Wednesday, 16 May 2012

Mob-handed WIP

I've just arranged all 47 minis on their bases, and thought I'd snatch a quick photo.  26 were painted by Figgybloggy Greg, and most of the rest and the market by me


There are going to be 4 units; the two in the front will be relatively dense mobs, with some vigiles mixed in, and the two at the rear dispersed skirmishers armed with bricks and javelins.  The next stage will be to disguise the mini's bases with cobbles, then I need to add a little more base dressing and take some proper snaps.

Sunday, 13 May 2012

Cobblers

Or more accurately, cobbles.  I've decided to base my rioters on cobbled streets, as per the test element below.


The core of the bases are 60mm square galvanized steel sheet which I bought them off Renaissance Ink some years ago.  I've cut and fixed the ubiquitous Magnetic sheet on the back, and primed the top with Halford's Grey to disguise the shine on the edges (see below, I've turned one over to show the rear, you can see the shiny steel).  I joined a couple of the bases together to take the cart, which was too big for a single base.


The Roman cobbles (below) are actually from Antenocitii and are printed into a soft-ish styrofoam, and supplied pre-painted; a great product.  This is what I'm going to use for my Roman streets, so the rioters should blend right in. Below are the 11 bases I'll need for the units.


As per the test piece at the top, I will need to cut a hole in the foam for each mini's base, and stick them to the metal, then lay cobbles around the feet to disguise the base.  This worked more or less OK with the test base in the top figure, not as hard as one might think, albeit fiddly; but with 46 minis plus furniture, I clearly have a few days basing duties ahead of me!

Wednesday, 9 May 2012

Street-fighting man

These are some market stalls as base dressing for the Roman  rioter stands I'm currently modelling.


The plan is that the fighting has spilled into a market area.  The table and most of the foodstuffs are from the Gripping Beast "Trade and Tribute" set.  The javelin-man is a Gorgon psiloi.


This is a wine merchant's stall.  The excellent pottery is from Baeuda, and is really very nicely executed, on a scratch-built stall.  The  merchant's cart (below) is from Irregular, a very handy and very cheap piece.



Above are some more Baeuda pots on another scratch-built table.  Finally, below, is a broken table with some Roman bread I've knocked up.


The miniatures are now all painted, and most of the rest of the material is prepared... I'm now just awaiting an order from Antenociti with a few final bits I need before I can start basing up.  As you can see, I'm very much enjoying playing with my Romans again!

Monday, 7 May 2012

Aventine Roman Rioters

I've added some Aventine miniatures to my slowly massing crowd, which is now up to 46 miniatures.


I'm pleased with how they have come out, although I've not cracked the Devlan Mud quite yet (tunics are OK; eyes, not so much).  The half-bricks work nicely...

Thursday, 3 May 2012

Pwodigy II; I predict a riot!

This is a second WIP shot of my Roman rioters.  I've added another 20 miniatures, some of whom are shown at the front, partially blocked in (a mixture of Aventine, a senator from Foundry and Steve Saleh's Caesar).  You might be able to make out some furniture at the back- I now have some promising ideas for base dressing.


I'm now planning to build 3 (or just possibly 4) units with a total of around 48 minis.  I'm trying to copy the style that Greg used (a big brush, and lots of Devlan Mud), this is proving very much quicker than my usual way of working.  And I now appreciate that ancients are a helluvalot quicker to paint than Naps!

Thursday, 26 April 2012

A Pwodigy!

A very rough WIP shot of the first ancients minis that have actually made it onto the painting tray in 6 months!


I'm planning to depict a crowd of lightly armed civilians with a few vigiles and urbana mixed in, either as rioters or perhaps the Vitellian defenders of Rome in 67AD.  Strictly street fighters.  I'm currently thinking about how to base them, if anyone has any ideas for base dressing etc., please bung them my way!

28 of these were painted very nicely by mon ami Greg who very kindly gave them to me at Salute.  The ugly woman front right and a few other dodgy minis are spares from the painting box, anything good is from Greg.  Some of the minis are Foundry, others Aventine, some god knows!  I'm doing just a little highlighting and detailing, maybe some tunic stripes and suchforth.

Sunday, 22 April 2012

Back to the Rubble

I helped out a (very little) bit with a game run by Greg Privat and Andrew Taylor, at Salute, yesterday, set in the rubble of Pavis, the great ruined city in the plains of Prax.  That's the Pavis wall in the background, and the Zola Fel river on the right.


Below, some trollkin are fighting a Lunar on the roof of this ruined building.


A whole tribe of Uz can be seen below.


Greg produced the terrain and painted most of the miniatures, other miniatures (some of the Lunars) were provided by Andrew Taylor of Mad Knight Castings.   I was very impressed with some of the new miniatures, which have slipped under my radar until now. and there are some humorous pieces such as the trollkin (note what appears to be a suicide battering ram, below), and an elephant-headed broo.   


The Lunars, in particular, are rather fine.  Above are some Thunder Delta Slingers, and, below, an assassin and various Lunar soldiery assault an altar.


I was very impressed with Andrew's new range; great to see Gloranthan gaming underway again!  I will paint some Gloranthan toys before the year is out.  It was great, as ever, to meet Greg and his new and even-taller wargaming buddy Jean, and Andrew of Mad Knight, plus various old chums like James Ewins,  Nick Speller, Simon MacDowell, Dug, the chaps from Frothers etc (sorry if I have missed you!).  In the general confusion of the day I missed meeting Iron Mitten, the Dark Knights and Bloody Dawns crowd and Saxon Dog (where were those games?).