Roman Auxilia in 10mm

10mm Roman Auxilia...figures from Pendraken.

I am pleased to share a slight diversion from my recent WW1 efforts...here is a unit of Roman Auxilia in 10mm. The figures are from Pendraken, and they are based for "Warmaster Ancients" - although they could, of course, work with any number of other rules.

View showing some of the detail from behind the line...

The Roman Empire is a recurrent hobby interest on mine, albeit one that never seems to make it very far in terms of painting efforts. I am fascinated by the era, but for whatever reason, I get almost nothing painted, and the meandering course of these Auxilia figures beneath my brushes are a fine exhibit of this many-starts-but-more-stops when it comes to me and to Roman subjects. 

Not so many command figures with this bunch - just an officer and a musician.

During the recent Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge I completed a small group of Roman Legionary infantry. Yay! I had finally made a bit of progress towards something Roman on the gaming table! These Auxilia figures were "up next" in the painting queue at that time, and I was certain that I some momentum, so I kept rolling along. I finished 20 of the 30 figures for the Auxilia unit - and the remaining 10 figures were primed, base-coated and sitting on sticks, waiting for a couple colours...but...SQUIRREL! I decided suddenly "hey, maybe I'll finish some of this other 10mm stuff" and before you know it, the inspiration had moved on...so the Auxilia waited...and waited....they became a small corner feature of my painting desk.

Ready to move out!

These Auxilia have been sitting for just about three months, nearly completed, on my painting desk, but I just would not get around to finishing them. I guess they finally spoke to me or something this past weekend, as I settled down and finally finished the last of the little guys and got the group based. Here they are!

As always, the Pendraken castings are lovely and I really recommend their 10mm products. I now have four units of 10mm Romans painted - oh my! Not enough for a game of course - and they would need opponents! But this still a massive increase over the "zero" number painted prior to AHPC XI...who knows when the Roman bug will bite again, but watch for more! Anyway, back to WW1 (I think...). Thanks for reading, and stay safe everyone!

German Jaeger for the "Guns of August" - 12mm WW1

German WW1 Jagers, 12mm figures from Great Escape Games.

My "Guns of August" project continues - here is another unit for the German side. These are Jagers, "light" infantry of the German army. These are all 12mm figures from "Great Escape Games", based for their rule set "1914". Each base would represent a company of infantry, and so this would represent a full-strength battalion in the "1914" game.

MG08 gunner is on a 25mm square base - others are mounted on 25mm x 50mm rectangles.

The uniform of the Jager is different from that of the other regular German infantry of the era - they still wear a shako, and even though this had a cover, the pom at the top of the shako still showed. They also wore green (or, at least, I think most of them did, at the outset of WW1 anyway). As is common with "light infantry", they were thought to be elite, especially if you asked them. The green does not stand out as much as the green worn in 1870, but it provides a slight amount of colour variety for the German WW1 forces.

Nice detail on the kit and packs of the troops.

 

Jager battalions were attached at Corps-level in the German army, and in particular they seemed to accompany cavalry formations - or at least they did in terms of the OOBs of the game scenarios I am considering. I think they often had some troops riding bicycles to accompany with/keep up with cavalry units. I can't think of a way to represent this yet...if any clever Challenge participant knows someone who makes 12mm size bicycles, please let me know!

You might be able to pick out the officer, near the centre of the photo - "here we go, should reach Paris in no time at all!"

As before, these were very nice and fun-to-paint castings, and this project has still has a lot of momentum on my painting desk - at least for now! Thanks for reading!

Bonereapers Gothizzar Harvester

 The next addition to my Ossiarch Bonereapers is the Gothizzar Harvester. All those bone constructs need raw materials and one of the best sources after defenseless towns and hamlets is the battlefield! The model can be equipped with either sickles or bludgeons. I went with bludgeons because I think they look more dangerous. The spirit skulls seemed a bit easier to paint on this one, though I still painted many of the parts separately. Assembly was easy and I didn't have any issues. I also added some metal washers to the underside of the base to give it some heft!

The idea of the harvesters is to scour the battlefield for spare parts, which it places in a large basket on its back. All manner of bones are in there in very gory detail. I used a mix of washes and layer paints to make the bones appear "fresh" as though they haven't been cleaned yet. The kit provides a few alternate arm positions as well as carrion birds fighting the arms over some scraps. The birds were very fiddly and I ultimately opted to not leave them off as I'm certain they would snap off during play and/or transport.

