Friday, 15 February 2013

Charioteer and a Queen

My projected British chariot force has been delayed by the Raphia project.  However, I've just received around half of the crews back from my mate Nick Speller, and couldn't resist showing a few of the figures.


Above are some of the riders.  The figures on left and right are Wargames Factory celts, and at the rear is one from the more recent Foundry chariot release.  Nick has done an excellent job with these, but they aren't great sculpts; Foundry, in particular, should be able to do far better.  However the Factory minis were cheap, and easy to convert, and didn't need to be cut off their bases.  I think they will look great on the chariots.

Below is Boudica.  I fancied a "fantasy" queen of the Iceni, and this model from Newline Gripping Beast, lightly converted to make her a little taller, does the trick.  She is no beauty... especially since her face was pitted in the casting process.  She is also rather chinless.  She is, however, quite a character!  She will do, nicely.


A huge thanks to Nick for the great painting...

Wednesday, 13 February 2013

Somewhere near Utica...

Somewhere near Utica, a Pompeian army under Cato (left), with local Numidian allies under Juba (some shown in foreground), faces a smaller but more confident Caesarian force (right).


Below, elephants trot past the city gates.  It's a short but a glorious life, in the elephant corp!  I got to use all my elephant casualty markers by 9 PM.



Above, the very numerous and colourful Numidian city militia and hordes of light horse, wisely hung back to let the Romans sort it our between themselves.  Below, Cato confers with a subordinate.  The newly-raised Pompeian legions turned out to be surprisingly effective force...



Above a Pompeian cohort of inferior troops, charged by superior Caesarian foes, and having failed to counter charge,  pulls off something of a coup by dint of expert dice rolling!  Several wins by the aggressive (and phenomenally lucky) Cato drove a deep wedge into the Caesarian lines.



Eventually they broke through (above) and subsequently turned, ready to roll up the Caesarian line (below).  Although there were still a lot of Caesarians on the table, we felt that they would now need to retire from the field.


The game, played with a couple of local opponents, Nigel and Jay, proved to be a very enjoyable and relaxed play-test of my rules.  I've taken away a bunch of new ideas and will tweak the rules, for another run through, hopefully next week.


Monday, 11 February 2013

More white shields



Another 21 finished (bar varnishing).  For some reason, I find the Polemarch rather less interesting to paint, than their Foundry equivalents; I'm really not sure why.  However, I've now got enough minis finished, to be able to start thinking about basing up another 2 phalanx blocks.

Wednesday, 6 February 2013

Meganotpolis

Played a game last night with Ian and a new local gamer, Jay.  Unfortunately I've not time to write the game up, but it was very loosely based on Megalopolis, the "Battle of Mice", between Alexander's regent Antipater and Agis of Sparta.

The game was mainly an excuse to a) get my emerging Raphia  phalanx on the table, and b) test the latest incarnation of my rules.  Both objectives were achieved.


Above, Spartans and allies in the foreground defend the pass against the advancing Macedonians.


Above, some lucky (and anachronistic) Macedonian thureophoroi broke through the Spartan line.


Some extrovert Galatians chasing away the Cretans guarding the Spartan flank.


Eventually, Macedonian numbers (and pikes) told and the Spartan line crumbled.  Agis (on the small hill, centre, above) finally fell, and the Spartans were defeated, in very much the same manner as in the original battle.  Also, as in the real battle, there was barely a Macedonian left unwounded by the end.

Today I've been making the latest amendments, and hope to get another test of the same battle under my belt, tonight!

Tuesday, 5 February 2013

A footnote to star bursts...

Steve at Little Big Man Studios has very kindly published the transfer sheets I suggested to him a few days ago.  There is a new black star burst set and a new red set, which complement the existing red set, giving 72 subtle variants on a theme. They have terrific battle damage and staining on them, and are a must if you fancy raising that white shield phalanx you've always needed...

Of course I've bought some of the new sets, and now need to paint even more pike men...

