Don't vote Conservative today...

...or my parents, who are both public sector workers, will be out of a job.

Also, I will have to live in poverty for the rest of my life.

Expansion of the farm

You may remember the farm I had built for me in an earlier post, well, I've been inspired by a photo I came across to build a vineyard that will sit adjacent to it.

This photo which comes from Paul Darnell's Touching History blog shows the sort of thing I'm aiming to achieve. Bill Gaskin made the vineyards, terrain board and painted the figures - Paul made the hundred or so buildings.

The vineyard looks like quite a simple design. A large rectangular base with some stakes stuck in it with wire running between them. Then some trunks added and some foliage. Can't be too hard - can it?!

I've bought issue 1 and 2 of Paul's 'Touching History' scenery making guides in the hope something like this is covered. These books cover the Spanish Napoleonic period (don't worry - I'm not starting a new period!) and the English Civil War which will be helpful for my other project. I thought, as my Romans will mostly be fighting in a mediterranean environment, the Spanish scenery would be fairly similar and so this book would be useful!

Travel Chaos

As I'm sure you're aware, there has been unprecedented disruption to European air travel as a result of the volcanic eruption in Iceland. What was meant to be a nice little break in Florence, Italy, soon became the holiday from hell.

You'll be pleased to hear I'm now safely back in the UK and ready to get back on with my ever-growing list of things to do. I have a very busy period over the next month with coursework and exams for University but finish on the 25th May. Following this, I'll be focussing solely on my wargaming projects until the end of July when I go to London to work for the rest of my summer holidays.

I wouldn't expect many updates between now and then but I can assure you, when I have a spare few hours, i'll be working hard on my Roman and ECW projects along with my multi-period terrain board!

Apologies for the lack of posts since Christmas when it was all looking so promising! But thank you to those who keep coming back for reference or new visitors looking for help and advice! For details of my ECW project, check out my other blog here.

BigRedBatRiver

Here are a few snaps of the river I received a few weeks ago from prolific blogger and wargamer Simon, otherwise known as BigRedBat. They're made from modelled polystyrene but I can't tell what they've been textured with.

They'd make great additions to any battlefield from Ancient times to WWII and beyond. They could even act as canals, given the raised lip of the bank

This pic shows the full extent of the pieces that make up the model river and as you can see, there's quite a number of different options for potential layouts!

Things I hate this week: basing and the weather (it's stopping me going out to undercoat and varnish figures!). Into the ECW and AWI? Click here for my latest project.

Quintus Pompeius Falco

Quintus began his career as a Quaestor in Rome but his talent for management and financial acumen was soon recognised and saw him reassigned to Spain where he would oversee the development of this new and prosperous land. Quintus spent much of the day studying his charts and writing letters to his superiors in Rome, detailing his progress. There was little time for fun and games.

Under his leadership Spain flourished. Towns sprung up across the country and new roads were built to connect them to the thriving coastal ports that fed the empire with food and tradable goods. Mines were constructed to extract valuable resources from the land and farms fed the burgeoning province. Not even the widest or fastest flowing river could stop his expansion, he simply bridged them and continued with his aggressive expansion. Of course, the locals didn't take too kindly to the loss of their land and rebelled, causing widespread damage to the new Roman infrastructure. This angered Quintus who had spent many months trying to Romanise these people and bring prosperity to the land. He raised an army and marched on the rebel camp, slaughtering all who defied Roman rule. You do not want to stand in the way of this man or you'll end up as part of his next project, probably as part of the mortar!

Fortified Farm

As mentioned in the previous post, I recently received a farm house from Paul Darnell of Touching History fame. I had an idea to eventually fortify the Roman/Greek farm for a future defense scenario and have had a go at this by using a wooden palisade wall with a ditch. I can't wait to use this on the gaming table! It looks great!

What do you think? Any comments or suggestions? The photo is fully clickable.

Roman farm

I received this rather marvelous model Roman/Greek farm in the week from Touching History's Paul Darnell. You can see it pictured above with two of my half-finished Romans for purposes of scale. They are both 28mm Foundry Caesarian Romans.

In time, I intend to add some removable barricades for a defense scenario I have in mind and add a vineyard and olive grove. The farm buildings represent only a quarter of its eventual size as I'm going to add another three terrain tiles the same size as this one to hold the olive grove, country lanes etc. It should become an awesome centerpiece of any battlefield!

