Later Pre-Islamic Arabs...Sorta...

Good evening,

As stated earlier, I've been pottering around with bits and pieces while finishing stuff, and one thing I've been meaning to do for ages is replace some of my psuedo Pre Islamic Arab camel riders for Araby dudes who were less armored.


These started life as Italeri Saracen Warriors.

Yes, I've got some Normans that I'm planning to morph into Early Crusaders (at some point), but, as most of my armies are from DBA Book II (Classical Ancients), I wanted an ancient Arab army - with camels! So, that's what I built. II/23a Later Pre Islamic Nomadic Arabs.

The trouble is, most of these Saracens are appropriately dressed as, well, Saracens. They're really wearing too much metal to be Pre Islamic. So, to try to minimize this problem, I got hold of some Esci Arab Warriors (from their set to fight the Colonial British in the North West Frontier), selected some poses, chopped them in half and glued them to some legs that were all ready to sit astride a camel thusly...






The more observant of you will notice that that last converted figure doesn't actually have a left arm! Hence, the big shield (probably too big at that). It's integral to my approach to wargaming with plastic figures - don't waste anything!

And I know that they still look too well attired to accurately represent Pre Islamics, and that Caesar have now produced Bedouins, but...I've already got these guys, and, well, I'm cheap!

Nick

Some Carts

Good morning,

While I've been working on the EIR Ax, I've also been pottering away with a few other bits and pieces, more catch ups than anything systematic. So, while I was applying flock to that Gallic element (and my Early German ghosts!), I thought I'd finally flock these guys who have been waiting ever so patiently for me to do so, years after having been completed!


They were painted for me by Mark Ottley (the Cart General's element), Dave Wallace (the Spear element) and Andy Gorman (the Spanish Auxilia element).




Indeed, the more observant of you may recognize the command figures from the banner atop the page, 'cept I replaced the horn (I thought it was an ancient mace at the time!) with a sword.

Ah, the wonders of flock. They certainly complete the elements.

Thanks guys!

Nick

Finished EIR Ax

Hi,

Just before I give Stan's camera back, here, at least, are two elements of the Early Imperial Roman Auxilia that have actually been completed.



Turns out I did actually have a couple of bases after all.

I've got a couple more pickies of bits and pieces to post, but I've got some planning to do for next week, so I'll post them when I can.

Nick

Speaking of Romans...

Good morning,

Here, all covered in sequins, is my Hordes of the Things Early Imperial Roman Behemoth - a Testudo!



I started this in 2002...in fact, rather than me spouting on about it here, you can read all about it here.

Again, these paper shield covers have been invaluable in completing the over all effect.

Nick

Early Imperial Roman General and Grunts

Good afternoon,

My second laid back week is fast drawing to a close, bother it, but, just before I go, so to speak...



These fellows make up my DBA/DBM (if I ever play it again...none of my mates are that keen on it anymore...)/HOTT command element. For Warmaster Ancients, it just makes up the numbers of a Cav unit, the commanders being more tokens than fighting stands.

All the riders and the two outside horses are HaT (the Vexillum carrier being a conversion from the HaT EIR Ax Cav dude waving his sword, if memory serves), and the centre horse is a Newline 20mm metal. I'm fairly pleased with how these turned out, 'cept the faces, which I'm still coming to grips with.

And now for the boys...




These are Esci Legionaries, with paper shield covers to hide the great big hole in the middle of the scutum! Just BMP files that I found a long time ago. I half thought they may look a bit naff, but I have been pleasantly surprised with the result.

The Centurion on the right is Italeri, the other and the signifiers are HaT.

Nick

Gauls

As well as hacking away at my EIR Ax, I also pottered along with a Warband element, one of many that needs (or needed) painting. So, as I chug along with Romans, or whatever, I'll keep turning out Warband until they're, well, all done.


Of interest, apart from seeing figures from three different manufacturers (Revell, Airfix and Italeri respectively), it the effect a spray on gloss I'm using has on the paint. To the naked eye, you can't really notice anything, yet, magnified, well...hmmm...

I ran out of Cabots, which is the water based polyurethane varnish that I apply to my finished figures. Leaves a glossy shine, but the finish is pretty tough, and keeps the paint from flaking. I gave away a heap, thinking I'd never use it all, but, ummm, then I kind of did...

Had I the money, I would have purchased another can, but, given they're $30, and money for my hobby is scarce, I thought I'd try a cheaper alternative. It's a far flatter finish, but, well, it's not as good.

Ah well, never mind.

Nick

Painting Early Imperial Roman Auxila

Good morning,

Well it is here. A lovely mild spring day. The sun is shining and...I'm on holiday! After a very busy term I've finally had a week to sit down and actually apply some paint to some figures before heading back to school again next week to organise for the last push for the year.

So sit down I did. And low and behold I've actually finished painting 4 elements of HaT's Early Imperial Roman Auxilia. 16 figures no less.