Sunday, 3 February 2013

Starburst

No, not the confectionary (which I still think of as Opal Fruits), but half of the shields I need for the Egyptian portion of my phalanx, mostly with the classical Macedonian starburst design (clickable).  The concept is that these are cheap wooden shields covered with felt (or perhaps locally available Egyptian linen or cotton), with designs painted on, for the cheap, emergency, wing of the phalanx.


I've used the excellent Little Big Man designs, from two different sheets, and painted some plain white shields to go alongside them.  I've distressed them, somewhat.  I think the black and alternate red designs give a nice variety to the designs, and Steve of LBMS has very kindly offered to make up a new sheet for me.  I'm about 10 days away from basing up the next 2 units.

I love putting on shield transfers, I find it very relaxing.

Friday, 1 February 2013

Rear rankers


I've finished (bar shields) another batch of 18 pikemen, this time rear-rankers for the Egyptian phalanxes.  8 were painted and kindly donated by Craig, and I just needed to add pikes, and painted 10 more in a similar style.  I absolutely love the unarmoured Foundrys, they are a pleasure to paint!  The chap in the blue chiton is a pleasing conversion from a hoplite, who actually looks quite Egyptian, rather than Macedonian.

Behind are 21 more Polemarch phalangites, at an early stage. 

If anyone has any of the Foundrys in the straw hats, I'd love to buy or swap for them, a dozen or so would be very useful, indeed.

Rear rankers does sound unfortunately like Cockney rhyming slang...

Wednesday, 30 January 2013

A lucky gap between his teeth...


This is something of a departure from my normal posts, as, by choice, my non-wargaming life rarely intrudes on this blog.  However, this is just too good an opportunity to pass up, as it features my father Dennis Miller (below), my mother Shirley (in the background), my very late Uncle Roy and the most of the  Royal Marine School of Music, in Portsmouth.  The below Youtube link explains all...


There is also a link to the BBC South News article.  Here’s a very dramatic link to the British Pathe news article about the loss of HMS Barham, in 1941.  And some more info about the Royal Marine Band School, who gave him a tremendous reception...

I wasn't able to be there on the day, due to the snow, but it has been great to see the links, and I think my dad carried it all off, very well!  He looks very much like a visiting retired General...

He has often observed that, if he hadn’t been born with a gap between his front teeth, then he would have been the other boy bugler on duty, opposite Roy, on the other side of the Barham’s bridge, that day.  They say it is lucky to be born with such a gap; I should add that I was born with one, too!

Tuesday, 29 January 2013

Pike Block


Just now, I am painting an awful lot of pikes, and so have developed a system to streamline painting them, built around my invention, the “pike block”.  The major advantage of using such a block it that it’s not necessary to handle the individual spears at each stage of the painting process, which saves a lot of time: it’s a pike production line!

My pike of choice is the Wargame Foundry 100mm.  I cut the pikes down to random lengths between 90mm and 99mm, because  I feel this makes the finished unit look more natural.  These spears don’t have a shaped head, but are a lot blunter than the attractive but lethal North Star pikes (which I do use a lot, on other projects).  The downside it that I need to paint a trompe l’oeil pike head on each, which, luckily, isn’t quite as hard as it sounds.


The “block” itself, above, is assembled from Jenga blocks, glued together and with a layer (or two) of magnetic basing stuck to it.  The magnetic basing holds the steel spears in place whilst I paint them.
  • First I wash and dry the pikes, and prime white
  • Next I paint one half of the pike in Games Workshop Tallarn Sand
  • I paint the final 8mm or so of the pike in Tallarn with a touch of black mixed in
  • Next I paint 7mm of the head in black, leaving a 1mm ring of the shaded Tallarn, visible, this now forms a shadow under the spear head
  • I then paint over the black (leaving as thin a strip of the black as possible to delineate the edge of the spearhead) with a dark metallic, such as GW Leadbelcher
  • Next I paint a slightly lighter strip in GW Ironbreaker, around the 3mm tip of the spear, to depict the blade, and another 2mm band next to the black band, to depict the socket
  • The remaining visible 2mm of Leadbelcher, becomes the waist of the spear
  • I put a tiny dob of GW Runefang Steel on the very tip of the spear
  • Finally, I turn the spear around and paint the other half of the shaft

The stages are depicted above.  The tips look a bit rough, but much less so when on the stand of figures, as below. 


