Thursday, 21 March 2013

More Agemata, and Bathroom WIP


I've been plugging away with the Agemata; the whole unit is now on the painting table.  These Foundry minis are such a delight to paint, and are coming on very quickly!  The current batch (front) need another 3 or 4 sessions, so I should be able to start basing in around a week's time.  I really want to paint their plumes red, right now, but am saving them to last because there is a danger that the red will come off in handling, leaving white windows.  

I've also been working on the rules and Raphia army lists in the background... 

On the domestic front we have been getting our bathroom rebuilt.  Unfortunately this has revealed problems with our old house, and the entire interior wall of the room has been demolished (below), so we now have a unique and interesting open-plan bathroom.  The disruption means no gaming for a week or so.  A plus, though, is that I will have additional wargaming storage built in when it is all put back together, and there should be space for some 5' terrain boards, which I've long coveted.


Friday, 15 March 2013

Polemarch Agema


... a quick WIP shot of the Polemarch Agema, that I converted earlier, by adding huge crests.  They now waiting for inking, Klear, matt varnish and highlights on the metallics.  And for me to paint another 21 mates, to join them...

Tuesday, 12 March 2013

Peltastoi WIP


I finished painting the above peltastoi.  They are now in a holding pattern, waiting for their agemata colleagues, with whom they will be brigaded, to be painted.

Saturday, 9 March 2013

Primed guards

A brief footnote to yesterday's post; the weather is finally good enough, for priming!  Here are the agema, showing how well the Polemarchs, with their enlarged crests (left) match the equivalent Foundry figures (right, with shields).


Friday, 8 March 2013

Starting the guards


Above, I've mostly the figures that will be the peltasts for my guard phalanx, and below are some Polemarch figures who I've lightly converted, and who will join some similar-looking Foundry Successors to form the agemata.  Chap on the front right, is a Foundry Perseus; note the winged sandals!

Monday, 4 March 2013

Soldat Lagide


I received this book by Stephane Thion, on the various Egyptian Macedonian armies, in the post at the weekend.  Stephane is a French author and gamer, with whom I've occasionally corresponded; he seems like a very nice chap.  The book has 64 pages and is and packed with simple but beautiful colour reconstructions of Ptolemaic uniforms, from the founding of the kingdom to the arrival of Caesar.  Many of these illustrations are taken from grave stelae (handily naming the deceased under each drawing), and others are hypothetical.  I found the colours very useful, in particular there's one chart showing the colours from the grave stelae, all together.

Everything is there, from the agema, through the phalanx, to the exotic Galatians and Sudanese.  There are even some cavalrymen with horses and riders fully covered in textile armour... which I recall described in an old Slingshot.

There is a good deal of text, in French.  My reading French is poor and it will take me quite a while to work through this, but I'd recommend the book on the strength of the colour illustrations, alone. They are beautiful, and so very useful to a gamer/painter.  I bought my copy on Amazon.

Wednesday, 27 February 2013

After the battle


We played another game between Caesarians and Pompeians, tonight, using the rules I'm developing (with lots of help from friends).  These shots are of the devastated battlefield at the end of what turned out to be a particularly bloody battle (especially for the Pompeians!).  The game lasted about two and a half hours, and the mechanics worked very nicely, although the elephants were a little pedestrian and need to be "sexed up", somewhat.  Of particular note is the iPad; this was the first time I've ever run a game from one, and I must say it worked very well, indeed.  Also of note are the two empty wine bottles, which lubricated proceedings.  A jolly session!