28mm El Cid Spanish

I picked up a box of HaT's 28mm El Cid Spanish Heavy Infantry two weeks ago on a whim. These looked appropriate for 11th century heavy infantry (I was thinking Normans) and I painted 20 over the weekend.

The key attraction of the box is the cost: 32 figures for $14 is a hell of a deal. Some may also like the more realistic proportions of the sculpts--in this way they are more like 1/72-scale figures than the heroic 28mm we are used to. I think they also painted up passably well. I have a second box (light infantry) on order and think they will get based up to complete a DBA Anglo-Danish army. Yes, I have a thing for perpetual loser armies! But for $28 an army, it is a heck of a deal!

The downsides of the box include ring hands (which are unnecessary given you can glue the plastic with airplane cement) and very brittle plastic (I snapped most of the spears either trying to insert them in the ring hands or by accidentally jarring them while painting. The sculpts themselves are passable but not really in the same league as Wargames Factory or Warlord Games. There is no way to use decals on these shields and I don't think they will mix with Conquest's upcoming plastic 28mm Norman horse (although HaT has cavalry on the way).

Up next: I have two batches of 15mm AWI troops drying and another three batches just primered. And it is club night tonight--I'm going to try DBA-RRR with Mark.

15mm AWI Dragoons

Working away on a commission, I finished some 15mm AWI dragoons (Philadelphia Light Horse).

These are Minifigs. I've never had a very good impression of Minifigs after I traded for a bunch of ancients. But perhaps the ones I had were old sculpts or the molds were worn. These were great!

The owner will need to add his own standard.

I also finished painting a dwarf with cannon ball (donated by Josh a long time ago) to finished this dwarf cannon.

The club is having a silent auction to help cover our gaming costs so I think I will donate a painted 28mm dwarf HoTT army. This might help raise some funds and encourage someone else to get into this scale.

Up next: Some more 15mm AWI are primered and have the flesh done. I have also got some 28mm HaT El Cid heavy Spanish infantry underway. A bit thin for 28mm and with annoying ring hands and brittle spears. But a good price and I think they'll paint up just fine.

Wilderness Wars

I popped by Bruce's last night for a second game of GMT's Wilderness War. This game examines the French-Indian War. We played a few more rules correctly and played a five-year game instead of the three-year game we started with.

The game board is nicely done and certainly improves my 18th century geography! This was the set-up for the game.

Here at the end of Lake Champlain sit my best generals. Shirley died early on due to card play (ack!) but Johnson went on to lead the drive on Montreal and Quebec in the last turns.

This is near the end of the game and the mess of generals at the top reflects my drive down the St. Lawrence. You can see (below) Bruce's efforts to come down lake Champlain and he eventually sacked Boston, alas too late to stop the steam roller.

This is a hard game for the French to win. I don't know what they should do and I felt bad for Bruce as his dice also stunk last night (he was such a good sport about this!). I liked this game more than Hannibal and about the same as Washington's War. All told, we played 10 hands of cards in 2.5 hours.

Up next: 15mm AWI light horse will get based today and I will move some 15mm over the mountain men to the prep stage. I'm also got to build some medieval and ancient artillery this evening.

28mm Commanders

I've been working on finishing off two 28mm DBA/HoTT armies (medievals and republican Romans). One item on my to-do list has been some commander figures that could serve as heros, clerics or magicians in HoTT. These are all 28mm metals from Warlord Games.

This fellow would serve as a hero (or hero general) for the Romans. I quite like the haggard look of him.

I'm not sure red was the right colour for his cloak. I have been trying to paint more vibrantly but maybe purple with pinkish highlights would have been better.

This fellow could be a magician, cleric or (in a Roman civil war) a sneaker.

This fellow will be a cleric or magician in the medieval army.

Up next: I have some 15mm AWI light horse that just need basing. I also have a Thracian mob in the works. Then some more 15mm AWI (mountain men?) and perhaps some 28mm artillery.

28mm Roman Camp

This summer I got inspired to try my hand at a diorama, putting together Roman and Celtic camps for my 28mm DBA/HoTT armies. The Roman camp looked unfinished and the consensus was it needed to be populated. A trade gave me some 28mm Warlord legionnaires and I bought some nice decals off the web. A bit of swearing later, voila.

About the only major issue I see here is that I put one of the shields on upside down (arrgh).

And then there is the fact that I have an imperial Roman camp for my republican Roman army.

It was interesting to build the Warlord imperial Romans--I think these were the first 28mm historical plastics to come out (about three years ago). They are a bit clumsy to assemble and have limited posability. Yet they are still pretty nice figures.

Up next: Some 15mm AWI horse have been primered and a 15mm Thracian DBA army has been built (those Xsyton armies are nice but fiddly). I also have three 28mm characters about to roll of the workbench to flesh out my HoTT/DBA medieval and Roman armies. Just need to finish up some siege engines.

15mm Alamanni army

I just finished part of a large commission. The biggest single piece was a DBA army (II/72b: Alamanni 250-506AD) so I thought I would start here. These are 15mm Essex Miniatures and the army incudes 1x3Cv or 4Wb (Gen). 7x4Wb, 3x3Bw, and 1x2Ps.

This is a bit of a hordeish army with lots of warband. Despite the age of Essex's sculpts, you can get a fairly good result with them (click on the picture to zoom)!

There are eight 4Wb bases, including the optional foot general (far left, more heavily armoured). With no real painting instructions, I decided to make these fellows more of an early Alamanni army with bright Germanic clothing. Some of the others I've seen on line tend towards more "dark age drab".

There are also three units of 3Bw. A bit more pose variety would be nice but dang can I ever production line mono-pose armies!

There is also one 2Ps element.

Finally, there is a 3Cv general element. I think the general figure is one of Essex's weaker poses but he looks alright. I couldn't see a way to get a standard on this base without major surgery on one of the riders. I thought about it but there is just too much stuff piled up.

Up next: Some 15mm AWI are being prepped as is a 15mm Xyston army. I have a small number of 28mm medieval and ancient figures about to get dipped and based. And I'm hoping I can play another game of Wilderness War this weekend. And my daughter brought home a Lego set where your build Hogwarts and then it functions as a game. Not bad despite some ESL rules.

EWG Club Night

It was club night last night and there about 15 guys out. My camera batteries died so I have few pictures. There was a good Warmachine crowd and they were still at it when I left.

I think there were six guys playing DBA.

And there were three guys playing CCA. This apparently pleased the hell out of Scott.

I played a game of Wilderness Ward is Bruce--our first time through the game and it was fun. No picture so I pinched this off the web.

Up next: A 15mm DBA army is almost done and the some more 15mm AWI. Plus maybe a few 28mm ancients.