Miniature Minions

Han Dynasty and Warring States Chinese

2011-12-30T09:08:00.000-08:00

The impetus for building this army came from a purchase of a fantasy Chinese army which I realized could serve as the core of a historical force as well. Some of these are the only painted miniatures I have ever purchased, and the painter had a style similar to my own, but really lavished attention on them so I just couldn't resist.

This camp was made utilizing one of the two dragons that came with the painted army. The trees are a model railroading product called sea moss, and the lions are part of an aquarium decoration.

Here are two other fantasy elements, a magician and a hero. The magician stand came with the fantasy army, but the hero was my own addition. There is also another dragon like the one in the camp scene, only painted primarily red.

The camp scene above is for the historic DBA warring States or Han Dynasty army. The rice paddy was made by using long grass and another railroad product called scenic water. I had several water products to choose from, but I think my favorite turned out to be one made by Vallejo paints.

I had intended to create more rice shoots, but the process was so tedious I decided to pretend the field had not been completely planted yet.

Han Dynasty General by Essex. I was very pleased with how this element came out, and particularly liked the gold silk robe of the general.

Here's a better view of the riders in the chariot.

The light horse. Most of these were my additions, but two in the back row came with the original army. The Han Dynasty army has two options, one that is a mixed force and one that is primarily mounted, hence all the additional light horse and cavalry elements.

A Total of five cavalry elements were needed as an addition to make all of the necessary cavalry.

These marvelously painted chariots came with the original army. Bless the gentleman who did all the work on the diamond pattern horse blankets!

The Dagger axe men will play as spears.

A few of the warring States period armies call for warband. These are supposed to be fanatic swordsmen for the most part with the job of collecting trophy heads.

Crossbowmen formed the backbone of a lot of chinese armies. Two of these came with the painted army, but I had to add a couple more to cover all of the historic DBA options.

Last of all are a 3 blade stand and some psiloi. I never could figure out the code for the Essex halbard men. I believe large Halbards like these were used, but most heavy infantry relied on the dagger axe.

More Romans arrive

2011-12-30T08:17:00.001-08:00

I recently sold an army of Romans and Pyhric Macedonians but had enough left over that I wanted to finish up an army for myself, so here they are. Above are the Velites which are by Crusader Miniatures I believe. The one in the wolf's head may be a Navigator miniature but I am far from sure on that one.

Here we have the Italian ally spear and Auxillia, probably Samnites. The miniatures are by Old Glory.

The Roman cavalry general on the right and the Itallian ally cavalry on the left, all by Old Glory.

These are the Triari, the grisseled veterans of the Roman army and are painted after an illustration in the John Warry book on classical warfare that caught my eye back when I first started this hobby some thirty years ago. The shields are hand painted and then splattered by using a toothbrush rubbed with paint.

They are a frightening looking lot!

In contrast to the Triari, here are the Hastati, the young men, armed with pila and sword which were just making their appearance at this time.

Once again the shields are all hand painted and modeled after a design in the John Warry book.

Finally we have the Principes, still armed with spear at this point, but still tough as nails.

Early Roman and Italian Allies

2011-10-02T09:24:00.001-07:00

SOLD!
The core of this army has sold but I may be able to offer one more Camillan army as well as a Gallic army in the near future so keep you eyes open for them.

Italian javelin men take the lead with spear and Tarentine light cavalry in support. These figures were originally intended to be part of a Pyrhic DBA army, but could work just as well as Campainian or Brutian allies for the early Romans as they began to expand their empire.

The Italians were lots of fun because of the variety of shield shapes and designs that they used. Their tunics were also nice and colorful with lots of geometric patterns.

A view of the entire army from the Snoopy blimp. All in all 3 elements of Italian javelinmen, 4 elements of Italian spear, 2 heavy Italian cavalry with some funky counterweighted spears, 3 elements of Tarentine light cavalry, 6 elements of Roman Leves or Velites, 3 elements of Hastati, 9 elements of Principes or triari, and 3 elements of heavy Roman cavalry.

A view of the Roman heavy Cavalry

The main Roman body; to the front, the Hastati, in the middle and rear, the Principes and Triari, all mud splattered veterans ready for battle. They really are a grim looking lot!

A better view of the Principes.

The light infantry support. I believe these are crusader miniatures, which are quite excellent.

A close-up of the grim Roman cavalry veterans with their shields stained with the blood of their enemies and the mud of the territory they have conquered.

My original intent was to sell these as two DBA armies, but after seeing them all together like this I am having second thoughts. Nevertheless if interested in acquiring these please contact David.l.Crenshaw@gmail.com

HotT Stronghold for 25mm Elves

2011-09-30T08:57:00.000-07:00

Statues guarding the entrance to the elven forest stronghold. The statues are old Ral Partha castings also done by Tom Meier I believe. The pedestals are made from wood blocks and plastic card.

The path leading into the forest. The miniatures are by Thunderbolt Mountain.

Love under the trees.

All in all a fun diorama to build. Now it's time to start in on the Orc stronghold featuring the Ral Partha orc war machine complete with dragon skull. Should make for quite a contrast.

HotT Narnian additional elements

2011-09-30T08:40:00.000-07:00

New Narnian Elements

I have had most of these around for a while, but I just finished the Dryads and crows, which inspired me to finally photograph the rest of these fantastical critters.

Above is a Ral Partha Hill Troll which, though a 25mm figures, double perfectly as a giant for my Narnians.

This is another Ral Partha 25mm casting, a bit large perhaps, but for a hero element being a bit on the large size seems appropriate. I stole this miniature from my daughter, but she didn't seem to mind.

I added a couple of new beast elements and this one includes a Splintered Light mouse which is meant to represent Reepicheep, though I must admit I liked the swashbuckling interpretation in the movies a bit better.

This is another great miniature by Splintered Light. A real pain to put together, but worth the effort!

The murder of crows takes flight. I will play this as an aerial element.

These are one of my all time favorite sculpts and once again come from Splintered Light Miniatures. I will play these dryads as either beasts or behemoths, or even possibly lurkers. The folliage is an addition made with spray painted fiber floss material with turf and scale leaves glued to the fibers.

The big man himself, Aslan. I don't like playing with God elements so I usually use him as a hero or hero general.

Thunderbolt Mountain Elves

2011-09-08T07:17:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of my latest project underway. These are Thunderbolt Mountain Miniatures which will be used in a stronghold for my 25mm Elf army.

Pict HotT Elements

2011-06-06T06:17:00.001-07:00

For the HotT iteration of the Picts, I decided morphing psiloi into shooters would be appropriate, and to tie them in to the theme of the historical army, I have based them in a similar style with streams and rocky ground.

Additional elements of Warband just to give the army a touch of that fanatic zeal of the Picts.

This is an old camp that I revamped for the Picts. I had intended to make a Brooch camp, but maybe at a later date.

The hero element. He was the only one in the army well travelled enough to get a full sized non shaggy horse.

Hunting dogs will play as a beast element.

A Grendel type monster for a Behemoth. Thanks to Terry Webb for this figure. Hope he doesn't tromp on all the flowers, or eat them!

This is my favorite element. A splintered light Dryad is the focus of the efforts of three druids as they call upon her power to cast a spell. The Dryad is a marvelous casting which I flocked with fiber floss to give a base for some coarse ground cover and leaves. The leaves are a Noch model railroading product.

Of course being a hero, he demands extra face time, so here is one more picture.

DBA Picts 400-600 AD

2011-05-05T07:28:00.000-07:00

Well here they are at last - the Picts! I "pict" these up last year at Nashcon and it has taken me almost precisely one year to get them on the painting table and finished thanks to a host of distraction both in my real life and on the painting table.

The whole army arrayed. It can be played as both the a or b option and will soon include elements to make it morph into a HotT army as well.

These elements were the most fun to make. I figured the lush but rugged landscape of scotland would have lots of streams and exposed rocks. I even threw in some flowers for color.

The spear general and the only figures in mail other than the Chariot and Cavalry Generals.

Some of the spear and slingers. The slingers may be Testudo figures, but all of the rest are from Splintered Light Miniatures, with the possible exception of the trumpeter.

The head man himself complete with shaggy ponies. It has to be said that the mounted units look a bit odd, but I think may actually be quite accurate, as they did ride ponies, not the full sized horses we are used to seeing depicted.

Dixon ACW 25mm Pennsylvania Bucktails

2011-04-16T19:51:00.000-07:00

I recently put up several lots of Dixon and Perry miniatures fro sale. I really couldn't decide which line I liked best. The Perry line has great realism and nice proportions, but I'm not a big fan of the plastics. Dixon on the other hand, have really big heads, but they are so full of character and really "read" well on the table. The Perry figures sold, so I let others make the decision for me and I am really quite grateful, as I think for me the Dixons were the way to go. I just like the look and feel of the heavier metal figures.

I have mounted these on pennies and played my first game of Brother vs Brother yesterday. It was a fun beer and pretzels type game that should work well on a large table with mixed forces. My first game was a learning game on a small board, which really did away with any benefit for having artillery.

In brother vs Brother each unit has ten figures and represents a typical squad of twenty actual soldiers. Here I have two squads and one lieutenant as well as a couple of casualty figures for dramatic effect.

Above is a unit of Berdan's sharp shooters. In brother vs Brother there is no provision for snipers or long shots, so we just played these as having breech-loaders, which means they get to fire every turn instead of every other turn for the normal rifled muskets.

The whole unit of ten. Since they were often used in company sized packets supporting larger units, I really need to get busy and paint some more infantry for these guys to support.

Indomitable Spirit

2011-02-19T13:14:00.000-08:00

I have a fairly big testing coming up in Taekwondo, and it is traditional to give a gift to the master instructor on such an occasion. I have constructed a diorama depicting a Korean cavalryman opposing the invaders of Japan. A favorite saying of my instructor is Indomitable Spirit, so I have constructed this diorama to reflect that. She tries to impart in us that same spirit of never giving up, something I may have to call on next weekend as it is an all day testing!

