Pictures Galore!

Well, we have had a reasonably sunny day so I have been in the grounds snapping away like a Bailey possessed.  All of the first unit of Irregular cattyfracts are finished as is the first unit of Lancyshire light cavalry. The chap on the grey had the  horses front legs cut away from the base and superglued to a twig I found outside somewhere. Simples! The three pics of the levy by Irregular are just a mouth-waterer -just got the shading to do on the last lot. 

Any comments on the use of floral displays as a unit recognition system?

I have the first unit of Byzantine cattyfracts prepped, undercoated and awaiting the addition of some colouration. Watch this space! 

Keep your brushes pointed.

Mick 

Keeping 'em going

Two complete units done now -a unit of Light Cavalry to go with the cattyphracts. A third unit, that of Irregular Mini's levy infantry has one base of 10 figures completed and another ten have all the base colours blocked on. The last ten are undercoated with the shield fronts blocked on. Rather than make them disheveled and levy-looking, I have gone for a nice and clean, straight from the tumble-dryer look -although the colours are definitely light and washed out looking.  Following this I don't know as yet...might even make a start on the Byzantines just for some variety. Looking well good, even if I say so myself. Raining again on and off today and we have had new central heating fitted so painting time has been severely limited. (Hot water on tap again at last is something you people that have it do not understand the luxury of. [After that last sentence, my old English Language teacher is probably turning in his grave as I write.]  Bring forth la belle winter weather, cold, rain, snow sleet et al, I don't care a jot, my life is now complete.

Mick

Hoping for some shiny thing in the sky to show itself soon so that I can take some photo's...you never know, it might happen.

Unit the Second

The cataphract unit is now completed (with its nice floral base effect), and I have finished the first group of 4 Skirmishing cavalry from Lancs Games; the rest of the unit -another 5 figures -has been started. Next I have undercoated the first 10 of the Irregular levy infantry unit.

Chiz 

Mick

Unit 1 Complete

Not long finished the last base of the Cataphracts; made a slight change in the bases in that on the small bits of foliage stuff I have dabbed little drops of paint to represent some kind of flower. Had a St Paul's Moment...use this method to differentiate between units. So there will be some quite colourful unit bases in the table when they are all done. Spotting them shouldn't be difficult, after all a base of red flowered levy infantry are hardly likely to line up with two bases of likewise be-flowered cataphracts now are they?

Next up is a unit of Skirmishing Cavalry of a nomadic persuasion, (Picture F1 in the Osprey book), faithfully reproduced in miniature by Lancs Games. Nice little chaps but the horses have a tendency to have slightly bendy rear legs if one is not careful. Four of them half done as of this moment in time.

What to do after these, I don't know, see what happens.

S'nuff for now.

Mick

First Offerings

Da! Da! The first piccies of the Sassanids. Only two bases done so far; the Rupert and his bannerman are still half done, but hopefully you can get an idea of what they look like.

I intend to do the bases slightly different for thses armies. Usually, I give the whole base a generous covering of filler then dip it into sand but this time I just coated the base with wood glue and used the Sahara sand that I have. Then I painted usual light earth emulsion all over and when that was dry gave some areas a dark wash of acrylic Burnt Umber. On top of this I dry-brushed some Antique Gold followed by a highlight of Cream. (All three are Anitas plastic bottles bought from The Works in Brum some years ago for 99p a throw.)  Static grass and a few clumps of foliage gubbins finished them off.

Running Totals

At Derby there were some figures missing from the Irregular Battlepacks so now that nice Mr  Kay has sent them on with his usual alacrity, I have the current total of figures for the two armies. All figures are Irregular unlesss stated otherwise.

Sassanids

14 x Cataphracts

10 x Clibanarii

40 x Light Cavalry (Lancashire Games)

10 x Light Cavalry

30 x Levy Infantry

100 x Levy & Light Infantry (Lancashire Games)

2 Elephants

Maurikian Byzantine

15 x Heavy Cavalry Archers   

14 x Cataphracts

4 x Heavy Cavalry

27 x Heavy Infantry Spear

6 x Heavy Infantry Bow

12x Light Infantry 

General & Standard Bearer (Museum Miniatures)

As you can see, there are a few gaps to be filled to increase all troops to 3 base units, especially for the Byzantines. (I mean 4 heavy cavalry??? At least another 10 needed fot this lot alone.) 

Oh, by the way, current painted total is 12 Sassanid Cataphracts -work keeps breaking into my painting time. 

Post the 1st

Derby, eh, cor what a show. I lke it; nice size, nice venue -not the aircraft hanger of one I could mention- but a goodly size. The only downside is that it is not that non-driving fraternity friendly. For me a bus inito Brum, train from New St to Derby, 15 min walk to town centre (bloody city designers) then another bus out. Eventually got fed up walking so I hailed a passing taxi. 

But back to the show. The title of the blog is a bit of a giveaway as to what I bought so there are no prizes for any correct answers.  I decided to make this years project 15mm Sassanids, late Sassanids to be precise, mostly from Irregular whose new(ish) range is rather tasty -well up there- but also some from Lancashire -those with the Mr Elastic from the Fantastic 4 bendy spears. There's going to be some serious spear replacing there I can tell you.

So far I have painted eight of the little Cataphracty fellas and I am mightily impressed with my painting. No trumpet blowing or anything but I would rate them as the best 15mm I have ever done. Bet you can't wait for the piccys. They will follow as soon as the unit is finished and based.

Now I am not a great lover of DBA-Z or Warhammer Ancients so I am still writing my own period-specific style rules, based mainly on the Mongol period (see my other blog  thewordsofsubedai.blogspot.com/ for more info), but they will be very adaptable for all Ancient and Medieval armies. To face them I also pur-chased some Maurikian Byzantine army wallahs. the point of this paragraph is to say that I am basing everything on 60 x 40 mm bases. Therefore 4-5 heavy cavalry, 8-10 heavy infantry or 3-4 skirmishers and so on...you get the idea. The base frontages will be identical for my current and any future armies so there won't be a problem there. Also, using a system of 3 bases to a unit they can still be used for the Warmaster system.

Piccys when the sun shines.

Mick