Warmaster Ancients Palmyran Army...sort of

I normally have about 1 - 6 projects on the go at anyone time.

Along with the Dark Angels, i am working on my Palmyran Army....which may evolve into Parthians due to the fact that I cannot find a Palmyran army list for Ancients.

Also, resurrecting my 15mm ACW Union force which has "been in hiding" for at least 3 years since playing Black Powder.
Have purchased the Pickets Charge rule set and I plan to give my Union chaps a more historical formation by using actual brigade / Division/ regiment details and so bought some more historically accurate flags from the guys at GMB.

Palmyrans...10mm from Magister

I attach 10 guys to their 40 x 20 stand and spray undercoat them black. Some people attach the little chaps to a lolly stick, but i find this quicker in the long run.

Then a quick dry-brush with Mithril Silver (GW) or any other metallics you have lurking around.
Dont be fussy in anyway, just dry-brush and stipple the helms and upper body chain-mail. It will cover other areas, but that will be covered by later processes. This took me about 1 minute per stand.

Flesh for the 2 arms and face added next. I used Foundry's Mediterranean flesh tone...mid shade..for this.

The robes, I decided, would be White.
Now...to get into the front of the skirts of the rear ranks, is easier than would appear, with a small brush and steady hand. If you cant get to it....dont worry...wont be easily seen anyway.

Got 12 bases of these to do, so next update will show equipment...boots, quiver, scabbard etc probably brown...Bows, which I am doing red and the helm straps which will be Bronze

Dark Angels Hellblasters

A few Pictures of my Hellblasters squad

Added some Red/Orange grass shades to the dead grass for a more alien look.

Survivor Figures

Just some pictures of 3 zombie survivors that I finished painting a few weeks ago, for use in Skirmish Outbreak. Havent had chance to use them yet as I always get to be the Zed player.

Skirmish Outbreak

Hi guys,

Just a few pictures of our recent game of Skirmish Outbreak. Have played this a few times now and am really enjoying it. Will have to start the Campaign mode soon.

I prefer this to ZombieTV, I have to say...not sure why yet, but just seems more fun.

Relatively easy mechanics. Using a points system, the Survivor player gets to spend, say, 250 points for a medium encounter. With the points, they choose their characters from a range of predefined survivor members and then gear them up. Choose between a cheap Average Joe or go for an expensive Elite.

Zombie controller gets 10 zombies + 1 zed per 100 points of survivor spend.

At the beginning of each new phase / turn, the Survivor rolls 3D6 and then halves the result, rounding up, to get their activation spend....we use small yellow counters.
The Zed controller rolls 3D6 and gets exactly that amount of activation points....so more.
Most things the players can do, results in the spending of a point/token, so bad rolls can lead to some tasty decisions.

I am not going to plough through the whole game mech here, but it is really enjoyable and well thought through. The rulebook can be a bit "all over the place" when you first start but perseverance is worth it.

Hope you enjoy the piccies😊

                               

                             

                         

Dark Angels

Have assembled most of the 40K boxed set now and have decided to have the marines as Dark Angels.....so I can have Raven Wing bikes😀

I decided to try the GW recommended colour approach which is

Base coat of Caliban Green....bought a can of that
Shade with Nuln Oil
Warpstone Glow...layer
Moot Green...highlights

So, off to the spray booth we went with a Hellblaster squad member and then shaded with Nuln Oil

I decided to drybrush the Warpstone Glow and paint the Plasma Incinerator and belt black.

Silver parts done with Boltgun Metal or Leadbelcher as it is now known. Painted the holster and pouches with Foundry Chestnut Base colour.

A light drybrush of Moot Green was then applied, followed by some Mithril Silver (Runefang Steel) on the metal parts, a drybrush of Codex Grey (Dawnstone) on the weapon. The indicator on the wep was Foundry Vivid Blue base coat. The holster etc was done with Chestnut mid colour and then eyes and a few details were done with Redcoat Red

Final highlights done and then the base was coated with Vallejo effects mud and drybrushed with Foundry Base sand mid and light. Gamers Grass applied (from Great Escape Games).
Some dead grass and red grass for that alien feel.

Some Dark Angel decals applied.
Not sure about the brown colour of the base. It may change to Green.