I love the helping hands up the side of the monster for stripping and then depositing the newly acquired bones

I have a unit of cavalry to finish next and then I think I'll take a break from the Bonereapers and move on to another project.

Thanks for visiting.

More "Guns of August" - 12mm WW1

French and German WW1 infantry in 12mm - figures from Great Escape Games.

So my hobby focus continues to be soaked up by the early weeks and months of WW1, and I continue painting 12mm figures for my "Guns of August" project. Here we see more German troops, but some Allies also make an appearance. All figures are from Great Escape Games, and are based for their "1914" rules (although this basing will work with other rules as well). 

Dismounted German Uhlans

Dismounted German Uhlans - figures from Great Escape Games.

Who wants to dismount their cavalry? That's boring! But of course the battlefield realities of WW1 were such that dismounting was often called for - when the machineguns, rifles and artillery open fire, that whole theory of "mounted infantry" suddenly, maybe, possibly, might make a little bit of sense...even though it was SO lacking in glory...

In the "1914" rules (and many other rules) the cavalry can dismount...so you functionally need double the number of bases...

The upshot of this is that your Uhlans might dismount and fight on foot, and it is nice to have figures to represent this on the table. Great Escape Games has you covered...when you purchase a cavalry unit, you get figures to represent them both as mounted (glorious!) and dismounted (sigh...). 

Excellent sculpts from Great Escape Games.

Uhlans make cool-looking cavalry, even with the muted grey-green colours of 1914. But as infantry they seem pretty awkward. It makes me think of the Uhlans themselves sort of realizing that the whole ride-around-and-charge thing was probably over, even if they, or their officers, were reluctant to accept such a truth...

(Another) German Infantry Unit

More German infantry from WW1...you need lots of these fellows for the game...

Not much to say here...it's more German infantry, ready to battle through Belgium and into France! Schlieffen worked out all the timetables, right? So what could go wrong?

Each base would represent a company of infantry for the "1914" rules.

For the "1914" rules each base would represent a company of infantry, so the four bases together on the table would represent a battalion at its full right-off-the-train-from-the-depot strength, ready to continue the advance!

French Infantry Unit

Toujour a l'outtrance!

Can't play WW1 without some Allies, right? Great Escape Games offers French, British and Belgian figures for their "1914" range. The figures all look great, and I'm keen to test my brushes on each set. I had to pick one to be "first", and I went with the French.

Obviously, the uniform has a strong hobby appeal. Of all the combatants in WW1, the French army retained the most "classic" look to their uniform, with red pants and blue coats. The covers for the kepis, and the removal of the epaulettes take the "bling level" down a touch from the time of the Second Empire, but these are still fun colours to paint. 

A French company, ready to take the offensvie!

But beyond the uniforms there is just the great and compelling spirit and tragedy of the French army in WW1. The French went to war in 1914 with "Plan XVII" as their strategy and the idea of "cran" as their guide. The offensive was more than the order of the day...it was the central spirit, a core element of cohesion to the entire French military structure in 1914, from top to bottom. 

The base at the rear has only three castings...a broken rifle on a figure has already caused some losses...

This mix of factors led to a stunning series of military collisions, the "Battle of the Frontiers", in the opening days of the war. These battles did not go well for France. The Plan XVII attacks went nowhere, and as the scale of the German right wing wheeling through Belgium became apparent, the French would be sent reeling.

I believe that is a Hotckiss MG, although I think the French army had a different MG for the outset of WW1?

The commander is ready to lead from the front...

With hindsight Plan XVII seems quite bonkers, naturally - so much of WW1 does. But there is something I cannot describe about the French army in those opening days that is a particular trigger to my curiousity - and so the French will be the first allies on to the table for this project! This one unit was a "test" - more to follow soon, I hope...

So that's all for now - thanks for reading!

"Guns of August" Project Continues - 12mm WW1

More 12mm WW1 Germans ready to march through Belgium!

As Curt's most recent edition of the "Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge" finished, I kicked off another new project. After all, we all need new projects, right? Especially with these endless f*cking lockdowns. This new project was "The Guns of August", WW1 in 12mm, with figures from Great Escape Games. While the AHPC is concluded for another year, I'm still working away on this new project. Here is more infantry, more MGs, another 77mm gun team and a command base. These are all based for Great Escape Games "1914" rules, although they would certainly work for other rulesets as well.

