Tuesday, 2 February 2010

Nuclear Family

In line with the current trend towards wargaming-related cartoons (congrats again Iron Mitten), I'd thought I'd post a Birthday card that my middle son created for his mum.  This shows the BigRedBat clan in typical domestic mode, clustered around our antiquated Panasonic TV.   


The artist has depicted himself, bottom left, then smallest Bat, Mrs Bat, the eponymous Bat at his painting table, with painting light, and eldest Batson hunched over his laptop.

He knocked this up on a graphics tablet; I think he did rather well!

nb Buy hair tonic; start diet!

Monday, 1 February 2010

More Celtic Reinforcements

I treated myself to a day off "Zama" and based these figures which were painted for me by chum Nick Speller around 6 months ago.

 

They are the third "open order" warband he has painted for me.  Most of my other celts are based 8 to a 6x6 base; these chaps are in 6's, have slightly smaller shields and are predoninately armed with javelins.  In C&C(A) I think of these as "Auxilia", with the others being "Warband". 

Figures are a mix of Black Tree, Renegade and Miniature Design Studios.

Friday, 29 January 2010

Zama- Tentative Deployment Plan

I worked with Ian last night on the deployment for the game, revisiting the deployment we tried out last year, and making a few minor tweaks to it.  The game will be played with (slightly adapted) Command and Colours boardgame rules.  We used single C&C blocks to work out exactly where the units will be positioned (each block represents 8-16 miniatures, or roughly 400 to 1000 real men).

 
Roman Left (above): the player will command the left flank cavalry and the left Allied Roman legion.  His Carthaginian opponent will have a relatively small and somewhat outnumbered command!


Roman Centre (above): The Romans are deployed, behind a screen of velites, with gaps between the maniples to counter the Carthaginian elephants.  The Roman centre player will command the other 3 legions.  The Carthaginians are in three lines (mercenaries, levy, veterans) behind a screen of elephants.  Pencils show where the section boundaries will be.

 
Roman Right (above):  The Roman right player will command Masinissa's Numidian infantry and cavalry.  Again, they heavily outnumber their Carthaginian/Numidian opponent.

We have also tentatively agreed a small number of special rules that, we hope, will recreate the poor performance of the Carthaginian elephants and levy on the day (I'll publish these later).  What we need to do next, is to playtest the scenario two or three times  to make sure it is balanced....

One small by-product of the planning is that we added a few more units of Carthaginian light troops, taking the total number of minis past 1400!  At the same time, we reduced the number of elephants to 10, which will save me a fair bit of painting time.  The width of the board remains unchanged at 16 feet.

Thursday, 28 January 2010

Dead Nellie 2

This is the second dead elephant I've finished.  I'm currently also painting 2 Gripping Beast resin dead elephants with towers, in parallel, and some Celts I hope to have finished by tomorrow.

Wednesday, 27 January 2010

Dead Nellie 1 Done

Here's the first dead nellie (I hope to paint 8 or so for our Zama game by April).  You may recall that I myself sculpted dead nellie, a recently deceased African Forest elephant, and Keith at Aventine very kindly cast it up for me.  The victorious Roman is also from Aventine. 


Shield design LBMS.


The arrows are plastic broom bristle, with the end crimped with pliers.  Very easy...


I'm very pleased with the way it came out.  It was a very simple paint job.  I have a second model almost completed, photo to follow tomorrow, I hope.

If you would like a dead nellie, youreself, Aventine are selling them and very kindly donating the profits to "Help for Heroes".

Tuesday, 26 January 2010

Arsenal of War

Here is a shot of the BigRedBatCave's arsenal of war, through which every painted miniature passes.  The red boxes on the floor contain a mix of Vallejo and Miniature Paints; the hobby box Games Workshop paints.  The 4 containers, from right to left,  hold brushes, tools, water afor brushes and coffee respectively.  Missing tonight, is the tin tray that I usually store minis on, using their magnetic bases, whilst painting.  The lamp is absolutely brilliant (literally), I'd be lost without it.  Consul asked what I light source I use, and unfortunately I can't recall the manufacturer.  It was bl**dy expensive, though.

At the end of each evening all the figures, paints and impedimentia are stored away until the next night... this only takes a couple of minutes.  The table is opposite our TV which does, unfortunately, slow my productivity somewhat...  but prevents me from getting bored.  It is, all in all,  an odd way of painting compared to a fixed painting table, but a sociable one as I'm around most of the family.

Sunday, 24 January 2010

Bruttians Completed

'ere they are in all there Bruttish glory:



This is the first of two units.  Greg Privat (who originally painted the figures; I detailed and did the shields) is painting the extra figures I need for the second unit, which is 2/3 complete.  These are all Crusader figures, and very nice ones, too.  The decision to cast the heads separately, means the plumes are great and I've not lost a single feather during assembly!