Friday, 26 February 2010

On the Painting Table

In the brief intervials between slapping gunk on boards, I've been trying to base some of the last units I'm contributing  to the game.  Below are some Spanish cavalry painted by Nick Speller, that need matt varnishing and basing.

 

And below here are some Foundry Thessalians painted by myself and Andy Bryant, that I'm in the process of converting to shielded Hellenistic cavalry.   They will stand in, on the day, as Carthaginian heavies.

 

Thursday, 25 February 2010

More Boards...

 
So here's my life for the next month; these are boards 1-3 of an eventual 8 or 9, for Zama.  The furthest two boards are 60% complete; they still need a lot of highlighting and will need some selective  flocking (although the final theme is going to be brown).  

The nearest board is perhaps 25% done.  The next step will be to trim the fields using my Wahl.  Then I will apply texture, and finally a basecoat of Chocolate Brown Sandtex (which trick I picked up from the "Touching History"  books).  

I also need to check that my plan to use a template to superimpose a hex grip on the finished boards, will work.  It occured to me, yesterday, that the standing crops may prevent the template from lying flat on the boards.  Gulp.  I'll test it before I start board 4; on future boards, I may need to apply the crops after the grid. 

The scale of the venture is daunting...

Wednesday, 24 February 2010

Carthaginian Relief Column!

I am indeed considerably relieved to see the arrival of these Carthaginians., into the collection of fellow Muswellian, Dr Simon.  Aside form the 200  Aventine Romans we still need to paint, these are pretty well the last major units required.  The pikes on the spearmen will be replaced in due course...

There's more about them and additional photos on Dr. Simon's Blog.

Tuesday, 23 February 2010

A Little Board

This is the first of eight terrain boards for the Zama game with basecoat applied (the final colour will be a dustty light brown).  I've tried to break up the flat terrain with fields, ditches and tracks; I'll probably get more ambitious as I move along the battlefield.  The cream-coloured fields will be dyed or painted in due course.  I've tried to avoid making the texture too rough, so that we can move the pieces across it, with relative ease.  I hope that the ploughed fields will look good when finished.

When it is complete, I'll attempt to add a hex grid to it...

My take on Zama is that the battlefield is essentially flat, agricultural land, with a few scattered trees (olives and a type that looks a bit like a cypress), in autumn.  There is going to be a lot of brown, and dried grass.  If anyone knows any different, please let me know ASAP!

Monday, 22 February 2010

Not my Triarii!

In fact these are Craig Davey's new Aventine Triarii,  for his Roman legion.  The command pack isn't painted yet, but I'd hazard that they are under the brush, right now.  I really like the painting style and the bold vermillion ed he has used.  The crests are very jaunty; I'll do mine the same (eventually).



 
 Fabuloso!

Sunday, 21 February 2010

Mission Statement

I suffer from mission creep, more than most collectors.  I have decided that I had better focus, at least within broad limits.  For ancients, I'm therefore going to concentrate on:-
  • The time: Roughly 400BC to 400AD; Peloponnesian war to the fall of Rome
  • The place: The Mediterranean basin, France and Britain (and later Germany/Dacia)
  • The next army: Pyrrhics (and finishing off various part-painted units from the EIR and Polybian eras).
Once Zama is out of the way I'll therefore flog off some non-core bits, such as my Viking army, which is little used for lack of an opposing army.  Below is an old pic of some of the Vikings, next to their fjord:


I do also have a small Assyrian army, which I'll keep because I think it'll look great once completed, and because I recently bought some great Biblical-era terrain.

Saturday, 20 February 2010

Bletchley Battle Day; 8 weeks today...

 
It's not less than 8 weeks to the SOA Zama Battle Day at Bletchley, and I've decided that I now don't have time to start any fresh miniatures, so the above casualties minis will be my last, which is a pity as I'd like to have a lot more.  I still need to finish and base 100 or so minis that Greg and Nick Speller* have painted, and make the boards.  

*Nick has painted the Spanish and Scipio at the top of the frame; I've mounted them on temporary bases whilst I varnish them.  The final 2 dead nellies are on the right.