German infantry columns massing for war!

In the "1914" rules, the level of abstraction is similar to that of Great War Spearhead - each base of infantry would represent a company, and each MG would represent an entire detachment of the weapons. Oddly, each 77mm gun only represents one half of a battery...that seems strange to me, but I haven't yet had the chance to try out the rules on the table, so I should withhold any judgements like that until such a time as I finally get to play them!

77mm gun ready to support the advance.

Another view of the gun crew. The bases for artillery are 50mm squares.

The castings from Great Escape Games have been very nice so far - only one broken Uhlan lance in the whole package...the figures are sold in units (generally four bases plus an MG, although in the game the actual size of the units can vary) or in special "brigade" boxes. I started with a "brigade" box for the Germans, and you get a fair bit of stuff - four units of infantry (four bases each), a regiment of cavalry (four bases), bases to represent the dismounted cavalry (four bases' worth), five MGs, two 77mm guns, and a group of command figures. Not too shabby!

Command base, packed with goodies from the box set - very nice sculpts. The German officers are not sure what to make of these maps...

As you can see, I based the command figures on a round base, as I would for games of "Spearhead". I think it looks better, and helps it to stand out from the others. Also, one of the gaps in the "1914" rules (and there are a few) is that, well, they provide literally no rules for what to do with the commanders, so thought I would go with my preference :)

More views of the infantry. The bases are 50mm x 25mm rectangles.

Lovely detail on the sculpts, showing the kit of the German infantry.

The MG08s are on 25mm square bases.

My only criticism on this Great Escape figure range so far would be lack of crew...certainly an MG08 in 1914 needed more than one chap to haul the gun, ammo and tripod around. The 77mm guns would have taken more than two crew to stay in action...but that said, these are all nice castings, they paint up quickly, and I really enjoyed working on them. I'll have many more to share as this project proceeds!

Thanks for reading - please stay safe, and stay sane!

Elven Heroes of Rivendell and Lothlórien

I am continuing to whittle down my Lord of the Rings 'pile of shame'. All of these figures were based and primed years ago, and then languished on the work bench. I haven't done any elves so far in this current painting spell, so I thought some elven heroes should be next. The six I completed are Gil-galad, Elrond, Elladan, Elrohir, Haldir, and a Galadhrim standard bearer. All of these are Games Workshop casting from at least ten year ago, and most have been replaced with new sculpts.

 

 

All of these were painted using water-based acrylics, mostly Vallejo, plus some ink washes of dark brown and reddish brown. The elven armour was initially painted with bronze and then highlighted with gold. In the case of Haldir and the standard bearer, their armour was given a wash of reddish brown prior to the gold. That was followed with further highlighting with a silver-gold mix. Otherwise the method for painting was to lay on a dark colour first, and building up ever lighter layers on the raised areas. 

 

Gil-galad and Elrond

 

Gil-galad was the high king of the Elves and the mightiest warrior of his Age, his bravery and leadership inspiring his followers to carry out great deeds in battle. At the height of the War of the Last Alliance, Gil-galad confronted Sauron, throwing himself into combat with the Dark Lord for the freedom of Middle-earth. Though Gil-galad would never see the Dark Lord finally defeated, for he perished at the hands of Sauron upon the slopes of Orodruin, his name lived on in songs and legends - even those sung by Sam during the closing of the Third Age.

 

A mighty and renowned warrior, Elrond has been at the forefront of many great battles. He fought against Sauron in the War of the Last Alliance and bore witness to the Dark Lord's downfall. It was he who tried to convince Isildur to destroy the Ring for good, an act that would have saved much suffering in the Third Age. Blessed with the gift of foresight, Elrond is able to provide great wisdom for his allies.

 

Elladan and Elrohir

 

The twin sons of Elrond and Celebrian, Elladan and Elrohir are every bit as skilled in combat as their father. The twins often rode alongside Aragorn in his youth, forging a strong bond with the future king through their battles with the Haradrim and the Orcs. Whilst most Elves played little part in the War of the Ring, Elladan and Elrohir joined Aragorn as he ventured into the paths of the Dead and even followed him to the Pelennor and the Black Gate. Together, the brothers are a deadly foe, fighting with a whirl of flashing steel and the precision of the Elven lords of old.

