Balearic Slingers - 25mm

 As part of my Numidian Warband I was thinking I could repurpose some almost 50 year old (1977) Ral Partha slingers. These were troops of the Roman Army that was gifted to me by the widow of Jef Lauzon.  Jef was a long time Montreal gamer who ended up in Halifax in the last 1970s.  He unfortunately passed away in 2004 far too young. Age has not been kind to these figures. They can use a bit of freshing up but for the moment I am happy with just rebasing them.

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.  

Roman Carroballista - Part III - Completed

 I am very happy with the the final results. The merging of 30 year old Ral Partha/RAFM war machines that were rusting away in my private junkyard, crewed by some superb looking Essex Miniatures, all around or mounted on ox carts purchased from Warlord Games. 

To quote Hannibal Smith

WIP - Roman Carroballista - Part II

Last year I posted about the Roman Carroballista that I had cobbled together using Warlord Games - Hail Caesar ox carts and some rather old Ral Partha or RAFM scorpion bolt throwers that were buried in my pile of lead. I lamented that I lacked crewmen for these war machines. Last month I had reason to place an order with Essex Miniatures and discovered on their website that they listed EXR23 Artillerymen in Segmenta Armour & Helmets. Exactly what I was looking for. Service was fantastic, with delivery from the UK to Montreal in only 8 days. I ordered three packs along with my other needed supplies.

New Lease on Life - Part III

 Being of an age where it is not uncommon to be up at 3:00 AM for a call on nature, this morning I used the time to finish another block of pike. Flocking and tuffs were added last night before dinner. Since I was awake anyway, might just as well use 30 minutes to advance a project with the addition of the pike. Six more stands to go. Back to bed.

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.

Lightning Strikes - Roman Carroballista

Christmas 2000, Joseph my good friend and gaming buddy, and I met for our annual Roman Civil War. We were playing WRG 7th edition rules. Suddenly I found myself on the receiving end of massed fire of a unit of carroballista. Joseph and his wife, had spent the evening before my arrival, converting some Airfix Ancient Britain chariots, mated with Airfix Roman scorpio bolt throwers. It was a nasty surprise and the speed of the unit on the battlefield was inspiring.  

Three of Joseph's carroballista run circles around his Legion

Warlord Games used to offer a scorpion mounted on a mule cart. From the time I first saw the image until recently it was always out of stock. This afternoon I couldn't even find it listed on their site. Meanwhile I squandered my hard earned sestertius on other frivolous figures and projects. 

While combing my mountain of lead, I uncovered some ancient (30+ year old) Ral Parta/RAFM scorpions. The Early Imperial Roman Cart is nearly always available  for purchase. So I ordered three. This project has been sitting on my painting table for the last 6 months and I finally found time to complete it,

Image of a carroballista on Trajan's Column

I am now seeking some 25mm artillery crewmen. I have some Foundry figures, but the 28mm heroic scale of the crewmen seem rather out of scale to the bolt throwers themselves. However when compared to the carvings on Trajan's Column, maybe I shouldn't worry. If I am unable to find what I am searching for, I will paint the figures up.

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.

Soldiers of the Queen: More Artillery

Finally got around to completely these 4 guns with crew. Most of the troops are colonial Egyptian, and I too have posted crew with rammers for my Gatling guns.

I toyed with the idea of 4 figures on each base, as well as 4 individual figures for each gun. I'm not certain if my compromise of two crew per gun base, with two addition men on a separate element works. But it does allow to remove troops as the casualties mount.

I also added an ammo marker. As long as it's there you are OK to fire.

There Be Dragons Part II

I attended Cangames 2014, in Ottawa during the Victoria Day Weekend last May. I hope to post more about the event in upcoming days. However I found a miniature that I've have been on the lookout for ages. That is an inexpensive dragon for 15mm Hordes of the Things.

It has the look of Smaug about him

And this is what I found for $5.00, already painted. It was covered in dust and sitting in a bin of old minis and parts. I think it was something put out by Games Workshop for their Warmaster/Battle of Five Armies games, but I am only guessing. If you can identify the figure, please let me know in the comments.

Tim, see comments below, has identified this miniature. It was originally a Ral Partha product, the Golden Dragon (01-094) and is now available from Iron Wind Metals. They seem to have kept the same product number. It’s a great looking figure and not a GW product at all.

