Sort of Ancients

I'm busy painting Republican Romans in 28mm at present and there's not much in the way of completed work to show here.  I'm half way through a box of 60 Victrix legionaries but enthusiasm is waning so productivity has been higher than it is right now.

By way of a change of pace I thought I'd dig out what I have in my Glorantha collection that could work for ancients-period To The Strongest! games.

These Achaemenid Persians were bought for use as Lunar Empire troops in Prax (hence the desert-y basing).  I don't have any other Persian troops of that period to go with them but I wonder if I could stretch a point and use them in a Seleucid force?

Then we have my Sun Domers. These were mostly made from a pack of Black Tree Designs (I think) Spartans.  There are a few Foundry Greeks in there too.  I can make one nice, deep hoplite unit...

... and another smaller one with a few singly based Heroes.

I guess these guys could serve in the army of one of the Hellenistic kingdoms or at a pinch as mercenaries for my Carthaginians?

Finally, there's also a unit of bow-armed light infantry for the same force.

The distinctively Sun Domer blonde hair may be a bit of a problem....

Back from the Far North

As the last post suggested, I've been away in the Burghs (Edin- and Bam-) for ten days.  The main purpose of the week was to visit some shows at the Festival Fringe. I strongly recommend Hardeep Singh Kohli, Austentacious, George Egg's DIY cookery show, and local band Flagstaff's Americana Sundays session.

However, as I said in the previous post, our first Saturday in Edinburgh coincided with the Claymore show at Granton.  It was nice to meet up with a couple of mates, Hi Peter and Kenny, but disappointing not to see the Blues Bears present.

A few games caught my eye.  This ACW game made nice use of a Cigar Box battle mat...

This Operation Market Garden - Crossing the Waal game was impressive....

...and I was quite taken by this large scale 1970s New York gang warfare game.
 

Shopping-wise I was relatively restrained.  Between Claymore and a visit to Wonderland Models on Lothian Road, my trip to Edinburgh netted the following...

The Ian Heath Armies of the Dark Ages was a bargain at £5 on the Bring and Buy and has already inspired my to consider some Dark Ages battles for To The Strongest in 6m to take advantage of my listing Late Romans and Goths.  Armies of the Carthaginian Wars is showing its age but useful reference material as I continue my dalliance with my 28mm Punic Wars.  The white metal is a pack of four Roman cavalry from Curteys for the same project.  I think they might be a little short of stature compared to my Victrix plastics.

The black items are a pair of resin gargoyles that will end up in the Pavis project...

Finally, apart from a pot of Dark Earth paint, there's a box of HaT plastic Napoleonic Royal Marines and Royal Navy crew.  

Painted up these guys will give me (with the addition of a couple of officers) a naval landing party for Sharp Practice. In addition, the Royal Marines will do nicely as Government forces for the United Irishmen's Revolt.

Also purchased, but not in the pic above were a ship's wheel and a couple of anchors that will go along way towards turning my Spongebob Squarepants pirate ship into something more historically accurate.

Claymore purchases

We're in Edinburgh for a family holiday and ooh look, it just happens to coincide with the Claymore show at Edinburgh College's Granton Campus. Edinburgh's one of my favourite cities and Claymore's a nice show.

There were some nice games and I came away with some ideas it can't post pics here due to the limitations of Blogspot on an iPad.

Purchases-wise I did quite well.  Armies of the Dark Ages and the Osprey book on the Punic Wars for a fiver each on the bring and buy was a nice find.

I also bought four Republican Roman cavalry to complete my To The Strongest legion from Curteys Miniatures, a couple of resin statues that will appear in the Pavis project, and finally some 28mm ship accessories that will help turn my Spongebob pirate ship into a reasonable scale model.

Polybian Romans part 3

The latest stage of my concentrated effort to paint up a whole box of Victrix Republican Romans has resulted in these, nearly complete, Triarii.

There are shields to come.  I'm planning on yellow at present.

These eight figures will form the single triarii element in my first Roman legion (in this scale).  Im planning on standardising on 8cm x 6cm bases for Small units in To The Strongest!  They get me to half way through the box of sixty.  Not bad for a month's painting.

Sikorski S55

I've finally painted the helicopter that came with my Revell USS Burton Island kit.

The model comes with open spaces where the windows should be so I had to sculpt some in with Green Stuff.

The colour scheme is a 1960s US Navy one.  Stands out nicely doesn't it?

I did consider painting it up as an RAF Wessex but I think it improves the look of the Burton Island so significantly that it's best used in this role.

Polybian Romans part 2

A further progress shot on those Victrix Romans...

As usual with my camera's harsh flash, they don't look as good as they do in real life.

A few things still need completing. I've done the signifier's headdress as if it were a wolf but then realised it's supposed to be a lion.  Secondly I'm not happy with the feather plumes on the helmets.  I think I'll redo them in black and purple.  And finally, I obviously need to complete the shields.

On the Workbench: Polybian Romans

I've decided to have a go at running a game of 28mm To The Strongest at Christmas.  I'm planning Carthaginians vs Romans.

My Roman legion is going to be made out of Victrix plastics.  I'd like to get some Agema plastics and Aventine metals too but the Victrix guys are quite big so I won't be mixing them in the same units.

So far I have these guys at various stages of incompletion...

I started off planning on using eight guys in mail with pila as Hastati but as time's gone on I've given it further consideration.

The Victrix box contains 60 figures of which 18 are unarmoured velites.  I only need twelve for my planned three four-figure units so I'm going to use some of the velites, with legionary shields, helmets and pila, as poorer hastati.  I think I'll also give the hastati a larger proportion of men wielding gladii.  My thinking is the the hastati are the first into action so should have thrown their pila earlier than the principes.  

Principes will be distinguished by all having pila (apart from officer and standard bearer) and full armour whilst the single unit of triari will get long spears and the fancier helmets.  I also want to see if I can get a general element out of this box to represent the legate in charge of the legion.