 

Haldir and Galadhrim Standard Bearer

 

One of the most trusted captains and skilled archers of Lothlórien, Haldir is tasked with defending the woodland borders. It was Haldir that led the Galadhrim to Helm's Deep to honour the alliance that once stood between Men and Elves, a noble act, but one that would ultimately claim his life. His sacrifice was not in vain however, as the forces that were brought to the Hornburg no doubt provided incalculable aid in the defense of the great fortress.

 

The Golden Wood is defended first and foremost by the warriors of the Galadhrim, steadfast soldiers who have honed their skills in combat across many wars throughout the ages. Like all Elves, the Galadhrim are skilled with blade, spear and bow. Tasked with the protection of Lothlórien, these warriors shall give their lives in its defence, for should it fall, Middle-earth shall surely follow. The combat bonus of the banner allows the player to re-roll one of the dice rolled to determine who wins the fight.

 

While I already have some High Elves painted, Haldir and the standard bearer are the first Galadhrim figures I have painted. I liked the paint scheme used for these figures on the Games Workshop website, and tried my best to replicate it. I am pretty happy with the results. I have some unopened blisters of older metal Galadhrim warriors in my 'pile of shame', but I think it's time to do some companies of Mordor Orcs next.

 

Thanks for reading.

Wrapping up the Painting Challenge

The Painting Challenge has been over for nearly a month now and I'm trying to get back into the brush-swinging habit - this should be made somewhat easier by the return of winter to the Prairies but I'm having to work at it... anyway I thought I'd try to get myself back into the spirit by posting some of my last Challenge models here as well. Away we go...

From the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge Blog:

Having completed the Chambers of Challenge and offered tribute at the Altar of the Snowlord, all that remains is to post the last few models completed before the end of the Challenge. First up is this Hobgoblin Chieftain on Dire Wolf, from Games Workshop's old Warhammer Fantasy Battles range.

The first army I ever painted for WHFB was a classic "big hat" Chaos Dwarf force, which still maintains pride of place in my cabinets. An important part of the army was a large contingent of Hobgoblin Wolf Riders, which engaged in some "creative reimagining" of battle reports we posted on our blog.

In sniffing around for something to paint at the last minute, I noticed that I had this model that had been waiting for paint for nigh-on 15 years or more. So I got at it!

Makes me want to get the Chaos Dwarfs out again for some old-school WHFB! Barks - take note - I counted 15 SKULLS on this model alone! Must be some kinda record...?

Next up is the King of the Dead to accompany my recently-painted Warriors of the Dead. The King is a metal model which arrived yesterday from an eBay transaction. It was new in the blister, having originally accompanied an issue of the Eaglemoss "LotR" collector's magazine.

As before - simplicity itself to paint. White spray and Biel-Tan Green wash. That's it!

Lastly, another postal arrival from yesterday - a very cool "Death Worm" from Otherworld Miniatures (currently on sale at their site for 4 quid!!)

This monster is a sorcerous construct and not, strictly speaking, undead - at least according to its entry in the Fiend Folio under "Necrophidius". Conscript Brian H. instantly recognized it when I showed it off on our Zoom call last night and directed me to the FF entry. Good knowledge Brian! 

It was obviously another super-easy model to paint and brings the total skull-count for this post to 16 SKULLS. WOW!

---------------------------------

I also posted a wrap-up of my Challenge models on the Challenge blog:

Assembled production

Well, here we are at the end of the Challenge. I'd set myself a modest goal of 500 points which I ended up more than doubling. Still, it wasn't *quite* enough to get me into the top 25 - my good friend Greg pipped me by a mere 6 points! In any event, here's the breakdown of my Challenge production:

• 28mm foot: 75
• 28mm mounted: 3
• 28mm large figures/monsters: 5
• 28mm artillery pieces: 1
• 28mm tanks: 1
• 28mm landing craft: 1
• 28mm furniture/terrain: 12
• 20mm foot: 2
• 20mm cars: 1
• 20mm tanks: 1
• 15mm tanks: 3
• 10mm Titans: 1

self-portrait

I just want to end this post by again thanking Mr. Curt and all of his Minions for running the Challenge for all of us, and also to Lady Sarah and the Minions' other halves for their forbearance and tolerance of the time Curt and the Minions spend on it. Thanks also to my fellow Challengers for the kind words you posted about my work.

See you at the bar...!

---------------------------------

So that's it... I promise I'm going to try to get some models painted... I have an idea what I'm going to do (and I've even finished the conversions and gotten them primed) and I promise you it will be like nothing you've ever seen on the blog...!