Soldiers of the Queen: Royal Artillery Part II

I was torn between blogging about the Soldiers of the Queen or adding another entry of Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts. Ross Mac, a fellow gamer and all round good chap sent some Ral Partha Colonial Artillery crewmen my way. It came up in an email discussion about what we were looking for.

The Field Force's Original Gunners

When I purchased my original colonial army it came with quite a few guns but almost no crews. I trolled eBay for a couple of months without success before purchasing three packages of Wargames Foundry British Colonial Crewmen, not realizing how grossly out of scale they would be compared to the older 25mm Ral Partha equipment. (See my original posting)

Gift from Ross Mac

With the figures Ross provided and another eBay win I had close to 43 (4 Indian, 10 Egyptian and 29 British)  crewmen to paint. I utilized a dark blue (Valleja 70930) over a black undercoat for the Imperials. It gave me the look I was aiming for without ant hassles. I now have to make a decision on how best to display these figures. Do I mount them on individual bases or do I glue them to the bases that already have the Guns Mounted? It would not be a problem for me to use casualty markers.

Egyptian Gunners: An eBay Win

15mm HOTT Forces of Evil

Slowly, over the past few months I have been working to catch up on a number of small projects. Some figures have been sitting in my collection of unprocessed lead (now pewter or some such alloy) for  almost 20 years. These three figures are surely included in that category. I have been in Montreal for almost 15 years and I am certain I bought these figures long before I left Halifax. They are mounted as Flyers on 40mm base width elements for HOTT.

3 Elements of Flyers

I think it was about 4 years ago June, that Joseph was in town for a weekend war gaming visit. We went to the Valet d'Coeur and each picked up a couple of packs of trolls in the $1 bin. Mounted on individual 40mm wide elements, they make excellent Behemoths for any Force of Evil that cares to ally with my undead army.

2 Elements of Behemoths

On the Workbench: Colonial Lancers

I was determined to get the troopers done over the weekend. I need to wait for some magnetic bases I ordered from Shogun Miniatures so I can mount them. I have been purchasing bases from Robert Knestrick for over two years now and find his product to be as good as GF9, but at about 2/3s the price.

As you can see I decided to take the simple route with the horses and painted them all one colour. I guess that the images of the RCMP escort of the Duke and the Duchess of Cambridge, as they arrived on Parliament Hill in the State Landau were still on my mind.

I will dig through my pile of lead to see if I can find some more spear tips to top off the lances of this unit. Eight of the figures came with the sharp end of the pointy stick, pennants flying , the rest did not.

I need to paint the two officers that came with this unit. While digging around in my minis a pack of three cavalry officers from the same Ral Partha/RAFM colonial line surfaced. Additionally I never painted the commanders of the Space 1889: Soldiers of the Queen. A total of 7 mounted figures. My project for the next week.

Soldiers of the Queen, North West Frontier

In my previous post I wrote, that I purchased a NW Frontier force that came up for sale a number of years ago. The main advantage was it was already painted and I would not have to lift a brush. That wasn't quite true. This Field Force came with a dozen pieces of artillery, lacking crew, as well as numerous pack animals. These are mostly mules laden with pieces of dismantled artillery. They still have to be painted. The artillery crews, were blogged about last year.

Mounted Native Troopers (15 Figures)

In addition to the unit of 14 mounted troops, there were three units of native infantry. One unit wearing red tunics, with painted turbans (20 figures) and two units dressed in khaki drab. One unit consisted of 24 figures and the 2nd of 20 men. Twenty is  the traditional unit size for TSATF (the Sword and the Flame) rule set, as well as the unit size that was chosen for the Soldier's Companion  (Space 1889 Miniature Rules).

NW Frontier (India) Native Sepoys Unit Unknown

Khaki Drab,  Unit of 24 in March Column (4 Wide)

Native Sepoy Troops

Khaki Drab, Unit of 20 in Line (3 Deep)

Native Sepoy Troops

Since I had the colonial army on the table, it was time to finish the bases of all the infantry units. That way I can "claim" the project is complete. Origanally, the infantry figures were  mounted on government issued metal copper disks. Even the native calvary figures were glued to two. Their outline can be clearly seen through the flocking, on the GF9 magnetic bases.

I found the copper base to be slightly smaller than I liked. I also wanted something that would attach itself to the flexible magnetic sheeting I lined the floor of the tool box with. The infantry was then glued to 1 inch, steel washers. Canadian Tire sells them by the hundred at a very reasonable price.

