Friday, 8 January 2010

Elephants' Graveyard!

Dead Nellie has arrived, with her sisters!  I designed her because I wanted a dead African elephant marker for our Zama game (n.b. there are 2 Gripping Beast resin dead elephants with howdahs, at the back of the photo, for size comparison purposes).  This thread shows the progress of the green.  As far as possible I've tried to make it look like the small African Forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) that we believe the Carthaginians utilised.  It is perhaps 40mm to the shoulder.


I'm going to use 10 Dead Nellies (and the 2 GB elephants) for our Zama game.  This is beacause I don't expect that the Carthaginian elephants will survive much more than 20 minutes into the game!  I intend to customise each one slightly, making them into little dioramas.
I'd like to offer a huge vote of thanks to Keith at Aventine, who very, very generously moulded her for me for free with the metal at cost.   As ever, Aventine's production quality is absolutely excellent; no flash and only one small vent to be trimmed away.  Aventine have said that if anyone wants one, to drop them a line and they will sell them at a modest price, with any profit on the minis going to a worthwhile charity.  If you want one, contact Keith via http://www.aventineminiatures.co.uk/contact.html
It's hugely exciting to see something that I have designed, cast professionally!

I'm a Dreadnought!

I was surprised (nay delighted) to hear this morning that the Galactic People's Republic have named their latest Stalingrad Class Star Dreadnought after me.  There's a lot more about it on Gregs's Blog:-

http://gloarmy.blogspot.com/2010/01/arsenal.html

I'm very much looking forward to seeing Greg's game; it should be stunning.  It'll need a large table to play on, though!

In other news...  I've not posted for a few days because I've been breaking my back trying to finish the basing on my Numidian army.  It has been a tough job, not helped by the fact I mistakenly used PVA, last night, instead of ScatterGrip and most of my flock has fallen off.  :-(

Tuesday, 5 January 2010

For a Fistful of Pesos II- the Battle


Before Xmas I showed some shots of the deployment for the Muswell Militia Xmas game.  A brief account of the game follows...

The game broadly split down into two separate battles; the French assault on the village (below) on their left wing, and a holding action on their right wing.



A couple of turns in, the French left rush towards the village which is their objective.

 

The brave poilus reach the buildings.  The red dice with the 6 shows that one unit has taken a terrible pasting from revolutionary artillery fire.

 

Above, the Legion occupies a building which was subsequently assaulted by the revolutionaries.  Although they repulsed the first assault, their supporting troops were driven back and General Georges, their commander, started to look rather concerned!

 

On the right the infantry element of my holding force (above) advanced...

 

And then was shot to pieces and ran away!  Dave roleld some fantastic shooting dice...   My blighters wouldn't rally.  I found myself facing 7 revolutionary units with my three squadrons of cavalry.  To my left, the battle for the village looked lost.  I broadly had two options; "charge of the light brigade" or...

 

..."discretion is the better part of valour"; I legged it!  I couldn't see much point in the senseless effusion of more French blood.

At the end of the previous game we'd made some changes to firing and morale, which made firing more effective and morale more challenging.  Taken together, these made the firefights extremely bloody and also made it very difficult to rally units.  Now we need to tweak the rules to reduce the effect of fire before giveing them another go.  We did learn some useful lessons about turn sequence from this game.

Friday, 1 January 2010

Resolutions Revisited

Last year's resolutions were to:-
  • 1. Finish the Pictish minis I promised myself I'd finish by the end of December, by the end of January. - I did manage this, bar a couple of standards; I really should take some photos.
  • 2. 2009 is declared "Year of the Early Imperial Roman Auxiliary"- I managed 3 units; a beginning; then I got diverted by the Zama project.
  • 3. ...except that I also have to finish the Celtic army- Which I more or less did but not the Wagon Laager, which would look rather stunning. 
  •  4. Develop a set of rules with Ian that enable me to use my 24-man units- Still thinking about these.  I did have a bright idea about them, only last week, that might help.
  • 5. Run a Roman Campaign- I did; it petered out around mid year, but I'll pick it up again.
  • 6. Buy less minis than I paint... LOL!- I only brought about 200 more than were painted (about 5-600, mostly by friends; thanks!) and spent far more than I had intended, or, indeed, can afford 
New resolutions for 2010:-
  • 1. Finish and deliver a stonking Zama game
  • 2. After that, 2010 is officially declared "Year of the Successor"; I need a couple of feet more phalanx, for a start!  And all those pretty Tarantine cavalry... and a whole circus full of elephants.
  • 3. Pick the Roman Campaign up again
  • 4. Develop the rules 4. above
  • 5. Prune purchases; paint lead mountain!
I'd like to wish a Very Happy and Successful New Year to all my Readers!

Thursday, 31 December 2009

A Happy 2010 to One and All (slightly in advance)!

May your paints never dry up in the bottle, your brushes keep a point and your matt varnish never frost!

Cheers, Simon

Sunday, 27 December 2009

Carthaginian Levy



These are the chaps I last showed on the 13th; all finished bar basing although I have run out of gloss spray varnish.  The were originally painted by Gloarmy Greg, but I've done quite a bit of work on retouching and on the shields.  Whilst they await their protective coat, I've started work on the shields for  the 48 Bruttians (Carthaginian allies from Southern Italy) Greg has painted for me who are to follow.

Saturday, 26 December 2009

Things to Do for Zama...

With Xmas out of the way, a man's mind turns to war!  We've a lot to do before April.  I'll return to this page and cross things through as they are completed.


Essential things I am doing for Zama
Base 48 Numidians
Repaint/base 32 Velites
Paint and base 20 Spanish skirmishers

Finish and base 48 Bruttians (24 done)
Base 3 more command stands
Base 9 Numidian bodyguards
Paint and decorate 8 terrain boards

Desirable things I am doing for Zama
Make, paint and decorate 2 decorative end boards
Paint 6 dead elephants (4 done)
Paint casualty minis


Things other people are completing for Zama

4 Roman legions plus cavalry (2 done)

128 Carthaginian veterans
24 Numidian cavalry
Paint 4 dead elephants
Paint 2 Numidian elephants
Make a dozen olive trees


After Zama
Paint lots of elephants
Paint a whopping great phalanx
Paint soem Etruscans and Volscians
Paint the wagon laager
Paint more Roman Auxilia
How I want some Tarantines...

It'll be a busy year!  (Updated 13/2/2010)