DBA Picts 400-600 AD

Well here they are at last - the Picts! I "pict" these up last year at Nashcon and it has taken me almost precisely one year to get them on the painting table and finished thanks to a host of distraction both in my real life and on the painting table.

The whole army arrayed. It can be played as both the a or b option and will soon include elements to make it morph into a HotT army as well.

These elements were the most fun to make. I figured the lush but rugged landscape of scotland would have lots of streams and exposed rocks. I even threw in some flowers for color.

The spear general and the only figures in mail other than the Chariot and Cavalry Generals.

Some of the spear and slingers. The slingers may be Testudo figures, but all of the rest are from Splintered Light Miniatures, with the possible exception of the trumpeter.

The head man himself complete with shaggy ponies. It has to be said that the mounted units look a bit odd, but I think may actually be quite accurate, as they did ride ponies, not the full sized horses we are used to seeing depicted.

Dixon ACW 25mm Pennsylvania Bucktails

I recently put up several lots of Dixon and Perry miniatures fro sale. I really couldn't decide which line I liked best. The Perry line has great realism and nice proportions, but I'm not a big fan of the plastics. Dixon on the other hand, have really big heads, but they are so full of character and really "read" well on the table. The Perry figures sold, so I let others make the decision for me and I am really quite grateful, as I think for me the Dixons were the way to go. I just like the look and feel of the heavier metal figures.

I have mounted these on pennies and played my first game of Brother vs Brother yesterday. It was a fun beer and pretzels type game that should work well on a large table with mixed forces. My first game was a learning game on a small board, which really did away with any benefit for having artillery.

In brother vs Brother each unit has ten figures and represents a typical squad of twenty actual soldiers. Here I have two squads and one lieutenant as well as a couple of casualty figures for dramatic effect.

Above is a unit of Berdan's sharp shooters. In brother vs Brother there is no provision for snipers or long shots, so we just played these as having breech-loaders, which means they get to fire every turn instead of every other turn for the normal rifled muskets.

The whole unit of ten. Since they were often used in company sized packets supporting larger units, I really need to get busy and paint some more infantry for these guys to support.

Indomitable Spirit

I have a fairly big testing coming up in Taekwondo, and it is traditional to give a gift to the master instructor on such an occasion. I have constructed a diorama depicting a Korean cavalryman opposing the invaders of Japan. A favorite saying of my instructor is Indomitable Spirit, so I have constructed this diorama to reflect that. She tries to impart in us that same spirit of never giving up, something I may have to call on next weekend as it is an all day testing!

The Miniatures are 25mm from the Perry Chosen Korean and Age of Wars Samurai ranges.

You just have to love the flail! I don't care if I did outnumber my opponent 6-1, If I saw that flail coming at me I'm not sure I would show Indomitable Spirit. I might be more likely to show my back side. As Monty Python would say: "Run away!"

Wish me luck - David

Venetian Italian Condottieri DBA Army Finished!

After six months of feverishly slaving away (well, not really so much), the Venetians are finally done and scheduled to meet their nemesis, the Milanese cowards, next weekend. The camp element above is made from a Bauda tent and Ral Partha musicians. The horn blower on the extreme left is taken from a period painting and the poor fellow is apparently wearing some sort of fabric cow's head facsimile, horns and all. The Milanese general has already started a long series of cow jokes which the Venetians may never live down.

Blimb view of the camp with plenty of room left for a combat element to occupy if necessary. The mud is modeled with wood putty and the grass is N-scale railroad ballast painted and highlighted. I hated to tuck a figure inside the tent, as he had a nice paint job which is hard to appreciate with him being inside, but I wanted to block the view into the tent so it would not appear empty.

I modeled another element of Artillery for the Venetians to more accurately represent the financial austerity of Venice. They were one of the few, if only, principality to not go in for the extra expense of fancy decorations on their canon.

A closeup of the figure on the left reveals him for what he originally was; one of the troop of musicians. I cut away the drum he was originally holding and turned his drumstick into a slow match holder with the addition of a bit of thin wire.

Venice only gets one element of knights, favoring stradiots and mounted arqubusiers instead, but here are the heavies.

The big feather wearing cheese himself in his blackened armor with gold embellishments.

I believe the figure of the general may be Essex or some other manufacturer, but he had a head transplant from a Ral Partha fugure.

The army arrayed.
1 x General
1x 3Knight
3x2Light Horse
2x2Artillery
2 x4Pike
2x4Shot
2x3Blade
2x4Crossbow
1x2Psiloi

The fearsome view the poor Milanese will have of the approaching Venetians.

More Spanish Terrain Pieces

Spanish Farm House for DBN

I decided it was high time I gave the 95th rifles a Spanish farm to defend. This is several hovels pieces put together to make a BUA/Fortress for DBN.

Here you can see the courtyard with ample space for an element of infantry to defend the town. The tree is made with a German railroad modelling product call sea moss. I simply sprayed it woth adhesive and sprinkled on some turf flock and voila, instant tree. The final product is flexible so I don't know how much handling it can take, though hopefully having it as part of a larger terrain feature will help protect it from breaking.

The exposed brickwork was painted by using a thin white wash which collected in the textured brick and gave the appearance of mortar. I had to be careful not to get the black wash I used for the stucco in the brick work, but I thought the end result was quite good, and more importantly was quite simple.

Looks like a nice place to live, bigger than my house at any rate.

ACW and AWI Distractions

I decided to get my desk cleared off and so have been taking care of some older projects before continuing with the Renaissance Venetians. First up are some Perry 25mm plastic Union Infantry. I was a bit disappointed at first with these, as they are a bit chunkier than I have come to expect from the Perrys, and the detail is not as crisp as I would like. With that said however, I thought they painted up quite well and more importantly, the final product has made me excited to try some more. Now I just need to find a good set of skirmish rules....

To facilitate a more uniform look for the federal troops I only chose figures with the sack coat (at least I think that is what these are called). This was my first foray into the ACW period so I was on a steep learning curve to try and get the uniforms correct. I did some custom cutting as well to maximize the number of troops I could get from the box in a firing line position, converting marching pose to holding a rifle horizontally like the figure above. The officer in the back is holding a pistol from the cavalry set.

A birds eye view of my first Federal company. I have another on the way with shouldered arms, but they will have to wait for the completion of the Venetians - unless I get impatient!

The firing line from Johnny Rebs point of view.

Next up the American War of Independence in 54mm.

I got sucked into the 54mm scale by a demo game at Nashcon by All the King's Men. Though I would like to have purchased their artillery, I ran out of funds, but found this Imex plastic set on sale at my local hobby shop for $8. They were marketed as Americans, but as the uniform was the same for both countries, I simply painted them as British. Above you can see a gunner stripped to his waist coat in the heat of working the guns. I replaced the plastic rammer with a metal rod which I inserted into the sponge and rammer of the plastic original.

Fortunately the Imex set came with the same proportion of 6 crew to one gun that is used in the All the King's Men rule set.

I thought the sculpts of the plastic figures was actually superior to the metal ones, though mold lines in this Imex set were not well placed, hence many a crewman with a mold line down the middle of his face. I have found plastic mold lines very difficult to shave or file well.

The commander. I did some work on the gun with green stuff to make it look more like a Brown Bess musket. It was originally sculpted with a long barrel without a supporting stock, which looked more like a long cavalry carbine. Maybe the sculptor knew AWI weapons better than I, but I could find nothing for the period that looked like it, so I changed it.

Here he is in all of his distinguished commanderly glory. The scabard of his sword was replaced with flattened floral wire which ended up working quite well.