My First 20mm Hail Caesar War Band

I have been part of Kev's Cabin Crew for some time now and was even given a compliment by Loki the other day, well that or he had a hairball ;-)

Early on I got the idea that these three guys would be easy to get on with as long as you contribute. Time, interest, maybe even rules and defiantly figures. Nothing gets more approval than your prepared to commit to supplying some of the figures for games.In the past they had a player who would turn up but tended to not deliver on the rest so I was keen to prove myself, hence the 20mm Russian WWII stuff. 

However when Kev struggled to get enough Celt's together for a three way bash I knew I could help out and picked up the figures but have had to stall as the hex system has meant a need to look at unit size. Good job I waited as it has been changed  so that eighteen figures makes up a unit on a reduced frontage. 

It's important to me to try and match the style that Kev has used on his Celt figures. The Cabin like the figures to be bright, I tend to be more dull, something I am trying to move away from and this may include trying more Coat d'arms paints as Kev gets a far richer range, especially red. Their 15mm are especially gorgeous and rich, certainly making me think more about my work.

I will take this unit over tonight and see how it matches to Kev's and change what is required on the next units to better suit. I have enough figures for five more units and a cavalry unit and a few skirmish bases so hope to get these done. 

They should be based on a 90x60 base but unfortunately Warbases did not take them to the show being one of the less sought after sizes so I used a 60x60 and 60x30 so it won't slow down movement. Let's hope they fight better than Kev's manage ;-)

T34 Secret Santa Ready To Roll

I always like to get me Secret Santa painted (if applicable) as soon as I can after Christmas to show my appreciation of the gift and as such I was keen to get the T34's done in January. The fact that they are also great looking models also helped.

These are Plastic Soldier Company 1/76 scale T34's for the new project I am working on. These should see service both at Kev's Cabin and Lee's fortress. So far I have painted up a bx of Revell infantry and now these tanks. The tanks were hands down the best experience of the two.

You get a mix of equipment and also the option of adding the 76L turret or the 85L turret. I especially like that you can fit either at any time allowing it to be twice as useful and save the money on buying two versions. The detail is crisp and the tanks went together well,, every stage was a pleasant experience and something I will be happy to do again in the not so distant future when I buy other tank types.

I could not help myself but add a few tank riders to one of the tanks and as such had kept back a few models from the figures previously blogged about.

I also used a hot pin to make a slight grove in the turret from a glancing blow, maybe that's why everyone is jumping off?

I put the tanks on bases so they would be a little safer when being transported and in this case allow for the infantry to be added as part of the model. 

As you can see I am rather pleased with my tank riders little dio, I still need to buy some support elements and this will probably be done at York, or at least looked into. 

Here we have the same tanks but with an upgrade of the 85L turret, a much bigger turret and barrel. Somehow looks a lot meaner.

I have painted up a commander for each of the turret types allowing me to use that one as the command tank if desired. That said the early T34 could not fire whilst the commander was half out of the turret as he was also the gunner!

So a BIG thank you to my Secret Santa, you helped make a good day better when I opened up the parcel and I hope you like what I did with the gift. Already looking forward to this years event.

Numidian Light Cavalry Explosion

Wanting to get a good start to this years Painting Challenge I purposely had planned the Numidian Elephants and this offering, lots of Numidian Cavalry. These are fairly quick and easy as the horses themselves only have a rope around the neck. So none of the usual tack etc. that many (me included) don't really enjoy painting.

 

I still put a reasonable amount of time into the horses though. All the dark horses were sprayed purple as a base colour. This gives more depth to the actual colour chosen for the horse with a layer of ink over the top to seal the deal. I also attempted my firs grey speckled scheme. I also at the same time used the colours I already had mixed on my 6mm figures so as to use up the paint and steal a bit more time when it came round to painting them.

 

It was doing the original Numidian light cavalry that I devised the goat/cow skin method for the shields but this was the first time I put it in practise with so many figures (flirty three!!) but it was just a case of having all three colours mixed up and doing a shield at a time.

 

This brings to an end the Numidian side of the project, that is unless I still do the skirmish bases which I have figures for but they are fairly awful so may not bother. That leaves me with a couple of Roman cavalry options to do and then it would be all done and dusted.