The Miniatures are 25mm from the Perry Chosen Korean and Age of Wars Samurai ranges.

You just have to love the flail! I don't care if I did outnumber my opponent 6-1, If I saw that flail coming at me I'm not sure I would show Indomitable Spirit. I might be more likely to show my back side. As Monty Python would say: "Run away!"

Wish me luck - David

Venetian Italian Condottieri DBA Army Finished!

2011-01-23T09:32:00.000-08:00

After six months of feverishly slaving away (well, not really so much), the Venetians are finally done and scheduled to meet their nemesis, the Milanese cowards, next weekend. The camp element above is made from a Bauda tent and Ral Partha musicians. The horn blower on the extreme left is taken from a period painting and the poor fellow is apparently wearing some sort of fabric cow's head facsimile, horns and all. The Milanese general has already started a long series of cow jokes which the Venetians may never live down.

Blimb view of the camp with plenty of room left for a combat element to occupy if necessary. The mud is modeled with wood putty and the grass is N-scale railroad ballast painted and highlighted. I hated to tuck a figure inside the tent, as he had a nice paint job which is hard to appreciate with him being inside, but I wanted to block the view into the tent so it would not appear empty.

I modeled another element of Artillery for the Venetians to more accurately represent the financial austerity of Venice. They were one of the few, if only, principality to not go in for the extra expense of fancy decorations on their canon.

A closeup of the figure on the left reveals him for what he originally was; one of the troop of musicians. I cut away the drum he was originally holding and turned his drumstick into a slow match holder with the addition of a bit of thin wire.

Venice only gets one element of knights, favoring stradiots and mounted arqubusiers instead, but here are the heavies.

The big feather wearing cheese himself in his blackened armor with gold embellishments.

I believe the figure of the general may be Essex or some other manufacturer, but he had a head transplant from a Ral Partha fugure.

The army arrayed.
1 x General
1x 3Knight
3x2Light Horse
2x2Artillery
2 x4Pike
2x4Shot
2x3Blade
2x4Crossbow
1x2Psiloi

The fearsome view the poor Milanese will have of the approaching Venetians.

Miniatures Garage Sale

2011-01-16T08:35:00.000-08:00

25mm figures for casualty/disruption markers

FEUDAL CASUALTY FIGURES

Casualty figures. I have a bunch of the infantry casualties left but the horses have all sold . The infantry casualties are .50ea. Just let me know how many you want and I will check my supply.

Lord of the Rings Risk Trilogy edition $20

Ral Partha African safari animals $5.00 - I will ship these in a small padded envelope for $2 in the US.

Squad leader crescendo of doom with tray cases. $20.00

If you are interested in any of the above items, please contact me at David.L.Crenshaw@gmail.com. All postage will be mailed in priority mail small flat rate boxes @ $5 when appropriate, otherwise at cost of shipping. Insurance added at the buyer's discretion.

More Spanish Terrain Pieces

2010-11-21T09:30:00.000-08:00

Spanish Farm House for DBN

2010-11-14T12:32:00.000-08:00

I decided it was high time I gave the 95th rifles a Spanish farm to defend. This is several hovels pieces put together to make a BUA/Fortress for DBN.

Here you can see the courtyard with ample space for an element of infantry to defend the town. The tree is made with a German railroad modelling product call sea moss. I simply sprayed it woth adhesive and sprinkled on some turf flock and voila, instant tree. The final product is flexible so I don't know how much handling it can take, though hopefully having it as part of a larger terrain feature will help protect it from breaking.

The exposed brickwork was painted by using a thin white wash which collected in the textured brick and gave the appearance of mortar. I had to be careful not to get the black wash I used for the stucco in the brick work, but I thought the end result was quite good, and more importantly was quite simple.

Looks like a nice place to live, bigger than my house at any rate.

ACW and AWI Distractions

2010-10-29T18:11:00.000-07:00

I decided to get my desk cleared off and so have been taking care of some older projects before continuing with the Renaissance Venetians. First up are some Perry 25mm plastic Union Infantry. I was a bit disappointed at first with these, as they are a bit chunkier than I have come to expect from the Perrys, and the detail is not as crisp as I would like. With that said however, I thought they painted up quite well and more importantly, the final product has made me excited to try some more. Now I just need to find a good set of skirmish rules....

To facilitate a more uniform look for the federal troops I only chose figures with the sack coat (at least I think that is what these are called). This was my first foray into the ACW period so I was on a steep learning curve to try and get the uniforms correct. I did some custom cutting as well to maximize the number of troops I could get from the box in a firing line position, converting marching pose to holding a rifle horizontally like the figure above. The officer in the back is holding a pistol from the cavalry set.

A birds eye view of my first Federal company. I have another on the way with shouldered arms, but they will have to wait for the completion of the Venetians - unless I get impatient!

The firing line from Johnny Rebs point of view.

Next up the American War of Independence in 54mm.

I got sucked into the 54mm scale by a demo game at Nashcon by All the King's Men. Though I would like to have purchased their artillery, I ran out of funds, but found this Imex plastic set on sale at my local hobby shop for $8. They were marketed as Americans, but as the uniform was the same for both countries, I simply painted them as British. Above you can see a gunner stripped to his waist coat in the heat of working the guns. I replaced the plastic rammer with a metal rod which I inserted into the sponge and rammer of the plastic original.

Fortunately the Imex set came with the same proportion of 6 crew to one gun that is used in the All the King's Men rule set.

I thought the sculpts of the plastic figures was actually superior to the metal ones, though mold lines in this Imex set were not well placed, hence many a crewman with a mold line down the middle of his face. I have found plastic mold lines very difficult to shave or file well.

The commander. I did some work on the gun with green stuff to make it look more like a Brown Bess musket. It was originally sculpted with a long barrel without a supporting stock, which looked more like a long cavalry carbine. Maybe the sculptor knew AWI weapons better than I, but I could find nothing for the period that looked like it, so I changed it.

Here he is in all of his distinguished commanderly glory. The scabard of his sword was replaced with flattened floral wire which ended up working quite well.

Venetian Culverin

2010-10-07T14:19:00.000-07:00

Just finished basing the artillery element for a DBA - RRR or DBA - Hx Venetian army. The Culverin and accessories are by TAG, the crew are customized Ral Partha, and the Gabions were provided by Barry Scarlett of Murray Terrain.

This element is an odd assortment of scales, but they all seem to work with each other. The Ral Partha figures are true 25mm figures. The barrel of the canon is 50mm long which scales to about 11-12 feet in length, making it a large culverin, but by no means the largest that were used in the Renaissance period. The gun is designed for use with 28mm figures, but as artillery in this period was so variable it works quite well. The gabions are really meant for 15 - 20mm figures, but in comparison to the Ral Partha figures they end up scaling out to about 3 feet high, which though not as large as some, seems a reasonable height for gabions on top of a sloping earthwork.

Thanks To The Assault Group!

2010-10-03T09:25:00.001-07:00

The Assault Group was nice enough to let me have this marvelous Ottoman Renaissance canon in exchange for a painted sample. This is a truly marvelous piece and I can't wait to show you all the final element. The crew are almost done and I will be mounting it behind some gabions and earthworks, so it should make for an eye catching element.

Thanks again to Pete and the folks at TAG!

More 25mm Ral Partha Condotierri

2010-09-19T07:43:00.001-07:00

Above are two elements of pikemen in 3/4 plate. These were simple to paint and a nice break from the more complex slashed sleeves of the crossbow and blade elements. The DBA-Hx rules allow for two pike elements, but the DBR lists only allow pikes for a very brief period, the Venetians relying more on Spanish mercenary sword and buckler men it appears.

A view from the front showing the manly beards of the pikemen.

Probably one of the few home grown units from Venice; the mounted arqubusiers.

Venice was famed for importing stradiots, most notably from Albania. I have seen some nice illustrations of severed heads decorating their saddles, so I suspect they had a fierce reputation. They are listed as light horse, but they functioned in close combat as well, not being afraid to use their long lances.

Venice can have two elements of stradiots. These were some of the few castings my friend Terry did not have in his collection, so I had to order these online. Fortunately the 25mm renaissance line is still being manufactured by Great Endeavors, though they are not advertised as available unless you look really hard! Here's a link:

http://www.greatendeavours.co.uk/colonials/order.php

Crazy for Artillery

2010-09-19T07:00:00.001-07:00

Shown above are some Ral Partha conversions. Unfortunately Tom Meier never got around to sculpting artillery for this line of figures so I have been forced to improvise. The artillery piece below is an absolutely magnificent piece from the Ottoman section of The Assault Group's renaissance line. I agreed to paint this for them in return for the casting so a very generous offer from TAG indeed. I have put on a base coat and will work on making the barrel a nice metallic brass soon. The carriage will be unpainted wood, with the possibility of painted red wheels.

The TAG artillery comes with a great selection of accouterments as well. The powder barrel is particularly nice and corresponds very closely with descriptions I have read. The gun barrel itself is 50mm long, so a very large gun. In the true 25mm size of the figures, that translates into an 11-12 foot long barrel. This is actually well within the size range of renaissance pieces and makes it appropriate for a large culverin.

I am also working on some artillery for my 54mm British AWI. This is a very nice plastic set from Imex, which includes a well designed howitzer. I have replaced some of the fiddly bendy parts with metal and added some green stuff to make the muskets more accurate for British infantry (This was actually marketed as a colonial set, but the uniforms are the same).

54mm American War of Independence figures

2010-08-30T17:32:00.000-07:00

Above are some British 54 mm figures by "All the Kings Men". These are painted as the light company from the tenth line regiment. The red vests are a distinguishing characteristic of the light infantry, as well as the shoulder "wings".

And here they are in close order. I must admit, that as my eyes get worse I have truly enjoyed switching to these nice large figures. I normally paint while wearing reading glasses, but I may have to invest in a better magnification system, as it is getting progressively more difficult for me to see detail on the smaller scales. Some aspects of getting old suck, but so far the good outweighs the bad by a longshot.