I really like this building. Buildings of a similar style were scattered all over the mediterranean where the Greeks and Romans had any influence and so making it an incredibly versatile piece of scenery. I can use it across hundreds of years of warfare and in different locations around the mediterranean.

For more information on my Macedonian/Greek project, go to my other blog here.

Command Stand

Here's a fully clickable photo of my first command stand. The figures have been painted and matte varnished and as you can see, this makes quite a difference. They still need basing material applying to the base but I want to order some static grass before I do this. I will have one of these command stands for every 1000 points I use.

Note: the standard bearer was painted entirely using the traditional multi-colour, layered shading method and not using the army painter (my first figure like this!). All my standard bearers will be painted like this. I did however ink the flesh.

Project List

Influenced by the latest post on BigRedBatCave, I thought it may be interesting to create a list of my current projects. I too am a bit of a period hopper but still don't have much to show for it!

Current projects - this is the year of the ancients!

• Cesarian Romans (should finish my first 1000 WAB points by April)
• Spartans
• Macedonian/Successor

Projects on hold - these are projects I have some figures for but am currently not working on

• American War of Independence (don't 'dip' very well so will have to reevaluate my painting method)
• WWII 1944 (got enough troops for Regiment of Brit Paras - camo is scary!)
• Very British Civil War (painted half the miniatures for this so may take this up again soon)
• Crusades (didn't like the variety in shields or figures so may give this up altogether)

Future projects

• Persian (to fight all my Greeks)
• English Civil War (to fight some smaller scale skirmish battles)
• Dark Ages (Arthurian to Viking invasion)

I hope to have made considerable progress on my current projects by the end of the year and have at least two 1000 point, game-able armies available to play at game at Christmas (hopefully will have had a chance to work on some terrain too). I really need to sort these into short and longer term projects and then I can allocate my time a lot better.

If you didn't already know, I do a blog solely for the progress of my Greeks which you can find here. This will get updated much more frequently after Easter.

Historical reading and WIP

I thought I'd post an image of the books I'm reading at the minute. I'm not a very fast reader (I'm not a very fast painter either!) but I am finding them very enjoyable.

I'm currently reading the 3rd in the series of Emperor books by Conn Iggulden which are a great and exciting read! They are about the life of Caesar from a young boy until his death. Obviously the author has had to fill in the gaps where historical evidence is not present but he's done an excellent job of mixing history with adventure to create a thrilling read.

At the same time I'm reading The Fall of Carthage by Adrian Goldsworthy which has been recommended to me by every single blogger I've come across. I've only finished the introduction (started reading it last night) but it certainly looks interesting and I'm keen to find out a little more of the history and rise of Rome.

The other two books 'The Age of Alexander' and 'On Sparta' by Plutarch I am yet to come to. I've had a quick flick through them and they look very exciting and I'm keen to learn about the great figures of those time periods.

This is a WIP shot of the standard bearer for my command stand (I'm currently working on another 4 for my units and a Spartan command stand). I've already applied two layers of red to the undergarment and the colour is very steadily lightening. I will need to go over the flesh again with a darker colour and then re-do this colour as it's a black undercoat and you can still see it through the paint! Hopefully a more detailed progress report by the end of the week!

Batavian Auxiliaries and 50th Post!

A while ago I thought of creating a unit of Batavian Auxiliaries after seeing this post on Iron Mitten. Secundus used Warlord Romans for his but on closer inspection of the figures, I decided they would look too out of place in my Caesarian army.

I emailed the guys at 1st Corps a little while ago to ask when they'd be posting up photos of their 'Slave Revolt' range and to my suprise, the following weekend they uploaded photos of the range! I found this pack of heavy infantry for the slave army that would look just right as Batavian Auxiliaries! Batavia is what is now modern day Netherlands and these warriors were renowned for their bravery and skill as fighters, hence why the Romans consistently recruited from the region.

Picture from 1st Corps Slave Revolt range.

I love the fact they look very rough and ready with their beards and lack of sandles - perfect for a semi-barbaric unit. Plus they have the Gallic helmets the rest of my troops have. I wanted your opinion on whether to go for all hexagonal shields like the guy third from the left or all oval shields? Would a unit like this have uniform shields? Or be allowed celtic-style shields from their home province?

Painting update: I'm a bit frustrated at the minute trying to paint over black and silver undercoats - it's not easy! In fact, I'm having to paint darker shades of the same colour on before hand which is dramatically increasing my painting time. Slow progress ahoy...