(Note my oh-so-sophisticated painting set up...)

Its only taken me, stink, ages. I started these figures, I think it was in the Christmas holidays, and here's why. Each figure has...

• Undercoat - Chaos Black - 1



• Flesh - base coat of Dark Flesh/Elf Flesh mix with a highlight of Bronzed Flesh - 2, 3



• Tunic and trousers - either a base coat of green mixed with blue, then a highlight of Goblin Green (which sounds daft, but actually looks great - nice and bright), or a light grey base coat with an off white highlight - 4, 5



• Shield - base coat of green mixed with blue, then a highlight of Goblin Green (done at the same time as the tunic)



• Chainmail - heavy dry brush of Bolt Gun Metal with a highlight of Mithral Silver - 6, 7



• Swords - likewise



• Leather - dark brown base, red brown highlight (which turned out to be a bit fiddly -a couple of straps have paint applied, well, just underneath!) - 8, 9



• Spears - Beasty Brown with a Beasty Brown and white mix highlight - 10, 11



• Scarves - either as the white tunics/trousers, or dark blue with a dark blue/white mix highlight - 12, 13

Note - I did all of the basecoats first, then went back to do the highlights. I use Citadel and Vallejo paints.

I think that's everything. Apart from the standard, (same as the spears, with a Bolt Gun Metal/Brazen Brass/Shining Gold painted emblem on the top), and the [Airfix] Centurian who I just painted as if he were dressed in leather. Not a terribly accurate figure I know, but hey, most of it's hiden behind his shield, and if my opponent can see his back during a game he's facing the wrong way!

So, for each figure, that's x # of applications of paint where x is...hang on, I have to count them...13 separate steps. Per figure. What is 13 * 16...? Well, 10*16 = 160 + 3*16 = [3*15 + 3*1] 48 = 208. (That is NZ Curriculum Numeracy Stage 5...or is it Stage 6? I forget. Its what I taught in my Year 5 class two or so years back. Right now I'm trying to get Room 3 to Stage 4 before they ship off to Year 2 at the end of the year.)

Now, given that each application takes a couple of minutes, give or take (sometimes more, sometimes less, hacking away in a production line fashion and all that...), these figures have taken aproximately, what, 20, 25 hours to complete? So that's why it seemed so long.

Still, I think they look good.


Of course now I've just realized that all of their helmets should have been bronze, not iron, so I'll have to go back and fix them...bother it.

Once Stan has discovered where he's stored his bases after shifting house, I can get some off him to completely finish these elements and put them away. In the meantime...

Nick

More Goblins

Hi,

More Raetian Goblins. The Horde...





...classed as Hordes for HOTT, Auxilia for DBA, and Light Infantry Skirmishers for WMA.

As stated previously, the vast majority these started 'life' as Esci Romans (although the more observant of you will spot the odd old Airfix figure), at a time when, well, the Esci Romans and Barbarians (and the occasional box of Revell Praetorians and Celts, if you could get them) was pretty much it when it came to Ancients. 20mm Fantasy? Forget it!

So, upon reading a Practical Wargamer article about Middle Earth HOTT with plastics, where it was suggested to paint Romans green, well, that was what I did.

However, I was conscious that they'd still look like Romans painted green, so I cut out all of their Balteus or Cingulum Militare (you know, those dingle dangle things in front of their groins), and for about half of them I cut off bits and pieces (or in some cases, all) of their Lorica Segmentata.

Their shields are drawing pins, minus the pins (the shield patterns were just some random strokes of the brush!) and the weapons are a selection of chopped down (or not) 15mm pikes and halberds.

I also cut off their bases and stuck them to thin balsa wood, so they'd at least look a little shorter than their EIR counterparts which are based (whole) on 3mm MDF bases.

I also did the same, but more so, to their Bow and Psiloi/Skirmishers.




As for painting these greenskins, well, I chose a limited palette of browns, blues and greys, then doused them in PVA with a little black mixed in. Gave them a good dirty, grimy, un-Romanish look.

10 years work. And there you go.

Nick

Warmaster Ancients - AB's vs. Raetian Goblins!

Good evening,

A couple of weeks ago I trotted around to Andy's house to demonstrate the mechanics of a 1000 pt Warmaster Ancients game to him and Adrian.

I've only got two armies with sufficient painted elements - Ancients British and Raetian Goblins - so we had a bit of a mythical bash in the foot hills of Wales!

As I didn't take too many photos, this won't be my usual lengthy Battle Report ("Yay!" I hear some say!). Suffice it to say that my Gobbos were overwhelmed by Andy and Adrian's Warband (they did seem to have more than me...).






Highlights - my Storm Giant (I was using the rules straight out of The Battle of Five Armies - the Tolkien version of Warmaster) getting run over by Adrian's Fanatics, who then in turn got run over by my Body Guard!





