Tuesday, 8 October 2013

The other Numidians...

The remaining 2 units of Numidian warband.  No elephants were harmed during the basing of these units.


During Caesar's African campaign, Numidian infantry were numerous, if not particularly effective.  I tend to mix them in with my Numidian skirmishers for games with my "To the Strongest!" rules.  


The figures are a mix of Foundry (Greek and Numidian), Companion and Crusader, I painted around half of them, and finished others from eBay and that I bought from Stephen Hales.  

I have lots more of these unpainted in the loft, and will return to this army again.  BTW, if anyone has any spare Companion imitation legionaries, I'm after some.  Juba apparently had 4 legions-worth, which would be around 190 minis in the scale I'm doing, and so far I only have 40.

Monday, 7 October 2013

Poor dead nellie


I've finished a few more Numidian units, which I'll post during the course of this week.  To make these (clickable) skirmishers a little different to the previous four units, I have deployed one of my Aventine dead nellies.

Friday, 4 October 2013

A few Romans more

I've been trying to match Andres's style of painting and finish a Roman unit that he mostly painted, some years back.   I'm nowhere near as good, but they look OK from 12" away, and that will have to do.  Andres is sending me shields for them.


I'm also about to complete one further unit of Numidians, and Caesar's personal standard bearer, to go with Andres' Caesar model.

A huge thanks to Caliban Paul for sending me a rare Companion Roman Command pack last week!

Monday, 30 September 2013

More crewmen and a captain


Nick also painted these archers for me, which I've just finished basing. Please do have a click, they came out very well! They will form the crew of my ships, along with their rather intense captain (below), who was painted some years ago by Andres at Einar Olafson.


Sunday, 29 September 2013

Augustan Marines


These chaps have been recruited from the brush of Nick Speller*, and will be part of the marine contingent for my Roman boats.  They are based on an image in the Osprey Roman Marine book, and may well be Greeks, as the Romans recruited heavily into their navy from Greece and Egypt.


The figures are Foundry Thebans, equipped with Roman auxiliary shields, and with metal armour painted as leather.  Steve from LBMS very kindly resized the transfers for me.

I only rarely base minis singly, but elements just aren't going to work, shipboard.  I am half tempted to work up some sort of Roman naval skirmish game.  Later, I will need to make a sabot for these, in case they get should get their land-legs.

*I applied the shields and an ink wash

Monday, 23 September 2013

Numidian reinforcements

My Roman army has recently expanded rather more quickly than that of its Numidian opponents, so I have decided to add a few more units before the final Thapsus game at SELWG.  Here they are, part based.  A few more cavalry and lights will follow.


I painted somewhat more than half of these, with others from eBay and a few more possibly painted by Redzed.  Tonight I'll get some grout on those bases. I am also delighted to have recently sourced a small but rare unpainted Companion Miniatures Numidian army from mate "Happy", that should add lustre to Juba's hopes of an African Empire.

In other news, Aaron has recently had a crack at the ancient rule-set called "To the Strongest!" that I am developing, and wrote a very enjoyable account of the battle.  If anyone would like to try them, please pop me an email at the addess on the front of my blog.  

Wednesday, 18 September 2013

Society of Ancients

At Colours, I ran into the Society of Ancients stand, again.  The SOA (particularly Phil Steele) work tirelessly to publicise the ancient end of the wargames hobby.  Here's a shot of the portable Bosworth demo game they were running at Colours.  I would commend you to join, if not already a member, as there's often something of interest in Slingshot.  Not to mention, on a more mercenary note, the discounts that they have arranged with various figure manufacturers and other organisations... 


Phil showed me some of the lovely old Tony Bath flats that Phil Barker has passed to him, and which he is restoring, but I sadly forgot to photograph them.   He also kindly introduced me to John Curry, who is running The History of Wargaming Project, which is about creating an archive of wargaming records, books and other materials.  Something to think about in the future...