15mm Turcoman Archers

I picked up a bit of painting work for a friend in Ontario and, with my ear infection on the retreat, I've just churned out the first units.

These are 15mm Turcoman archers for his Saracen army. The figures are made by Legio-Heroica in France and are quite lovely.

These were two-part figures (riders and horse). Virtually no flash and nice fit. Some of the other figures require gluing on shields and spears which was less fiddly than I thought it would be.

I think they took the paint quite nicely. The various sources i used showed them to be a mix of bright colours (especially the tack) and drab colours (homespun linen and wool?). I tried for a drabber, more middle eastern base than usual. They are based on standard DBA bases, although David intends to use them for Shattered Lances.

Next up: Some armoured Guhlam mounted archers. And I need to start rebasing 6mm AWI figures for MayDay.

January 19 Games Night

We had 18 guys out on January 19th for our annual silent auction and games night. The auction made over $600 for we can keep fees at $3 a night throughout the next year. A lot of games ran. Here we have Justin's poke at Command Decision 4 in 15mm.

And Scott is hosting Command and Colors Ancients in 6mm.

Here we have 15mm DBA and 25mm Warmachine.

And some 15mm LaSalle Napoleonics.

What a night!

Up next: I have a bunch of 15mm Saracens underway, starting with some mounted archers.

28mm Celtic Chariots

Two weeks ago Mark hooked me up with a box of three 28mm plastic Wargames Factory Celtic Chariots. These are for my Ancient British DBA army. I managed to knock them off pretty quickly

The fellow with the yellow cape turned out to be glued at a fairly improbable angle so I think I might go back and shift his weight forward a bit. Or put an arrow in his chest. We'll see. Despite this, I was fairly happy with the capes. I wonder if a flag waving off the standards would help this model?

The set comes with a Boudicca figure dressed up as a 9th-level AD&D trollop. Nice to see a female figure but I would have preferred one a bit more practically dressed. Some putty could rectify this and I may go do that with another figure and carve this one out. I might then give her a pennant on her spear and maybe some colourful rags on the tips of the yoke.

I tried to add a dare-devil rider here.

And, finally all three chariots coming head on.

Up next: It is club night on Tuesday with the annual auction as well so likely a post-game report from that. On the painting table are some beautiful 15mm Legio-Heroica Saracens I'm painting for a friend. I just completed assembly and priming and faced only a couple of swear-worthy moments (which is remarkable). This is a fairly big project. so will occupy probably the next month worth of modeling.

1/72 HYW Impetus

I dropped over to Dave's this morning and he pulled out a version of the board/miniature game he is planning on doing at MayDay. While his game will be Rome v Celt, we play-tested using his 1/72-scale HYW miniatures.

The board game went well, forcing some interesting choices and making for a fun lead-up to the game. It also affected who started with what forces.

Dave played the French, charging across a muddy field against my English lads on a hill. I got creamed.

Some of it was troop choice (should have gone with foot knights, instead of mounted). And some of it was just plain awful dice rolling. We played using the full Impetus set (instead of Basic Impetus); there were some nice differences.

And here are the guys who cannot shoot straight. Most of them died for their incompetence. Seriously--did they get their arrows wet and they warped? I could not hit anything.

Up next: Some 28mm Celtic chariots are drying. And I have a bunch of 15mm Saracens on paint sticks for a friend.

LaSalle playtest

I'm reviewing LaSalle for Battlegames and Bruce and I are going to write a comparative article of four of the new battalion-level Nap rules (perhaps for Miniature Wargames) that are out so we started out with LaSalle last night.

It was an interesting game, with only a few mechanical goofs on our part.

Overall, a tight core mechanic which combined morale with combat. Basically, shooting causes disorder which affects melee dice which is the main way to destroy other units.

It also does a sensible job of handling formation--plays at a similar level of abstraction as Basic Impetus. Maybe a bit bloody, but hard to say after one playthrough--it was certainly decisive and allowed for flanks to be turned and lines to be punched through.

Another observation was it requires a crap-load of miniatures. We played a small game last night with probably 1000 figures on the table. The units are not particularly differentiated in play. Anyhow, a good bit of fun (and I won... with some help from the dice, mind you).

Up next: Some 28mm Celtic chariots.

15mm Anglo-Irish DBA army

I finished a 15mm all-option Anglo-Irish DBA army last night (IV/21(a), (b) and (c)). This comprises 40 foot and 20 mounted troops on 17 bases. This army is for sale and I already have a queue of bidders. The total value of the army ($60) will be donated to the Edmonton Wargame Group to help cover our rent.

