Tuesday, 19 February 2019

Larger laager


Not the best photo, but this is finished. This gives me four foot of wagon laager for my Salute Mancetter battle. I'd like eight foot, but four will have to do for now! You can see the rest of the laager, which was painted in 2015, here.

Sunday, 17 February 2019

Celtathon IV


I've made good headway this week with the Mancetter 61 CE project, for Salute. I now have 70% of the required minis on the new-style bases. The main outstanding requirement is for three more trays-worth of the warbands (above, front). I have 2/3 of the 310 required minis painted and Shaun McTague is plugging his way through the remainder. The image above doesn't show the chariots or the wagon laager, which are largely complete. I think I am broadly on-target- although there's a heck of a lot of grouting and flocking to come! There should be rather more than 800 Celts by the time I am finished, 12' of warbands and 12' of light troops.

Below is a shot of an earlier incarnation of the Celtic army, with their Roman opponents in the distance.


I'll be running the large Mancetter "To the Strongest!" participation game at Salute. If you'd like to play in one of the two 2-hour sessions, please email me at the address (above, left) and I'll book you in.

Wednesday, 13 February 2019

Celtathon III


Last night I decided to make a start on the main basing effort for Salute- the warbands. Here are the first six. These first units will be relatively quick wins because I'm re-basing my existing Celts onto larger bases- each unit will eventually have c.24 minis on the front base, and c.12 on the rear base- I've not yet put the rear rank miniatures on the base. The bases are from my 20cm set, the TtS!20F and the smaller TtS!20G that fits behind it. Since each unit will be on only two bases, they will be quick to deploy and easy to move.

The process is to slice the top layer off my current cardboard bases, carefully, with a sharp craft knife, and then stick this layer (grout and flock intact) onto the prepared bases (chamferred edges, with fitted magnets and primed).

Next I'll fill in the rear ranks and get another three units on bases. After this, the task becomes harder as I still have minis that need finishing and they are all singles. I hope that I will have enough minis to build 17 units, altogether- around 11' of frothing warriors!

Tuesday, 12 February 2019

Laager extension


I wanted to add a short extension to my Celtic laager, which will be the backdrop for the Britons in my Mancetter Salute game, bringing it to 4' wide. The wagons are from Irregular and, I think, Redoubt. The minis are from various sources painted by both Shauns with others from eBay. It'll look great when based!


Thursday, 7 February 2019

Celtathon II


I've mentioned that I'm building a huge British army for Salute. Here are the light troops, part-based - the Britons will advance up the hill, screened by a mass of raw slingers. The 45 slingers on the left have been re-based onto my BatBases for the 20cm grid, but need extra grout and flock. Last night I found myself musing that I'm re-basing some of these minis for the third time. :-/ The 45 to the right are new minis, based and recently grouted with my patent BigRedBatGunk. 

Below are the light cavalry. Eight newly-painted minis have joined 12 veterans to form two units of ten. These will be in the game but may not see much action, since the Roman wings are screened by forests. Still, they look good! :-)


Of the rest of the army, I now have roughly 530 warriors painted, with 90 more out with Shaun McTague. I'll need to get my skates on to finish, in time!

If you are coming to Salute and would like to play in the game in one of the two sessions (AM/PM), please drop me an email (the address is on the left of the page). If you are able to help me run it, please mail me- I have a couple of spare entry tickets!

Wednesday, 30 January 2019

Condotta rearguard


There's a mandatory unit of spearmen on the Condotta list, and I've managed (with Shaun McTague's help, and some minis from Richard Hampson-Smith) to field a unit that to replace the pikemen that were originally going to proxy for it.

Unfortunately Perry don't do an Italian spearman, so I have had to cut down pikes and use pavises in place of shields, but they do the job. The colours are Venetian. Again the flag is from Pete's Flags, on eBay.

These will be raw spearmen and, at Chalgrove, I do not expect very much of them! I might leave them to guard the camp. I need to get started on flocking...

Friday, 18 January 2019

Italian Condotta


Here are my Italian Condotta for Chalgrove. Last night I grouted the bases, and now just need to flock and tuft them. I am tempted to replace the pikemen with some spearmen that Shaun McT is painting, and add some tents for a camp, but other than that they are mostly done, which is just as well since I'm a little behind with my Salute preparations! The bases are currently raw umber which seems like an appropriate base colour. :-)

These are on FK&P5 and FK&P6 bases; I really like these because they are a good fit for both 15cm (2 bases)  and 20cm (3 bases) grids.