 

Once finished I plan to sell them as I don't think they will get used now. Not that I expect much for them being plastic. Now I have moved back to metal and my 6mm Napoleonic which will be shown in the next few days. 28mm WWII have now been added to the table but they will be fighting for position with my secret santa though I need a couple of WWII done for a prize for the PBeM ASL contest I have been involved in this year which is about to end.

Numidian 20mm Nellies

You can't beat a few nellies and given my Numidian has so little punch they need the single elephant base allowed for them. I also used one of the spare elephants to make up a command base. OK not normal under Impetus but it was a wrinkle Barry wanted and something I was happy to include as all other systems have commanders moving around the battlefield.

The command Elephant is on a circular base as per the previous command stands. Still really needs work on the base as I am short of tufts etc at the moment. Given that I plan to sell the army come Triples it really is not that important. Meanwhile I still need to paint up the Roman cavalry and have just finished the light cavalry you can see in the background.

Not a great shot of the unit of two elephants. The flash was bleaching he pictures a little. The runners with the elephants were done at the same time as all the other foot way back. It felt good to finally get them on a base at last. I plan to get the whole army finished in the next few months but after the Numidian Light cavalry I will spend some time on the other scales. Whilst I enjoyed the Napoleonic 20mm plastics the only other 20mm that have been nearly as much fun was the Roman infantry. At least once these are done and sold I will have more space for my other projects. The irony though, finally get it painted and then I sell it.

Jager Finished and Photograghed

Better pictures of the Jager for Tim. I will be posting them out tomorrow as yesterday and today have been taken up with lots of other stuff. I plan to box them up tonight and take them to the PO on the way to the hospital for my fortnightly vamp session (I have about a pint removed every two weeks). Typically after said session I don't due much for the following few days but I have just finished basing up a few bits and got a game in last night that I will do the AAR tomorrow for. Really this week has been almost a wash for painting with my sisters and wife's birthdays over the last three days and what with all the other stuff it's been a slow week. However I have this afternoon and this evening to at least get something done. Onto the pics.

 

Not fantastic pics as the flash has bleached the colours but I hope when Tim puts (or if) them on his Blog he will have better light to work with. The rain here is so constant that it has not got above dull in days. Again the sculps really allows you to go to town on the shading.

 

This shot was without the flash but with the daylight lamp so gives a better idea of colour. I will be boxing these figures up so as to make sure they have a good chance of arriving without paint being knocked off them, the bane of plastics. I have to confess to being rather happy with the giveaway prize and I think Tamsin who also has painted items in here recent giveaway would agree it is kind of special to know something you have painted will be part of another gamers collection.

 

Other news I received some buildings from Angle Barracks yesterday. These are Total Battle Miniatures as per previous posts. Looks like Angel B are selling off their stock as they have knocked a nice bit off the buildings. £3 buildings for £2.25 and more off the more expensive ones. Barry and me did a split on this order but unfortunately many were low on stock, so if you want to grab a bargain in the UK dash over to them.

Tim's Jagers

OK I know I said I would not get much done but with it raining here almost all day I managed a fair few hours and now have the second batch ready for varnishing. Once that is done it's just a couple of spots of Indian ink on the visors and belts and these guys are finished. I have painted them up as the 27th Jager and I really like the look of them.

I will get better pictures took once I have them all finished. So I have managed to get all the figures done that I have for others all done in just 7 days (well and a few hours) not bad really. Good job really. I want to get some models finished that have been on my to do list for some time now. I also have more of the 28mm sniper reminders to start, these being Polish French and Italian as well as get images off of some painted figures for a ASL mate to choose which he wants for a urban sniper reminder set. The figures (less bases) are all painted up and ready for action, though I am hopping to gt Warbases to do a custom base for some of these for me. If so then it could open up a few other special bases. In fact I have a few ideas I really want to try sometime soon.

 

The problem is that I think the sniper reminder idea will soon start to run down to the point that my wargaming neutral (not paying to paint or play) will need other help. I still have units to sell from old armies but I think I will have to paint up figures especially to sell starting next year. Not something I had really wanted to consider of late but my output could see me short of things to paint sometime before spring is over (the horror!) Obviously not helped if Curt runs the challenge again this year. Still it's not like I don't have plenty to paint right now and I am sure I won't have to stand street corners just yet.

