Pre-Feudal Scots added to gallery

I am slowly getting around to adding pictures to the galleries. So slow in fact, I sold the army I'm featuring in this update.

But for reference and posterity, I've added them before I get distracted again.

Go here to the Book III gallery and scroll down past the E.M.N.A.S. spread.

-TV

drinkin' cheap Sauv Blanc
listening to Run-DMC

What I Think I Do.

Me and Grand Moff Van Helsing 

roll the same way.

 

-TV

When Bithynians Attack!

 Thanks to the Pre-Teen Visigoth in making this poster.

 

Well, here they are finally. The Bithynians. DBA Book II Army 6. I painted this army back in 2004, yet only have gotten around to posting them now. Not sure why so slow, mostly I am easily distracted and forget about what I really need to do sometimes. So for those of you who feel you are wasting your time looking at stuff painted a long time ago, move on. I think somebody has painted some Romans somewhere...Still here? Awesome. Let's talk Bithynia.

My Bithynians.  I love them, but by Sabazios they're a sorry lot when it comes to battle. On paper they're a challenge, 1 x Cavalry General, 1 x Light Horse, 2 x Psiloi, 8 x Auxilia and the option of 1 x warband in place of one of the Auxilia. An arable army with low aggression, the Bithynians can set a reasonably messy board to confound some of their historical opponents, but nowhere as nasty as a hilly army could. Fighting in the open these guys must rely on speed and maneuver lacking any 'killer' elements short of the one warband. The warband in my experience moves slowly and often like so many Scythed chariots, expends itself in futile rampage against the enemy pikes.

Enemies? First off the Persians both Early and Later. Alex and his Macedonian Goon Squad, Antigonos grasping for his share of planet plus wacky, paranoid ol' Lysimachus as well. Other Asia Minor B-Stringers like the Kappadokinas, Galatians and Pergamenes. Last but not least, those over-rated militarists from Lakedaemonia, the Spartans. Pretty sweet list of opponents. One of the reasons I picked these guys in the first place. Lots of legit, popular and interesting enemies.

Notable Bithynian Accomplishments in History.

1. Hired has-been Hannibal, suggests throwing snakes in enemy boats, actually works.

2. Scythed chariots used successfully...on them!

3. Pestered big-head Xenophon and the rest of the 10 000.

4. King dies, gives Kingdom to Rome in 74 BCE.

5.Never completely conquered by the Persians or the Macedonians.

6. Invited the Galatians into Asia Minor.

7. Ran away from Mithridiates, repeatedly.

Mighty Spanikopites and bodyguard.

Have rhomphia, will fight.

I used Minifigs 'New' Alexandrian line. Not so new anymore and very 'True 15' in scale. They look like children next to Xyston and other latter day giants. The sculpting is very simple, spare, almost zen and requires the painter to relish the flat surface and give some brush love. It remains a favourite line of mine.

The Galatian Warband were some big wacky ol' Falcon US figures I've had since the days of 1.0.

Given the Bithyians were a Thracian sub-set you could use the traditional Thracian Hill Folk costume for an earlier look. Those fox skin boots never go out of style (or maybe they should). I went with the 'Hellenistic Thracian' look. Mostly cause I like it, it's an established (via steles and such) Bithynian 'look' and the figures were right in my hands at the time. Which is one of the Teenage Visigoth's rules for happy wargaming, use what you've got, rather than dreaming about what you could have.

The arrayed auxilia.

As per the DBM lists, El Barko states that the rhomphia was not used by the Bithynians. Which may be correct, but it is such a freaking cool thing, why would you not include it? The DBM lists say lots of shit. Very little of which I pay attention to and suggest all good-hearted DBA players do the same.

Hairy and scary naked men, Galatian Mercenaries.

Size comparison. Puny wee Bithynians (Minifigs) next to mighty Galatians (Falcon US)

Light Horse, my game winner. That is when I do win with these guys.

The joy of a limited pallette.

In the interest of speed and a unified look I kept the palette limited and variation between figure at zero. I wanted the look of a unified army that would be different. Would I do the same again? I'm not sure.

The most effective part of the army, the camp followers.

I've played over 30 matches with these guys. I'm pretty sure their record it 5-25 or something like that. I've been hammered by Republican Rome, Alexander, The Persians, Mithradiates, endless hoplites and those lousy Kappadokians.

Now before you write me a well meaning missive suggesting I need to play auxilia armies different than other sorts of forces, thanks, but don't bother. I am the auxilia king in our parts. Flying columns, offset deployment, jerky toe-holding tactics...you name it I do it and I win.

I've been figuring out ways for auxilia armies to win since 1.0 back when my beloved Welsh were mostly all Ax.  My Scots-Irish are terrors of their times. My Early Samurai have a record well better than they should.
 I could go on...

I win with Ax, just never with the Bithynians.

