Sunday, 21 July 2013

Shipbuilding

Last night I water-lined the Nina model and began to tinker with it, to give it an appearance closer to that of a small Roman trade ship.


So far, this has involved removing the rudder and replacing part of the stern, and adding a curving stern post.  I increased the size of the hold-openings as the kit is 1/100 scale and my minis, 1/48.


Later I'll add masts, steering oars, an awning and deck clutter which will help it to feel more in-scale.

Curiously, I have seen illustrations of Roman ships that aren't a million miles off this.  I think it'll pass... might even be OK for the Rhine.  Which gives me another idea for what I could use this for...

Friday, 19 July 2013

Ice Cold in Alexandra Palace

Last night, inspired by the sweltering heat in these parts, we played a Western Desert game with my venerable army of microtanks, and my adapted Memoir '44 rules.


Above the British "defenders" dig in on what passes for terrain.  Below, the German anti-tank screen moves forward.


The British so-called "defenders" attacked from the outset, and eventually left much of the Afrika Corps burning in the desert!  This was down to a combination of superb cards and inspired play; one air attack, alone, took out most of an artillery regiment and also a battery of 88's.

In place of Heineken, we drank a chilled Italian wine.

Thursday, 18 July 2013

A ship!

This arrived in the post today...  I'm not really a kit builder, nor much interested in the renaissance, and am strictly 28mm.  But I do have a cunning plan.  :-)


Wednesday, 17 July 2013

A third legion for Caesar...


Here are the first 6 cohorts of my latest, third, Caesarian legion.  All photos are clickable...


Around a third were painted by Nick Speller, a third by myself and the remaining third are eBay repaints.  It doesn't show in the photos, but the shields, tunics and plumes are in a variety of different shades of red.  

The miniatures are mostly Foundry and Companion, a mix of armoured and unarmoured, but I've also included a few Warlord Games casualty figures (on recommendation from Andres), which blend in very well.  May need some more Warlords...  I think the legate may be a Classical miniature, which were (for about 24 hours) available via Aventine.

I've gone for a slightly different approach on basing.  All the legionaries are in 8's on 60 x 50 bases, to save time deploying and moving them.  The deeper bases also help to protect the relatively fragile spears.

If you want to see them in action, they will be in action at Partizan, Colours and SELWG...

Thursday, 11 July 2013

Look, no dice!

Shots of Tuesday night's game.  New cohorts received a baptism of fire.


With help from friends I'm play-testing a "lite" version of my "To the Strongest!" rules, with this version driven by cards rather than dice.  They rattle along very nicely.... at 5- 10 minutes a turn. 

Tuesday, 9 July 2013

Too much painting...

...not enough blogging.  Unfortunately, there are times one just has to get the bit between one's teeth and plough on to complete a project; this is one of those times!


These are the remainder of the painted Caesarians I had, plus two dozen I painted myself.  Together with the ones I completed earlier, they give me six cohorts and command; the core of a third legion.  Later, I'll add another four.  

Tonight we'll be trying the "lite" version of my rules in a Roman on Roman bash, based on the Thapsus battle that I'll be taking around the shows in the autumn.

Tuesday, 2 July 2013

One door closes...


4 cohorts down, bar flocking.  So now, unfortunately, I have to start the next lot (below).  :-(  I don't mind painting the legionaries, but the signifers and cornicens are a pain.


On the plus side, when these are all finished, I'll have 28 cohorts and will be a gnat's whisker away from 3 legions-worth at 1:20.