 

Dutch 20mm Napoleonic Line Infantry

OK as I said before, these are not figures I would have chosen to paint all by myself being the wrong scale and region. But all that said it's been fun painting 20mm Naps. Indeed quite the reverse to what I had expected as I must confess to a small groan on checking Tim's blog out to see what he seemed to paint the most.

I have tried to imitate Tim's style gong back to using washes and highlights that I seldom do these days due to the AP style of washing post painting. I think I will do a bit more highlighting in future thanks to this experience. Mind you I was highlighting 6mm at the start of the week LOL.

 

This is the first 12 of 24 figures that I have to paint for Tim, the Jagers have their green jackets done and I may get some more done later but that may be all I get time for today.

 

So whilst I tried to keep them like Tim I could not resist adding gloss white (Vellejo 70842) to the straps or inking the Shako peaks both post matt varnishing them. Another area I went away from was the extra straps under the arms as these in y opinion just add too much clutter to the figure and it's rare to see them on the finished figures. Tim can always add them if he disagrees.

The Osprey book shows these guys with cow hide backpacks, I tried the same procedure as my goatskin shields and I am happy how they turned out. Now I just need to get the Jagers finished and both sets can be on their way.  

 

Impetus Command Stands

OK I know Impetus does not use command stands, the commander is with the unit, but that's how Barry and I roll. I wanted to take advantage of other blogs ideas and one that I liked and has been done in a fair few places was round command stands. Now I was not going to cut a roundish one out so had to order some from Warbases. These arrived on Friday so I quickly set to. I still need to varnish them (later today) and then they will be added to the boxes waiting for the army to be completed. I have five more bases with plans to make two more bases up when I do more troops.

You have seen these guys recently, but now they are finished! I thought the base was going to be a little bit to small but in the end i think it looks just right.

I like the flow of the figures and felt they painted up without any trouble or stress. The detail is nice and crisp, just look at the grain in the shield.

I know you have seen Mr. Dolphin before but here he is in all his glory supported by his bodyguard.

The last Command base and rather colourful shields they all have. The last two command stands be a Elephant and a Light Horse, this should give me a nice mix. It also gives me three spare round bases which I have already got a few ideas for.

It's been a week of getting really. The HaT light horse I got a few weeks back that had the wrong items in (each had just the one correct sprue) had the replacements delivered. I asked to keep back the two correct sprues and sent back just the wrong ones. The E-bay shop has sent me full boxes back in replacement which was very nice. These being GB Models, Liverpool. I fully recommend them as they were great and quick with their response's and were quick to offer to pay postage cost to me (not required as the box remained unfranked).  I also got 16 WWII figures from Black Tree Design so I need to get busy with these sometime soon.

20mm Numidian Infantry for Impetus

Got these finished off Monday night but no chance to get Cath to do the pics until today as I had the table set up for a few game of ASL for yesterday and only cleared it back this morning. I have a total of nine units with a minimum of 8 required so it's possible I will do a few more at a later date. Now all I need to do is the Elephant unit, Roman light horse (deserters) unit and at some point get round to the skirmish elements. I have three command stands painted but just need the bases from Warbases to arrive which were ordered on Saturday so should land in the next day or three.

Here is the first six units. I have based 6 figures to the base as they are lights. My Roman Axilia are based 12 to a base which was er..... full.

This time I added more bits to the bases, discarded shields and spears, the odd bit of tree, oh and the odd dead body.

Having already thrown down his shield as he ran away to speed up his progress he still seems to have not ran fast enough.  The figure was a spare from my Roman box. Just cut him off the base and shaved his side away at an angle so he would roll onto his left knee. The only limb not touching the grass is his left hand, this I have added a bit of blood so that it looks like before dying he had touched the wound.

For balance sake I also killed one of my guys. I had to do a bit of arm bending etc. to get the dead pose about right. Shaved a chunk off the back as well to get him to lie flat.  Many of the figures where possible have had arms bent into new positions etc to give a more varied range of poses. A standing version of the dead dude had his shield cut away from his body and arm bent so that the shield is in front of him. Overall very happy with what I achieved.

This Roman was quick on his feet!! Fighting for the Empire seems to have lost it's attraction, got to be worth a few mods in the game  ;-)

It's hard to see here but the spear has been glued just as it hits the grass between the feet of one of my men. So the Romans also are poor shots, that's another dice off their shooting quantity, looks like I have a chance...........

