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.