What's up Bithynia? Is it me? I love you guys. I made a special camp with an angry rock throwing woman for you. Why do you always fold in the clinch?

I'm willing to work on this relationship. 

-tv

Dog-Romans in 10.

 

So I have this insane idea to make matched Polybian Romans and Later Carthaginian armies.

In 10mm.

Based for 25mm, that is 60mm frontage. Glory.

Am I getting distracted here? Likely.

These guys above are from AIM's Punic War line. I quite like them.

Here is a shot of the 'pilot' fig.

 I'm surprised how many people when embarking on a mass paint don't start off with a pilot fig to figure out their colour scheme and painting method. Perhaps I over-think, but it works for me.

I really like the Polybian Roman DBA list. It was the first DBA army I painted back in the days of one point aught. I won lots with it. Success got me so bored I retired the army and went off in search of other hardluck projects, you know Bithynians and the like.

I love Velites. It is a quite Roman idea of taking the poorer members of your society and giving them crap fabricae weapons and telling them, 

'Hey! It's cool, you guys are the skirmishers! You've got an awesome job as skirmishers. You get to protect the important part of army, the legionaries. You also get to fight some of the best light infantry ever, the Libyans, the Greeks, the Spanish, and hey, even those Thracians. And if you survive, you might get to wear a dog's head on your helmet. Did I say this was an awesome job or what?'

Romans, what a load of wankers...

I do love the look of these troops nonetheless. And frankly the Polybian list has the best enemies. Spanish of many flavours, Carthaginians (of course), Macedonians, Gauls, and those wacky Syracusans to name a few. The 'Punic' era is the Ancients All-Stars period. You're going to find one army you like and it will kick ass.

Dog-Romans? The pre-Teen Visigoth was enamoured with them as well, finding the dog headed-ness puzzling as a 5 year old. Dubbing them 'Dog-Romans' and painting many of them from those wonderful HaT 1/72nd boxes I bought in excess. 

These won't be the only 10's you'll see on the bloggo. I've taken another commission, this time for the wonderful Brent Lloyd. A 'Scots Common' army is awaiting a prime job. But first I needs plow through the boat load Vikings that sit on my desk. They're not 10mm, and like the proverbial Dane with Dane-geld...they just don't seem to go anyplace.

-tv

Never Mind the Mountain Indians

New additions to the Book II gallery.

Please have a look at my beloved Mountain Indians.

Music and painting tip for the day:

Never mind the Bhangra This collection totally got me through the work. Brilliant. Assuming the Sex Pistols and Bhangra are your cuppa Chai...

Hero Gun of the People

Keeping the green theme going, I've returned/sold-out/apostatized to World War 2. You sort of can't escape the damn thing. It's truly the 500lb gorilla of the historical miniatures cosmos.

And while I prefer my baddies wearing togas rather than jackboots, it's a break from the usual sandals and swords of my universe.

So I present to you:

HERO GUN OF THE SOVIET PEOPLE

76mm Regimental Gun 1927

So bragging time. I did this in less than 25 minutes after the primer dried. Dry brush for the gun, wet brush for crew.

I also did this model exclusively in Games Workshop Colours. That decision was to prove a simple point to a nice person. 'Exact Historical' colours produced by any manufacturer are really a luxury, not a requirement to get things on the table. OK, that stupid German Panzer Grey is hard to fake, but pretty much everything else is not. Paint your damn miniatures. No excuses*.

The model is a Soviet 1927 76mm Regimental Gun. Produced by Battlefront Miniatures for their overwhelmingly popular Flames of War game. It's a sweet little gun.

Why this model? Allow me short digression. It has to do with the classic computer game Steel Panthers. Now I consider computer gaming in my life the same as daily meth use. I stopped smoking, that was hard. Stopping playing Civilization and scrubbing it from my hard drive, that was VERY HARD. So needless to say, I don't really do too much these days.

But...Steel Panthers...I sneak that once in a while.
[Rimmer] I was playing Soviet defenders in a Barbarossa scenario. The Panzers had cut my valiant BT-7s and T-28's to bits and had overwhelmed my centre.  Two Panzer III's had over-ran my guns and the crews had fled or were dead. Except one. These heroic dudes rallied, spun their guns around and shot both tanks in the rear point blank. One brewed up and the other bailed. The Soviet centre was saved! I built this model in honour of the wee pixels and electrons that stopped the cyber-Fascists cold.
[/Rimmer]

Since I don't play FoW, I'll probably keep them kicking around for another occasion. Unless anyone wants to buy them...


*OK, time, family, food, earthquakes..these are important obstacles and acceptable excuses.

Site additions.

Well, happy St. Patrick's Day for those who care. What better way to celebrate this by having red-headed, green clad magic dude on the page?  