The army comprises four bases of 3Kn/3Cv. I had some difficulty deciding how to make it look like an army, given that what I had read suggested "uniforms" would be inappropriate. So I decided on red and white banners as the common theme.

And the second set of mounted bases. Not sure about the figures. Some look like Falcom. Some like Essex. A few Old Glory. And a couple I don't recognize.

There is also a 2LH base.

There are two bases of 4Bd.

Then four bases of 4LB.

And four bases of 3Ax.

And two bases of 2Ps.

Up next: I have completed and based three 28mm Celt chariots and am now working on the crews. I'm also off for a quick game of LaSalle tonight!

More 28mm Romans

I knocked off another two bases of Romans this week amid working on some 15mm Anglo-Irish. Below you can see 1/4 of the basic Marian Roman I'm working on.

The command stand proved the trickiest and I'm ultimately unhappy with the poses I put together. But done is done and I think the painting worked out okay on the faces. I think (fingers crossed) that those in the command party used round shields, not the big scutum-type.

I also did a stand of Legion with pilum. I was trying to recreate the overlapped shield effect.

I'm fairly happy with how these guys turned out.

I think this is the most attractive angle, showing off the crisp pilum.

Up next: 15mm Anglo-Irish are about 60% complete so that is likely the focus. I might also crack open the Wargames Factory chariots Mark sold me on Tuesday.

January 5th Games Night

It was the first club night of the year Tuesday and we had 10 players and 3 guests out for the event. Matt and Kevin played a game of Canvas Eagles with some spiffy looking planes.

Dave C and Scott played the second game in their WAB Arthurian campaign.

Chen-song put Justin and Bruce through a game of Ambush Alley.

Mark and I gave Arcane Legions a go--you can see his armoured grizzly bears putting the boots to my legion here.


Russ, Denis and Denis' son dropped in for a visit. And at the end, Jonathan joined Mark, Dave, Scott and me for a game of Ave Caesar.

We also got a pile of loot for our silent auction on January 19th.

First 28mm Romans

I cranked out my first set of 28mm Wargames Factory Romans today. I am happy to see that four of these fellows fit on a 60mm DBA base! There was even enough room to have one fellow throwing his pilum.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the result. I believe this was one of WF's first plastic sets and the detail is slightly less crisp than their more recent releases. But it is still very good.

Someone asked me for some assembly tips and I think the most important is the order I'm gluing the pieces together. First up is trunk to legs (if applicable). Then positioning the weapon arm. Then the shield arm. And finally the head (as this must match the overall direction of the pose).

As promised, here is a crisper shot of the Celtic psiloi.

And here is a better shot of the bow man. This required some cutting to bring his two arms up into an active shooting pose. I wouldn't have tried this with metal but the ease of cutting and low cost of an error made it worthwhile in plastic.

Up next: I've eight more Romans assembled, including a command stand so those will be next. And then onto a 15mm Anglo-Irish DBA army at the end of the week.

More 28mm Celts

I managed to knock off another 8 Celts last night, adding two 3Wb and one 2Ps to my growing host of hairy guys. These are the two 3Wb from the front. interesting how photography always brings up various glue stringers that are invisible to the naked eye!

And here they are from the back. The capes and bedroll (furthest right) are all putty. Maybe too many capes and too much baggage for soldiers going into combat? Oh well!

Here is an upclose shot of the bedroll I built. Clearly room for improvement with the sculpting but this is better than my first attempt.

Below are the 2Ps I did I had a helluva time getting a good shot of them (apologies for the blurriness). The fellow in front is just a straight build. The fellow behind with the bow required some carving. I was pretty uncertain about this but, with incremental cuts, I managed to get a nice looking figure and only had to add a strap for the quiver. I will get a better picture of this next time!

And here is the entirety of the horde so far. Not too impressive but very fun to do.

I also knocked off 48 Roman shields last night. I am growing to like the rub-on transfers more as I get used to them. Trying to do waterslides of this size would be tricky and I only managed to really mess up one transfer (that I salvaged with some paint/mud).

Up next: I have built four Roman legionnaires to see if I could get 4Bd on a 60mm base. It is possible if the figures are built carefully and arranged so they are facing sideways. There is even enough room for one fellow to be turned more square to the front to throw a pilum. These are currently being painted up.