P.S. this is my 50th post since April 2009. Hurrah!

Spanish Cavalry

I first posted this image of my Spanish cavalry some time ago but it wasn't clickable then (hopefully this one is!).

I bought them painted like this but intend to add more detail to them in time (as they're fully painted - this can wait!). They look a bit like Crusader miniatures but I can't really be sure. I bought them from Partizan in Newark and they were quite expensive at the time considering the quality of the paint work. The riders are poor but the horses are painted to a VERY high standard.

They're based three to a base (can't remember the measurements) but they don't really have enough depth. You can't have them move in a column as the horses touch, increasing the distance between bases which is a bit of a shame.

Make sure to check the blog tomorrow as I'll be needing your help and advice once again! This time, for the 'look' of some auxiliaries and the composition of my Roman army.

A MASSIVE thanks!

I've had a bit of a surge of followers and commenters in the last few weeks and I thought it'd be interesting to see just how many people are visiting my site. I've been monitoring website traffic on this site since Tuesday and have been astonished at the general number of people who've visited (nearly reaching the 200 mark in under a week!). I never thought I'd get this many. As you can see from the graph below, the number has been steadily increasing throughout the week.

The blue bar shows the amount of 'unique' visitors or people visiting the site from a certain IP address. This is most representative of the people visiting the site but the green bar shows the number of page loads. This means that a lot of those who visit are opening up my blog several times a day or looking all the way back through my posts to the older ones. I can't think why there's this steady increase in visitors but perhaps it has something to do with my increasing frequency of blog posts, that seems to help when blogs become popular!

So I'd just like to say a massive thanks to all those who've visited the site in the last week (and those who've visited in the past) and to all those who have elected to 'follow' the blog or leave a comment. It really means a lot to know there are people who find some form of entertainment in the blog. This will spur me on to paint A LOT more and try and get painted figures churning out much more frequently.

I was thinking of reducing the security surrounding comment posting on this blog as I've received a lot of very helpful and interesting comments lately and I may be missing out of some vital piece of advice from those who chose not to sign up. Do you think I should allow anonymous posters to post a comment? This would allow those who don't have an account to be involved. Good/bad idea?

Painting total increase!

My painting total has increased to 3 since yesterday. I've painted a legionary unit leader and two of the figures to go on the General's command stand. They've turned out really well and I've managed to preserve a lot of the white on the capes etc. Haha, they sound like superheros now. Perhaps that should be 'cloaks'...

Legionary unit commander

General's tribune

This is a shot to show you how the Army Painter changes the look of a figure. The figure on the right is my General character (he's since been touched up and dipped) who hasn't been dipped at this point and on the left is a character who has been dipped. You can see the effect it's had on the 'kilt', face and shoes quite clearly.

All these figures still need matte varnishing but I'll have to do that in a couple of months when I get home. This makes a huge difference and really adds to the quality.

I wouldn't expect to see anymore photos of these guys until their properly based and varnished but hopefully the command stand will make an attractive centerpiece for the army!

Cheers!

Painting total in the last 2 weeks

...1

But I have many more nearly finished so hopefully that number will shoot up by the end of the weekend.

The face of 'Consul'.

As I've been blogging for some time now and have built up quite an online presence (pestering long-time bloggers for help!), I thought it rude that those who take the time and effort to read my blog and leave me encouraging comments do not know who they're talking to!

Well, below you'll see a picture of my Dad, Richard, and I who form possibly the smallest wargames group in Britain - the Mill Road Militia! We have been mistaken for brothers in the past but I am on the one on the left. We haven't played many games recently but did used to play a lot of WWII and Napoleonic games, my Dad always having to play as the 'Fatherland' (Germany and France!). Hopefully with the coming of my new ancients armies then the fights will continue and we'll be able to post up a few interesting battle reports.

My Dad started off playing role-playing games such as Rune Quest and Traveller but eventually moved on to tabletop wargaming. His period interests are classical ancients (Alexander), the Dark Ages (Normans, Saxons, Vikings), English Civil War, Jacobite Rebellion, Napoleonic and WWII. He also loves a good Vietnam game. He has figures for most of these periods in 6mm but we have 1/72 (20mm) plastic Napoleonics he spent years painting when I was little all in boxes up in the roof!

