Friday, 5 March 2010

100Kday!

I'd very much like to thank all the people who have visited this site since last March, and who yesterday took my page load numbers past 100,000 hits, with just over 51,000 unique visits.  I've hugely enjoyed your feedback and comments, and hope to meet some of you in person at Bletchley and Salute.  Here's an old pic of some happy Germanic cavalry, in celebration.


 In other news,  I played my first game of Flames of War last night with some local gamers from Dark Nights and Bloody Dawns in Wood Green.  It was very enjoyable; how did I  manage to completely miss FoW until now?  The 15mm WW2 figures were both numerous and beautifully painted, and I'd very much like to use them again.  We used Western Desert minis, and I will hopefully show DNBD how a Memoir '44 Western Desert game would compare.  Might even try their minis on a big hex grid.

Finally, I will be starting board 7 for Zama, today.  Joy.

Thursday, 4 March 2010

Numidian Royal Bodyguard

These miniatures were splendidly painted by my mate Nick Speller, and based by me.  They form the Royal bodyguard of my Numidian army.  Numidian Kings often recruited Spanish cavalry "with bridles" for this role (at least in Caesar's time).  They are also the final unit my the Numidian army, which now has just under 300 minis.

I've used whatever figures came to hand; some (late lamented) Companion miniatures, sent to me by Mike Adams in the US, two Crusader Spanish and a couple of A&A Numidians.  The horses include some Aventines, and the splendid standard is Aventine.  I added rosettes and fringes to the horses to give them a Spanish flavour.


 And here they are from behind.  This shows the irregular basing style I favour on all my cavalry.


These'll be Masinissa's bodyguard at Zama.  

In other news... I hope to start the 6th terrain board today.  We also have a table number at Salute, but I don't know exactly where in the hall it is, at the moment.

Tuesday, 2 March 2010

Hellenistic Bodyguard Cavalry

 

This is a unit of  cavalry that I've just refurbed (it is clickable).  They were originally painted as Thessalians for an Alexandrian Imperial army (see photo below).  I bought them, mostly completed, from Andy Bryant; finished the painting, then based them in rhomboids.  But I was never happy with the basing, and also realised that Alexander released most of his Thessalians when he issued purple cloaks to his cavalry, so they would be rather limited in their use.

 

Sooo, I've issued them with shields and crests for their helmets, and now they will be the bodyguard for various later successor generals.  They will see a lot more action, that way, as I'll be doing Hellenistic armies after Salute!  They will also substitute for Carthaginian cavalry at Zama (I have no shame!).  Later I shall paint 6 more to make two full units.  The LBMS transfers worked very nicely...

Sunday, 28 February 2010

BigRedBat's War Cabinet

One of the younger scions of the BigRedBat clan has laid claim to the room where I've traditionally stored my legions.  Accordingly, as part of a negotiated withdrawl, it was agreed that I could put a storage cabinet in another room.  I found a fantastic one at Ikea; the Bergsbo.  My son and I assembled it today, and this afternoon my troops marched to their new home with banners flying and flautists piping.

What excites me about the Bergsbo cabinet is that has the perfect dimensions to take an unfeasibly large number of the "Really Useful Boxes" in which I store all my minis., with almost no wasted space.  It is deep, and all the shelves are adjustable.   In (and above) the cabinet are no less than 68 storage boxes, of various sizes, containing roughly 3000 28mm miniatures and almost all my terrain.

Another benefit of the new cabinet is that it is now a lot easier to access the miniatures I need for a particular game, and I can see the labels on the end of the boxes.  Oh happy day!

Saturday, 27 February 2010

Completed Republican Roman Triarii


Craig Davey has completed the command stand for his Triarii; I think they are absolutely splendid!  The figures are all from the new Aventine Republican Roman range.  I particularly like what he has done with the standards and plumes.  The detail is beautiful, have a click!  Jealous, I am!  

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...