Conan of Cimmeria and his Hyborian Allies and Foes

One of the ways I try to keep my painting interest going is to mix up the kind of projects I work on.  So while the last several posts have been about Napoleonics, while I was working on those I almost always had another creative diversion in process as well.  Here are a few new elements for my Hyborian armies from the age of Conan.  Paul Potter is really the guilty party here as he had some lovely Hyborian armies for sale at Nashcon and so provided the bulk of the troops.

Many can be seen here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/648832952224598/for_sale_search/?forsalesearchtype=all&query=potter&referral_surface=direct_link&availability=available

Thanks to my daughter I have an anthology of Robert E. Howard's Conan stories that is my bedtime reading these days.  It's a good thing as I am relatively new to the stories, my only exposure to Conan being the movies with Arnold Schwarzenegger.  In any event I now have Kushites, Shemites and Stygian armies ready for the game Hordes of the Things, by Phil and Sue Barker. 

Below is a map of the Hyborian world just to orient any strangers to the world of Conan.

All of the armies needed a few additional elements to really make them playable so I have added a few extras. 

 A Shemite priestess with her Magician acolyte

 A Kushite Shaman and his guard

 The 15mm figures of the shaman, Kushite hero and the Priestess with Magician are all from the miniature line by Crom's Anvil in the UK.

https://cromsanvil.co.uk/characters.html

 

 Kushite Hero

Conan with Valeria

This element was actually mostly Paul's work, but I added a few more bodies to the pile.

Howard must have had a thing for green jade, because he is always writing about green towers of stone rising from the jungle, invariably populated by some horrid monster or wicked sorcerer.  This particular tower was provided by Terry Webb as some swag for attending the Good, Bad, and Ugly Hordes of the Things (HotT) tournament last year.

And lastly, a stronghold for the wicked magician's of Stygia, modeled on the ancient Egyptian culture.  Have to love Amazon as I found this lovely little statue for just a few bucks.

Now that these elements are complete it is time to get these armies out of their cigar boxes and on to a battle ground!

Thanks for taking the time to visit my blog.  Don't forget to follow my blog or drop me a comment if you have enjoyed this work.  Y'all stay safe out there!

New Spring Time Projects - Bavarians and Saxons !

In what seems like my modus operandi - I can't ever just work on one project, so for the next couple of months will be working on painting a Napoleonic Bavarian battalion for my old school 1/72 collection, and a 15mm early British army made of Saxons and Post Roman occupation British forces as an L'Art de la Guerre army.

1st Up - The Bavarians 

I purchased these on an ebay auction thinking they might be Hinton Hunt figures, but turned out to be custom modified Airfix French Old Guard figures with a head transplant to Bavarian helmets and then cast in metal.  The casting was very well done with the exception of the muskets, which were so poorly done I had to find an alternative solution.  Enter Matt Golding from the UK who sent enough muskets from one of his own projects, to outfit the whole battalion.  Thanks Matt!  I have finished the removal of the old muskets (which were held in the right hand) and replaced with Matt's muskets (cut down very slightly) and held on the left hand side.  I am confident that with a little paint, the remaining removal scars will be well disguised.

We have a local fellow who makes printed flags and sells at the local conventions.  I saw this flag last year and picked it up to save me from having to paint what has to be one of the most intricate Napoleonic flags in use!

Really excited about getting some paint on these fellas.

 The officers are Hinton Hunt figures, but I believe are actually Austrians.  The uniform is so close though, that with a little paint, I think they will make an adequate proxy.

Now on to the Saxons!

This will be a small project as the army itself is already complete, with two exceptions.  I need to make a camp, which in this case will be those pesky Saxons rowing across the channel to beach their ship on the shores of Britain.  Lastly I need a couple elements of those now famous Sarmations who may have served with the Romans in Britain. 

 This is a 15mm Essex viking ship sitting in some colored Sculpta-mold paper mache.  My hope is that when finished it will look like a coastal inlet.  The blue will be toned down with greens and browns and then a little highlighting added.  I would love to figure out how to mold a slate pebble beach as I have seen in Wales.  I imagine the Saxons would have landed on the East coast however.  What would be appropriate for that coastline?

The shields are detailed with Little Big Man decals.

Donnington Sarmations in progress.  I got several pounds of these figures for about $10 long ago.  I passed on most of them to other gamers, but have just enough left for a Sarmation DBA army.

And Finally Spring has Arrived in Nashville!

I spent the day yesterday outside trying to clear brush and get the back yard in order.  Still tons to do, but by the end of the day was able to relax by an outdoor fire and take a load off knowing I had put in a good day's work.

 

 Here are some of the wildflowers blooming out back:

Trout lilies just starting to come up

Native Phlox

 Wild Ginger

 Trillium

 Cut Leaf Tooth Wart (now that is a great name!)

