28mm Roman Mounted Officers

These are six mounted Roman officers that I've recently completed. Four are mounted to be used with my Hannibal at the Gates Republican Roman army and two will be used with the Saga Age of Hannibal rules. In all honesty I probably could have mounted them all the same way and used any for either set of rules as all are on two inch circular bases. 

These are Old Glory figures. Usually Old Glory figures have good facial expressions, but several of these figures have very rough facial features. Either the casting is too soft, or they were sculpted to look quite ape-like. Either way I've done my best to make them look as human as possible considering the sculpts.

These two will be used for Saga Age of Hannibal. I'm particularly happy with how the fur came out on the cape. This was done with several different applications of various shades of GW Contrast paints. Quick, easy and looks great.

 

 

 

 

 

Two of the Hannibal at the Gates figures.

The final two figures.

2021 Basing & Re-Basing Part 5 - Macedonian Phalanx #2 & 3

Six more bases of Macedonian pike phalanx. These are also from a large Ebay purchase I made last year. I got into a bit of a groove on these next six stands, finally figuring out an efficient way to loose the figure from the metal bases they were originally mounted on. These are now based up as a pike wing and a smaller two-stand pike division for Hannibal at the gates.  

 

The silver shields wing. These came with plain silver shields. I added homemade Macedonian star transfers to them.

 

The brown-coat division. These all have leather armor instead of linen. I particularly like that a few of the pikemen are wearing soft hats instead of helmets. Definitely a second-rate unit.

Not much more to say on these. I'm happy to have them tabletop ready.

2021 Basing & Re-Basing Part 4 - Macedonian Phalanx #1

More re-basing. This unit is four bases of pike phalanx mounted up for Hannibal at the Gates. I purchased these figures as part of a larger lot which will eventually make up ten or eleven bases. The original painter based them on individual metal bases. Each figure was glued on with some sort of nasty industrial construction adhesive. Removing the figures from the original bases is proving to be quite difficult and tiresome. Still I must press onward. This is the first of most likely three updates that will include figures from this purchase. 

Counting this as four stands re-based....although it should count for a lot more considering the amount of work it took!

2021 Basing & Re-Basing Part 1 - Hannibal at the Gates Figures

Since I moved in 2020 my laser engraver has been out of commission until a couple of weeks ago. I have continued to paint, but without the laser I've had no bases to put my painted figures on. The cobbler's children had no shoes. With the completion of the construction of the new hobby room and the set-up of the laser, I've finally been able to cut myself some bases and start to get the majority of the figures I've painted in the past 14 months based up. This post is the first installment showing the completed tabletop-ready figures. This will include all of the figures painted up for my Macedonian and Roman armies for Hannibal at the Gates. 

The first group top left are the Macedonians I painted for an upcoming campaign my friend Bob is running. Left is a close-up of the command figures, all from Warlord Games SPQR line.

This group of two bases of Thureophoroi were painted up to match my earlier painted Thorakatai to form into a single four-stand division for Hannibal at the Gates use.

This group of two more stands I painted more closely to the box art on Warlord Games SPQR box. I didn't like their bright white stripe, so I went with a medium grey instead. The capes of the musician and officer are done using GW Contrast paints.

The final group are my favorite of this batch, the Companion cavalry. These are Aventine miniatures. The brown horses were glazed with contrast paints, as are the helmet blumes and banner. The balance of the figures are painted using traditional methods.

For the Romans, I based up a single 'field artillery' division for Hannibal at the gates. Two Roman Scorpions and two bases of 'Romanized' Samnites. In reality these could be any lesser Italiote types: Samnites, Campanians, etc.

The artillery bases are from Warlord Games Hail Cesar line and are lead castings - my preference. The pointing officer is an Old Glory figure pressed into service as I pinched the original figure to command one of my Praetorian Guard units a while back.

These packs come with the baskets of bolts - a nice touch that allows you to make some very nice scenic bases with the figures and field pieces.

The Soldier/Peltast stands for the artillery guards were painted fairly quickly. These were meant to be a bit 'scuzzy'. Such 'soldiers' would be indentured types, not quite up to becoming Extrodanarii or Legionaries. Either they're slaves, conscripts or lesser peoples trying to earn their way into one of the better assignments in the army. These are Old Glory figures pulled from my dead lead box with Aventine Roman scuta substituted for the shields.

 

 That's it for this installment. Next up, figures based for for Saga, Age of Hannibal.