The ensign or trumpeter of the set. Epaulets were just coming into fashion, so at this point my understanding is that they did not denote rank. Here I have stuck with a latter tradition of only one epaulet for the junior officers, while the company commander (below) has two.

You have to love all the frilly shirts and tights. It reminds me of a Seinfeld episode...

None of the figure sported any shoulder boards or epaulets, so I sculpted my own. I have seen pictures of line infantry without, though most at least have shoulder boards. I decided the light infantry really should have wings, so I took the time to pull out the green stuff and make some. Time consuming, but in the end well worth it, and it gives me a unique product.

I recently found a copy of Mollos book on uniforms for the AWI, and hence finally got a good look at what Tarletons dragoons most likely looked like. All the versians of the portrait of Banastre Tarleton that I had access too were very dark, and I could not tell if the buttons were silver or gold and what color the turban around the Tarleton was. Thanks to Mollo as a reference I have spruced up my figures with gold buttons, green turbans and in the case of the officers, gold lace. Mollo had them with a green plume, but I just thought that was a little too much, especially for the troopers, so I left all of the plumes black. The little splash of gold does help the figures make a dashing appearance though.

Italian Condottieri - First Look

2010-08-25T06:31:00.000-07:00

Here is a preview of the Venetian condottieri army I am preparing from Ral Partha 25mm figures. The basing style is new for me and based on a friends system. The base itself is a Litko wooden base, over which Elmers wood putty is applied to mask the bases of the figures. That is then painted and Railroad ballast added for the grass, which is then painted as well.

Here are some sword and buckler men converted from crossbow figures.

The shields were typically metal with relief decoration. I tried using various shades of metallics to try and approximate that design with limited success.

Two different styles of dress. Those on the left would be more typical of the Venetians around the turn of the 16th century, with the fancier slashed sleeves being somewhat later style of dress.

The same figures from the front.

The Ral Partha figures are from the early 1980's and sculpted by Tom Meier, and have excellent proportions and detail, so aside from their size, compare most favorably with more recent figure releases. The true 25mm size makes them one of the few ranges that will actually fit well on DBA base sizes recommended for 25mm figures.

Work in Progress

2010-08-08T09:21:00.001-07:00

I don't usually post with work in progress, but I'm trying a few new things this month so thought I would show some pictures of my experiments

I have been working on finding a good way to paint the slashed sleeves common in Italian Condottieri. I have been using very thin washes of white paint which pool in the recesses of the figure and color the undershirt. I paint the overshirt first, so some touch up is usually needed after the white wash to brighten the colors. I have also used the white wash as a base for another darker wash, to brighten it. An example is on the right hand figure with red hose and blue slashed pants. I was afraid a red wash over blue would be too dark, so I painted the blue leggings, then washed first with thin white paint, and later put a thin red wash over that. I was quite pleased with how this technique worked.

Some times the figures require two washes to get enough of a build up of pigment. The left leg of the figure in light blue looks like it could use another pass of a thin white wash.

Nothing all that extraordinary about these crossbows other than showing off a marvelous sculpt for a Venetian army. They have turbans wrapped around their helmets which is fairly common for Venetian soldiers and showed the influence of their trade partnerships with arabic and oriental nations.

Lastly I have a selection of 54mm British American War of Independence figures made by All the Kings Men miniatures. The light infantry are sculpted withoput wings and the officers without epaulets, and I just didn't like that choice, so have taken the time to try and sculpt my own. I won't win any sculpting awards, but all in all I am quite pleased how these turned out and am excited about getting started painting these.

Italian Condotierri and Tarlington's Dragoons

2010-07-29T12:37:00.000-07:00

This month was a bit different from my normal painting endeavors, but I will start with an example of things to come. Above is a modified Ral Partha 25mm Swiss Crossbowman to play the part of an Italian sword and buckler man. I will be working on a Venetian Italian Condotierri army based on DBA-Hx and DBA-RRR made from this wonderful old line of figures. The detail on these is marvelous, and should provide many painting challenges as well as inspirations. The original figure is below.

I was suckered into some 54mm figures at Nashcon (it didn't take much to push me in that direction). These are American War of Independence figures by All the Kings Men. These are my first attempt at 54mm and were a blast to paint. The horses are plastic and proved a bit difficult to work with, especially in terms of removing all of the mold lines, but I did what I could. The original heads provided for the metal riders were a bit small, so I opted to modify some larger heads from the 1812 line and was quite pleased how that endeavor turned out. The cavalry represent Tarleton's Dragoons. Next up are some British light infantry.

Italian Velite Grenadiers

2010-05-23T11:36:00.001-07:00

The Italian Velite Grenadiers are not quite as well documented in terms of uniform detail, but I have tried to paint a unit as it would have appeared around 1808/09. Once again this is a mix of figures that I had lying around without a purpose, so I was glad to be able to find a use for them. The privates are Hinchcliffe miniatures that I stripped and repainted, the command figures are Old Glory I believe. The Velite Grenadiers did not have a flag, but I do believe were given an eagle.

New Napoleonic Elements for DBN

2010-05-11T05:25:00.000-07:00

The King's German Legion 1st Hussars are the last element I needed to complete my light Division for the Peninsular British Army. These are Foundry figures which are just beautifully detailed, indeed a little too detailed. I kept finding more and more little details that were sculpted onto the figure that I realized would need painting to stand out. A good problem to have I guess. The 1st Hussars KGL are represented by a skirmishing cavalry element because of their comparatively small size and the way in which they were used.

I decided to remount my General of Hussars with a trumpeter from the 1st KGL to convert him into a much needed British command element as opposed to an aid de camp that he was mounted as previously. You have to love anyone brave enough to wear yellow boots though!

So I had a great, but busy weekend, part of which was spent finishing up the Italian Guard Grenadiers. I found a great French language site with excellent plates of the Italians which I found to be of enormous value, as my usual sources left a few questions unanswered. The figures are a mix of Foundry (the command and drummer) and older Hinchliffe figures that I stripped and repainted in a painstaking but rewarding process. The figures were all plumeless, so I made new plumes from cut down pipe cleaners which ended up working pretty well. I also had to construct new bayonets for a number of them, but all in all the Hinchliffe figures, though not inspiring by any means, turned out to be fairly decent. Note the corporal at the far right, the French site proved invaluable for details on non-coms as well as the officers and musicians.

The napitalia site lead me to the French language site. Here are the links:

http://napitalia.org.uk/

http://www.histunif.com/italie/itali...ps/ital004.htm

The Generals view of his troops.

The enemies view staring into the glinting bayonets and imposing gaze of the grenadiers. The flag is just a free download from warflag. I didn't even bother painting over it as I thought it looked darn good right out of the inkjet printer. Next stop, the Velite Grenadiers.

Marian Roman Army Completed

2010-04-03T18:42:00.001-07:00

Marian Roman DBA army made from Testudo Miniatures. 1x3Cv (Gen) or 1x4Bl (Gen), 1x3Cv or 2LH or 3Ax, 8x4Bl, 2x2Ps. The Testudo figures are large, but very well sculpted with lots of dynamic poses, and done in a way that they rank up well. The Auxilia stand in the middle are converted psiloi figures meant to represent Gallic allies that have been partially re-equipped in Roman fashion.

The Legions. Testudo figures come with an optional shield either with or without sculpted designs. All of my shields have the winged design sculpted on them, so I was somewhat limited in how I could paint them.

Optional Blade General Stand

The Roman Cavalry general on the right with Gallic allied light horse and cavalry to the left. There really were no Roman cavalry figures available to me, so I converted figures from the command pack.

The camp made with tents from Bauda and more Testudo command figures.

DBA Early Samurai Army Completed

2010-01-01T08:44:00.000-08:00

Here is the whole army arrayed and ready for Battle. These are all 15mm Eureka figures and are meant to represent the army of Minamoto no Yoritomo, who would become the first Shogun of Japan in the late twelfth century and establish the Kamakura Shogunate.

4 bow elements including one that can be played as a general.

3 blade elements that can be played in place of part or all of the bow elements.

The heart of the army is of course the four cavalry elements, of which one can be played as a general.

5 elements of Auxilia make the samurai army a fast moving bad going army, but in an open field they can be a challenge to play. So far I have been lucky enough to win terrain both times I have played. With lots of bad going around they are a tough army, and so far are 2-0.

The 5 auxilia elements consist of two stands of warrior monks, and three of lesser samurai or well armed peasants.

The big cheese himself, watching the battle from afar.

Rohan to the Rescue

2009-12-14T11:31:00.001-08:00

King Theoden of Rohan takes the lead in this stand of knights with Gamling and a royal guardsman close behind.

Erkenbrand, the real hero of Helms Deep. Made conspicuous by his absence in the film, Erkenbrand led a vital contingent of the Rohirrim in a counter attack against the orcs of Isengard. This figure is one of those infuriating GW sets that pairs a nice metal rider with a cheap plastic horse. If you look closely you can see the support pin I had to put into the horse's belly to stabilize the figure.

Now counter attack would be complete without Gandalf to lead the way.

Here are two elements of riders who are the vanguard of a much larger force. I have enough for 1 more element of riders and 6 elements of knights already painted. They are just waiting on the basing.

Erkenbrand on foot with some royal guard, and some aerial support featured below.

Isengard Unleashed

2009-12-14T11:17:00.001-08:00

Here we have some plastic Games Workshop Lord of the Rings (LotR) Uruk Hai. The plastics were fairly easy to base as I just tacked the plastic sprue on which they are resting to the wooden base with super glue, and then built up around it. The banner is a nice little customization of a pike.

Some blade elements and a large troll which will play as a behemoth.

Here is a close up of one blade stand. I tried to give the armor a good crude rusted appearance. On some stands I have mixed in armor that appears newer, as much would have been just produced. Below are the archers. In the pipe are some more crossbow, blades and of course, Saruman

DBA Samurai Camp

2009-12-06T13:33:00.000-08:00

Finished up my camp for the early samurai. Now just a few more elements of bow and blade and they will be ready to go.

