Monday, 18 January 2010

Figgybloggy Blog of the Year



Mon ami Greg is running a competition for "Figgybloggy Blog of the Year".

This has reminded me that I've not recently promoted Figgybloggy, which is an excellent site including most of the best wargames blogs.  If you have a wargaming blog, that isn't already listed on Figgybloggy, then I'd recommend adding it to his list; I've noticed lots of people come from there to read my blog, and I persoanlly read dozens of wargaming blogs that I first saw on Figgybloggy.  Even some of the ones in French!  ;-)


http://figoblogotheque.blogspot.com/2010/01/figgybloggy-best-blog-of-year-award.html

In other news...  I have been highlighting Greg's Bruttians; especially the bronze, to make it "zing".  Hopefully I can finish the highlighting tonight, and start work on the dead nellies...

Friday, 15 January 2010

Brute Squad

In parallel with yesterday's Dead Nellies, I'm making a start on the 48 Bruttians Gloarmy Greg painted for me before Xmas.  You may recall from earlier posts, that these southern Italians form part of the Carthaginian 3rd line at Zama.



Greg has done a fine job with these.  They just need the odd highlight, spears, shields, varnishing and basing.  I've pre-painted the spears and shields so I reckon they represent around 2-3 weeks work.

The minis are a mixture of Crusader Oscans and Aventine Etruscans.  The Aventines are somewhat larger, but I think they'll work together.

Thursday, 14 January 2010

Bring out yer Dead!

I've started work on the casualty figures for the Zama game.  I'm going to paint the elephants (except for the ones I've sent to friends to paint), and later, when I have enough of the infantry casualties prepped, I'll send them to Greg to paint.

Each elephant will be a bit different; the first has a victorious Aventine Italian on it:




The second is really gutted..
Below are two from Gripping Beast.


...and here are the first (of many) infantry casualties, mostly Etruscans kindly donated by Keith at Aventine, and lightly converted.

The first dead elephants (but not the GB ones) are available from Aventine, and profits will be donated to "Help for Heroes":

http://www.aventineminiatures.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=128&osCsid=f598b15086bef29d4dd842caabf32a84


Monday, 11 January 2010

Numidians Done'n'Dusted

I've finished the bulk of my Numidians (most of which were painted by Greg) and I thought it might be interesting to run through what I have, and how I store them.

2 generals; Juba and Masinissa
96 citizen levy, troops raised from the urban centres
36 tribesmen from the hinterland
4 dead horses below:-


40 tribesmen with javelins
10 tribesmen with slings
10 tribesmen with bows
6 elephants (cohabiting with my Macedonian phalanx) below:-


66 light cavalry without bridles (mostly below):-


Other Numidian troops I need for Zama:-
2 more elephants (hopefully the Aventine Africans will be ready in time)
9 cavalry with bridles; mostly Spanish mercenaries.  Nick is painting these, and I'm really looking forward to them as they will be very distinctive.
6 more cavalry without bridles... just so that I have a round 12 units, or 4 "wings" of 3 units as I think of them.
8 elephant casualties
Sundry other casualty figures

And at some stage in the next year I will want a couple of units of Imitation Legionaries, in mixed Roman and Greek successor gear.  I'm hoping that I may be able to work it so that they can also serve as Pontic and Judean ILs.

The storage boxes (below) are the "Really Useful Boxes", which I store all my minis and terrain in.  I line them with steel paper from Coritani.  I chose them because they are fairly cheap, rugged, waterproof and because they stack neatly.  I am, unfortunately, running out of places to put additional boxes; I may have to sell some minis from armies I'm less passionate about, so that I have room to store the Roman and successor armies that I'll be painting over the next year or so.



Sunday, 10 January 2010

Converting catholics?

Last year I posted an image of my celtic army , and I've been puzzled to observe a small but regular number of visitors to the page, coming via Google Images France.

Yesterday it dawned on me that they've been coming via the image searchwords "celtic" and "masse".  The original post was entitled "Celtic Army En Masse"; a celtic mass is apparently a particular form of the religious rite.

Many have gone on to click the image, and even to visit other pages of the site. I find myself wondering whether I've inadvertently lured any French catholics into the world of gaming...

Saturday, 9 January 2010

Carthaginian Militia Completed

These are the Carthaginian Levy miniatures that Gloarmy Greg Privat originally painted, and I've gone on to highlight and base.  There are 96 of them here; I've just finished the second 48.  Please click on the image for a better view...



They will form half of the Carthaginian second line in our Zama Project  (and represent only 7% of the total miniatures in the game!).

 

Most of the figures are Crusader, with a few Foundry mixed in for variety. Next, I have 48 Bruttians that Greg has painted to highlight and base...

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!