28mm TRAJANIC Roman Army - Part 2

 As promised yesterday, the rest of my EIR Tragic Roman Army. These photos are of my siege equipment and Generals with their Cavalry Bodyguards.

SIEGE EQUIPMENT

1) Roman Bolt Throwers (Scorpio/Scorpions) behind some field fortifications - Figures are by Wargame Foundry Miniatures. I believe the fencing is by Old Glory Miniatures.

2) A Roman Onager by Black Tree Design in the background with a Foundry Scorpio. Not the best of photos. 

3) The next two images feature a Warlord Games  Early Imperial Roman Ballista, along with another Foundry Scorpio,

4) Finally we have a Legionnaire working party. These are 25mm Figures picked up in the mists of time from either RAFM or Ral Partha. I was unable to find an online reference for these figures. The wall is from some model kit.

ROMAN GENERALS with Body Guards

The command figures were packages I believe that were purchased Wargame Foundry. Each is a unit of a General Element (WRG reference) and another three elements of Heavy Cavalry. So I have three separate units each of 12 mounted figures. Note- The Green unit is missing a Command Stand that I need to locate. The Blue Shield Unit are figures by Ral Partha. The other BG Cavalry, I believe are  Warlord Games' sculpts. 

 An Oddity. - The Following unit has been part of my Roman army for over 40 years. They were picked up at the local gaming shop in Halifax (which is no longer in existence). The figures were labelled as Roman/Greek Companion Cavalry. At the time I did not know better and parted with my hard earned cash. I would imagine these figures sold for the princely sum of $3.95 a pack. I purchased three packs then and latter acquired a fourth.

28mm Early Hungarian Light Cavalry

I spent my evenings this week completing the unit of 20 Old Glory Light Cavalry miniatures that were taking up residence on my cribbage board. It was not a hardship since I owe three, and the board will now be occupied by two dozen colonial lancers that I want to work on. The flocking was completed early this morning.

The Hungarians were an impulse buy on eBay. They were inexpensive and the horses were already painted and mounted on appropriate (WRG/DBX) 60 x 40 mm magnetic bases. I did a wash on the horses and reattached a couple of them to their bases.

I’m not sure which army will use these troops but I imagine they will see action either for or against the Saracens at some point.

Vikings 28mm Wargames Foundry Part I

I'll begin this posting with some light entertainment by the Muppets about our fun loving Norsemen.

While I was painting my Seljuk Turk DBA army I thought I could kill two birds with one stone. Every time I dipped a brush into paint for the 15mm figures, I would use the same brush and colour on a larger scale figure. I looked around and saw that I had a clear plastic storage box with a collection of Wargames Foundry Viking figures already cleaned and primed. I won them on eBay about 5 years ago.  In total there are about 80 Figures and I thought that I would work on a quarter of them at a time.

Six Elements of 4 Blade

1 Element of 3 Aux (ulfhedinn)

2 Elements of 3 Blade/Aux

Since I prime my minis usually with 4 or 5 foot 28mm figures on a craft stick at a time I figures that this was more a more sensible approach then trying to paint 80 large figures at once. My attention does wonder, especially in summer. Like much of the northern hemisphere in Montreal we experience our first real heat wave of the summer. With the humidix the temperature was in the mid-40s C most of a week. It’s hard to paint in that type of environment.

Possible Choices for General (4 man Blade)

1 Element Bow, 1 x 2Ps (Scouts)

Recently I was checking out the troop types needed for a Viking army due to my recent 2nd place finish at Cangames and the resulting prize. The 80 Foundry figures should provide enough figures for a DBA Viking Army. The Foundry Figures are just too chunky to base on the standard 20mm deep element. So this army will be fielded with Blades with a 30mm depth

Painting Totals for the Month of July

39 x 28mm Vikings

43 x 25mm Colonial Gunners

1 x Siege Engine

18 x 15mm Seljuk Turk Cavalry

18 x 15mm Seljuk Turk Infantry

Some Other Odds and Ends that were also Painted

1 x 15mm Baueda Wargames Tent

7 x 15mm Essex Medieval Cavalry (Came with the tent)

1 Element 4Kn (Eastern)

1 x 3 Cv (General)

6 x 28mm Medieval Cavalry (Mix Revenge/Black Tree Designs)

A Couple of Young Rakes Showing Off the Lastest Style of German Armour

Work in Progress, or another use for a Cribbage Board

A tin that has made it to the top of the pile, is a unit of Hungarian Light Calvary that I consider a great eBay purchase. It consisted of 10 Elements mounted on Litko Magnetic Bases. The horses were already painted. About half became loose during their travels but no harm was done. The horsemen were already primed.

Old Glory Horses on Litko Bases

Today I hot-glued the riders to the heads of nails. Instead of digging out a piece of styrofloam I grabbed a cribbage board off my bookcase. It served the purpose. Comme on dit en français: «Regarde».

Oh, Bright and Shiny Toys!!!