So, 1 down and plenty to go. The assembly was embarrassingly simple as the box sets seem to be aimed at the beginners market. Therefore, you do not get the variety of poses that you may want, but I am ok with that because the level of detail, it has to be said, is exceptional. Good value for money also, as you get the hardback rulebook, not a cutdown softy, which goes for £35 seperatley, There are 52 miniatures and some guides and dice. So figures around £1 each ?
I have already seen assembled figs on ebay for £2 each...really ?
I drybrushed most of the figure as a speed test for me personally. I normally use the 3 layer Kevin Dallimore style, but that would have taken me about 4 hours per figure, but drybrushing this guy, whilst not the tidiest approach and result, took me about an hour....that is total input time having to allow for drying etc
I am seriously not looking forward to the Death Guard Chaos figures. The Poxwalkers should be relatively straight forward, but the Plague Marines, Plaguecaster and Lord of Contagion are something else detail wise . Oh well, they say That Way Madness Lies.

Not a lot to report

Ok...

over the past few months, I have been hit with a multitude of time consuming situations which have somewhat curtailed my blogging activities.....dead laptop, dead Auntie, 2 bouts of man flu, serious DIY projects and covering shifts at work.

However, I have made some progress on stuff during the wee hours, such as

1) Decent progress on my 15mm 9th Panzergrenadiers...infantry, Panzer IV's, Pak40's. These will be for Aint Been Shot Mum...and also Bolt Action.

2) Bought and Assembled 5 buildings / scatter from 4Ground for our Skirmish Outbreak zombie game (now skirmish Rager I am led to believe due to some legal naming stuff)

3) Have been reading Pickets Charge rules at work during downtown, so have given my Peter Pig 15mm Union army a bit of a makeover....and bought some more....

4) Pre ordered the new 40K starter set Dark Imperium ( ? ), because I could only get a positive vibe from most everything that I have read about edition 8 of 40K. Have never played it before, but love the figures. Box set came with full hardback rules (£35) and 50 odd miniatures which are very nice all for £95,

5) Bought the new Indexes (not Codexes anymore) for the 2 factions in the box set...and also the Xenos Index that covers Orks...because I also bought the Ork getting started box set....gotta love Orks....Waaaarrghh...

6) Some new Battle Mats arrived from Deepcut studios....one is a Sea version with a custom 50mm hex grid and the other is an Urban type with roads and car parking to be used in the above mentioned Zombie fest.

I am sure there are other things that I have gone back to for a while, but I will update my Blog on each of the above topics now that things are back on an even keel. These updates will include piccies, but some may be showing the near finished article due to another problem of camera/phone/ipad non functionality a while back.....jeez...it all happens at once sometimes.

Anyway,

Thanks for passing this way...keep rolling dice

Air Brush

Wouldnt it be nice to have an Air Brush ?

Thats what I thought, but the price seemed very prohibitive from what I have seen.

However, having spoken to a guy that works in A & E in the same hospital as me, it seems there are some damn good entry level systems out there...for about £65...including a compressor with moisture trap and cleaning kit....hmmmmm.

I am quite good at painting figures, I believe, but when it comes to larger stuff such as vehicles or scenery, I pretty much suck.

So, an Air Brush could be the answer to my situation and at about £65...why not.

Havent commited yet, but I have been told by my colleague that the Foxhunter range from Amazon are very good entry level systems and having seen his results, I am in the market.

More on this when I buy and unbox.

A change is as good as a rest

As normally happens in our wargaming world, we set out plans for our next project and then someone...possibly at your gaming club...says.."Hey, have you got this set of rules and fancy a game sometime?

Well, the answers are normally..Yes and Yes.

And so it was to be..I Aint Been Shot Mum became my latest takeover priority for a while.
No pictures yet, as it would only be of boxes of stuff.

Decided to go with Germans in 15mm and individually base them on 5p pieces..not 1p pieces..

28mm looks good on 2ps...20mm on 1ps and 15mm on 5ps...height to base ratio looks better.

Having received the Panzergrenadiers Infantry and Heavy Weps boxes form Plastic Soldier Company...also a box of 5 Panzer IV,s for good measure, I have been assembling and undercoating.

More to follow soon.

Numidian Cavalry again

Numidian Horses

Horses are now done. They just need some grass and flock. The riders have been undercoated and base coated. Just waiting for them to dry to add the soft ink and then glue them to the horses.

The horses are painted with Foundry Bay Horse triad of paints and the mains and tails are black highlighted with a drybrush of grey.

I even did the eyes on them.

The usual Vallejo Earth effects paste for the bases and then highlighted with Foundry Base Sand Light colour.

Just thought I would see what the Carthaginian Warriors would look like in a more realistic environment.

Wargame mat and stuff

Solo Gaming ..??