I felt a mix of Numidian based and Carthaginian designed shields as these guys had fought under Carthage and it's quite reasonable that they would get to either take some of that kit or reproduce it when home. Besides it gave me a lot more choices given that all 60+ figures have a shield! The Goddess Nubia features a fair bit which from the research I did is about right.

It was a fair bit of fun coming up with some of the shields but the overall result breaks up the units even more so you get that irregular loose look I wanted.

I also added a few Zebra skin covered shields for effect. The guy in the middle shield design came up a lot on the searches. Not sure the meaning of the arrows with the two different sized circles are supposed to mean.

I also added grape stalks as fallen trees to some of the bases (left to dry for 2-3 months minimum) these I have had 6+ months and look to be the perfect answer to the scenic requirement as they work from 6mm to 28mm based on the use and part of the stem used. Also I went with lush meadows rather than the barren look as at this point in time Africa was still a green and pleasant land (well Numidia was anyway).

Still plenty of guys with goat skin covered shields in this lot. I have a few units of just goat skin shields with others mixed in with the other shield types.

This is the shield I am most proud of. It took a number of attempts. Such a simple design but you need to get it just right or it looks crap. This is for one of the command stands so still is glossy from the army painter (did not put AP on any of the shields).

I would say sorry for being picture heavy but I would be telling fibs, besides Cath took 61 pics so I had to use some of them!

Numidian 20mm Army Advances

I painted up a box of HaT Numidian Cavalry a couple of months back and was surprised at the speed they were off the table. Well next up was a box of Zvezia which are a fair bit more detailed and showing less flash. This time I expected speed, OK not as fast due to detail and the extra figures but speed none the less. I was not disappointed, the lack of equipment on the horses make them a speed paint for sure.

The picture above shows the new arrivals, three light cavalry units and a medium. Based for Impetus as some of you may well know. I really liked working with this brand and only wish they did more figures that I could use, well worth the extra cost. The original units I based the lights four figures to a base and was not fully happy with this, so this time tried three and I like the look a lot better. I probably will remove the extra figure on the other two bases sometime and reposition giving me an extra unit!

This is King Joba, yet to be based as I want to get round bases for my command figures. I know under Impetus you are supposed to have them within the units but Barry and I decided we wanted to have them this way. I have copied the box rear panel. The detail is fantastic from his cloak pin through to the studs on the shields straps.

The HaT all have shields whilst these have about an even mix between shield and without which I rather like. I have bought a further two HaT boxes already so will have all the light cavalry I need (8 units) but not the 16 I could have!!!!

The medium cavalry unit. I was going to place six on the base but this was too crowded, I will save that for any army I do that has heavy cavalry in it. No this army just has the one medium cavalry unit, even the Roman deserters are lights!! I have four of the five figures with shield but I see it's more tactical use and numbers rather than armour that defines then medium cavalry.

The whole army to this point. Who would have thought buying that one box of Roman Auxillia would have ended up with a full army on the go? So far we have 6 light cav one medium and two Roman Auxillia. I have under prep all the light foot, these should be started next week and look towards finishing them late that week or the following week. Just waiting varnish and basing are 24 15mm Cataphracts which should not hold me up too much.

A view from above. I said last night that all I needed to do was photograph the figures then I could put them away. Cath asked if that bothered me as it meant they were not getting any use. After a small pause I told her no as I know they WILL get used and whilst that may be months away (as it is with some of the other figures I am working on) it will happen. I then went on to mention that some guys never paint their figures but play with armies painted by others whilst yet others just paint figures with no intent to use them, even if they are based as if for wargameing. She could understand the reasons behind the former but the latter was all alien to her. Oh well, bless.

Oh if your reading this and your not at The Blog With No Name then chances are your at the site of a theif who takes others work, pretends it is his and makes money out of it. What a cad eh?

Numidian Light Cavalry

All three looking for trouble.

Part of the very recent finishing spree was three units of Numidian Light Cavalry in 20mm and based for Impetus. Right behind finishing them was an e-mail from Harfield's informing me the balance of my order is now in stock and would cost just over £20. So a complete army for about £40. Of course I say this with tongue pushed firmly in cheek as we all know they are never complete but at least it's complete for now.

