, but says to watch his website for developments.  I'm happy to relay news, here, about them.

As we speak, I have two more Aventine elephants (Pyrrhics) in the post; it's going to be like "The Jungle Book" around here!  I may take a very quick break from Zama at Xmas to paint up one of the new Aventines and the Timeline.

Monday, 16 November 2009

More Noobidoobians


I painted 7 of these, to match two I bought ready painted on eBay.  The bases will all need to come off, as I will be multibasing.  I'll try to salvage as much of the terrain as possible, as it is well done.  I've not painted most of the javelin heads as I intend to do this later after matt varnishing (I bought out Antenociti's entire stock of Testors last week!).

Next I have to mount the 21 other Numidians on their horses, and do some snagging.  I should be able to start basing the whole lot later this week.  Huzzah!  With a bit of luck I should have them finished in around a week, so I can get back to the final 4 regiments of Numidian foot that need finishing and basing.  It'll all be over by Xmas.