Having a job where I cram a weeks hours into 3 days...which is nice I must say...I have usually 4 days off to do "stuff".

One thing I have been toying with for a while is to try solo waragaming or just run through a new set of rules to get my head around the mechanics.

Problem ....having bought a LOT of figures, I realised that I have no gaming table as such and very little in the way of scenery and terrain.

So...the dining table, fully extended is as close to 6ft x 4ft as to make no real difference, so all I require is a gaming mat, or 4.

Mat, Hedges and Trees

Enter Deepcut Studios www.deepcutstudio.com

I have bought a couple of mats for our gaming club, but i need one of my own...which will probably travel to and from the club anyway.

I decided upon the Wargames Terrain Mat - Fields in the mousepad material. Hopefully this should do for 28mm and 15mm such as Bolt Action and Sharp Practice 2 (28mm) or ACW games of Black Powder or Pickets Charge (15mm) and also I Aint Been Shot Mum or Flames of War in 15mm also.

I also bought a pack of the Dirt Path tiles ( a path in 28mm and a muddy road in 15mm hopefully ) and a pack of the Midland Nature tiles which have copses, rough ground, elevated ground etc.
These will be useful for delineating woods and difficult terrain.

Close up of the mat detail

This is a close up of onr of the Dirt Path section

I have randomly put some of the tiles together quickly to get an idea of how it goes together. Already, I can see that I need more path or road sections for this size mat.

The tiles can be cut with scissors to give you a more irregular shape. Although it is very 2D, it will be a quick fix for what I require. The hedges and trees are from a company that I came across on the web called Amphibmods..www.amphibmods.com.

Close up of hedge

Hedges are nice and are mounted on a rubberised base. These are 15mm versions. 

...and trees

The trees fit into the bases which are included. The bases just need drybrushing and flocking a bit.







I will probably use this quite a bit and also use it as a backdrop for pictures of wip as opposed to an old painting desk. Numidian cavalty are coming along fine.

Numidian Cavalry

 Horses are layered and highlighted using Foundry Bay colour.
Added various colourings to the socks and muzzle etc.
Have to paint the rope. Forgot that bit...Doh!

Just have to glue them to 25 x 50mm bases and then add earth Vallejo Effect paste, grass and tufts.

The riders will be next using Native African Flesh triad...Foundry again.
Not sure whether to do the short tunics all one colour or mix it up a bit...maybe go for a grey and / or buff leather colour

Basing the Carthaginian Warriors

I have finished the warriors and have also done one of the two command stands, which will be similar. Basing done with Vallejo effects Earth and then highlighted with Base Sand colour from Foundry. I only do 1 highlight.

 Here I have added some grass and tufts using Gamers Grass range which I buy from Great Escape Games

One or two or maybe three units here finished.
The number of units will depend upon the rules used probably but I am pleased with the finished guys and they didnt take as long as my old method of 3 colour layering for each figure.

Anyways...back on with the Numidian Cavalry

Numidian Cavalry

The next unit for my Carthaginian army is going to be some Numidian Cavalry.

The Numidians were nomadic tribesman from modern Algeria and they and their land was so named by the Romans....Numidia meaning land of the Nomads.

The Numidians relied exclusively on the horse as a means of transport and as a result, their warriors were born horsemen, living on horseback from an early age. They did not use a bit or bridle and rode bareback with only a neck strap of plaited rope for harness and using voice commands and a stick to guide their mounts.

The Numidians wore only a simple short sleeveless tunic gathered at the waist by a belt of mainly plaited rope.They were armed with javelins and light spears and their only protection was a small shield and their own agility. They may have had a secondary weapon of a dagger, but more than likely a sling, for when fighting dismounted.

The Numidians were the classic light horse....using their speed and agility to dart towards the enemy, hurl their javelins, then retreat befor the enemy could strike back or make contact.

Numidians fought for both Carthage and Rome during the Punic Wars and at Zama, the Numidians could be found fighting for both sides.

So, no horse furniture and just a simple tunic for the rider...should be a simple paint job.

These guys are from Victrix and you get 12 in a bag/box.

The horses were spray undercoated with a brown colour as all the horses will be brown. I will be using the Foundry Paint Bay Brown triad which gives a nice appearance.

Here they have been sprayed and the base coat of the Bay Horse triad has been done. The riders have been undercoated black and just sat on the horses for effect.
I have looked on google for Bay Horse images and apart from the many pubs that appear, you get a better idea of what actual horses should be like, so i will try to be as real as possible.

Ok...off to finish them. More later