Painting contest entry

2009-10-11T09:27:00.000-07:00

This is my entry for the TMP intimidation Doubled painting contest. Unfortunately I was a bit slow in getting it submitted (graduate school and family has a way of changing priorities) so I doubt it will be includded in the contest, so I thought it would be nice to at least show it off here.

My son was kind enough to provide computer assistance and help out with the background for a nice finished look. As for the model itself, I did a bit of snipping and cutting. I rearranged the sword arm to be a bit more aggressive and disguised the joint by adding a little hair. I also draped some more hair over hear chest as she was rather buxom, and I thought she might appreciate a little modesty.

The basing is done with sculptamold paper mache rocks and static grass with a turf under base.

These are just raw images but show the shield side of the figure. The shield came with raised detail, so I was limited in design. I would have much preferred a blank shield and almost filed off the design, but lacked the time and energy to do so.

I'll probably pop her up on eBay, so if anyone is interested in taking this figure home let me know in the comment section. I don't play any RPG games at the moment, so though she was fun to paint, is of little use to me.

Command Elements for Fields of Glory

2009-09-18T18:33:00.000-07:00

While at Nashcon I heard a lot of good things about Fields of Glory (FOG) so I thought I would change some of the basing arrangements of my large big battle DBA Persian and Macedonian armies. The only significant lack I had was command elements, which are separate in FOG, whereas in DBA they are incorporated into a regular element. I found some Foundry packs on clearance at Nashcon, so was able to get many of the extra figures I would need. I also need to finish up a few light Persian troops and some Macedonian pikemen, but hope to have the army ready to go by the summer break. My idea was to be able to play FOG or BBDBA once I get the additional troops done.

I have tried to incorporate mounted and infantry elements in the command stands as this mix of troop types helps to distinguish them on the field. The cavalry commander is an older paint job, done with a fair amount of drybrushing. The infantry are new paint jobs done by using washes and some deliberate highlighting.

Finding appropriate Persian figures has been a real challenge, as most are made for the Xerxes / Marathon period and not for the armies of Darius which fought Alexander. Essex makes the nice commander with the standard. The horseman is from Old Glory and the swordsman is from 1st Corp.

I love this figure on horseback, but every time I pull him out I want to repaint him, but so far I have resisted the temptation to do so.

I rather like the way this element turned out. The horseman in back looks as if he is keeping an eye out for his commander and I just like the dynamic of it.

A view from behind.

Not a great example of photography, but I also put together a few markers with casualty figures for disruption status. I'd love to get some of the Foundry Persian casualties, but at $20+ for five dead folks I think I'm going to have to pass.

Early Samurai DBA Army Under Way at Last

2009-09-02T06:53:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since my last update. I guess Nashcon kind of took it out of me, but I have been slowly painting. Lots of small projects have kept me busy, like re-basing some of my 25mm Persians and Macedonians so that I can give the Fields of Glory rules a try. Grad school is also getting very serious now, and with working a full time job and going to school my time for painting has shrunk dramatically. School didn't keep me from dreaming however and I got a wonderful Eureka Early Samurai army from a fellow Fanatici and have been slowly whittling away at it. This army required much more research than usual, because I just didn't feel comfortable starting until I had a better understanding of the period and more specifically the armor and all of it's intricacies. I used several books on the samurai as a guide, but relied most heavily on the Heiji Scroll, a period illustration of a raid led by Minamoto no Yoshitomo, a relative of Minamoto no Yoritomo, who would eventually become the first Shogun of Japan and establish the Kamakura shogunate. Here is a link to a wonderful interactive website for the scroll: http://www.bowdoin.edu/~ktravers/projects/heijiscroll/viewer.html

Here we have the mounted Samurai. The banner is that of the Minamoto clan, and though I don't know if he had a banner other than the present one, the command stand is meant to represent Minamoto no Yoshitsune, the brother of Yoritomo, and one of the most famous warriors of Japan. There are two very early novels about the period entitled Yoshitsune, and the Tale of the Heike, which details the actions of the Taira clan in their struggle against the Minamoto clan in the late 12th century.

The layering of the Japanese armor is very complex and it took some time before I felt like I had a good grasp of how all the pieces fit together. The breast plate of this period was often covered in white deer hide and intricately designed, as were the turned back cheek protectors of the helmets. The armor was meant to be collapsible and the Japanese name for it means "box armor", because of it's ability to be collapsed and stored in a compact box. It was designed to collapse to accommodate a warrior as he sat on his horse and during this period was primarily an arrow defense, as the samurai still relied most heavily on the bow as their primary weapon.

You have to love the helmets of the samurai commanders. It seems bigger was almost always better. The really tall hat is based on a much later helmet worn by Tokugawa Ieyasu, perhaps the most famous Shogun who established the Tokugawa Shogunate at the turn of the 17th century.

I tried to give the swords a shiny wavy line on the sharpened edge which is so typical of the Japanese blades.

The horses have lots of tassels which I assume served as a protection from arrows as well as decoration. The bridle is slightly different from the western design as their is no strap over the nose connected to the bit. I gave some of the samurai patterned robes, but also a lot of just plain utilitarian robes, or ones with a subtle woven pattern that simply would be too difficult to try and paint at this scale.

You can see here why I love these Eureka figures as the sculpting quality is just marvelous. These are hard to find on their site because for some reason they have been listed under the "Pirates" tab. They are available with Sashimono (back banners), but the samurai are really modelled on the early period. The Ashigaru are perfect for the banners however.

Here is a detail shot of the back. I used a black Micron pen to line the horizontal divisions of the laced armor.

The command stand from the back

These are the lesser samurai and armed peasants that play as Auxilia. I started with these first to try and gently warm up to the period.

One of the strange phenomenons of Japanese warfare was the class of warrior monks. Many sons of noble Japanese families populated the Buddhist temples and so it was natural for them to have military training. There are also many elements of Bushido (the way of the warrior) which are closely related to Buddhist ideology. Warrior monks were often indistinguishable from regular samurai, but often wore a white head cloth or white robe as a sign of their religion. At one point rival warrior Buddhist monks almost destroyed the capital city of Kyoto.

A good shot showing what the back of the armor looked like. The small square shoulder shields were designed to move freely to accommodate the shooting of a bow. The arrows were held in a wicker box that held each arrow individually in a lattice-like structure.

DBx madness at Nashcon

2009-05-26T06:59:00.000-07:00

NASHCON 2009

This year's Nashcon started with a bang, of musketry that is. We got the games rolling with a DBN demo game that I wung together at the last minute to try and help fill the Friday afternoon slot. I was going to play a test game, but folks kept stopping by and watching, so I just stepped aside and turned over the game to some willing volunteers. After that it was off to the races with a DBA campaign game run by Bob Kelso Friday night, an afternoon of DBx open gaming Saturday, culminating with the 2009 open DBA tournament.

The French columns supported by lancers prepare to assault the allied line in a "Road to Waterloo" scenarion based very loosely on Quatre Bras. The game was played with 25mm DBN rules on a 3x6 table.

Brunswick Avante Garde take position in a village to the front of the allied line.

The Snoopy Blimp overview of the action. Terry Webb (in the hat) is helping to coach the players through the rules.

The French Lancers charge into the Dutch, trying to break their lines before the rapidly approaching Brunswickers can turn and oppose them.

Friday night featured an eight player campaign game based on the first crusade. Bob Kelso hosted the game and provided all of the miniatures and terrain. Bob knew the period very well and kept things moving along at a fast clip all night.

Crusaders and Saracens about to clash!

Dave Cliffel was the eventual winner of the campaign and received a cash prize to spend in the dealer area. Bill Banks came in a close second and received an Essex DBA core army as his reward.

Here we see a shot of another DBN game, this time in 15mm. Glenn Little coached players through DBN during the DBx clinic and open gaming session. Glenn's French look to be taking advantage of my Prussians and Saxons due to the absence of their normal general (me).

Terry Webb and Chris Ward face off in a large Boxer Rebellion game put together by Paul Potter and using the Humberside extension of the DBA rules. Chris Ward went on to win one of two door prizes, an essex DBA core army. I actually won the other drawing and choose the artillery bastion terrain piece from Murray Terrain that I had been coveting.

Though I wasn't present for their innaugural battle, I did eventually get to sit down and take command of the orcs as they fought to crush the elf host. Unfortunately the orcs succumbed to the skill of the elven general, but managed to take a good many of them to the great beyond, before fleeing the field of battle. You can see more photos of the HotT games at: http://s292.photobucket.com/albums/mm4/photocrinch/

Nahtan Clairday, a relative newcomer to DBA, borrowed my HYW English for the tournament and managed to shoot his way into the top spot and win the DBA open. Ed Dillon can be seen in the background brushing the rust off of his game.

Terry Webb played his Feudal French and in the back Paul Potter can be seen setting up his powerful Navareese army.

The champions: (L-R) Bob Kelso in 3rd place playing a Qara Khitan army with 75 points, Nathan Clairday with the HYW English squeeked in to 1st place by one point with 76 total points, Joe Collins playing the Alexandrian Macedonians entered the final round as the only undefeated player, but fell to Paul Potter's Navareese and ended up placing 4th with 72 points. Paul placed second with 75 points. All four players received either an Essex Core army or an army pack from Splintered Light Miniatures. The participants and their armies were:

Terry Webb - Feudal French
Ed Dillon - Anglo Normans
Paul Potter - Navarese
Nathan Clairday - HYW English
Glenn Little - Early Polish
Bob Kelso - Qara-Khitan
Gray Strick - Mongols
Dave Cliffel - Turks
Jamie Gentry - LIR
Chris Ward - Marian Romans
Mark Leitheiser - Phyrric
Joe Collins - Alexandrian Macedonian

A special thank you to our most generous sponsors: Baxter Key at Wargames, David McBride at Splintered Light Miniatures, and Barry Scarlett from Murray Terrain.