The process sounds complex, but it is quite feasible to paint 40 pikes in an evening, and they look great from a distance, as the eye fills in the details, giving the spears a real impression of having shaped heads.  

Saturday, 26 January 2013

Chalkaspides

Chalkaspides is the term used to describe the bronze-shielded phalangites, in Successor armies.  You may be familiar with the related term agyraspides which indicated silver-shielded guards, and leukaspides, which may have been applied to white-shielded reservists (although Nick Secunda has recently challenged this).


These are the first two completed chalkaspides units (of an eventual five) for my Raphia phalanx.  They are in "Sidon" helmets, my absolute favourite Successor headgear, which marks them out as later Successors.  "Sidons" crop up on the eponymous stelae from Gaza, and in a scene on the Palestrina mosaic.  Stephane Thion tells me that the type may have become general in the later Successor period, and that I might therefore be able to use them as part of a Pontic army.


The miniatures are a mix of Foundry (30%) and Gripping Beast (70%), with mostly Foundry shields gained from a swap with Allen Curtis. 

This gives me 3 complete units of the 12 that I need, although I have got quite a few other painted and part-painted minis ready, waiting for comrades to be painted.

Friday, 25 January 2013

Machimoi

Tonight I'm finishing the flocking of the first two line phalanx (photos to follow tomorrow), and tomorrow I start work on the first two native Eygyptian Machimoi phalanx. These will include a number of unarmoured, recently recruited Egyptians, pressesd into service by Ptolemy's leading courtier, Sosibus.


To this end I was very lucky that my Raphia partner in wargaming crime, Craig, very kindly sent me a dozen painted minis, and Shaun aka Redzed, has just most generously chucked me 48 more unpainted, unarmoured minis!  6 of Craig's painted minis are above (the finished ones), mixed in with 6 part painted from ebay, and 6 unpainted. I now need to paint 27 Polemarchs, and add new pikes to 57 more more I bought off Gareth Lane.  Busy, busy, busy!

I'm still on the lookout for the phalanx characters in straw hats, if anyone has any to swap.  I also need lots of the 100mm Foundry steel pins.  If anyone has any spare, I would very happily swap for the 100mm North Star pikes, which I have bags of.  Please email me at the address above.

Sunday, 20 January 2013

Pikeys


These are the latest fruits of my Successor Pike mania; the units imaginatively named Phalanx 2 and Phalanx 3.  They are varnished and just need basing/flocking.

I've cut all the pikes to slightly different lengths, and they aren't all upright; I like this effect.

I started to paint the units around 3 years back, but have pulled the stops out over the last month.  I'm trying to paint 18 a week, but falling just a little short... but I think I can catch up due to recent purchase of Raglan's phalangites and getting some blocked in by a professional. The minis are Polemarch (mostly) and Foundry.  I really like the Foundry mini in the Sidon helmet, it paints up beautifully.

Just 384 left to do...  :-)

Thursday, 17 January 2013

Welsh Ptolemaics


64 Ptolemaic reinforcements arrive from Raglan's Welsh mountain fastness... these are going to form the front ranks of my 192-strong white shield phalanx, for Raphia.  Huzzah!

Saturday, 12 January 2013

Cleopatra is a harsh mistress...


I'm plugging away with my Ptolemaic phalanx, but it is proving quite a job! 

Above are batch 4 (blocked in, not yet stained) and batch 5 (half painted, right), which, when finished, will give me the 96 phalangites I need for my second and third pike blocks (of 11!).  I'm going for varied bright colours for the tunics based on the new Stephane Thion Lagid Army book.

I've fired off 100 pikemen to Dr. Simon's painter, to get them blocked in and will be getting another 64 painted ones from Raglan, so I think I'm slightly ahead of where I need to be at this stage.  No room for complacency, though! My mate Nick is going to paint Ptolemy and his bodyguard, too, which is a result.  I'll be using Aventines for these.

