African Javelinmen Rebased

A few more bases swapped this time North African Javelinmen from Libya and Numidia all from Newline Designs 20mm ancients range. The Numidians were simple going from 9 x 4 figure bases to 6 x 6 figure bases which still should be enough for what I need. 

The Libyans needed 4 new figures ordered, prepared and painted to make up the 2 bases. I thought I may as well get a unit pack of them as well, a future unit will hopefully involve these casts with a head swap to a one sporting a suitable helmet and possibly an oblong shield. I'm not sure if I'll do them as javelinmen or spearmen yet, but I'll have ages to think on it with the backlog here!

Currently slowly working on Celts/Gauls both older figures being rebased and newer ones, rounding up base  numbers and forming new ones. There are a lot on the go and trying to introduce as much variety as possible is making slow going. This time of year is also not helping matters but bit by bit they are getting there!

 

Slingers of the Mediterranean Redux

Another rebase checked off the list this time a few slinger units. There are bases of Greek and Balearic Slingers with a few Imperial era Roman Spanish auxiliary slingers mixed in all in 20mm from Newline Designs. 

With all of them in tunics they could all be used interchangeably as Iberian based slingers if so desired, although a few of the Balearic may have some Iberian specific fashions. The Spanish Auxiliary slingers have cloaks but they looked fine to use between the sets.

Greek Slingers, a straight up rebase: 

A third base of Greeks with a spare Imperial Rome era Spanish slinger with a cloak to make up the numbers:

Balearic Slingers combined older and newer paint jobs:

Again a few spare Imperial era Spanish slingers mixed in to make up the numbers:

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Scythed Chariots and A Great King

I am pleased to have completed these 20mm Newline Designs Scythed Chariots, this is a nice advancement to the Lost Battle Magnesia project which has taken a back seat of late to rebasing older miniatures. I had two chariots and the Darius personality code, which is basically the same set but with an additional Darius sculpt pictured separately below. 

So the first decision was to not glue in Darius giving me another generic scythed chariot for battles. Then I took this one step further with the riders going down the same route, the idea being I can paint some Carthaginian riders and have makeshift Punic chariots, which as I understand were not scythed but were four horsed. The trouble is I kept forgetting they weren't secured and the riders kept dropping out with rough handling!

The horses were for the most part painted with contrast paint and once finished were glued to the base which was then filled and painted ready for the vehicle. The vehicles were kept simple basecoats and drybrushes with minimal detailing then haphazardly attached to the horses and bases.

Currently there is a large chunk of rebasing occurring! Roman Velites and other light infantry from the Carthaginian side along with Gallic warbands. Some straight swaps and some new figures required which are underway. The Velites are the last of the Roman rebases and I think after the Gauls, the Iberians are the last of the Punic contingents (so I will have to revisit the Punic wars soon with Lost Battles and Strength & Honour). There are a few other bits that require rebasing, such as Iranian light infantry who will support Antiochus III at Magnisia, as well as his phalangites which require a bit of thought and a lot of work to update.

Finally I have also recently taken the plunge and jumped on the 28mm plastic multipart historics bandwagon! A Dark age deal was spotted on Victrix and so I grabbed some Normans after being inspired by kit-bashing videos on Youtube. The idea is that converted historicals will man the companies of Middle-earth, which companies I am not sure yet, but I need some more kits to mesh with them still, I'm anticipating the Late Roman sets will be ideal for this too.     

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Heroquest Quest

Quite a departure now from 20mm Ancients to the world of 28mm plastic fantasy in the form of Classic Heroquest. Not a game I am totally familiar with often admired in the thin pages of the Argos catalogue in the 90s. I never got a copy, I did end up with Warhammer 40,000 2nd edition and was chuffed with that one Christmas!

Fast forward to earlier this year and I took on a job to paint the miniatures from the original box and a few extras and some of the advanced Heroquest miniatures. I had previously completed some before the move and once we got moved and a bit settled I took on the rest.

For the most part unless instructed on a particular scheme I based the schemes on Heroquest box art, other Heroquest art then falling back on the work of other painters found on google searches or my own inspiration. 

I like this era in Citadel sculpts, straight forward and nice to paint without the over engineering and complication of modern CAD sculpts! I'm not a commission painter so I was worried about painting for someone else but I was pleased with the finish and so was I am happy to say the owner of these classic miniatures!

Between painting these classic fantasy miniatures and the new Amazon fantasy show based on The Lord of the Rings I am feeling a bit of inspiration for working on my own Middle-earth based project! I've often collected (very very rarely painted up) the Citadel Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game miniatures, starting with the Balin's Tomb boxed set which then expanded from there. Again its an era of great miniatures not too over the top sculpts with the Perry brothers producing some beautiful sets. I really want to work on the Easterlings but I have lots of primed stuff that should be cleared first.

This of course will run alongside the usual 20mm Rise of Rome project which is currently seeing lots of light infantry being rebased for Carthage and Rome and new figures being prepared to top up the Velites and the Punic Gallic contingent. Other eras and projects may crop up but many will hopefully be sold on such as these 20mm Napoleonic Austrians and probably any American Civil War miniatures that I eventually may paint.

Anyway tangent over and back to the Heroquest quest:

Advanced Heroquest Characters

Heroquest Characters

Gargoyles

Chaos Sorcerers

Goblins

Orcs

Chaos Knights

Firmirs

Zombies

Mummies

Skeletons

Napoleonic Austrians, logistics and the Reality of Waging War in Miniature

 

EDIT: These have all been put up FOR SALE click here for details

Whilst searching though my boxes I came across some primed up Napoleonic Austrian "German" Infantry in 20mm from Newline Designs. I quite fancied a change of era so painted up another unit and based up the Grenzers. Then with the fleece mat and camera phone I wanted some better pictures for my Austrians as a whole. 

The older German Infantry have a more grubby look in compared to the newest finished unit, who look decidedly fresh and crisp. One veteran and one conscript unit I thought, being some of the choices for  the Austrians under Sam Mustafa's Blucher rules, that being the potential ruleset for the project. Also involved where some Styrian Landwehr, I always loved the look of this militia in their oberocks and floppy hats! It was great seeing the army so far. 

However there are still loads to get through for the Austrians and then there are their opponents to do! I am struggling to get regular battles set up for my main ancients project so what chance does my Napoleonics project (and the myriad of others) have? The logistics of the whole thing was quite overwhelming, it was time to accept reality. Aside from painting the odd unit I fancy, I realistically will not manage to use these miniatures in a wargame, so why keep them? 

I'm still thinking on this, I don't like parting with miniatures but they won't get used here so watch this space if you are inclined to procure painted miniatures.

Styrian Lanwehr

Veteran Infantry

Grenzers

Conscipts