Sunday, December 6, 2009

15mm Ancient British DBA army

I finally focused on and finished a Corvus Belli Ancient British DBA army (II/53) for my buddy Chris (now his Romans have someone to fight!). The army comprises 4 stands of chariots, including an optional chariot general. These were a bitch to assemble, with lots of awkward flash in the horse's legs and fiddly gluing of figures. But the result is pretty good.

I did a Boudiccia general figure. The plaid turned out pretty dodgy--too much rippling in the cape to get nice lines.

The dip is doing a very nice job of the horse flesh.

There are 2 light horse units.

There are nine (!) warband units, including a warband general. Here is the general.

These were pretty nice figures but a fair bit of flash to carve off the bottom of the bases. But the detail is very nice.

And then the paradox of individual shields: lots of possible variety but lots of gluing.

You get a better sense of detail looking from the side.



There are also four psiloi bases. Corvus Belli has modeled teenagers as the psiloi. Not sure how I feel about that. Yes, it is likely accurate. Yet do we really need to accurately model child soldiers?

Then there are these two bases of regular slingers.

Anyhow, overall a nice army with a fair bit of punch against the legion (at least on the first contact!), with some speed and rough-going options. And more complex to play than the Marian Legion Chris already has!

Up next: A 15mm Marian legion is on the paint table right now which will be up for sale shortly. Thereafter, I don't know. I may try a few of the 28mm plastics I have picked up. Or maybe another 15mm army for sale. We'll see!

7 comments:

tim said...

Lookin' good, Bob! CVT should wet himself with glee!

I've not been a big fan of "The Dip" - I've seen others who've done it and it makes decent figures look like garbage - but you seem to pull it off again and again! Bravo, sir!

Anonymous said...

Very nice. I won a set of these figures a month or so ago and I'm really looking forward to painting it. I know what you mean about flash. I've got a few cavalry figures to allow it to be Gallic, and it can provide some warbands for Carthaginians, so I've got a fair bit of CB waiting to do.

Bob Barnetson said...

Thanks. Yes, the flash on the bottom of the figures reminded me of old minifigs (where you could cut away 15% of the weight of the figure to get them to sit flat).

I love the dip--makes some careful block painting really pop. But it sure rewards careful painting and won't hide blobby blocking very well.

I have to say that I have come to hate detached shields. I see why they are produced this way but I frigging hate gluing those things one (even with gel crazy glue). I want to paint! NOW!

Chris said...

Consider me wet with Glee! Thanks Bob! They look amazing. It seems such a pity that they will end up as a conquered army...at least after they win once:-).

Anonymous said...

I've got those shields all ahead of me. Do you paint them first? I was wondering if that wouldn't be quicker; shields often get in the way of getting at parts of a figure.

Bob Barnetson said...

I glue everything, prime and paint. The only time I would not do this is if the shields had rub-on transfers (which may be the case with some 28mm plastics I'm thinking about starting over the holidays. That said, fishing a brush in can be a hassle. Moreso with the chariots which I assembled first and then painted.

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Nice job

I have always wanted/needed an army like this, something to add to the project list in 2010