Completed Crusader

At long last I've finished my Romeo 90mm Crusader so here are some of the pictures.

 

This was the first large scale lead figure I have ever attempted and the clothing and equipment was painted with acrylics and I must admit I would put it down for months or even up to year between painting Sessions. The process of working with quick drying  acrylics on such a large area was very interested and it took a bit of patience to  deal with the white tabard. What was important was  to get the look of engrained  dirt from someone who has been campaigning for some time.

His face and  beard was painted with oils over an Acrylic base.  I used a series of oil washes, followed by a local oil glazes to achieve a weather beaten look. 

Thank you for taking a look and I hope you like it.

Gallic Allies

According to the Field of Glory Mid-Republican Roman army list you have various  options to take units  other ancient tribes and peoples. So  after some consideration  I opted for a battle group of Gauls. I did this for two reasons firstly I thought they'd be fun to paint  and secondly they can be impact medium foot  and hide in the bushes  until they charge out an die heroically on the enemy's  spear tips.

Hopefully  this gives me enough  time to do something clever with my legions and turn the battle  in my favour. So far they have been very helpful in cancelling out the threat of my opponents medium troops. I guess I am beginning to think about this rules a bit more strategically and am starting to understand how to use different troop types for different roles,  rather than simply marching forward and dying.

I really enjoyed painting the Xyston figures, so much so that I am considering acquiring a few sets of Gaesati "tout  nu" guys to give me an extra  set of optional troops. It will  also give me a touch of practice painting some more Gallic shield designs.

Too Bloody Long.

A little while ago I completed six battle groups of triarii for my Mid-Republican Roman army. This means  that now I don't have to keep borrowing Dave and Clive’s figures every time I want to fight in the period before 50BCE.

These guys got there first run out a while ago against Simon’s Pyrrhic pikes and scraped a marginal victory! However, when packing them in the makeup box which I use to transport them, I noticed a fundamental flaw in the construction. I have left the offensive spear a tad too long. They don’t fit in to the box nicely and they have to be lying down. Aside from this minor hiccup I am quite pleased  with the end result, even the rendering of what is supposed to be a wolf on their  shields  is  quite  acceptable.

More soon, I promise!

Flight Stands For Check Your Six

This afternoon  I have  completed my first batch of home made in to the world of flight Stands.

It has taken  a fair bit of trial and error so I'll  outline the process, 

The components   required  for each stand are as follows :  an antenna,  I used a

37.5cm 6 section telescopic antenna to reflect the six Combat Altitude Levels  in Check your Six.  On the  top  of the  antenna   the is a ball bearing with  a   2cm length of brass tube  soldered to it.  This  ball and female socket  was attached to  the aerial with a   length of  rubber  tube ( from a fish tank air filter.)  the base consists of an  50mm Hex base with a Raiden Miniatures base glued to it for  a little extra weight.  The aerial has a screw  on the end of it which screws into the Hex base for extra strength.   

 Finally  a 5mm dice  frame holder  was  glued onto  the base to hold a D6 to indicate the speed.
 

Each of my fighter aircraft  had a male brass rod  attached to the underside.  Then could be inserted  into ball joint on the end of the aerial.  This allows us  to represent  the pitch and yawl of an aircraft in flight. 

 The final picture here  is a Bf109e  bouncing a Hurricane MK1 , which  I put together  to ensure  the the stands  worked as  I hoped.

I hope you like  them  and  Now  I can't wait to get a coat of paint onto them  and get them into action.

Campaign 2015

Earlier this month I went to the Milton Keynes to attend Campaign the local club's annual show which is held in the massive MK shopping centre.  I participated in the Field of Glory Ancient & Medieval Competition over the weekend. It is always good fun to some of games under competition conditions to improve as a player. 

I found myself feeling a bit overwhelmed by the prospect of the competition and this allowed myself to become tentative and hesitant.  This is not a sound strategy when you are face with more experienced better players. Nevertheless, by the final game on the Sunday afternoon I managed to avoid a fourth route and being satisfied with a narrow loss.  It was good to score some points over the weekend. I was fielding Mid-Republican Romans, for three of the battles I faced Successor armies and the fourth battle was a civil war against a Mid Republican Roman army. 

Campaign is a great sceptical and the guys at Milton Keynes Wargames Club do a fantastic job to put on a wargames show in such a great venue. Along with the competitions  there were also a fair few traders and exhibitors,  One of  my  favourites  was   the  early First World War  Exhibition  battle  by the creators  of Crush the Kaiser  rules.  Here are some snaps showing a German advance on  the British lines.

I took the time to pop back to the game over the weekend to see the game unfold. The pictures illustrate the Germans closing in on the British positions, and taking some serious damage in the process. Although, their artillery did manage to get force its British counterpart to retreat.  It was interesting and informative to see the authors play their own rules. In my limited  experience of these rules I have enjoyed  and find  them  nice and  simple  and representative of the period playing  them.

Salute 2015

I also made it to Salute  this year  and as usual was overwhelmed by the depth and breadth of our hobby.  In addition to the huge range  of  games and activities on display  the friendly atmosphere  was  a great reflection on the wargaming community.

This year  a friend of mine accompanied me who knew nothing about war-games. Indeed,  the week before he asked me tentatively  if he could come and watch a game at some point, because he was interested  in finding out more  a bout the hobby.  I thought to myself, that he should  possibly want to come to see Salute, that will give him a better idea about war-games. As you might imagine he  was quite surprised  by  the size and the scale of the whole affair!

In any case here are a few snaps to of some of the games and displays  I saw or played in  during  the day.

An outstanding Early World War II game  depicting a German assault on  a coastal town 

Some shots of  Donnington Figures participation game of Agincourt which played by our chums from Central London Wargames Club. 

Finally A fun fast and furious medieval game using Osprey's Lion Rampart rules organised  by the Blackwolf Wargames Club of Hitchin. 

Extraordinarii

I have been rather lax of late in the write of this blog. This has been due to a number of real world factor converging with my innate laziness. Nevertheless, despite this over. The last week or so. I have managed to paint up a set of Roman ally medium foot, Extraordinarii for my developing mid-Republican Roman army. 

These guys are from the Mirliton range from Italy. They are really excellent figures , beautifully proportioned and cleanly cast. Once the get a lick of paint the spring to like. 

A further advantage is that since their spears and shields are separate it is possible to get a range of poses. 

I must add that I feel the colours on the Italian style shield has worked well with these figures. Although I would not claim any historical accuracy.

Next up for the painting table will be some triarii.                                         

French Command Base

Here is a little joke  for the French Command base. The officers are depicted  preparing a picnic.
Their guest  is a  converted female figure from the Pendraken Sci-fi range

Thanks for looking !

Early War Germans

At  long last ages ago  I finished my early First World War Germans. So I thought I'd take a few photos for them to post:

These figures a from the 10mm Pendraken range and a good fun to paint.

 Mind you  I still have to finish of a unit of cavalry  and some extra artillery  pieces.  maybe I'll get round to posting pictures of them in around  a year!