I've also been amending my draft rules to include heffalumps and long pointy sticks.

Finally, my mate Ian has lent me his treasured Bar Kochba account of the battle, which looks like it will be invaluable for understanding deployents and what actually happened on the day.  Already I've decided that I'll be drawing up parts of my phalanx 6 deep, perhaps even deeper... 

Wednesday, 9 January 2013

My first magazine article


My first magazine piece, about basing miniatures, came out today, in Wargames, Soldies and Strategy 64.  Woo hoo!  If you want a copy, you can buy it here.  WSS is a great little magazine, and I hope to post there fairly regularly.

Interestingly, Guy the Editor comments that I must disagree with Dr. Phil Hendry's approach to basing.  I actually really like Phil's bases, especially those on his Roman and Sassanids.  He is very consistent, which is what I aim to be, too.

In other news, we played our first game of the New Year last night; the classic Avalon Hill boargame Successors.  This will hopefully make a great background for a campaign, later in the year, once I have enough miniatures painted.

Tuesday, 1 January 2013

One last resolution...


...this is the sorry state of the floor in the gaming/dining room in the BigRedBatCave, as of this morning.  There are a mountain of gaming boards at the rear, debris from xmas and a couple of boxes of cider (why?).  Over the next few days, I plan to clear the lot!  Once clear, I'll hopefully be able to get some serious gaming underway, again.

Monday, 31 December 2012

Pikemen of various hues


Like buses, pike phalanx seem to come in threes.  Yesterday, Simon MacDowall posted his splendid Silver Shields, and I see that tonight Craig has just posted his proud Pink Pikemen (so numerous that he can't capture them all in one photo frame!).   Here is the left-most unit of my own forming Successor phalanx, the Libyan.

Their position on the extreme left of the phalanx, next to the guard units, suggests to me that they were considered more reliable than the local Egyptian phalangites.  They were led by Ammonius the Barcan.  His name sounds Punic; could there have been Carthaginian mercenaries present amongst them?  Raphia was, after all, fought in the same year as Lake Trasimene... 

The phalanx is a recent expansion and repaint of a repaint of an eBay purchase.  The purple linothorax must be due to the availability of Murex sea-snails along the Punic Coast (or could alternatively be due to me being too lazy to change the colour).  They are a real mix of the various Foundry pikemen.

Anyhow I'm delighted to squeeze these into 2012.  I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Happy New Year!


Sunday, 30 December 2012

Resolutions for 2013

Following my plans for 2013, posted yesterday, here are my resolutions:-
  • I shall complete, play test and publish (probably on-line) the Ancients rule set I’ve been developing
  • I shall finish my Ptolemaic phalanx for the game at Partizan; ten units of 48 phalangites, one of 48 agema and peltasts, and 3 dozen Cretan archers.  At the time of writing I do not have a single, complete unit, although I have around 120 figures painted.  To achieve this, within the timescale, I recognise that I will need to get a couple of hundred part-painted for me...   and also the cavalry and nellies
  • I’ll buy the parts and paint the cloth for a deeper wargames table, probably 160cm (4’8””), which is about the widest table that my lounge can take, whilst simultaneously accommodating half a dozen gamers with expanding waistlines
  • Finally, I’ll improve on my woeful record of local gaming, and get some decent games under my belt, at least one every other week
Plenty to be doing, especially the Ptolemaics! 

Saturday, 29 December 2012

Plans for 2013



I thought it might be fun to look ahead and make some plans for 2013.

Next week, my first published magazine article, about basing, comes out in Wargames, Soldiers, Strategy; I'm very much looking forward to that!

The Society of Ancients Battleday on April 13th is an absolute must, as it features the interesting battle of Chalons.  Moreover, I don’t need to paint any miniatures (getting to use Simon MacDowell’s lovely 15s), and hope to play the patrician Aetius.  Moreover, my army will include a bunch of Riders of Rohan lookalikes and an ageing Gothic Prince with a death wish.