Elves and Orcs Ready to Rumble

2009-05-11T06:44:00.000-07:00

Ever since I saw these figures back in the early eighties I've always wanted an army of Orcs and Elves sculpted by Tom Meier for Ral Partha. Thanks to the magic of Ebay, I have finally acquired enough figures to make that dream a reality. I have based them for the DBA variant HotT (Hordes of the Things). Though I have enough figures now to make the requisite 24 point armies, the Elves far outnumber the Orcs, but not to worry. Waiting in the wings are about 40-50 more Goblins which I will mount up as shooters and hordes.

This Dragon is one of the few figures in the army not sculpted by Tom. I believe this one was sculpted by Julie Guthrie, but if anyone knows better please let me hear from you. I will most likely play this element as an aerial hero or as a flyer, not as a dragon.

Here we have the Lord of the Nazgul with a wolf rider escort. The wolf riders are sculpted by Tom Meier, and it wouldn't surprise me if the Nazgul was as well, but I'm not really sure. Once again please let me hear from you if you if you know the sculptor

Here are two elements of wolf riders which I will probably play as beasts. These figures are still commercially available, but I found out later that Mr. Meier still owns the copyright to these figures and they are being produced without his consent. They are clearly old molds, as some of the detail of the chainmail on the riders is virtually non-existant now.

These ferocious fellas will represent the general's element of Uruk Hai and will be played as a warband element. The drummer in the front was one I painted way back in the day, and there is no telling how many repaints and bases he has been on, hence the rather grity appearance of his drum.

Uruk Hai shooters. The bow strings are made from horse hair that I stole from an old violin bow.

The main body of Uruks will be played as warband. Once again some of these figures are still commercially available, but apparently without license to be sold. The spearmen are not available and I was thrilled to find an unopened pack of six on Ebay a while back. I have painted them in bronze armor, and being Orcs who are not to concerned with cleanliness, I have given the bronze a green cast from lack of polishing.

The Elven Host

Once again a dragon sculpted by Julie Guthrie with an elf rider sculpted by Tom Meier. I'm thinking aerial hero for this one.

The much feared Elf archers. Most of these are an older paint job, but serviceable. I did add the horse hair bow strings and touched them up a bit.

The Elven knights. You can see here the evolution of my painting style. The blue riders are underoated in black and the armor drybrushed. The Green riders are primed white, and then the armor and other details are given a wash and then highlighted in places. I much prefer the white undercoat and washes as they help keep the colors bright, while still giving good definition to the wonderfully sculpted detail.

The elven horse archers will play as riders. These are once again a mix of old and new paint jobs. I did some touch up work on the older figures, but I imagine it is still fairly obvious which ones were painted a long time ago.

The Elf spearmen are a mixture of figure types. In front are mainly sea elves I believe, and in the back row are converted Halbardiers. I like the halbardier figures, but I just had too many of them and they looked great as pikemen or spearmen, so out came the clippers.

Here are some of the Halbardiers as they were meant to be. The central unit comes from a pack labelled as Starbrow's select. Though I love Mr. Meier's work, these I'm afraid were not one of his best efforts. Some archers came with the pack as well and they are among my least favorite. The last stand is a mix of halbardiers and short spear, which I will play as a blade stand. I just didn't have enough of either figure type to make a homogeneous stand, so though not my favorite stand, it'll do. As of yet, neither of these armies has made an appearance on the field of battle, but Nashcon is coming up in a couple of weeks and I'm sure they will make an appearance there.

Ral Partha Elf Chariot and companions

2009-03-16T17:40:00.000-07:00

I first saw this elf chariot sculpted by Tom Meier back in the 80's. I couldn't afford it back then so it rekindled my youthful wishes to field an elf army when I picked this model up. I have slowly amassed all the figures necessary for a 25mm HoTT army which is painted for the most part. I'll post more pictures when it is done, but here are some quick shots for now:

There is so much detail sculpted onto these marvelously showy horses, that I must admit that I stared at them for months before I could summon up the courage to paint them. They actually turned out to be fairly easy to paint. I used one of my daughters horse books to come up with the color scheme for them, which I thought ended up complementing the blues of the chariot quite nicely.

The Hero and his trumpeter. Once again these were very detailed sculpts, but they were deceptively easy to paint, despite the fact that I kept finding new details of the models as I painted. Mr. Meier really has a fine eye for detail.

The horses: I just love all the accouterments.

A group of four archers that will serve as a command element if I ever decide I want a shooter as a general. The strings of the bows are made from horse hair that I stole from my violin bow.

A close up of some elf cavalry that will serve as knights. I've got one more element of these which I think I will paint in a predominantly green color scheme. I'm working on some horse archers as well which will make up three elements of riders. With any luck I'll have these ready for Nashcon which is held every year at the end of may.

HoTT Wax Tournament - Narnians Triumphant!

2009-02-08T10:29:00.000-08:00

Robin Hood Update - Figures Rebased and Ready

The Robin Hood HotT army was this year's HotT Wax tournament prize painted and provided by David McBride at Splintered Light Miniatures. I wanted to rebase them just so they would be consistent with my own style, especially since I wanted to add a couple of Hero elements which you can see above. These are Essex miniatures and represent Richard the Lion Heart and Ivanhoe. They can be played as heroes or knights. I also wanted to rearrange the character figures of Robin Hood and Maid Marian etc. In the process of rebasing I decided to darken the skin tones a bit just to fit my personal taste.

The Characters - Friar Tuck on the left will play as a cleric, Robin Hood with Maid Marian and some of his merry men will play as a hero element, and Little John, Alan-a-Dale, and will Scarlett will either play as a hero element or as a lurker.

The merry men - seven elements of shooters.

The peasantry - eight elements of warband.

These are great figures in wonderful dynamic poses. It took a bit of doing, but I rearranged the figures so that none of the staves were sticking off the ends of the stands.

A typical shooter stand. Once again Splintered light has provided some great dynamic figures.

A closer shot of Robin Hood with Maid Marian. I wanted to use some gold in her outfit to distinguish her as being of noble birth and a bit out of place with the woodsmen. She even has some gold braided through her hair, at least that is what it is supposed to look like.

THE VICTORS

The Narnians emerged victorious from the field of battle in Columbus Ohio. HoTT Wax was a blast, with twenty participants all sporting some magnificent armies. With a lot of help from the die, I took first place and came back to Nashville with a nicely painted Robin Hood army courtesy of Splintered Light Miniatures and David McBride. The die gods were giving me good Karma for making the long drive with Terry Webb and Paul Potter. Many thanks to David Zecchini for all his efforts to put Hott Wax together for us!

hopefully the final iteration of the Narnian army! I had enough elements to pick and choose from this fairly massive army that I was able to pick a winning combination. My tournament army consisted of 1 hero, 1 beast, 1 flyer, 2 behemoths, 2 knights, 1 rider, 2 warband, 2 spears, and 3 shooters for a 36 AP army.

A view of the Narnian host from lower down. I opted not to use the magician, or paint Aslan as a god element due to the vagaries of fate from which these elements can suffer.

I fielded both of these behemoths and they played a crucial role in almost all my victories. I finished them just hours before we had to leave, and I was extremely glad to have pushed to get them done. These are wonderful Splintered Light castings.

To the victor goes the spoils, which in this case was a wonderful Robin Hood army painted by none other than the proprietor of Splintered light. Thanks David!

Maid Marian and Robin Hood with some of his gang. I may remount this as a Hero stand, but I'll have to think about that for a while.

Will Scarlet, Little john and the Minstrel Alan a Dell.

Of course no army with Robin Hood would be complete without Friar Tuck! Great fun at HoTT Wax. Thanks again for all who played and put this wonderful tournament together.

Narnian's ready for HoTT Wax

2009-02-02T06:38:00.001-08:00

My friends and I have decided to make a road trip up to Columbus Ohio to join the fun at HoTT Wax. The powers that be have decided we will be using 36 Army points instead of the usual 24, which has inspired me to actually finish painting the rest of the wonderful Splintered Light figures I got at last year's Nashcon in May. I have added several elements of satyrs and a flyer. I'm also currently painting a couple of elements of minotaurs which I will play as behemoths if I can get them finished before Friday. Here are the results of my efforts:

Here we have the satyr warband. The figures are a tad large and might have fit on a 20mm deep base, but as I had to use a deeper 20mm base for the elements of 4 spear, I decided to go with a deeper 30mm base to make it more apparent that these were warband and not 3 blade.

The warband general. I'll probably play him as a regular element and have my hero stand or centaurs be the general's element.

Here we have 2 elements of satyr shooters and a spear. These will mix well with their faun brethren to give me three elements of spear and three elements of shooters, which I hope will be enough. The spears are a great all around element, but they are slow in comparison to the rest of the army, so they may get left in the box if I have enough Army points to do so.

This is one of the smallish Ral Partha griffins from the 1980's and as such, he mixes well with the Splintered Light miniatures which tend to be a bit on the big side. I'm not a frequent HoTT player, so learning how to use this guy to my best advantage will be a challenge. I figure I've got five hours in a car with an expert HoTT player, so I hope to pick his brain for some strategic hints. Looking forward to seeing everyone at HoTT Wax.

Pet Pictures

2009-01-23T07:20:00.000-08:00

I saw the Alte Fritz's beautiful pups on his site this week, and since he opened the can of worms, I couldn't resist posting some pictures of my own furry beasts.

Here we have Snuggers, the most affectionate cat the world has ever known. We put up with a cat from hell for eighteen years, so I think divine Karma graced us after that experience with her. She is known for her instapurr and bisquit making ability.

This is Tucker, our first born. She's fifteen, or perhaps sixteen years old, so is starting to lose some of her pep, but not so much that she won't get out and enjoy the rare snowfalls we get.

I remember when our children were first born, how Tucker became their surrogate mother. She was very affectionate and protective of them, despite their hair pulling. She was the designated foot washer, and everytime she saw my newborn son's toes, she inspected them and then washed them throughly! She's slowing down, but still loves her daily walks and a scratch behind the ears.

