Tuesday, 11 December 2012

If...


Spartans loved to provide a terse "laconic" reply to any question.  One of my favourite examples (from Wikipedia) is from the time of the invasion of Philip II of Macedon. With key Greek city-states in submission, Philip turned his attention to Sparta and sent a message: "If I win this war, you will be slaves forever." In another version, Philip proclaims: "You are advised to submit without further delay, for if I bring my army into your land, I will destroy your farms, slay your people, and raze your city." According to both accounts, the Spartan ephors sent back a one word reply: "If." Subsequently, both Philip and Alexander avoided Sparta entirely.

The above (clickable) photo is of a unit of Spartans I've just expanded and re-based.  Most of the minis were excellently painted by my friend Nick Speller.  Their previous basing (by me) never really worked; they proved very challenging to rank.  I got around this by increasing base depths, and multi-basing into 8's.  This unit includes all the miniatures in attacking poses, and will form the right hand unit of the phalanx.

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I've now completed this mini-reorganisation of my Spartans, and now have three units of 36.  Sometime post Raphia, I'll add another unit.  Now I'll get back to the men with longer pointy sticks...

A random Greek hero

I am clearing a few odds and end of the paintint tray to make room for Raphia.

Although almost all of my minis are based in elements, I do find it useful to have some singles and diorama figures for battlefield dressing, and as markers.  This chap is a Foundry Argonaut, converted with a spare head with pilos in order to make him useful as a later-era figure.  I do love his scale cuirass...

Thursday, 6 December 2012

Mugs o'War

When painting, I like to drink my coffee (and tea) from a number of wargame-related mugs, and it occurs to me that other gamers might do this, too.  Here are mine!


Above is the "old faithful" of my mugs, which I stumbled across around 2004, whilst painting my 28mm Pictish army.  I think it came from the Museum of Scotland, via a charity shop.  I love the design, and its rugged construction has, I estimate, survived more than 3,000 washes...


Above is the 2005 Salute mug, from the George and Dragon year.  I've always loved this one, but the lettering is fading toward invisibility, after perhaps 2,500 washes.

Fianlly, below is the 2011 Salute mug.  I've always found this one a bit ugly, and the lettering is fading badly, after only a year and a half.  However, it is a whopping great mug and perfect for a bucket of afternoon tea!


So these are my mugs o'war.  If you have any similar drinking vessels, please feel free to post a link in the comments!

Tuesday, 4 December 2012

Masses more Machimoi


220 more Polemarch Egyptian phalangites arrived today, from Gripping Beast.  I now have just about enough minis for my Phalanx (528); but can I get them painted in time (even with assistance)?  Where's me brush?

Sunday, 2 December 2012

Raphia Phalanx begins...

A week since my last post; life has been interfering with art, again.  Just so that you don't think that I've gone away and left you, below are a couple of quick WIP shot of my next big project.


Above, 30 Foundry Egyptian-style phalangites, started in 2010 and finished, belatedly, this week.  Below 24 Polemarch Egyptian Machimoi, painted last week.  Both clickable.


My plan is to mix the Foundry and Polemarchs together, and paint an awful lot more to match, in order to re-fight of Raphia with mate Craig at Partizan in June.  More anon!

Sunday, 25 November 2012

Please don't try this at home


This afternoon there was a brief break in the rain, so I decided to prep some miniatures.  After washing to de-grease, I popped them in the oven to quickly dry them so I could prime; I think I may have left them in there just a few minutes too long!  :-)

Luckily the other 2 dozen survived, it could have been far, far worse. 

Wednesday, 21 November 2012

Hoplites

I’ve finished basing the hoplites in my recent post, and rebased my existing Foundry “Athenian” hoplites onto larger bases, so that most are now in 8’s.  I boosted the total numbers by repainting my old Lunar Blue Dragoons (the minis with the tall crests), and mixing them in; they scrubbed up OK.  Economical, neh?  Upgraded the tuftage, too, to my 2013 standard.  'Ave a click.


I took the opportunity to very roughly split out the later hoplites with helms with separate cheeek flaps and Pilos, from those with the earlier Corinthian and Chalcidian helmets, and put them on separate bases.  The above unit has mostly earlier, and the below mostly later helmets, although purists will quail...  Later, I’ll build distinct units with corresponding shield designs, which became simpler and more abstract over time.


In a few weeks I plan to paint up 8 more Spartans.  That’ll give me 5 units of 36 hoplites, and two of 24, which will have to do for the time being, because I urgently need to start painting minis with rather longer pointy sticks.