DBA Camel Army - Museum Miniatures - 15/18mm

Museum Miniatures offered a some camel figures that look like a generic line. I purchased 6 packs of  15/AC71 Camel Lancers and another 6 packs of 15/AC72 Camel Archers.  It is enough to provide 12 DBA elements. Now I have to locate an army list to fit them in. Otherwise I'll just use them as a HOTT nomadic desert warband.

Painted by Old Guard Painters

This was a spontaneous purchase on my part last year when Museum Miniatures offered their annual 25% off sale. I thought the figures looked nifty and as you can see they painted up really well. Although they are advertized as 15mm, IMO they're closer to 18mm. 

15mm Japanese Mythic Army

 IMO Alternative Armies offers some fantastic deals to help boost your 15mm DBA armies into the world of HOTT.  In one case, the HOTT1022 Evil Japanese Mythic Army offers a total fantasy army in itself, instead of the Epic Japanese Army listed in the rule book. I found the army sitting in a storage box that it shared with the HOTT1023 Xmas Army. The Christmas army came out of the living room window this morning, and the Japanese came out of the box. This post will only contain the figures that were started and never completed. The Goblins, and Oni will be presented after they have been entered into the Analogue Painting Challenge. 

HOTT1022 Evil Japanese Mythic Army Consists of

Warband (General) @ 2AP 1 (3 Centipede Demons) (D1) SGF30 Centipede Body with SGF39 Snake Head

Lurkers @ 1AP 1 (3 Kappa) (C1) SGF11,12,15 Kappas 

Warband (General) - Centipede Demons and Lurkers (Kappa)

Warband @ 2AP 1 (4 Snake Devils) (D1) SGF31 Snake Body with SGF36 Human Body with Sword (2) and  SGF32 Snake Body with SGF38 Human Body with Sword (2)

Snake Devil Warbands

Behemoth @ 4AP 2 (2 Oni Ogres) (B2) SGF04 Oni, SGF05 Oni, SGF06 Oni, each with two creatures

Shooters @ 2AP 2 (4 Goblins) (D2)

Spears @ 2AP 2 (4 Goblins) (E2)

Sneakers @ 3AP 1 (3 Rokurokubi) (D1) SGF23 Rokurokubi (3)

Dec 31st 2025 Year End Game

William and I played two games of DBA 2.2 yesterday afternoon. A great way to end the year. It has been a while since I had the troops out on the table. First match was a Western Cho Other Chinese Army (I/32C) vs Mongol Conquest (IV/35). 

First Clash

 

The Cho Victorious

The 2nd match was two Chinese armies (2x I/32C) vs Mongols (IV/35) and Seljuq Turks (III/74). William had the first victory of the day and I the final. Our second game involved a river crossing, his choice of the terrain.. The Mongols found out the hard way you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them cross the river.

Played on the Steppes, the terrain was very minimalistic. We had the river, a hill and a rocky patch. The Steppes was a GF9 Flames of War gaming mat, and the river was by Armourcast. The figures were mostly 15mm Essex Miniatures. 

15mm Large Pavilion tents

 A couple of 15mm tents by Baueda. Now I have to dig out some 15mm figures to populate the base. Nothing too fancy here. One tent has basic flock grass layered on and the other just green paint on the MDF base.

15mm Polish Winged Hussars

 As part of my Paint and Chat, today my established goal was to complete some projects. I managed to complete one as the chatting seemed much more productive than the painting. Very little paint was used this afternoon, but glue was applied. I had to get 24 wings attached to the Hussars as well as get weapons in hands, and the men seated upon their mounts. Mission accomplished. Six three man calvary elements are ready for action.

15mm Polish Winged Hussars

Baueda - Ancient Chinese square pavilion

 Tonight is an easy post. According to Baueda Wargames these 15mm ancient Chinese square pavilions are based on several surviving examples, depictions and models. They are designed to be used as a baggage element for any Chinese army and to fit on a standard 40x40mm DBM baggage base.

I purchased two and they currently seemed to have some Japanese troops sheltering under them. This oversight will be corrected when I find the unpainted Essex Chinese DBA Army I know I have in storage.

15mm Ancient Chinese square pavilion

Barsoom HOTT Completed

 The ubiquitous red weed dominates the Martian landscape. The Barsoom HOTT army looks complete. I added the Alien Fire Gamer's Grass as the final step this morning.

Barsoom Hordes of the Things Army.

John Carter, Warlord of Mars or Barsoomian HOTT

It has been a while since I have posted. I have been painting figures regularly for the past year but between Facebook and Discord I have allowed my blog to fall to the wayside. In February 2023 I was preparing to move for the first time in almost 25 years, and it took time to pack and unpack. I should have been back in the saddle sometime in the  summer of 2023, but I wasn't.

Over the next two months I hope to acquaint the blog with the projects I have worked upon. Most are SAGA related. I was fortunate to discover a local Historical Miniature Wargame group in Montreal. It helped to provide focus to my pile of lead. I have been reducing it in other ways as well. I parted with a dozen 4 litre Really Useful Boxes of projects that were never going to see the light of day. As part of my triage, I have projects I will paint, projects I will have assistance in painting and those that must go. The triage continues. If something comes into the house something else must go.

SPI's  John Carter, Warlord of Mars. 

In spite of my words about SAGA my latest project was a Hordes of the Things Barsoomian Martian (LGA). The figures are from Peter Pig, It was something I wanted to do for a while. This summer I was laid up following my knee replacement surgery and picked something that I could easily work on. At the moment it is mostly finished. I wait on the arrival of some appropriate texture paint. I used AK Rust as the base colour for the Martian landscape. I choose to base my thoats on an image from a comic book and they thus are shades of red. Grey ones with yellow booties just didn't seem warlike enough for me.