New Year's Morning Visitors

2009-01-01T07:13:00.000-08:00

My daughter spotted these monsters in the back yard, and after I convinced myself they weren't a product of too much champagne last night, I managed to grab a few pictures. My guard dog Tucker, whose idea of guarding the house is to present her belly to any stranger that appears if she can manage to get out of her bed, summoned the energy to chase these hens out of the yard. Fortunately they landed next door and were gracious enough to let me photograph them.

How do you tell a hen from a tom anyway?

Mmmmmm, if only I'd grabbed my bow instead of the camera..... Not that I'd know what to do with it if I had. Besides, it's New Years Day. May they live long and prosper.

WWII German Fallscirmjager

2008-12-28T14:52:00.000-08:00

I thought it might be a nice diversion over Christmas break to work on something other than DBx type figures, so I brought out some Fallschirmjager from WWII that I have been slowly collecting. My good friend Baxter Key from Wargames Inc manufactures these FAA figures, so every now and again I pick up a pack, especially when I'm feeling guilty for making him work on a Saturday so the rest of us can game. I also finally painted an Italieri King Tiger that has been primed in my ready box for quite some time. I've been thinking of trying the WWII skirmish game "Nuts", and now I'm ready to do so.

1/72 model kits can be a little hit and miss, but this one was quite a nice kit, and included the two drivers and tank commander which was a nice bonus. I gave the airbrush a rest on this one, as I have never really gotten very good at using it, and just brushed on the paint. I tried to keep the paint nice and thin, but heavy enough to provide good coverage (I used Polly S paints as they have great pigmentation even when thin), and the end result was pretty good.

I also painted up a Dragon kit of a jagdpanzer IV. This is a great kit, but I never did get the gun at a nice elevated level and the paint job was a bit to dark and heavy, but all in all, an acceptable job. I like to think of it as a well distressed model.

FAA Fallschirmjager engineers. I bought this pack thinking it was a rifle squad, but oops. I'm still glad I have them though and they are some really great figures in different and nicely animated poses.

The grunts: Three packs of assorted riflemen. Once again some very nice figures in great poses.

Heavy and medium MGs. The MMG in the prone position I based on two separate halves of an oval to facilitate taking casualties.

Pak 38 anti tank gun. It took a while to get this little booger together but the end result was good. I've always had difficulty gluing the pieces of FAA figures and guns together. I'll have to ask Baxter if he uses a special release agent or something. It could also be that I'm just lacking in patience. This was a fun diversion, but now on to the serious business of the Prussian 1806 Gendarmes of the Guard for DBN!

New DBN elements in 15 and 25mm

2008-12-25T10:16:00.000-08:00

I have been working on a few DBN elements over the past couple of months and thought I would share the results. First up: The Old Guard - Chasseurs a Pied

I got these figures from a friend at a great price and trade, but unfortunately that means I really don't know what manufacturer these figures are from. I thought they were Foundry, but I've been told they're Dixon. In either case they were great figures. The figures were actually Grenadiers of the Imperial Guard, but I filed off the square cuffs and painted on the chevron cuffs, and used epoxy putty to cover up the bearskin plates. Most are in Campaign dress, but the NCO on the end decided to dress for the occasion, at least in his choice of headgear.

The flag is a free download from warflags, which I used as a template, over which I painted the flag just to add a greater vibrancy that I get from paint as opposed to inkjet prints. Note the pouch covers, which is a dead giveaway for the 1815 period.

These are some old Hinchcliffe figures that I got on ebay and represent a battery of horse artillery. This element was a real challenge. The figures were badly painted and I had to strip them completely and start again. The gun itself was a howitzer and the carriage was so poorly assembled I had to chissel out all the old glue, strip the paint and start over. The howitzer just looked goofy so, with apologies to a certain figure manufacturer, I made a plaster mold of a gun barrel and cast my own. (I don't feel too guilty about this as said manufacturer has waaay too much of my money) I had never tried to make a mold and cast my own lead, and though the results were acceptable, I don't think anyone has to worry about me becomming one of the dread figure pirates. It was fun to try at any rate.

The Perry's make the best figures out there as far as I can tell. They are a joy to paint and I have always been pleased with the result. Here is an element painted as the 1st line battalion of the Brunswick army in 1815. The flags are by GMB Designs.

Lastly I have some 15mm 1806 Prussian Dragoons by AB miniatures. These were fun to paint and almost complete my Prussian army.

It's a funny thing, but I think these figures almost look better form the back, which is a good thing, since as their general, I rarely get to see the front of the figures!

English Civil War - The New Model Army

2008-12-25T08:51:00.000-08:00

Much to my chagrin I found myself sucked into painting an English Civil War (ECW) New Model Army, with a few additions so that it can be played as a Parliamentarian army as well. A good friend found the miniatures at a great price so I couldn't say no. The figures are 15mm Donnington sculpts, which though not award winners, actually paint up quite well. So far this army has only made it onto the field once, and are undefeated, but Prince Rupert and his goofy poodle are gunning for revenge.

The General element. He looks a little to dashing for Cromwell, so I will probably alter the banner a bit to make him represent Lord Fairfax.

The shot elements - two in red, and for the Parliamentarian addition, one in green and one in blue.

The supporting pike elements in the same colors.

The Dragoons

The new model knight elements which can be played as knights or as pistoliers.

Parliamentarian knights or pistoliers guarding the artillery.

The baggage train.

Cavalry and psiloi representing a forlorn hope.

A special thanks to Terry Webb for finding these figures and getting me interested in the ECW. Thanks also to Blake Radetzky at Pendraken USA for picking out some great figures for us and giving such a great deal and service.

HOTT 15mm Narnian Army ready for battle

2008-09-30T12:51:00.000-07:00

Though not quite complete, I realized with the latest addition of the Fauns and hero element, I had enough elements to field the required 24 points. I still want to paint some Satyrs, especially shooters and blades, as well as a griffin (flyer), and possibly some manticores, but I may save them for an army of the White Witch, which will come sometime in the future. First I want to make an army of Telmarines for the Narnians to beat up on. At present the army consists of 3 knights (centaurs), 2 riders (centaurs), 1 beast (forest animals), 2 spear (fauns) 1 shooter (faun slingers), 1 magician (faun shaman), and 1 hero (Peter, Susan and Edmund - lucy being to young to take part in a battle), for a total of 26 possible points. Below are the latest additions. To see closeups of the other elements, just hit the Narnia label at the left of the screen.

The army arrayed

The contingent of Fauns - these are splendid figures from Splintered Light Miniatures

The Faun Shaman. The ring of stones are made with Sculptamold.

The heros - King Edmund on foot, High King Peter on horseback, and queen Susan. Edmund and Peter are Essex figures and Susan is a converted Vexilia figure for the Italian Condotta. Her expression is a bit more manly and aggresive than I would have liked, but the figure itself was an easy conversion. I simply added the dress (and breasts) with green stuff. From this angle she looks a bit more buxom than she really appears, which I tried to avoid, but with the expression on her face I wanted to make it clear that the figure was female. The human miniatures are a bit more slender in style than the fantasy figures, which actually was a fortuitous accident, as they are meant to represent children.

Brunswick and Saxon Additions

2008-09-27T13:34:00.000-07:00

I have just finished an element of Brunswick Avant Garde in 25mm and the last addition to my 15mm Prussian 1806 army, the Saxon corp , is also complete:

Here are three views of the Brunswick Avant-Garde. This element is based on the uniforms of the light companies. There were also two Jager companies that wore similar uniforms of a lighter shade, and the running horse badge on their hats instead of the hunting horn. The hedge is made from foam covered in flock, and the boulder is made from a paper mache product called Scultamold. The figure are by Perry Miniatures and are absolutely exquisitely sculpted and cast.

Above are the Saxons who will accompany my 1806 Prussian army. I have four musket elements, foot artillery, and Hussars. I decided to paint the trim on the gun carriage as brass instead of iron painted yellow. Two primary sources depicted the cannon with the same color trim as was used for the barrel and gold trim on officer's uniforms and hats. I took this to mean that the trim was indeed brass. Expensive I know, but feasable for the beginning of the war before the economic shortages began. Close ups below:

Can't wait to field these guys and try them out in a game of DBN!!!

Saxons and Centaurs Oh My!

2008-09-03T07:43:00.001-07:00

So my painting these days has been a bit eclectic. I have started the long slipery slide from historical to fantasy miniatures. Today I have some Narnians for a HOTT army, and waiting in the wings, as yet unseen, lurk the bugs and marines of the Star Ship Troopers. Not to fear however, my true love will always remain histprical gaming, and to that end I offer up pictures of my Saxon musket elements for DBN. Enjoy:

These are Eureka miniatures centaurs and though on the large size, more like 20mm, they are wonderful sculpts. I am using them with Splintered Lights beastlands range and their size should not be out of place. That's one of the nice things about fantasy. Who really knows how big a centaur should be?

These elements will play as knights, with the generals element in the center. I tried to pick Narnian themes for the shields, hence the lions and stylyzed antlers, as well as the pan pipes.

The archers and javelin armed centaurs will be classed as riders.

Now for a more serious subject: the Saxon line infantry regiments. I still have to look it up to be precise, but these are painted after the units present at the battle of Saalfield. I believe, the Clemmens, Elecktor and Xavier regiments. I usually hand paint my flags, but I decided to use the Napflag site this time, as there was so much detail in the saxon flags. I highlighted and shadowed the flags with gold paint and darker red shading for the red flag.

A frontal view...

and from the rear.

I opted to paint the saxons solid white and then wash with a diluted black ink to provide some shading. This did make for a very efficient method and the results, though not stunning, I found to be quite acceptable. The faces are a bit rough when enlarged to this degree, but in 15mm they actually look quite good.

