Monday, 1 April 2013

A change of scale...

I've been painting 28mm pikemen for my Raphia project, continuously for the last four months, and have rather reached the end of my tether.  In fact the whole 28mm thing is starting to pee me off: I've at least 4000 unpainted, most of whom will never get painted, the whole house is full of lead, and I've been fighting a rearguard action for space with the family for the past decade.

I have plan "B" in mind; sell all my 28's and shift to 2mm, instead.   

Here's my Alexandrian 2mm army, all from Irregular Miniatures.  


On the left (below) are the Companions, in 8 squadrons, including the larger Royal squadron with the man himself, screened by Agrianes.


In the centre of the army, the Pezhetairoi (below).  Each of the 12 blocks has 240 pikemen in it, giving a much better impression of mass, than 28mm do.


On the right, the Thessalians, and Prodromoi.


Here are some pike blocks I've modeled as deeper formations of less well drilled Machimoi, for Raphia.


Fianlly, below, the elephant and Cretan skirmisher screen.


The entire 2mm army fits into a large matchbox, unlike my 28mm collection, which would fit into a shipping container, (just about!).   

So there we have it, plan "B"...

Sunday, 31 March 2013

Nelliphants II

These will be the "tanks" of my Ptolemaic army,  Unfortunately, as they are relatively small and skittish African Forest elephants, they are fated to be M13/40's to the Seleucid's Matildas.


These are Africans from the excellent Aventine range.  I'm falling behind in my painting plan, so will need to work out a way of painting these VERY quickly... luckily they are relatively simple models.

Friday, 29 March 2013

Elephant Brigade

I've recruited 5 African elephants from Aventine into my Ptolemaic army, to represent the nellies at Raphia.


These are lovely models, with 2 head variants, and two bodies.  The howdahs look particularly convincing, and depict rawhide stretched over a wooden frame.  My only slight reservation about them, is that they feel just a bit on the large side for how I picture an African Forest Elephant.  Still, though, they are noticeably smaller than the Indians Craig will bring.  Some are temporarily propped on Irregular Miniatures 2mm Pike phalanx.

There was next to no flash or vents, and it took me four sessions to assemble them.  

Here's one from behind.  The tail is a separate piece, and plugs up into the elephant's posterior.  This assembly process very much reminded me of an episode of "EuroTrash", I saw years ago, which featured a "Pony Club"....   The most challenging element of assembly was fitting the small bell under each elephant's neck.  I'll paint the pachyderms, and I'm hoping that Nick will paint the 15 crew.

Tuesday, 26 March 2013

A new BatCave

Our bathroom still looks like Stalingrad, on a bad day.  However, out of the ashes, like a phoenix, is rising the carcass of a new wargaming storage cupboard.  This will be plastered, painted, shelved and illuminated.  It's about 8' tall, by 26" square.

This will hold my gaming boards (including a new, deeper size intended to permit cavalry and tank maneuvers) and will take the surplus boxes of minis that no longer fit inside my War Cabinet.  I reckon there will be room for a couple thousand more minis, which should keep me out of trouble with Mrs Bat, for 3 years, or so... after that, god knows what I'll do. 

Monday, 25 March 2013

Final Agemata WIP


A titanic effort this weekend, has seen the Agemata Basilikoi (Royal vanguard) completed and stuck to their bases, ready for gunking.  They will be brigaded with the Peltastoi (in red, on the left), to form a single unit, on the left of the Ptolemaic phalanx.  Figures are mostly Foundry, but there are a dozen converted Polemarchs amongst the Agemata.

I can happily report that I now have more than half of the phalanx units painted and on bases  (1.2m out of the required 2.2m); it's all downhill from here!

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.