I found these a joy to paint, possibly because the low levels of flash or possibly down to the lack of much furniture on the horses and little more to paint on the riders. This meant easy to clean and fast to paint. Either way I enjoyed the exercise and looking forward to yet more.

The PVA pooled in the centre of the bases keeping away from the edges so needs a thicker application on the edges which I will do when finishing off the next batch. Tried to add clumps of pale grass but the finish is too random so I think it will be removed as adding enough to make it work would be too much work. The shield with the women with raised hands is of the Carthaginian Goddess of fertility Tanit, the Numedians adopted the Carthaginian Gods which seemed rather civil of them.

I like this shot that Cath took, brings out the Miniature Paints 84 Chestnut Brown really well (inked with Vallejo 73.200 Sepia Shade as is the tunics. The hardest to get right was the flesh tone, I used Coat d'arms 216 Negro but then washed a watered down version with enough white in it to show through when washed on. This gave a little depth and added definition. Sadly that does not come through on the pictures.

I also like this shot with a unit in the distance. Cath wanted to show off the detail of the tunics and this pic comes closest to showing some of that flesh tone I was banging on about.  I also feel compelled to inform you that my dear wife was unimpressed by the lack of gender of my horses, seemed rather put out, should I be worried?

HaT's off to the Little fellows?

As I mentioned about a month ago I had bought a couple of boxes of plastics just to try them out in preparation to starting a army to face off against Barry's slowly expanding armies. Having not even decided an army it was always a bit of a punt. More important was the experience of painting the figures as the last time I painted plastics was around the age of 16 and really and in Enamels, so not really comparable. My first mistake was really just buying them, the price on the box was £4.99 whilst Harfields sell the same boxes for a little over £3 but it was only a couple of boxes so no harm done. Sure when I know exactly what I want it will be through these guys that I go.

So I have started work on the one Roman Auxiliaries pack number 8065 so what are my first observations?

Detail Quality. The detail is not as crisp as metal but it's there. Some area's such as the bottom of the chainmail vests is thin but other like the necktie is really crisp. Overall not bad at all, better than some metal castings not as good as most.

The flash is mostly reserved for the mould lines and it took me awhile to get used to how easy it is to cut away and get the touch right so all I would take away is the flash. As in some metals some of the figures have flash running through the faces, this is a real pain but what can you do.

Pose. Nice mix of standing and action. If you use the whole box you will have some great mixed posed troops in the process of engaging the enemy but also a unit or two that look like they don't want any part of the battle. The figures are cheap enough just to bin the less warlike poses I guess but are too wooden to make good casualties, though I might try a little heat experiment to double them up etc.

Problems. My box of these were missing two sprue, I did not count at the time but I should have had 45 figures but received 35, so down by 10. It seems this is a bit of a problem as Barry recently bought a box of HaT that had a Prussian Naps sprue in the box instead of the correct one. Given this was just test painting it was no big deal but a concern given the small test pool all having issues. Next problem was all down to a lack of prior knowledge. The figures come with separate spears and shields that need gluing in place. First I bought Plastic weld which had no effect on the parts what so ever. Next was normal plastic cement that held a little before pinging off. In the end I bought a glue gun and after about 20 minutes of trial had enough control to not make a total mess of it. Really not ideal so I really need to work something out for later. I plan to try harder plastic figures which should stick better and are easier to paint.

Overall the painting of them whilst not as pleasurable than metal was fine. I could have got them done quicker if I had got the gluing down in one go but I can paint them fairly fast so getting an army together should not be an issue aside from picking it, and getting it into the schedule as all other painting is off whilst I get the WWII stuff sorted (well maybe get my camp done for FoG).

Overall I was pleased with the result. I really like the mix of poses and as I have not stuck to rigid lines they have the look of about to make contact. Whilst I copied the box art for these two units (I did not research at all for this!!) the shields are missing two little half moons next to the boss, this is because I did not trust myself not to make a mess of them and I really liked the results I had achieved on the shields as it was. Shown are two units based for Impetus.

Conclusion.

Not 100% happy with HaT, the shields did not fit the plugs on the figures hands but I did like the idea of having two so you could vary the pose. Also the difficulty of gluing was a pain but looking at the price and range HaT are still a good buy. But even so I will try my hand at a few other ranges and see what I come up with. Right now I plan to just get what I have worked through some and then go after my 20mm army. In the meantime I will happily continue to play with Barry's figures.