Hanoverian Flags of the Hoya Regiment

2008-08-19T06:39:00.000-07:00

These are the pictures I was able to find of the actual flags carried by the Hoya Battalion at the battle of waterloo. For a discussion of how they were found and for more links see the TMP link:

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=148925

Napoleonics update - Hannover and French

2008-08-18T15:51:00.000-07:00

This summer's project, which was finished just in the nick of time, was to get the last of my aged Napoleonic figures spruced up and rebased before starting graduate school. I made it with two days to spare. These are all twenty-five year old figures that I had painted in my teens that were in desperate need of an upgrade. I was too lazy to strip them, so in most cases I just piled on more paint and tried to make do. My goal here was to achieve a good wargames standard that would not look too out of place with my newer figures.

Here we have some Minifigs painted as the Lancers de Berg. I did take the time to strip the actual riders, as previously they had been painted as the Dutch "Red" Lancers and I was afraid the white would not cover the red very well.

Here are the aforementioned Dutch Lancers. I did a pretty cursory repaint of these, mostly just tidying them up a bit and adding a bit of highlighting.

This is two elements of Minifigs based as a regiment of line infantry per element. The Grenadiers have all been removed to form a reserve and the Voltigeurs have fallen back from their skirmish duties to rejoin the line. Though I didn't strip these, I really could have as almost every surface was repainted.

Two elements of line Infantry, this time from Hinchliffe miniatures. I really should have stripped these as I discovered that I had done a really poor job of trimming flash from these. I muddled through and either trimmed as I went or tried too minimize any flash with dark paint. These were some of the first figures I ever purchased. I found them in a hobby shop in Oxford England, when I was living there for a year back in the late 70's.

These are more figures from the same shop, though the standard bearer is an Essex addition that I recently purchesed. I would have preferred a Hinchliffe standard bearer, but the Essex was readily available. Here we have the Hoya regiment from Hanover as they appeared at the battle of Waterloo. I had a devil of a time researching the flag, but eventually succeded in finding photos of the original flag from a Sotheby's auction thanks to a helpful lead from the museum curator in Hanover.

You can see the back of the flag here. I was surprised to find that the pictures of the original flag differed considerably from its representation in the Osprey book on Napoleonic Flags, which showed the wreath almost totally surrounding the sword. In actuality the wreath was quite small and almost formed a double loop.

I tried to get a better shot of the front of the flag, but the folds make it difficult to see. It is a gold outlined cross with the motto: "FURS GOTT UND VATERLAND" forming a loop around it.

This is an element representing the Feld Battalion Verden with uniform details taken from Haythornthwaite's book on Waterloo. I encountered a great many conflicting sources on what this uniform looked like, so eventually I just had to pick one that I thought was the most trustworthy. The flag is a fabrication, as their is no record of what flag they carried. I used the coat of arms of the city of Verden as a basis for the flag.

Hundred Years War English

2008-06-21T10:57:00.000-07:00

The HYW English is my core army. I sold off all my old armies which were a mix of figures from various older manufacturers in order to focus on building more homogeneous (in terms of figure manufacturers) armies. The following was my first to meet that goal and morphs easily from Free Company, to HYW English, to Feudal English.

The Black Prince leading the way. I chose him as a leader since he would be appropriate for a free company army in Spain allied with Pedro the cruel vs Henry the Bastard and DuGueslin, or a HYW army in Europe.

Dismounted knights

Support troops and artillery

The Heavy infantry. The spears are in the green and white livery of welsh allies and the blades are in black with the white ostrich feather livery of the Black Prince himself. Some of them wear the leek on their shoulder which I think symbolizes their Welsh heritage, but I'm still not really sure of the story behind the leek.

The longbows: heavy armored bows in back with more lightly armored Welsh bowmen in front wearing the traditional green and white livery.

Here we have the additional elements necessary to field a feudal English army: 2 hordes, a spear, and dismounting cavalry and the three spear to represent them as dismounted. Eventually I will paint an entire feudal English army with more appropriate accoutrement's, but for now the HYW era elements will have to do.

1806 Jena Prussians

2008-06-21T10:37:00.000-07:00

This just in: The Von Beeren Kuirassiers are done. Now that I have the heavy Battle Cavalry, I have enough elements for the Prussians to take the field!

Here are some better pictures of the 1806 Prussians I have been working on. They are a mix of AB and Minifigs. The AB are far superior, but much bigger, so mixing the two has been a challenge. I am currently working on the Kurasiers and Dragoons which will finish out the army.

An Artillery limber which will serve as the camp for now. This is an AB grouping of marvelously sculpted figures.

The general staff - or a bunch of old farts in white powdered wigs, except of course for Blucher, who is sporting the uniform of his famed red hussars.

These are the figures that got me started on this project. Mark, "extra crispy" Severin gave me this Minifigs and some others when he was cleaning out his piles of old lead. I had to change the style of the Shakos to the earlier 1806 style, but otherwise they are very nicely animated figures.

The infantry: Grenadiers in the center and muskets on the wings and behind. Each element is painted to represent a particular regiment. The grenadiers were combined from companies of four different regiments so each figure is painted in the uniform of one of those regiments. The Grenadiers in the middle with the flag are painted to represent a standing unit of the elite 6th battalion of Guard Grenadiers . This is a stand of mixed AB and Minifig figures. The minifigs are standing on cardboard shims to raise them higher and thus minimize the size difference of the two figure manufacturers.

A side view to show off the pretty flags. All the flags are hand painted.

Excellent AB artillery figures. 1 horse artillery battery on the left, and two foot batteries on the right, one being hauled into position with bricoles and drag ropes or prolongs.

New Projects

2008-06-21T10:18:00.000-07:00

I have been working on a few odds and ends so I have decided to post my progress. The two main projects are a 15mm Narnian army for HOTT which I have just begun, and a 25mm Lord of the Rings army for HOTT which has been in progress for decades. The elves are Ral Partha figures sculpted by Tom Meier. Most of these are painted and just waiting to be based. The Orcs are about half done, but I have all the required figures for both armies and It shouldn't take too long to finish them. I have also revamped my camp for the Hundred Years War English that I have and made a Barker marker. Enjoy the pics.

Narnian Camp and beasts element. The camp is Baueda, the badgers are from splintered light and the other animals from an old Ral Partha 25mm set, but they seemed to be the right size for the large Narnian animals. The standing stone is scratch built from insulation foam.

Finally the Black Prince will have a suitable place to rest.

This is a conversion for my 25mm Hott Elf army. The Elf is a Tom Meier sculpt from Ral Partha, which I have placed on a dragon sculpted by Julie Guthrie? from the same era. The dragon had some considerable modifications to make the figure fit.

I must have had the caffeine shakes when I took this one, but you get the idea. Sea elf pikemen.

I needed a Barker marker for 15mm armies, so I used this old 25mm Ral Partha crusader to add a little uumph to the marker.

Terry's Tlaxcallans

2008-05-28T15:17:00.001-07:00

Terry Webb has finished his Tlaxcallan army and has given me permission to post them here so others can view them. Make sure you click on the images and enlarge them so that you can truly appreciate the amount of work that went into these. They are truly stunning to view - even if they can't fight!

Nashcon DBA Events Report

2008-05-26T06:38:00.000-07:00

Nashcon was an all around smashing success, with lots and lots of gaming, a thriving vendors area, and for those like me looking to pay for our expenditures, a great flea market Sunday morning. For those of you following the Sarmatian saga, they did indeed sell, and I was also able to get in a smashing victory over Rob Torres' Greco Bactrians before their sale. I think that may have been Rob's first or second game, so he clearly used me to warm up his troops, as they went on to win the DBA open tournament. Paul Potter hosted a marvelous campaign game Friday night with lots of intrigue, rewards, and masacres. In the end Bob Kelso reigned supreme and took home a Bactrian prize army provided by Wargames.

NASHCON OPEN DBA TOURNAMENT

Rob Torres traveled down to Nashcon from Norther Virginia and was rewarded for his efforts by winning a hard fought victory over Paul Potter's Navarese in the final round. Rob got to take his pick of the three prize armies offered and chose to take a later Hungarian army provided by Wargames back home with him to Virginia. He's pictured here helping out in the DBA clinic session.

Rob Torres and Paul Potter face off in the final round. Rob took the final round 4-2 with his Greco Bactrians vs Paul's Navarese.

The Navarese

The Greco Bactrians advance

Ron Seaney with Polybian Romans and Chip Russo with Later Sarmations

Don Harting playing the Early Imperial Romans

Ed Dillon brushed the rust of his game with the Anglo Normans and wanted to give full credit to his successes to his opponents lack of die rolling skill.

Gray Strickland took time off from the busy vendors area to join in the fun playing an Italian Condotta army. Other participants were Terry Webb with the Feudal French, Bill Banks - the runner up and winner of a Parthian army, played the Early crusaders, Bob Kelso with Ghasnavids, Steve McBee with Hellenistic Spartans, and Nathan Lowe playing the Bosporans.

DBA CLINIC

The clinic was a resounding success with twenty participants, many of them new to DBA. We even had one husband and wife team, Doug and Laura Acker, join in the fun. All participants were entered in a drawing for a complete 25mm Saxon army provided by Iron Wind Metals. Bob Kelso was the lucky winner. He promises to be back next year with the Saxons all painted up and ready to battle.

Doug and Laura Acker face off with the help of Terry Webb and Glen Little.

Joe Collins played a very short game against Mike Hicks (below), Mike losing his general early in the game.

Ron Seaney gives Doug Moore a helping hand with the rules.

Mike Preston gives the Camillan romans a try.

Bill Banks gives Chuck's untried ebay armies a lesson in tactics. Bill was the eventual runner up in the DBA open Tournament.

A SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL WHO MADE NASHCON A RESOUNDING SUCCESS - YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE: THE ORGANIZERS, THE GAME HOSTS, THE MANUAL LABORERS WITHOUT WHOM THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN NO TABLES, THE VENDORS AND ALL THE GREAT GAMERS!

Sarmatians finished in the nick of time!

2008-05-21T18:53:00.000-07:00

Well here they are in all their glory. Hope they sell!

25mm Polish and French

2008-05-02T06:32:00.001-07:00

Just finished these recently so I thought I'd post a few pictures. They are mounted for DBN using the optional double basing method. I love painting 25mm Napoleonics as there is just so much more "meat" to them.