My interest in wargaming obviously comes from my Dad and the fact we had a lot of figures, Osprey books and rule books lying about the house was certainly a help! I also loved war films - Zulu being my favourite at the time. Honestly - I watched it everyday for about 2 years when I was in infant school and could quote every line (and sing Men of Harlech!)

I always thought the Zulu chanting was rather exciting and beautiful in a way. But anyway, that

video shows the exchange of chants/songs before the final battle in the film. It's all rather epic.

My main wargaming interests are ancients obviously with an emphasis on Romans and Greeks,

AWI and WWII.

I hope that gives a little insight into the background behind the blog and my interest in wargaming!

I hope you aren't too offended by my ugly mug ;-)

More wolf skins!

I painted the rest of the wolf skins last night whilst watching the second part of Silent Witness and the first two episodes Secret Diary of a Call Girl on my laptop (yes it really did take me that long). I think they look pretty good and I can't wait to get them finished and out of the way so I can go back to line infantry. I have a unit of wolf-skinned skirmishers yet to paint in a box at home which were meant to be in the 'starting line-up' of my army but a fear of the wolf skin put me off! Now I'm much more confident, I should be able to finish them pretty quickly and have a unit that looks great on the battlefield! It was inspired by this unit that Secundus created over at Iron Mitten. Those figures are from Renegade.

This is what I'm working on today. The three figures to the left make up the General's command stand - not sure what he's called yet though. I had a crisis of confidence over the naming of my characters last night so that's all changed! I wont post anymore photos of these guys until they're varnished and based so they really make an impact on the blog. Next along are the two leaders of my other two legionary units. And then the next two figures are the 4th figure that make up the front line of each Legionary cohort (4x4). I'm painting these are a test figure for the unit, shields and all. The un-armoured unit will have a mixture of coloured tunics and patterned shields to make them look much more like a hastily raised unit.

Hope you enjoy! I'm trying to get as much done on these today as possible but an afternoon in the pub watching the Arsenal game may stop my ambitions in their tracks.

Wolf skin take 2

I decided to add a few more lighter highlights to the edges of the wolf skin on the advice of others. I know the photo isn't the best and there are different light sources but you can just about make out the differences. It's a subtle improvement I think - makes it look realistic but I haven't over done it. I still don't know what it'll look like with the 'dip' applied so we'll have to see. Hopefully it'll look good as I'll be painting on the wolfskins of the 6 others I have to paint for the army this evening.

First attempt at wolf skin

I've always been too scared to paint wolf skins so my units have always been incomplete but not anymore! I've plucked up the courage to finally try one out for real! I decided to slightly differ from real life and just go for the black undercoat and light grey dry-brushing all over but I think it looks pretty good. I'm sure once the rest of the colours have been blocked in then it'll look fine (it's a bit dark at the minute!)

I thought it'd be better to dry-brush the skin first rather than paint the rest of the miniature so as to save having to go over each colour all over again. I'll just have to be really careful not to overlap onto the skin anywhere!

I might add some much lighter highlights on the edges of the fur later on and i'll paint the visible underside of the skin a sort of tan leather.

Comments and suggestions welcome!

My painting area

In response to several posts across the blogging world I've decided to post up a picture of my painting area at University. When I'm at home, I tend to paint whereever I find space. I usually end up on the dining room table making family members eat their tea amidst the legions of Rome and some paint.

This is where I paint at University. My paints are usually all over the table with notes scrawled on bits of paper, detailing the paints I need and what order I will paint them onto the miniatures. I got the lamp, laptop stand and keyboard for Christmas to help with my painting. The lamp will help me paint during the long, dark winter's nights. The stand helps keep my laptop out of the way and allows me to have reference pictures up on the screen at the same time as painting. I can also hide the keyboard away underneath the laptop to keep the space clear. The three figures waiting on the table will form the command stand of the army once painted and based. I'm currently painting all the command figures first, then moving onto the monotony of the line troops!

This pic shows my Foundry and Vallejo paints (I have some more of these in the drawer but don't use them so often), brushes, tin of Army Painter, water pot and penknife I use for removing flashing and opening the tin lid! - all stored in some of the packaging sent with Foundry figures.

I hope this provides an interesting insight into my painting area. With my laptop infront of me, I can also watch DVDs, iPlayer and all sorts to keep me entertained. I've tried to hide my hobby from my flatmates but there's no getting away from it now and they think it's kind of cool anyway!