4 Elements of Shooters in front of 3 Mounted Hordes

4 Elements of Riders in front of 2 artillery Elements

A clearer view of the Artillery Elements

Hilltop Hovel - 15mm

 In truth, this is more than a hovel. I picked up this resin kit on sale years ago, and finally painted it about 2017. I am in a state of having to downside and I am making my way through my various storage boxes. This is an item I will keep, but I don't think I ever posted it to my blog. The AHPC is keeping me busy painting on new projects, but I may be resorting to unpublished items to provide my own Blog with a little more content. 

The troops used to provide scale are  Dark Age 15mm Essex Welsh that I purchased at Cangames in the early years of this century. 

The Welsh Dark Age Army (DBA III/19) was a really decent purchase. I don't think I paid more than $30 CDN at the Cangames Marketplace. It was a steal. That weekend I participated in the Cangames DBA tournament with it and won 2nd place. As you can see it came with lots of options.

Ral Partha 01-080 Lizard and Rider?

 This is a small rebasing project that has been sitting on the back burner for a couple of years. I picked these 16 figures up fairly inexpensively at the CanGames Marketplace pre-pandemic. They were based on what seemed to me be odd size bases (25mm x 75mm) and were obviously being used for a gaming system in which I did not indulge. Once debased they were clearly identified as a Ral Partha (c) 1977 product. The best match I could find online for them was Ral Partha 01-080  Lizard and Rider. 

 I have rebased them to the standard DBX game systems with a frontage of 60mm. Due to the depth of the figures I have mounted them on an 80mm deep base. Sixty wasn't going to be enough. The previous bases were mixes of carboard  and plastic. I have replaced all with MDF bases with a magnetic bottom. Other than being cool looking figures I am not quite sure where they fit into my gaming needs. Perhaps in a Daredevils Lost World setting, or somewhere in a Space 1889 context on Venus.  

Saracen DBA/HOTT Part IX: Arabian Myth Flying Carpet

 While searching my pile of lead, for something, which now escapes me, I found a Flying Carpet. I think it was a Black Tree Design purchase to serve as an additional element for my Saracen HOTT army. However it was a perfect item upon which to test my idea for the overall look of the some new desert elements. As well as establishing a new look I also test drove the Army Painter Speedpaints Starter pack. 

I first hammered a clear plastic push pin through the centre of a LITKO 3mm thick plywood base. I then clipped the point off the tack as close to the wood as I could. This provided a solid element to work with. A 25mm metal washer was superglued to the flat head of the pin. Finally green stuff was used to adhere the figure to the washer. 

I had a previous Flying Carpet as part of the army but I was not content with its base. I had used a clear Warhammer Flying stand and it didn't withstand the treatment I dished out. The figure broke off  a couple of times. I am sure that the photo below was the third time it was rebased. Today's addition appears to be much more robust than my previous effort. 

PS. I am unable to locate the figure on the current Black Tree Design online catalogue.  

Sarissa Precision - Streets of Rome

 We just passed a long weekend in Canada, with Thanksgiving Monday. Amongst the time spent prepping a turkey, preparing a two bread dry dressing, and making cranberry sauce I went to work on the Streets of Rome kits I had purchased from Sarissa Precision.  

The first built was the Roman Watch Tower - T101. I used some of the 28 mm Dark Age figures I'm painting for scale.

Semi Detached Small - Flat Roof T078. Roman Command Group that is being worked on for scale, with three DBA elements of AUX on the roof to provide an idea of the footprint available

Semi-Detached Small Mixed Shop/Domus T030 on the right  and Lower Rank Insula Corner T004 on the left of the square. 

All in all, I was fairly happy with the ease these buildings fitted together. Other than the Watch Tower, the roofs and top floor lift off allowing access to ground floor. To be honest I am very much in mind to keep these as is, and not bothering to paint them at all.

Beware of Gifts...

 Last Christmas Museum Miniatures offered an .obj or .stl file of the Trojan horse as part of their annual good cheer. not having a 3D printer, I forwarded the file to a friend, who I knew had purchased one for his son. Both are gamers, and eventually I received a figure in the  mail.

I kept the paint job basic. Natural wood for the main body. Tail and hooves are black. Gold for the helmet with some red trim, and a headdress/mane of purple and white. 

I sent the photos off to my friend and he asked if I could send something showing figures for scale to show his son.  I took a picture of the horse with a DBA Seleucid (166 to 83 BC) Greek army.  It is  DBA II/19D and the figures are by Essex Miniatures. The period is wrong, but they are the only 15mm Greeks I have.

Roman Army - More Busy Work

While working on the Greeks, I pulled a few of my Romans that I felt could do with a refresh of their bases. IMO they looked pretty hideous before hand.

As well a gift arrived in the mail to join my Greeks. Beware of gifts bearing Greeks.

A Merry Christmas - Better late then never

 I purchased the Alternative Armies HOTT Xmas Army with the intention of painting it as part of the 2019-2020 Analogue Hobby Painting Challenge. Last year I was terribly ill with the flu (???) for almost seven weeks starting the week before Christmas. Needless to say, not a lot got done, and then tax season arrived.

HOTT1023 Xmas Army

Fast forward to this year. I got the army out and started work the week before the big event. (Christmas not the Analogue Hobby Painting Challenge). This year I choose to stand down.

Then on Christmas Day, I received the perfect gift. A set of painting brushes.

Suddenly inspired, by new brushes, new glasses and a sunny day, The army was completed.