 

 Bloodroot - the native Americans used the dark orange root as a fabric dye.

 

Blood Root blossom just opening up in the morning.

Ancient German 15mm DBA Army

While Normally I pride myself on painting my own armies, recently I realized I simply have more lead than I could ever hope to paint, so I farmed some out to the talented paint brush of Paul Potter for painting.  I asked Paul to leave them un-based so I could match my own style.  Besides basing, I decided I wanted to pretty up some of the shields with Little Big Man shield transfers, so there is a nice mix of original painting and transfers in the army.  So without further ado, here is the result:

Celtic Auxilieries for the Marian Romans

Just a quick update this morning with some shots of what I hope is the last of the Roman Auxilia troops from allied or conquered nations.  Here we have some Gallic warbands fighting in Roman service.

Here are some links to other earlier posts about the Marian Romans.  As you can see the army is becoming quite sizable, for a DBA army at least.

http://miniatureminions.blogspot.com/2017/05/dba-marian-romans-and-spanish.html

http://miniatureminions.blogspot.com/2010/04/marian-roman-army-completed.html

The figures are 15mm Testudo Miniatures

Apparently the Gauls did lots of work on muscle definition, because these guys are jacked!

The shields are a fiddly combination of Little Big Man transfers and paint.  I would hate to have to do a whole army like this, because the decals must be pain painstakingly applied to each side of the central spine of the shield.  Frankly, though I love the fine detail you can get from the transfers, in most cases I think it would have been easier to just paint them.

 

Project Updates - Old School Napoleonics, Romans and ECW oh my!

Getting close to putting the finishing touches on these elements of Gallic mercenaries serving with my Roman army.  These are the last elements that will make up an all options DBA Marion Roman army that has been a very long time coming.  In the spirit of never completing a project though, it seems to me I could easily add a few more legions and have all I would need for a nice Roman civil war!

 This is a painted English Civil War army that I picked up on the cheap at Nashcon this summer.  I'm re-basing and replacing old "spaghetti" lance made of soft lead with wire pikes.  I'm also touching up the painting and giving the figures a quick wash, which will be followed by a cursory highlighting.  The figures are from a variety of manufacturers, and though not a high end selection of figures or painting, should make a quick and easy opponent for my New Model army.

Not a lot of progress on the 17th regiment of the line, but any progress at all is always a good thing.  Their painted brethren are clamoring for support, so I'll get these to the top of the queue before too long.

These chaps were a major source of distraction over the last couple of weeks.  They will be the next French infantry battalion to be painted, the Middle Guard Grenadiers.  Here we have the command figures: First is a DK 24 artillerist converted to a drummer, next is a recast of a Hinton Hunt Old Guard sapper (cast by the esteemed Jon Cunningham), with a head swap from a DK 16, then a DK 7 officer with yet another head swap from a DK16 that was surplus to my needs and with a broken bayonet, and finally a DK 168 Italian I think, being converted to a standard bearer.  I may keep the backpack and think of him as a fusilier stepping in to keep the colors held high.

I'm considering using this lovely modern figure from Art Miniaturen to act as Colonel.

Finally we have the Grenadiers - DK 16 which are supposed to be chasseurs of the Middle Guard, but to my knowledge the only real distinction in the sculpting would be the chevron shaped cuffs, which you can't really see anyway.  Nothing a little paint won't fix.  These guys were heavily painted and required quite a bit of effort to strip.

Lastly, I could use a little help with this fellow.  I am guessing a Jack Scruby French command figure, but would love confirmation from the experts.  I was thinking I might choose him to represent Colonel Louis Vasserot, who served with the 17th from 1809 until 1813, having led them during the Russian campaign where he was wounded.

 

DBA Marian Romans and Spanish Auxillaries

The new army lists in DBA give the Marian Romans a little extra variety, so I decided to add some of the Spanish, and Numidian allies.  I assume the elephant was probably supposed to be from Numidia, but I have chosen a hang over from the Carthaginians, and in any event thought it would look best as an element in Scipio's army.

VVV decals were used to decorate the beast.  One of Scipio's Iberian allies guards the elephant on foot.

On the other side of the elephant, a warrior in captured Roman armor guards the elephant from the attack of lightly armed psiloi.

Iberian heavy cavalry - ineffective but pretty.

Here's what started this whole project.  I found some Roman Bolt Throwers in my collection of unpainted lead from Testudo miniatures, and couldn't resist getting them into action.  In their first outing versus an Indian army, they proved devastating to the enemies elephants.

Numidian allied light horse - the most feared horsemen on the battlefield.

Spanish light infantry auxiliaries.

And the heavies - really had fun with the shields!

The largish Xyston figures mix quite nicely with the Testudo Romans - next up, the Gallic mercenaries of Caesar.