I've finally started getting my site organized for galleries. Aside from the obligatory DBA galleries listed by Book, I've also added a fantasy add on for the many and odd one-off fantasy figures.

Drop in and say hello to the

Tenth Level Wizards.
(click up there..)

Toltec Test and Talk

First attempt at a Toltec grunt.

I have the mind to do an interpretation of the Toltec list.

It's been on my mind for at least 6 years now. Back awhile the ever enthusiastic and genial Paul from Seattle visited Magna Calgaria for a weekend of DBA (well, mountains and hockey too I suppose) and we had possibly the best match I ever played. (Thanks Paul, keep running!)

We matched the Toltec III/56 against the Dog Peoples/Chichimec  III/41 lists. Both are potentially the oddest monotypes going. The Toltec list can be interpreted as 12 Blade elements (variant swaps a psiloi for one of those heavy infantry stands) The Dog People have the option of being almost all psiloi (the exception being a compulsory warband stand.

Who were they? The Toltec culture held sway over much over much of Central America from around 800CE to 1000CE. Much of the technological and cultural aspects of what we know of in Aztec society originated with the Toltec, things like suited warrior societies, those macuahuitl sword clubs, blood sacrifices and much, much more. What most we know of the Toltec (outside of archaeology) comes from Aztec legend, which is problematic. And no, there are no popular histories of the Toltecs waiting for you on the bookshelf. Aside from the cool and wacky stuff from Carlos Castenada...but that's for a different topic.

The Dog Peoples or Chichimecs were the Mesoamerican Post Classical barbarians par excellence and regular invaders of Toltec turf from their dusty HQ's in Northen Mexico. Indeed the names of the two cultures are functionally synonymous with culture (Toltec) and primitive (Chichimec) in the Nahuatl language. So you've got a pairing on metaphorical combative par with Republican Rome and Gaul. But in this case, the Chichimecs 'won' over-running their cultural superiors, who were no doubt deciding where to have lunch.

For those sensible people of you who don't speak DBA-ese as a second language it's like this; the Toltecs are the heaviest and deadliest of infantry armed with those wonderful and scary macuahuitl, but slow and iffy in the hills and forests. The Dog Peoples are a fast moving cloud of archers, running about sniping and seeking a flank. As a match it's a challenging one. The Dog People cannot overpower the Toltec battle-line in a fair fight. The Toltecs cannot catch the Dog People without breaking formation.
Sounds great right? Why doesn't everyone have a matched pair? Well I'll tell you, but first about the match...it was scary. I took the Toltecs, mostly I was enamored by this force of jaguar and eagle suit wearing badasses. Naked guys with bows would stand no chance...ha ha! Well, not so easy. It was a tense and edgy match, particularly when Paul's psiloi infiltrated my battleline. There where double and triple overlaps and one die roll could end the match. Great stuff. That's the kind of match I play this game for.

Toltec grunt from behind.

So after that I've had Toltec's on the mind. But stymied, no one really does a Toltec line, mostly as there is little consensus as to what a Toltec force would appear like. The murals at Teotihuacan show warriors armed like later Aztecs, with exciting Mayan style head-dresses. Not surprising as the Toltec and Maya warred for some time. Few figures (if any) out there exist like that. The Toltec army Paul brought with him from Seattle was loaned kindly from another gamer. This he assembled from bits of Aztec and other Mesoamerican cast-offs. Well, why couldn't I do the same? But my inner pedant was constantly harping demanding some sort of thoughtful research. 'Hmmmph,' he says, 'why don't you just use Egyptians you attention deficit fool'.

So after research and consultation with the shaman, I came up with the following points I'd use to base my Toltec army around.

1. Only fairly important people get their pictures in public buildings. This is my way of not falling into Positivist Fallacy.
So the fancy head-dress and such finery would be reserved for the command elements. And I won't go bonkers trying to find rank and file troops like such.

2. The Toltecs introduced the macuahuitl, padded armor, and suit wearing warrior societies (specifically the Coyote and the Jaguar) to mesoamerica. They used the atlatl. There is reasonable conjecture and assumption they used the sling (i.e. everyone else used it).

So take a look at my test shots. They're Minifig 308X 'Maquahuitl Warriors'.  I had a bunch kicking around. So they're what's going to comprise the bulk of the troops. I do have to upwards of 40 foot to do after all.

In classic Minifigs style, they're all single pose. I don't mind. I don't get wrapped up in pose variation agony as much as others do and maybe I should. But I like the impression of coordinated badassedness. But you do need to use your brush to break up what could be monotonous. 

So the cotton armour is going to range from flowery tunic (as above) to the more common white padded vest (AC8 for us old school AD&D nerds) and I'll vary the shield patterns to keep it mixed.
Or I might do regiments, reader feedback on that? I've got a pair of shielded slingers for the lone Ps stand. They have a lot of dignity for guys in loin cloths.