HOTT 15mm Generic Undead Army

Last year when I flew down east (Montreal to Halifax) for my summer vacation I was asked to bring along my 15mm HOTT Undead army. They would see action. It was the first army that I rebased with magnetic bases, but this trip would show that the product used  was not up to the task. Those bases were composites composed of a magnetic bottom layer and a thin cardboard top layer.The heavier miniatures glued to the cardboard, separated from the base when my luggage was handled by the cargo crew. They pulled off the cardboard layer.

 15mm Undead (Old Style Bases) vs Goblins 
Battle over Sacred Site

July 2010 Halifax

I resolved to rebase the army and I managed it in two steps. I placed an order for some figures from Peter Pig and at the same time I ordered pre-cut plastic bases. I already had a supply of Litko self adhesive magnetic bases that I would attach to the plasticard bases. I do not trust the self adhesive tape to hold so I used super glue to insure a solid  fix.

I purchased the beginnings of this army from Irregular Miniatures in the early to mid 1990s.Other figures, mainly characters, were added. Some were 25mm scale but they served a purpose. Additional units were built from the Ral Partha 15mm line of figures produced for the AD&D Battle System. The final group of figures used to build this force are Black Raven Undead units.

Three weeks ago between painting my Nikaian Byzantine DBA army and my Burgundian Ordonnance DBA army I took the time to finish my undead basing project. Last winter I had already taken the time to remove the figures from their old bases and glue them to their new ones. I only had to texture paint and flock the new bases. The end result is my large collection of undead. I am not content to use just the suggested Undead Army list  available in the HOTT rules but have incorporated almost every troop variant available.I am still looking for a suitable undead dragon to add to this army.

1) The Magician General (Three Elements) Majority of figures by Irregular Miniatures. Figure in Red Cloak by Black Raven Miniatures. @ 4AP each

2) Sneakers ( Three Elements) All by Irregular Miniatures @ 3 AP Each

3) Flyers ( Two Elements) by Irregular Miniatures @ 2 AP Each

 

4A) Knights (Skeleton Chariots) One Element Unknown Make @ 2 AP Driver is by Irregular Miniatures

4B) More Knights Ral Partha (Four Elements) ADD Battlesystem Figures @ 2 AP each. Can also be used as Riders

5) Riders Three Elements by ADD Battlesystem Figures and Four Elements by Irregular Miniatures @ 2 AP each.

6) Lurkers ( Three Elements) Irregular Miniatures @ 1 AP each

 

7) Hordes (11 Elements) Mostly Irregular Miniatures some Black Raven Miniatures

 

The Following Troop Types are not on the HOTT Generic Undead Army Lists but I feel that if you read enough stories or watch enough movies, you will find that these troop types are available to certain dark forces.

1) Irregular Miniatures Undead Artillery (Two Elements) @ 3 AP Each. My friend Les, once commented  that these guns are what the Aztecs would have produced if they invented canons.

 

2) Undead Heros or Anti-Heros . Even the Forces of Darkness have their champions. Two Elements @ 4AP Each.

These are two of my favorite figures. Both are 25mm. One was a Ral Partha (or RAFM) Figure sold as an Undead Adventurer. The 2nd is an unknown make but is a Dwarf, who heart has been ripped out. I was referred to as a sick twisted ba***rd for having adding that figure to my army. Needless to say that complement was bestowed upon me by a Dwarf fan.

3) Undead Behemoths (Two Elements) @ 4AP Each. Again these figures were 25mm figures that I felt would fit in nicely with a 15mm Army. The figure on the left is of a Ral Partha (or RAFM) Undead Japanese Ogre. I do not know what the 2nd figure is, nor do I do not know the maker of the figure.

This army is totally separate from the Undead Army I have previously blogged about.  This was the original Force of Darkness, in 15mm. The other army consists of 15mm figures on the 25mm HOTT base widths in order to obtain a massive looking army. The Irregular Miniature Undead figures are the oldest presented here. They are rather crude when compared to either the Ral Partha ADD Battlesystem Line or the Black Raven Figures that are shown, such as the Undead Dwarf Anti-Hero standard bearer.

The Irregular Figures of this age are soft and malleable. Because they are skeletons they break off at the legs very easily. I prefer not to use the Irregular Riders for this reason. Some of the figures are in danger of snapping off the stands, as are a number of the Horde Infantry. The Irregular Miniature standard bearers are extremely robust and I advise people using this army to use them to move the horde elements.

This army can still use more troops but in total I can field 85 AP worth of Undead with the figures above.

The Final Element. 

 The Price of Failure.