The next week, 20th April, is Salute, which I always enjoy!  I don’t currently have a game scheduled, and in any case prefer to wander about and catch up with mates, whilst trying to avoid spending any money (usually unsuccessfully).

My first big battle for 2013 will be the Partizan game, on 2nd June, which I’m organising with Craig Davey.  I’m recruiting a massive Ptolemaic pike phalanx for this, and need to get some nellies and cavalry painted for me, too.  It'll be a game to look out for... I suspect rather more 28mm pikes than have been seen together, previously, on a table.  In fact, if all the pikes were laid out in a line, they would stretch almost 100m.

Finally, in September, I’d like to go to the “Other Partizan”, and run something else, perhaps giving my Romans another outing; an excuse to finish another legion, or two.  Maybe Sulla's Chaeronea, or perhaps Thapsus.

I also hope to fit in a few other trips to shows, as time permits; I would welcome ideas for events not to be missed, and hope to catch up with more of you along the way!

Cheers, Simon

Friday, 28 December 2012

My wargaming year


Firstly, I'd like to hope that all my visitors have had a very happy Xmas!  In the BigRedBatCave, the turkey carcass is now picked almost clean, the pudding eaten, and my thoughts naturally return to gaming (if, indeed, they ever left it!).  Today I'm reminding myself what I did this year, and tomorrow, hopefully, formulating my plans for next year.

I'm a bit of a home lover.  Every time I ever do one of those personality tests at work, they come up saying “under no circumstances should his work ever involve travel”.  Despite this, one of my unwritten objectives for 2012 was to get around the country a bit more, and I’ve managed three wargaming trips to the "lead belt", and one to Suffolk.


On the first trip in March I visited Roger, and played an excellent game of Borodino (above), the only big Napoleonic wargame I’ve ever experienced.  I painted a lot of figures for this, which have sadly not been used since.  I’ve also failed to complete my planned cavalry brigade, largely due to not having any imminent plans for using in anger, and my napoleonic blog has been "resting".

In May I visited Salute.  I wasn't running a game, so had more time than usual to wander around, and catch up with old friends.  My favourite game was the Victrix 54mm Napoleonic bash, shown below, but, as ever, there were some lovely display games there.



May also marked my first visit (hopefully of very many) to Partizan, where I very much enjoyed re-fighting Heraclea (above) with Craig and The Aventines.  Fantastic armies!  I had so much fun, I went North for a second time in September, to re fight the battle of Ad Castores, using Dr Phil’s new Augustus to Aurelian rules, my Early Imperial Roman army and a great deal of simulated Italian vegetation.  Finally, in November, I visited Simon “Comitatus” MacDowell in his Suffolk fastness, and played a very enjoyable game of the Battle of Chalons, using his beautiful 15mm collection (below).  

 
Life on the home front has been somewhat difficult, with the sad loss of my father-in-law, with associated inquest, probate, will, house sale, flat purchase and move for my mother-in-law.  This, amongst other challenges, have badly disrupted my local gaming activities and consequently I’ve played fewer games this year than in any recent year.  I’ll need to sort that, in 2013.

On the plus side, I have managed a fair bit of painting, repainting and basing.  I completed 28 units, the majority of 24 infantry; perhaps 450 miniatures in total.  Altogether this is rather fewer miniatures than I had hoped, but they were mostly of excellent quality (the Goths, below, are a particular favourite of mine).  


In terms of my modelling objectives I partially achieved 2, completing most of my Napoleonic French cavalry Brigade, and most of what I planned for my Early Imperial Romans 60/60/60 project; now only short 150 legionaries.  I’ll need to revisit the Romans, at least, in the summer.  I completely failed to paint anything for Runequest, my third objective.  Despite the work, the lead mountain grew by an alarming 661 unpainted metal miniatures, and now boasts a substantial plastic foothill.  I also sold off my old Viking army which raised funds to offset some of my all-too-numerous eBay and other hobby purchases, and made a little space for my recent painting.

Tomorrow; looking ahead to 2013!