Sunday, 4 April 2010

Hannibal (B-12)

Here is the great man himself.  He seems to be remonstrating with the levy spearman; perhaps the levy want to retreat, but the veterans won't let them through.  Tough! 


These minis were painted by the very talented Nick Speller.  I varnished and based them.   They are Crusader except for the nice Aventine mini on the left and left-hand vexilla (Aventine do great standards).  The Hannibal is, appropriately, an old Salute giveaway miniature. 

Only 12 painting sessions to Bletchley!  I've still got 2 units of Greg's Bruttians to finish and base, the casualties to complete, the boards to drybrush, hexes to mark out, packing and a couple of other minor tasks.

Still Frantically Flockin'...

...I just started the final flock of board 8.  Today I'm listening to Johnny Cash and Cat Stevens, who are making the work light.

Here's board 7 which has more ditches, and which is consequently more lush than the average:


In total I think I've used around £150 worth of 10 different grass and flock products.  The vegetation still needs to be drybrushed.  I'm very pleased with the small amount of Silflor "weeds" I bought, which are tufts with small "leaves" attached; I'll be buying more of them.

Saturday, 3 April 2010

Board dressing

I've been frantically flocking my terrain.  My concept involved a lot of bare earth, and it looks like it'll be realised (if only because I don't have enough silflor clumps or time!).  The lush, green vegetation will be largely confined to the ditches, and I'll be drybrushing it lightly at the end, which will hopefully tie in in, better.


Greg, this is what the rest of the fields should look like, finished.

Friday, 2 April 2010

A shwubbery!


My mate John Smillie has completed the olive trees that I have long coveted.  He made them  individually using sea-moss and wire, and I think they are far superior to the bottle brush trees I usually use.  I just need to paint the bases to match my terrain, and add some Sliflor.  He's promised to make me some Cypress trees, which would look very good with my Roman buildings, using the same method.  He's also making some haystacks...

This is the last weekend I have to finish flocking the terrain boards... should be busy!

Monday, 29 March 2010

Generals Wanted!

Muswell Militia and friends will be running what we hope is the largest ever Command and Colors (Ancients) miniatures game twice over the next month. The battle we are refighting is Zama and will involve 1500+ miniatures, deployed in roughly 120 units, on a 4.8 metre long table.   The scenario somewhat resembles the C&C Epic Zama scenarios, but is rather bigger.  We’ve extensively play-tested it and it should be a pretty even game; it will take around 5 hours to play, including breaks.  There’s a good deal about it elsewhere on my blog: http://bigredbat.blogspot.com/search/label/Operation%20Zama

Up to four generals are needed for each side, for each refight, and we are looking for additional players to general on both sides on both days. It would be helpful if these have prior experience of playing the C&C(A) boardgame, whose rules we are using. However, C&C is a very accessible system, and we can teach the basics to a wargamer in 20 minutes or so.  We’ll also have someone on hand to offer advice...

The first outing will be at the Society of Ancients Battle Day, in Bletchley, on 17th April; here’s a link to their page: http://www.soa.org.uk/battleday/

The second will be at Salute on 24th April, at the Excel Centre in Docklands: http://www.salute.co.uk/

If you are available and would like to play in either game, drop me a line at simon dot miller at lineone dot net, and we’ll see if we can fit you in… they should be memorable games!

Sunday, 28 March 2010

Boards on the Tabletop

I put four of the eight Zama boards on a table yesterday, and they joined up nicely.  I've still not finished the flocking, but I've done enough to know that it'll all work.  The boards are a little browner in real life than in the photo.


Yesterday I raided the local pound shop, and bought enough camping mats and doublesided tape to put a padded backing on each of the boards, as below.  I'm hoping that this will protect the surface of the boards when they are stacked up against each other, and protect my table top, too.  It only cost £1 GBP per board!


Saturday, 27 March 2010

Carthaginian Mounted General (B-20)

This represents the nameless commander of the Carthaginian right wing cavalry at Zama.  The general is a converted Aventine Pyrrhic mahout, and his standard bearer Crusader, with an Aventine standard.  Both horses are Foundry WotGs.  Very ably painted by Nick Speller, and based by yrs. truly.


In most of the playtest games, the horse he commands and their Roman opponents have pretty well wiped each other out.  The general has sometimes survived the slaughter and gone on to help lead the Carthaginian foot.