So I've ordered more from Minifigs via Caliver Books.
The command I have so far a mix of Aztec and Tlaxcalans

I'll keep up on this project and update you as I get more involved with brushwork.

So, I've just laid bear depth of the scholarship I've put into this. I have no hidden text or sagely Prof. whom I consult. So if anyone has information to the contrary or in support of my wild assumptions, let me know.

It's important in this hobby we do not succumb to the inertia of knowledge and pedantry and  NOT attempt anything.

All praise Queztalcoatl,
-TV

2010 in review.

The custom in these parts...a look back.

It's a been a bit of while since my last post. The previous month has been a bit of a crap-fest.
I could belabour you all with tales of woe and post-modern angst, but who here among us does not bear such stuff.

Suffice it to say it was all crap, and then our dog died.

Nugget. 1997-2010

Nugget, our brave and relentless companion on the snowshoe and running trails, slipped from us fast and peaceful. We miss her. Strangely, it has messed up my painting. Creatures of habit that we were would go for a late night run and do an easy 3-5K. We'd come home, she'd curl up, I'd make tea and do an hour of slapping paint on lead. Now that has changed.

Just lately I've been back putting brush in paint and making the little men dance. Always good to have a project and a deadline isn't it? So I created one...

King of Canadian Tyre
The wonderful Don Ray and I bumped heads on a Fanaticus discussion on the hows of making a I/35 Cypriot and Phoenician army. See the gripping discussion here (I whine most pathetically) : 
http://www.fanaticus.org/discussion/showthread.php?t=10492

Well it's begun. I'll be posting more in a separate article for those who want to see more of the project. Suffice to say..they'll be more Faux-necians than anything, but it will be grand.

Notches on the Paint Brush
2010 was pretty light in the production end. I did complete a Mongol Conquest army and another Early Samurai army. Both these were for my FallCon production of Samurai Night Fever. Pictures? Yeah, got lots, just need to make up the galleries. Soon I promise.


I struggled with my Early Muslim and North Africa and Sicily army. I finally slammed it through last week. All praise to the dip.


Still working on the 28mm Warring States project. Lots of wonderful figs to paint there. But sheesh, I've squat for time for all the projects on the queue, the hordes of Zhao and Chu get stuck on the hold.


Liam the Pre-Teen Visigoth and I finished up the Evil Emo Elf Empire for HoTT 28mm. They've yet to take the field but their monster supported bladey goodness will be most fun.


I goofed around painting some Super-hero sorts. Making up lame-ish supers is a favourite game around here. The Pre-Teen Visigoth and I are working a project for HoTT that will have such amazing heroes like NINJALICIOUS, THE VISOR, and KING  KONGBAT doing battle with SANDTRAP, THE BLUE MEANIE, and THE 42ND STREET NINJAS. Pictures to come.


Distractions
2010 has been more about music for than minis. Well, that and finding a decent job. I'm back and school learning digital audio and studio recording. I love it and spend way too much time 'twidding knobs' then painting.

We all know the cycle of distraction grief we gamers get into. We get bored with big project so find something else to do. Then we get annoyed that we aren't getting done what we need to so we go back to our big project, out of duty and not passion. Boredom follows...

I've been in a huge reading storm too. I even read a book on WW2. GASP. Those of you who know me know of my half-hearted contempt of wargaming most of everything post 19th Century. So yeah, broadening out. Plus I think I have learnt everything I REALLY need to know about Merovingian jock straps and Chandragupta's tent flaps.

And I do like Russian tanks.
I do promise to get over my BT-7 fixation. Soon...But just watch this video.


How can you not love these tanks? Even the cute blond chick digs them and the guy at the end was totally stoked.


2011 projects.
Well for DBA it's all about Book One for the first half of the year.  Lykians, Phoenicians, Egyptians of all flavours, more Indians, and Early Macedonians are all ready to get pigmentized.

Don't take my 'I hate 20th Century stuff' too seriously. The Spanish Civil War still grips me. Admittedly more for the music than anything else right now. But a few of us are indeed actually co-operating on this project. Watch for micilianos!

Of course, the joke was I started this blog just after New Years. Took me that long to finish it up.

Good painting and good times for 2011.

I leave you with Lila Downs...



The Republic may have lost, but they had the best music.

Technicolour Reconstructions

A quick post today.

I need to go make supper (curried chickpeas and pappadums!)

and don't have anything too fresh in the painting department.

I came across these colour restorations of Greek sculpture and again was impressed by the vivacity of the colours.

You can read about the exhibit and process here:

http://www.archaeology.org/0801/trenches/colorgods.html

I contrast this with the discussion on Fanaticus regarding Skythian pants and other aspects:

http://www.fanaticus.org/discussion/showthread.php?t=9290

My next hoplite force (probably LHG Thessalians) is going to be packed with bling.

Cheers,

-Sean