Or The Captain's 15mm Lead Attention Deficit Disorder Update 1

I had time this afternoon to take photos of some of the work that I completed and included in my August 17th update. This is a real mesh-mash of various projects that have caught the Captain's Eye, and are now complete.

A) Late Crusades: Five Elements of Knights of Christ (Old Glory Miniatures)

Five Elements of Knights of Christ

 B) Two Hilltop Camps: This is a set of hilltop camps that I purchased for DBA 1.0 sometime in the early 1990's. One is an earth fort and the other a stone fort. Both have enough space to hold a 60mm x 20mm Element. As you can see they also work great for 15mm figures as well. Each Camp is mounted on a a 40mm x 80mm base.

Hilltop Earthworks

Hilltop Stonework Fort with 15mm 4Bw Element for Scale

C) Sassanid Persian (DBA Book II/69) 220AD-651AD Elephants: When I received the three elephants that I won on eBay, I discovered they were crewless. Buyer beware. I purchased a crew pack from Crossed Swords at Cangames in 2009. Unfortunately the crew are wearing a headdress that is suitable for Achaemenid Persian Empire. Someone is  makeing a 500 year old fashion statement.

Sassanid Persian (DBA Book II/69) 220AD-651AD Elephants

D) War Wagon: This was a gift that I received at Christmas. My sole contribution was to mount it on a base.

Hussite War Wargon

Charge! or How to Play Wargames

I was introduced to miniatures at some point during my first year of High School in Dartmouth, NS. Halifax-Dartmouth had a very active wargaming community and I think that it was for two major reasons. It is both a university and a military centre. I started playing with Avalon Hill and SPI boardgames in September 1972 and within the year was playing minatures regularly at the Sunday meetings of the Halifax-Dartmouth Wargaming League, at the Dalhousie University SUB, sponsored by Dal Con Sim.

We would play with massive Airfix Napoleonic armies, that were owned and painted by the older members of our group. The rules we played with were Charge!, or How to Play Wargames by Brigadier Peter Young, D.S.O., M.C. and Lieutenant Colonel James.P. Lawford, M.C. It was a great introduction to the hobby. In the 40 years since, it has been a regret that I never really caught the Napoleonic bug. I always felt that I would never be able to do justice an army. The paint job required was just too daunting for me to attempt.

Two Battalions Form Double Square

About 8 years ago I purchased a Russian Napoleonic Army (unpainted) on eBay. The majority of the figures were by Fantassin Miniatures, and the rest by Old Glory 15mm. Next was the decision about which rule set to use. I played a number of games using Napoleon's Battles and I was also attracted to The Age of Eagles by Colonel Wilbur E. Gray, due to my familiarity with the Fire and Fury Civil War Rules

In the end I was seduced by the apparent simplicity of both the Napoleon Rule Set by Matthew Fletcher, and Black Powder by Meissers Priestly and Johnson. What caught my eye, with both of these rule sets was the use of the 40mm square infantry base. Both volumes are handsomely illustrated with photos of four 25/28mm figures mounted on the infantry stands. This is what I want, but with 15mm figures.

I like the effect of 3 lines deep on a base

The first figures I painted were a pack of Old Glory 15mm Russian Line Infantry in Greatcoat. A pack of 100 figures was enough to provide me with 10 stands of nine figures each. I still have to produce two command stand in order to field my first two battalions.

Space 1889: USMC on Mars

When I last blogged in August I wrote that I had some officers and troopers to paint to finish the British Colonial Lancers. I got distracted and decided to paint this bag of what I think were sold on eBay about 5 years ago as Old Glory, dismounted cavalry. There were a total of 30 figures to paint. I decided that in keeping with my interest in Space:1889 I'd photograph them on the red gaming mat.

Note : In the third photo you can see the Lancers in the background. 

Incendiary Wagons

A couple of years ago at Cangames I purchased a set of Incendiary Wagons (OGSE-11) from Old Glory. The set is comprised of one large and one small wagon full of combustibles (but No Oxen).

Both wagons are mounted on a single 60mm x 120mm base and are shown in the above photograph to be blocking the entrance of my home made Palisade.

Year End Kudos

At this point I would like to register a special thank you to Connie, one of the owners of Old Glory Miniatures in the US and to John Olsen of  Black Tree Design in Texas.

In June I wrote to Customer Support at Old Glory. In my email I stated that I had won a pack of  what I thought was WBS-48 Cavalry Pistols and Hats. I was basing my identification of the product on their web site catalogue. A number of figures had sockets, but were missing their right hand, and their pistol. I was looking for replacement parts.

I was mistaken in my identification. I sent a scan of the figures and the staff was able to correctly id as being PIM 1 Poncho in Mexico. Connie then sent me a set of hands with weapons for the set. No Charge. Kudos to the owners and staff of Old Glory Miniatures.

Sample PIM 1 Poncho in Mexico Showing socket and hand/weapons

 

Reading my Blog you may think that I have a fairly good opinion of Black Tree Designs. I have read on other blogs and in some gaming forums that some people find their service to be hap-hazard. I have to admit that there have been cases were I have waited months for figures to ship, and I have mentioned this in Captain's Blog. But the miniatures have always arrived, and John Olsen has always responded to any queries that I have made.