This is an element of Front Rank figures painted as the 7th Polish (Duchy of Warsaw) infantry that served in Spain and Russia. Polish uniforms are notoriously hard to pin down and I have read many different theories on how this particular unit was uniformed. In the end I decided to rely heavily on Haythornthwaites' work, in which he states that they retained their national uniform in spain, unlike the other Polish regiments, and were not uniformed in French style.

I have been wanting to paint a unit of white coated French for literally 25 years and have finally done so. I had some old minifigs lying around that needed to be repainted, so they form the back line of the element, while the front line are all Essex miniatures.

Sarmatians coming along

2008-05-02T06:17:00.001-07:00

The Sarmatians have been coming along nicely. I have broken them into two groups, one to sell at Nashcon, and the other for my own use. I will be using two different painting styles so it will be interesting to see how each army comes out.

These are the later Sarmatians for sale at Nashcon. If ever there was an army designed for drybrushing it is these. I decided to do a black undercoat and drybrush the armor. I will then go back and do the detail work. The Sarmatians used a variety of armor: horn, laquered red leather, bronze and iron, which should make them very colorful.

These are for my own army and will comprise enough figures for an early or later Sarmatian force. I have primed these white and they will get a base coat of color and then an all over wash to pick out the detail. A little more work than just drybrushing, but hopefully worth it.

Here are the light horse archers converted from lancers.

More lancers converted to javelin armed shielded cavalry. This was a much easier conversion and the figures look great.

from a different angle

Progress Report

2008-05-02T06:01:00.000-07:00

I'll start with an update on my 1806 Prussian project for DBN. I have just finished three elements for the light infantry and jagers, as well as some nice terrain pieces to represent towns and fortifications.

Coming

and going

For the terrain pieces I decided to go with 1/300th scale buildings, which are large enough to almost accomodate 15mm figures, but small enough to fit on the base sizes required. The buildings, and walls are from Hovels, and the hedges are just piecesof flocked foam.

I love the flower gardens around the house for a little bit of added color.

The jagers

detached schutzen (sharp shooters) from a light infantry regiment

The light infantry. This photo makes them look like they are huge compared to the building, but it is really just an effect of the camera angle and of course the fact that the figures are on a relatively thick base.

Mayans are Ready for the Jungle

2008-03-13T12:17:00.000-07:00

The Mayans are now ready for the March 22nd tournament at Wargames, but as to how they will fare.... 8 Aux, 2 Blade, 1 Bow, and 1 psiloi... I sure hope I get to be the defender and set terrain, otherwise I'm hosed. I just spoke to Baxter at Wargames, and he tells me the winner will come away with an Essex Alexandrian Macedonian army, A sweet prize! As two of our local ringers will be unable to make it, and I will be playing a real powerhouse Mayan army, the chances are excellent for a novice or occasional player to take home the prize.

Essex Aztecs masquerading as Mayan auxilia.

Porters trudging through the homeland. The tree is from Lifelike, as is the brush and high grasses. The rocks are made from a plaster impregnated paper product called Sculptamold.

The whole gang

A bad a## auxilia unit with the central warrior standing on the highground made from more sculptamold paper mache. I'm worried people will mistake this for the general's element, but I'll just have to make an extra effort to point out the real general.

Here he is. The stand on the left with the conch shell trumpeter is the general's element. Hopefully the giant headdress will make that clear.

Psiloi hiding in the rocks and bushes

The only unit that a knight army needs to fear - sigh.

More red body paint and stripy guys.

Later Achamenid Persian 25mm BBDBA army

2008-02-23T07:35:00.000-08:00

Like most of my early armies, the Achamenid Persians are a mish mash of different manufacturers and painting styles, as I was figuring out what worked and what didn't. I have included an Indian elephant element as well, as it was well documented that they were present in Darius' army, but not engaged.

Essex Indian elephant

The heavy cavalry command
Old Glory figures

Old glory heavy and medium cavalry
Javelins were replaced with piano wire javelins

A small contingent of Indian cavalry

Foundry Skythian nobles heavy cavalry

The heavies

The light cavalry:
Foundry, and Essex Skthians, Numidians, and Persians

Sythed Chariots from left to right: Navigator, 1st Corp, Essex

Foundry Greek Mercenaries

More Foundry Greeks

The Greeks that fought for Darius were slaughtered by
Alexander after Darius fled the field.

Persian Auxilia - There is some debate as to the form of Persian heavy infantry.
I opted to show it as more of a levy than formed infantry

The auxilia or kardakes:
1st corp, Black Tree design and Essex. The Black Tree Design were my favorites, but they are a little large.

The entertainment: The dancer is a huge reaper figure, on which I sculpted pants to appease my wife. The audience is seated on raised ground to minimize the height differential and consists of a modified 1st Corp Persian and Essex Indian cavalrymen, both with epoxy putty drinking flasks

Alexandrian Macedonian 25mm BBDBA army

2008-02-18T15:17:00.001-08:00

The Alexandrian Macedonians were my first Big Battle De Bellis Antiquitatis (BBDBA) army. It all started when my local hobby shop decided to not carry Foundry miniatures and put their remaining stock on clearance. Over the course of the next year I kept buying all the "World of the Greeks" range that I could, supplementing with Old Glory, Essex and Navigator when I couldn't get the Foundry equivalent at an affordable price. The results are shown below.

The pikes advance. Eastern Phalanx and old veterans take to the front

Lots of pointy things on which to impale yourself

Navigator (I think) later Thracians w/ spear or rhomphia

Old Glory peltasts - Normally I like Old Glory, but these were some of the ugliest figures I have ever purchased. By doing a lot of transplant surgery, hacking off limbs and heads, I was able to assemble about half a bag of what I thought were acceptable figures.

Nicely painted shields though!

The Peltasts

The Hypaspysts - probably they didn't have uniform shield designs, but this helps to distinguish them on the miniature field of battle from the pikes

The Greek and Macedonian Cavalry

The knight generals and companions

The artillery and camp followers

Note the unlucky fellow with the arrow in his chest.

The light horse

Celts - the Beginning

2008-02-17T09:55:00.000-08:00

These Celts are the beginnings of two separate armies: The Gauls, and the Celtic contingent of a later Carthaginian army. I will be able to utilize the elephant elements of my Pyrhic army, along with the Gauls to form the core of that army. The Libyan spearmen are still in their bags, but should make an appearance in the next year or so. The Celts below are a mixture of Foundry (the command stand) and Gripping Beast miniatures.

Camillan Roman army

2008-02-16T17:02:00.001-08:00

The Old Glory Camillan Roman's are quite a bargain. I found the figures to be quite well sculpted, especially in comparison to their Greek and Italians. I will eventually have a BBDBA army of these guys, and the number of figures you get with each bag lends itself nicely to a triple strength army. I got these on sale, but was unable to find a bag of psiloi, so I purchased the psiloi from Crusader. Can't say enough about the quality of the figures and the service I received from Crusader in the UK.

The army arrayed

Cavalry and Cavalry command

A view of the Romans that only the general should ever see.

The Principes - spear

The Hastati - blade

The psiloi

DBA Pyrhic army

2008-02-16T08:05:00.000-08:00

With the addition of the following elements, I can easily morph my triple BBDBA Alexandrian Macedonian army into a Pyrhic army. The figures are mostly Old Glory and are meant to represent the Italian allies of Pyrhus, such as the Samnites, some helenized coastal cities (Foundry Miniatures - Greeks), Tarantine light cavalry, and shielded heavier cavalry. There is of course the addition of three jumbos as well, two of which are Old Glory castings, and one a converted Dacian elephant from Gripping Beast Miniatures.

Jumbo Jumbo Jumbo

The army arrayed

Italian Samnite Auxilia

Italian ally spearmen

Helenized Italian ally spearmen

Tarantine light Cavalry

Shielded heavy cavalry

Here are some more

2008-02-13T18:45:00.000-08:00

Portuguese and Spanish Front Rank figures with British heavy Dragoons above.

Expandable photos

2008-02-13T18:41:00.001-08:00

Here is an expandable image of the Brunswickers for a good close look. I must have messed up the formatting in the previous post, so I'll try and repost those pictures that won't expand.

2008-02-13T10:21:00.000-08:00

I found a couple more photos that I wanted to share. You can't help but love a guy comfortable enough to take the field in yellow boots.

I believe this is the Front Rank figure for Uxbridge, but I'm not sure of that. At any rate I painted him as a commander of Hussars from an Illustration In Phillip Haythornthwaite's book on Waterloo or the Peninsular War. Below are some British heavy dragoons. My standard line is that they are from 1812 and the officers were still sticking to their traditional bicornes during the year that they received their new helmets. The truth is that I had two figures with helmets and two without. I like my story though and I'm sticking to it.

If anyone out there in blog world can tell me why some of my photographs will enlarge when clicked and some won't, I'd love to know the secret. I hope these will enlarge so you can get a good look.

25mm Napoleonic Sampler for DBN

2008-02-12T06:13:00.000-08:00

My Napoleonic miniatures languished for many years inside the dark recesses of their cardboard coffins, but my discovery of DBN, a rules set for napoleonics based on the DBA (De Bellis Antiquitatis) principles has breathed new life into that era for me. I have chosen to double base the troops using bases twice the size of the 15mm bases. This makes for elements of eight infantry (for Line), while I have stuck to the cavalry recomendations of 3 or 4 figures per element. An element represents about 2000 infantry. Thus I have been frantically rebasing my old figures for DBN, while adding new units as well.

First - the old, good, bad and ugly: These are really old minifigs that I tried to spruce up a bit when I rebased them. Lord only knows how many coats of paint they have.

Below are a few samples of Hinchliffe French units that I have been trying to make presentable while not completely stripping off all the old paint. These were originally painted when I was about 14 years old...a mere thirty years ago.

Now for the good stuff: A mix of Perry, Foundry and Front Rank:

Of course no army would be complete without the big cheses, so here they are in all their glory, including his highness, the biggest cheese: