Tuesday, 7 September 2010

Shots of Greek Countryside

Whilst on holiday I decided to take some pictures of the Greek countryside, which might be useful to people modelling terrain.  We were staying in Lefkas, which is an island on the west coast of Greece, near Corfu.  I was extremely surprised by the sheer number of trees; also by the presence of many coniferous trees, which I'd not expected to see this far south. 

Firstly a couple of shorts of olive trees; more than 50% of the trees I saw were olives.  They have a silvery hue to their leaves and were, in general, a paler green than other trees around them.


The above orchard included some low, spongy-looking bushes.  Note how many scrubby trees there are on the very steep slopes of the hill in the background!


This olive orchard was only 200 yards form the other, but had rather greener undergrowth.


This shot shows mixed woodland, with olives in the foreground.  The lovely pencil-thin trees are cypresses, and my first priority will be to source some, as they would be very useful in Italy, too.  They often appeared darker than the other trees.  I want at least 2 dozen.  I saw one solid forest of cypresses, which had no leaves at all on the lower half of their trunks due to lack of sunlight.


Some of the cypresses, above, had multiple trunks.  At least I think this is a cypress.


This shot shows more mixed vegetation; think and thicker cypresses, with a range of other, lower trees.  Note the variation in colours.  One could legitimately mix pine trees in with this, there were quite a few around the coast.


Here are shorter trees; one saw these on poor soil, slopes and high ground.  Maybe scrub oaks?


Lastly, this beautuful tree was very high up; no idea what it is but it goes to show that there was plenty of variety in the vegetation.  BTW Ground colours varied from dusty, to rich red-browns where soil had recently been dug.

I hope these are useful if anyone is thinking of modelling terrain around the coast of the Adriatic.

Monday, 6 September 2010

Ionian Interlude

During my recent hols, my family went to Lefkas, an Island off the West coast of Greece.  I was delighted to find (and go for a day cruise on) this wonderful ship, the "Odysseia", which you can see below drawn up on a beach where we swam and had a barbecue.


It isn't a true galley; although wooden throughout it has a keel and angine, and can only take one bank of oars on the deck.   It also has a bar.  However it did, very much, look the part!  It has been used in several historical dramas.  It has a shallow draft and was very easy to beach and un-beach, in much the same way as the ancient greeks must have.


On the return trip they turned off the engine and raised the sail, which carried the boat along at a good pace!

The captain, Dimitri, was a jolly soul, very much from the school of Zorba, and made it a great trip; I'd heartily recommend the experience.  The boat sails from the resort of Nidri, and the tour is very good value at e40.

Sunday, 15 August 2010

Batavian Progress

Here are some progress shots of my second Batavian cohort.  I've finished repainting (below) the 15 minis I bought on eBay; they have come out very nicely, indeed, and the fact they were bought painted probably saved me 4 or 5 nights work.  In the background is the first cohort; I judge that the reinforcements are a little better painted.


Below are 9 other miniatures that will add a little variety; Crusader, Blacktree and Foundry.  They should be finished tonight or, more likely, tomorrow.


Iron Mitten is painting some Batavians, too.  His are perhaps a little earlier in period and, judging from the cartoon, will have oodles of character.  I also aspire to doing an earlier cohort along the lines of these; one day...

Saturday, 14 August 2010

Mike's Pikes

Mike on TMP (LEGION 1950) has kindly sent me some photos of a little army he and Mary have knocked together, in Chicago.


Above is a (clickable) collage showing much of the army, which appears to be mostly Foundry.  The army is so large that I couldn't fit all the photos in the frame, and so the photos of the right wing are missing.


The phalanx is extremely imposing!  A total of 12 x 32 man units.  Quite a wall of lead... I like the impact of all the lowered pikes, although all my own will be vertical for storage reasons.


I gather that there are 96 Companion cavalry, alone!


This looks like Alexander, to me.

There must be around 800 miniatures in the army, in total, and from what I can see they are almost all Foundry; by far the largest Macedonian army I've seen.  Very impressive.

Sunday, 8 August 2010

Coh. I Raetorum


So here is my latest (clickable) cohort of Auxilia, on patrol in the countryside.   These are Raetians (from the area covered by modern Switzerland/Southern Germany); I've painted them up as Cohors I Raetorum because this unit ended up as part of the British garrison.  They are armed with the gaesum, a barbed spear with a metal shaft, becuase I wanted to paint a unit that looked distinctive compared to my other units.


The miniatures are mostly lightly converted BTDs and Foundry Caesarians (I'm rather proud of their greenstuff  shorts), with a Crusader tribune.   Terrain is by my mate John Smillie.  

Below are the final 6 stages of the painting process.  I'm really pleased that I managed to finish them in 10 sessions, however some of them were quite long sessions!  This is extremely fast work by my standards.

Session 5 - Helmets- paint and highlight
Session 6- Paint spearshafts, scabbards, baldricks, cloaks plus highlight
Session 7- Paint spearheads, highlight, borders on cloaks, silver decorations, swordhilts, crest on tribune.  Wash with Army Painter Softtone
Session 8- Gloss spray varnish minis, selectively matt varnish minis.  Attach shields, glue minis to base
Session 9- Texture base,
Session 10- Paint bases, weathering on shields, stick on Silflor tufts, static grass

Saturday, 7 August 2010

Batavian Intermission


This afternoon I'm finishing the basing of the Raetians, who are looking very fine.  However, my enthusiasm for all things Auxiliary continues unabated, and I'm hoping to finish one more unit before my hols.  This will be Cohors II Batavorum Eq., comrades of Cohors I which I painted last year, and my 6th unit of auxiliary infantry.

I bought 15 minis on eBay which are painted to a fair standard.  They will need to be substantially repainted but which will give me a head start.  The other 9 minis are a mix of Black Tree, Foundry and Crusader  to add a little variety.  I also intend to do a little work on Cohors I to help it to better match some of the succeeding units.

Monday, 2 August 2010

Raetian Auxilia III

My Raetians are coming on...


I'm 4 painting sessions in, on the 24 miniatures.

  • Session 1 paint/transfers on shields
  • Session 2 base coat on mail (a 50/50 mix of black and Boltgun Metal)
  • Session 3 tunics, base and highlight, shorts, base and highlight
  • Session 4 flesh, base and highlight

I probably have another 3-4 sessions to go, plus a couple for basing.