One very clever thing that Adrian did was brigade four Warband units, three elements deep. This meant that when my three units of Goblin light infantry, double ranked charged into his Warband brigade, he was able to spread the hits between his units, which meant that, well, my punch was spread too thin! I managed to take out his front rank, but...well..bother it!


However, as Adrian did point out, it really pays to pile in first. That charge bonus is a game breaker!

Nick

HOTT Day in July - Battle 4

And we came down to the wire, well, sort of.

Not being in the running for anything other than the Wooden Spoon, those who were at the top of the ladder were matched up against each other, while the rest of us were paired off to play amongst ourselves.

And so it was that I met Tony's 15mm WWII Germans, as I had in Game 2. We were on a different table this time, however - the one with a BUA in the middle (which was essentially the same as a forest), a couple of woods and a gentle hill.

It transpired that I was the defender this time, so I put out my 'Stronghold' (actually a couple of DBM Baggage elements that I had made some time ago when I was using my Goblins for 100AP DBM) for the first time in four battles, and Tony put away his, again for the first time in four battles,


We closed in on each other...




...while I sent my Beasts around to the right.


Flyers being Flyers, Tony flew them over my line to lurk to the rear of my Goblins. A potentially annoying aggravation...



I threw my army into contact first.

My heroic Hordes hurried into Tony's tremendous Tiger, with some trepidation I might add, and my right most doggies managed to close in on one of his Shooters.


My Riders ran straight into Tony's Magician and another Shooter...nasty, nasty Shooter...


Tony managed to push back my heroic Horde (they're surprisingly resilient little blighters)...


...while I dealt to his surrounded Shooter...


...and Tony's Magician recoiled my Lizards, leaving the other precariously perched on a potential precipice...


In the centre, Tony moved up Rommel, his Hero, to support the Tiger (Behemoth), which had just squished one of my Hordes (still, there's plenty more where they came from - well, that's the idea, at least. In practice, the battle generally ends before any of my re-generated Horde can get back into the fray!), and to support his out-doggied Shooter.


Alas and alak, the out-doggied Shooter survived, bouncing both Beast elements off with nonchalant ease. Bother.

He also moved up his Behemoth, but, as he had no room to conform (the BUA meant that he couldn't slide over his line to match mine...well, in retrospect, I suppose he could have, but then his Hero General could have been caught in the BGo, and the shooter would have had to move across the ZOC of the foremost doggie, and probably into flank contact with the other...it would have been messy...), so no combat was able to take place.


Instead, Tony moved up his Shooter so that, what with the overlap and all, my doggies had a good chance of becoming, well, dog food!


On the other flank, my other Beasts had managed to deal to the Shooter that was exposed at the end of the line, but my Riders had been pushed back to pop behind Tony's Flyers by shooting and magic respectively.

Tony had miss-understood the rules about Flyers in (or not in) contact, else he would have tried to move them into my Riders so that I couldn't recoil. Ah well, we play and learn...


So here was the situation.

We were delicately balanced on my left (what, with his flyers 'n all), I had a fast moving, terrain ignoring element on Tony's open flank on his left, and we were all set for a major punch up in the centre, weighted fairly decisively in Tony's favour.

The next few bounds looked to be interesting...


Right, for it! I roll my own Behemoth into the flank of his Tiger...to just sit there! As his Tiger wasn't in legal combat contact, and had no room to conform, well, there was nothing much either of us could do, until...


...he shot out my Beasts. Then we all had a bit of space to move.


On my left, I urged the Lizard Riders forward, under the German Flyers, and into the fray once more. This time, with the doggies in support. And in support again. 3 to 2 in my favour, with no where for the Magician to recoil.


Huzzah! Can't remember what Tony rolled, but it must have been pretty low for me to win that combat!


Unfortunately, I rolled equally badly in the next combat, and this time came out second best. Bother.


Tony moved a Flyer and the remaining Shooter into the last of my Riders...stink...


...and turned to face my flank contacts with both the Tiger and Rommel. Stink.


A recoil each in the centre...


...and my Lizards managed to bounce both the Shooter and the Flyer! Huzzah!


"Right", thought I, "time to end this. I hope."

I rolled in with my [Blade] General, and, since Tony's ZOCs were all facing the other way, zipped my doggies into the back of his Hero General. 3+1 for me, 6-1-1 for Tony, and nowhere for him to recoil. Roll high!


No, not Tony, me! Roll high me! What made it worse was that since my wolves had nowhere to recoil themselves, they got done! Oh bother it!


In rolled Tony again...


...and that was it. Not only did the Tiger run over the Giant, but my Lizards got shot down to boot! Stink!


Still, it was another good game, and probably the closest one I had all day.

Again, Tony really enjoyed the game, as did I, and, again, that's really what it's all about, isn't it?

Good on ya Tony!

Nick