Thursday, 17 December 2009

Aepycamelus greens


I have very much enjoyed sculpting dead nellie, this week, and so have decided to revive a long-abandoned project.  I've dug some old greens out of my drawer and, after some useful advice from TimeLine Barry, have reshaped the legs and bases to make them easier to cast.  The models are only "skeletons" at the moment.


They will hopefully, in spare moments over Xmas, become aepycamelus , an extinct breed of American cameloids who developed long necks to feed off leaves.  I have a plan for them...

New Polemarch Cavalry Released

I'm cautiously excited by the new Polemarch Successor cavalry that popped up on the 'net yesterday.


The photos are alas not great, and one or two of the riders don't appear to be seated on the horses all that well.  I suspect that the photos were taken in bit of a rush, and I think that it would be worth revisiting them, as I fear that they don't do justice to the miniatures. 

Some of the riders look very nice, though, and I shall buy a few samples in order to see them in the flesh.  I aspire to a big Successor army next year.  The price seems fair, too.

Does anyone know about the square shield on the Tarentines?  I've always imagined them depicted with round shields and crested helmets, as in the AEMPW.  But I don't have the recent Osprey on Tarentines, perhaps more recent research has changed things.

Wednesday, 16 December 2009

Persian Cavalryman Green


I had a nice chat with Barry from TimeLine this morning.  Barry showed me a green that he is working on (above), depicting a Persian Heavy Cavalryman (in bigger 28mm; roughly Foundry size).  I think it looks rather spiffing, especially the sculpting of the horse and the scale armour.  I want to try making some scale myself, now.

He also gave me some advice on a couple of greens I've been working on; once I've rebuilt them, I'll post a picture.

Tuesday, 15 December 2009

Dead Nellie Done


Possibly the best dead Loxodonta Cyclotis (without a howdah) model in the world. 

Probably the only dead Loxodonta Cyclotis (without a howdah) model in the world. ;-)

This is a dead forest elephant, around 40mm to the shoulder, as (probably) used by the Carthaginians.  It's not clear in this photo, but the rear right leg crosses the rear left and rests on the ground.  I'm hoping to get 10 cast for our Zama game, which I'll customise so that each is slightly different form the next.  They'll take the place of the "live" elephants as they are killed.


Monday, 14 December 2009

Dead Nellie II


I'm half way through texturing Dead Nellie.  I've added some very short tusks; I don't know if it'll be possible to cast them.  They may have to be trimmed or removed.  The eye needs some work, too. 

I think it'll look half decent when finished, tonight.

Sunday, 13 December 2009

When the levy breaks...

... Hannibal will need to throw in the Veterans!



These are the last 48 of the Carthaginian second line for Zama; levy citizen spearmen.  Essentially speedbumps to slow down the Roman army; we are going to make each unit fight as Auxilia, but with 2 hits instead of the more usual 4.    Gloarmy Greg painted these for me (merci!!) but most were smashed up in the post, hence the detatched shields, spears and general chipping.  :-(  On the plus side, they are recovering very nicely in the BigRedBat equivalent of Toy Hospital, and I hope to have them ready by Xmas.  So far, I've refixed all the spears, cleaned the old glue off the shield backs and started on restoring the paintwork.

The other 144 levy figures are finished (48 similar minis, 96 Thureophoroi standing in as levy). 

Saturday, 12 December 2009

Dead Nellie

I'm trying to sculpt a dead African forest elephant for our Zama project.  This is because I don't expect any of the actual elephant models in the game to survive past the first 15 minutes!   Ideally, I want a dead model to replace each live one when slain.

It is safe to say that it is an at an early stage... I feel that I have the shape very approximately right but none of the details are added, yet.  It's much smaller than most elephants we see, at roughly 40mm to the shoulder.