28mm 'Romanized' Samnites

Ten Old Glory 28mm Samnites. These will be artillery train guard 'soldier' stands in Hannibal At the Gates. Each stand will be five figure groups as shown. I've equipped these with Roman scutum shields and more uniform tunics while retaining their traditional Samnite helmets. 

I experimented with contrast paints on the tunics with results I'm not thrilled with. The helmet feathers are also contrast paints and I'm thrilled with how they look. The rest of the work on the figures used traditional techniques.  Ten figures, to start the year's painting progress off. Next up on the painting table are eight more Samnites. These next ones will be Samnite 'colorful legion' warriors to be used as mercenaries in Saga Age of Hannibal games.

One note: I'm still working on my new studio space, so my laser cutter/engraver is currently out of service, so basing many of the figures I've painted this year will be a big project for later this year.

28mm Macedonian Companion Cavalry

Apologies for the lack of posts lately. I've been laid up with a bad back. Things seem to have calmed down enough for me to get back to the painting table this week. Here are twelve 28mm Macedonian Companion Cavalry that will become a division of four stands of cavalry for Hannibal at the Gates. 

The figures are from Aventine Miniatures and I'm very happy with the sculpts. I've used some GW Contrast paints on the tunics and helmet decorations as well as extensively on the horses. The rest of the work is traditional paints, washes and glazes. 

Twelve riders and twelve horses that I'll count as 24 figures in my annual figure totals.  Next up on the painting table a rare divergence from historicals to paint up some Fallout Wasteland Warfare miniatures.....just for fun.

28mm Macedonian Generals

The past few of my Twitch.tv streams I have been working on these 28mm Macedonian general figures. They're from the Warlord Games SPQR range and are the Macedonian Heroes pack.

The personalities include Alexander himself on his horse with the leopard skin horse blanket he's always pictured with. This was my first attempt at leopard skin. I like the effect, but future attempts will include more spots.  I'm counting these as six figures in my painting totals due to the horses (as I usually do for cavalry)

I also worked on a test piece for what will eventually be six 'ruined cottage' terrain pieces. These are some very old, manufacturer unknown resin pieces I bought most likely about 20 years ago. They'll be useful for Saga as 'ruins' or any period medieval to WWII as ruined buildings. I will be finishing the other 5 pieces of the set on a future stream.

28mm Macedonian Thureophoroi Ready to Base

I have been slowly working back into 'the groove' painting. I've also re-engated with my Twitch.tv stream painting on my old schedule of Tuesday and Thursday evenings and Sundays late morning to early afternoon. I'm still without a full studio and my laser cutter/engraver is still offline awaiting proper infrastructure in the form of power and exhaust system.  My preferred method is to complete a unit, base it then photograph it for this blog. For the near future, that process will be not adhered to. Completed figures are going to pile up for a bit until I can set up my full studio. 

These figures will eventually make up four units of Macedonian Thureophoroi for Hannibal at the Gates. They will be used along side my previously finished Thorakatai, based similarly in a HATG soldier wing. The photo above in the box probably gives the best color representation. Below are some additional photos. In addition to my basing materials being hidden away among various moving boxes, so is my photography set up.

I've also made some additional progress on repairing and touching up over 130 Macedonian pike that I purchased from Ebay. I still have to put decals on the silver shield figures, then they'll be ready to re-base.

28mm Macedonian Hypaspists

These are three stands of Macedonian Hypaspists. The figures are mostly Crusader Miniatures figures, with a smattering of others thrown in to flesh out the units. At least one of the officers is from Old Glory.

Games Workshop's contrast paints have been all the rage for a few months. Originally I dismissed them as not appropriate for historical miniatures. When I started the Macedonians, with their blues, pinks and purples, I took a second look at them. This is my first unit painted with them and there is definitely a learning curve that needs working through. I am however, finding them quite fun to use. These figures were painted completely in about 40 minutes per figure, and that time includes three hours making the custom homemade shield transfers and applying them to the domed shields.

As far as a full review of GW's Contrast paints, I'm not quite ready to do that yet. I will say that there is a definite difference color-to-color in the range. Some are quite good and at least one that I tried is totally unusable.  More on this once I have more experience with the paint range.

These stands will make up the infantry portion of my Macedonian army's guard division, which is a required element for my friend Bob's ancients campaign. Unfortunately the campaign is on COVID pause, but we're hopeful to resume games soon after the quarantine is lifted. Until then I continue to play catch-up painting units for my army. This command adds fifteen more figures to my annual painting totals.