Recently I was sizing up my Romans and realized that I was short artillery crews. I had six Ral Partha Scorpions (Bolt Throwers) that had no crews. I wrote to John at BTD and asked it it was possible to purchase crew figures without the equipment. His reply was, " No problem'. He had to check with the production line to see when the crew figures could be cast and he expected the price to be about $1.50 a figure. I ordered six sets of two man bolt thrower crew figures.

BTD Roman Artillery Crews (Cleaned and Trimmed)

  A couple of weeks later I received an invoice on Nov 30th. A week later the figures arrived straight from the factory in the UK. That was incredibly fast postal service from the United Kingdom. Kudos to John Olsen for facilitating the order and making this project possible.

Roman Siege Equipment

My Roman Army continues to grow. I remember the first sets of Scorpions that I painted in the mid 1970s by Heritage Miniatures. I think back now to how primitive the figures looked compared to the lines that are available today. However they easily served 30 years with the Army before they were retired.

Over the last few years I have picked up a number of different packs of Roman Siege Equipment from a number of different manufacturers. I will begin with

Warlord Games

As I've blogged before, Librairie Donjon, a gaming shop in Montreal, brought in a number of packs of miniatures by Warlord Games. I thought it a fine opportunity to check out the quality of the figures, and at a great price. I paid in the realm of 40-60% to what the cost would have been to have ordered the figures directly.

Warlord Games offers a Roman War Machine Boxed Set. This consists of a large metal Ballista with crew and 2 metal Scorpions with crew.  I stress metal here, because Warlord Games also produce plastics, but so far not for this set.

Warlord Games Ballista and Crew

 Warlord Games Scorpion and Crew

One of the problems that I had with the DBA rule set was the base depth required by Scorpions and crew. Eighty millimeters was too much for my liking. Under the WRG 6th and 7th edition rules the depth of artillery was a minimum of 40mm to whatever was necessary to base the models. Thus I have decided to base the Scorpions on a 40mm deep base for WRG. I have another two Scorpions by Foundry that are situated on the 80mm deep elements. As you can see by the photos the 80mm depth works fine for the Ballista and below for the catapults.

Warlord Games Scorpions with Crew in Fortified Hilltop Camp

I chose to photograph the Scorpions on a fortified hill top. The hill was constructed by my friend Les, and came into my procession years ago. The pallisade is by Old Glory (OGSE-08), each set contains 2 styles of wooden stockades. In total 10 pieces, 5 of each style. I based 5 pieces of one style to give a fortified camp space. Each section of the camp can provide shelter to a 60mm x 40mm element. I placed some extra shields to cover the gaps. The stockade is straight and does not contain corner pieces.

The next unit is by Black Tree Designs. It is the IA1205 Onager (or Catapult) with Crew. Their website currently shows just two crew figures with the weapon but when I made my purchase I am sure that it came with three figures. It is delicate and I had problems attaching the sling at the end of the arm and ended up cutting some tin from a wine bottle to make one that works for me.

 

Black Tree Design IA1205 Onager and Crew

 The final two pieces are a Onager by Old Glory ( OGSE-04 Stone Thrower (popularly known as a catapult)) and a large Ballista. I do not know the company that produced this piece. Note: I had the same problem with the sling at the end of the throwing arm of the Old Glory Onager as I did with the piece by Black Tree Designs.

  Old Glory Onager( OGSE-04)

The crew figures are Late Romans by Old Glory. I believe they came in a pack of PLR-12 (4 Ballistas with Crews). I still have the Ballista/Scorpions and I have ordered additional crew figures from Black Tree Design. When I wrote to John at Black Tree he replied that  they'd cast up some figures on the side and let me know when they were ready. He estimated the cost at $1.50 a figure and they should be available in two weeks..

Ballista Unknown Make

Darius, King of Kings (Completed)

The King of Kings and two of his associated suicide chariot drivers have been completed. As I wrote in my last post it was a thread in a Yahoo Group (NS Historical Gamers) that inspired me to dig out these Old Glory Models and commence work.

For some reason I found that the Chariot of this figure was at too much of an angle when I attached it to the horses. As a result I had to build up the rear of the element's base to allow the wheels of the chariot to be level with the horses' hooves with a 2nd layer of plastic card. I then used a thicker Gel to level off the front half of the element to ensure a level "playing field". Darius looks like he could be giving someone the finger.

Yesterday when I completed work on the Darius Model I also finished painting and basing two Persian 4-Horse Scythed Chariots. I have to admit that volunteering to drive these babies into a Greek Phalanx or a unit of Indian Elephants would not be a job that I'd apply for.

These figures were the first 25-28mm Chariots that I've worked on. I have painted some Chinese and Hittite 15mm chariots in the past. I like the fact that the yokes had eyes so that I could thread reins between the drivers and the horses. Next time I must remember to paint the chariot bodies and wheels separately before gluing them together.

BTW I finally started to paint the Riders of the Roman Cataphract units I have.