My Book 3, Book 4 Armies

Good afternoon,

Yesterday Stan came round at lunchtime for another quick DBA bash (no pictures!) in an effort to practice for the 15mm DBA competition during the War Clouds Over Wooston event during Waitangi weekend here in Christchurch. He wanted to experiment with a Book IV, Anglo Irish army list (IV/26a) that he's taking to the comp. Seeing as I don't have any DBA armies in 15mm, but a fair heap in 20mm, I pulled out elements of my yet-to-be-painted Norman and Saxon armies as proxies.

• 1 x General (3Kn)
• 1 x men-at-arms (3Kn)
• 2 x colonist archers (3/4Bd)
• 2 x colonist foot sergeants (Sp)
• 1 x mercenary axemen (4Bd) or kerns (3Ax)
• 3 x kerns (3Ax)
• 2 x kerns (Ps)

That resin tent was made for my ages back by a very clever lad in Auckland, Mike Hansen. You can see some of his work here and here, from my old geocities site back in the day.


And this is my one painted element that I did for my son Matthew when he was doing a speech at school about Vikings! A visual aide, so to speak.

So anyway, yesterday these "Anglo Irish" went up against my [Italeri Saracens] Syrian army (IV/6a - 5 Cv, 4 LH, a Horde, 2 Ps and an Ax). The Horde never managed to crest the steep hill it was deployed behind they moved so slow!

I won, primarily thanks to the Cav/Bw matchups - the fact that when doubled by the Bw, the Cv just fleed...flew...flied...what ever the past tense of flee is - oh, hang on, it's fled! - and then came back. Eventually, despite being a factor down, I won those matchups because mounted in contact quick kill bow.

It also helped that my Ps also ran when doubled by his foot, and a lucky quick kill of my LH (with overlap support) against one of his Knights.

Anyway, hopefully tomorrow we'll try another match up, this time his Norman Anglo Saxon Irish up against my Rohirrim Anglo Saxon Free Company army - Book IV, List 74.

• 1 x General (3Kn/4Bd)
• 3 x [English] men-at-arms (3Kn/4Bd) - the chaps with the Emhar Saxon blade elements behind them. Thanks John!
• 2 x [German] men-at-arms (3Kn)
• 3 x English archer (4Lb)
• 2 x French brigans (3Bd)
• 1 x Hungarian horse archers

I'd pulled together this HOTT Rohan army (9 Kn, 1 LH, and 2 Sp) because I had spare mounted Revell and...Strelets, I think, Normans, as well as a bunch of spare Napoleonic horses, Revell Saxons that looked kinda Rohirmish...and a couple of spare HaT EIR Equites!

'Course it's now kinda superfluous as I've got my HOTT Sarmatians to go up against my Raetian Goblins. So I'm pleased I can use them for this list at least!

And since I had my toys out anyway, I thought I'd literally pull together another Later Carthaginian Spear element - with a few head, and one leg swaps with some other spares, since I'd used the Cart heads (and torso) for earlier conversions. Probably my Macedonians - I needed some Greekish looking head gear, if I recall.


That makes 6 Later Cart spear elements, should I ever want to try them as a double DBA army. Or Warmaster Ancients, perhaps allied to my Numidians...

So many toys, so little time to paint them!

Speaking of which, back to the EAPs. Got one more Sarabara element almost done. Almost.

Nick

WIP, Term 2, Week 00

...so far in this term break.

Good morning,

Just before I get started with planning and such for this coming term, I thought I might show these...

• Three Raetian Goblin Riders
• One Tiger Tank
• and one Thracian heavy cavalry element

First up the Goblins.




After having looked at the upcoming HaT Huns and comparing them to the Lucky Huns that I had already put aside I thought...

"Hmmm, ok, these Lucky Huns are cool 'n all, but not quite as accurate as I thought."

So I pulled out the most suitable Lucky Huns (to which I'll add some HaT Huns when they're ready) which gave me these extras.

Sooo...I decided to use these extras to replace my lizards and add another element to complete a proper WMA unit for my Raetian Goblins. Horses fit into the back story so much better anyhow.

Now I just need another 8 of so bats to complete a flyer unit...

Anyway, next we have the Thracian heavy cav.



Zvezda Macedonian Cav straight from the box. Also gives me another option for my Greeks.

And now, the pièce de résistance, my first 1/72^nd scale Tiger.




One of two Italeri Fast Build Tigers, nominally painted to represent the Schwere-Panzer-Abteilung 508, the 508^th Heavy Panzer Battalion that the Kiwis encountered in Italy in 1944-45.



Primarily because I was inspired by this...


...a 508^th Tiger captured by the NZ 22^nd (Motorized) Battalion, while the Tiger crew was having breakfast!




For more Tigers and NZ armour pictures, click here.

I suspect that the Tiger's green is a bit dark, but, well, the scheme distinguishes it from the Panzer IVs that I had done previously.



Speaking of comparisons, the above photo of the captured Tiger (and a previous Spearhead game) convinced me that I needed to replace the 1/76 scale Tigers that Andy had given me with these 1/72 monsters.




These 1/76 scale cubs are about the same size as my 1/72^nd Shermans!

Nick

More Sarmatians Done

Good afternoon,

As work looms large, here are two more Sarmatian Knight elements finished.








An ecclectic mix of Zvezda Mongols, Revell Praetorians, a HaT Carthaginian (I think), a lot of Esci Napolionic cav legs. The bulk of the horses are Italeri Mongols with one HaT Late Imperial Roman Heavy Cavalry/Catafract and an Evolution Sarmat horse.

And here are all that I've got to do to actually finish the DBA (or HOTT) army.


One last Knight, a Light Horse and a couple of Psoloi elements. If I ever get a box of Strelets Sarmatians I'll be able to swap out some of the Mongols and add a twelfth Knight element.

The General element, well...


...I'm thinking of replacing the trumpeter's kontos with that [HaT Parthian] Draco standard. Whatdoyarekon?

Nick

Yet More Sarmatians

Good morning,

Here are the latest two Sarmatian elements.


Left to right...

1. Converted Revell Praetorian atop an Italeri Mongol horse
2. Converted Revell Praetorian atop an Italeri Mongol horse
3. Evolution Sarmatian atop an Italeri Mongol horse
4. Converted Revell Praetorian (with an Airfix Roman head) atop a HaT Late Imperial Roman Medium Cavalry horse
5. An Italeri Mongol atop an Evolution Sarmation horse
6. Converted Revell Praetorian atop an Italeri Mongol horse

I quite like the way the laminated horn armour turned out with this one



Look how big that dude is! He's one of the Evolution figs. Never noticed it 'till I looked up the Plastic Soldier Review review.


Note that I chopped out the plastic base of the HaT LIR Med Cav horse to cut him down to size, so to speak. This is how I kept it from falling over while the PVA dried.




Lastly, here are the two elements that I re-horsed earlier, complete with flocked bases.




Nick

More Sarmatians Take Two

Sorta - the bases have yet to be finished.

Good evening,

Here are the results of my re-horsing four, well, horses of the two Sarmatian elements from my last post.





Interestingly, the HaT LIR Medium Cav are noticeably taller than the Italeri Mongol ponies, so I've cut the horses off their bases and PVA'd them directly to their DBA (and Warmaster Ancients) bases. I'm guessing they'll be stable enough when I sand and flock them.

Notice also I've re-headed that Greek. Swapped out that Phrygian helmet'd head for an old Aifix Roman head that I had lying around. Made the rider look a little less obviously Greek!

Nick