July's Submissions

Here we go then - my official submission for the Tale of Gamers doodad for July.

The objective was to get the hastati and triarii penal legion from my Republican Romans finished. I've managed to do that and finish of the principes as well, and just to finish off I made a little command marker to show where a general is. I now have three of these so I can use three commands, which is a nice little tactical option for Impetus.

Principes

Triarii

Hastati

And Bully's special prize... a command marker

Since posting this morning I had time while my burglar alarm was being serviced (truly I know how to live) to build up the sides of the road on my baggage train and stick on the camel and baggage. I might stick the mounted officer to the base before painting him as well, but otherwise I want to paint the models before I attach them to the base.

Plans for August

At the moment I'm waiting for some glue to dry before I finish off the models I'm listing as my "accomplishment" for July, so I'm going to approach this in a slightly backwards fashion and reveal what I'm planning to do for August.

Of course, if you're an avid reader of this blog (I know there must be one out there, somewhere. Oh, really, there's no one? Well, never mind) then you'll have seen the teaser image I posted last time and you may very well have guessed what I'm doing, but I'll spell it out.

In August, I'm planning to paint a baggage marker for my Romans. Since I use the Romans to play Impetus, and in Impetus you're required to have a camp or baggage train, it's a little bit embarrassing that up until now I've just used a blank base. I mean, it's the one unit I have to use each time. I should be ashamed.

So I've decided to make up for my past transgression with a (hopefully) really nice diorama-style baggage piece. A lot of players seem to go for tents or forts for their camps, which I can see the appeal of, but I wanted to do something with a bit more character.

When I went to Triples one of my goals was to find something I could use to build this scene. I had an idea in mind for what I wanted to do but I was going to be dictated to by what models were available. I wasn't disappointed, as the Donnington stand had some really nice non-combatant pieces that I stocked up on.

Here's all the bits that will go into my baggage train, on my shamefully untidy desk.

The idea is to have this piece represent all the baggage train and hangers-on moving along a road behind the lines. There will be merchants and baggage at the sides of the road as well. I want to give the impression that not everything is military related.

Before I started putting things together, I cut an index card to the same size as the baggage base, and drew around the bottom of each model so I could mark where they'd go and see that they all fit. This showed me that I needed a curve in the road - I had planned to have the road just go diagonally corner to corner, but the ox-cart is so big that this would mean the other models on the road being really squashed.

So here's the diagram again:

So this is supposed to be a senator walking at the front, in conversation with an officer (a Greek general model from Xyston) who is on a horse. This works quite nicely as the two models have their heads turned in opposite directions. I have lictors from the Roman officer Xyston packs that can flank the senator as his bodyguard (which is what lictors are for, so that's nice). The idea of the Greek model is that he's either a prisoner who's been treated honorably, or he's a diplomat of some sort, depending on who my enemy is in each game!

Following this group is an ox cart, which is filled with baggage. This is being guarded by two triarii, which I painted in July. I could spin some story about triarii guarding the cart as they're experienced enough to know it's an easy job, but really they're the only models that aren't in a fighting pose so they don't look out of place.

There is a handler model that came with the cart, but he's meant to be medieval. I've filed off the obviously medieval bits, but I'm still not sure whether to use him or where he'll go - if he does get used he'll either be leading the cart or he'll be with the camel at the side of the road.

Speaking of the camel, this is meant to represent a merchant trying to drum up some business from the passing soldiers and camp followers. It will have two slave girls with it, and maybe the handler as the merchant. We'll see how that works out.

Finally, there'll be a heap of baggage on the other side of the road just to fill the space. I considered having a palm tree as well, but thought better of it - I don't want too many bits that might just snap off. I'm also not at all sure whether there should be palm trees in North Africa, which is where the army is meant to be. And anyway, a palm tree would make it really obviously out of place when I'm playing against Gauls or whatever (not that the camel doesn't do that, but never mind).

To make the road obvious, I'm going to raise up the sides so the road goes through a shallow valley.

This time I'm planning to do work in progress pictures - we'll see if this actually happens...

The ox cart and the camel, both of which I've added baggage onto.

The slave girls, senator and lictors, stuck on some card for easier painting

The Greek general - in the front you can see one of the already painted triarii, but it's out of focus because, again, I suck at photography.

Mission Accomplished!

Phew! I've reached my goal for the first month of the "Tale of Gamers" project. I'm ahead of time in terms of the competition rules, but I doubt I'll get much more time in the next week as real life will get in the way, but I've basically done what I set out to, plus a little bit more.

So here's what I've managed:

Hastati

Triarii (in a slightly weird focus because owning an expensive camera hasn't made me a great photographer)

Principes (a slight cheat as only the officer is new this month, and the shield on the front rank needs re-inking)

The Penal Legion ready for action!

There is a little bit more to do here - the principes need tidying up a little, but they weren't part of the goal for the month anyway. Everything needs varnish, and then I'll add some flock and foliage, but these are definitely table ready now.

I've certainly learnt something this month, which is that I paint slower than I think! The same thing bit me a little with the Saxons, but having a smaller more measurable goal has really driven the point home. I got these done but it meant more time at the painting desk than I planned, and I can't keep this up long term and maintain a real life. So I'm abandoning my real life... sorry, what's that dear? Oh. According to my wife, I'm cutting back on the goal for next month instead.

This will actually be a good thing for you, the lucky reader, as I didn't get time to update the blog while painting this time round and I want to do more of that. So, there will be a post next weekend to confirm my entry for the monthly judging (should have these finished off properly with any luck), and in that I will announce the goal for next month. But for now, here's a teaser...

What can it mean?

Competitive Project Finishing!

So, this is a new one for me. At the club we're running a system where we all blog about our painting progress, setting ourselves a goal each month and reporting on how we get on towards it. We each put in a quid each month, and rate everyone else out of 10 at the end of the month for how they got on. The highest scorer each month wins the pot, which they then put towards their project.

So it fits in neatly with my aims in starting this blog as it should encourage me to get things finished, and hopefully I'll get some useful feedback too. Or I'll just get abuse, but at least people will be reading this nonsense.



I'm going to swap between a few projects as there are several that I want to get done, and I'm starting by finishing off my 15mm republican Romans that I covered in earlier posts in this blog.

So then. I've missed the first six weeks of this endeavour by getting married and going on honeymoon, so I'm starting mid way through the second month. I need a fairly simple goal that I can manage in a couple of weeks, so my goal for July is to paint a unit of Hastati and a unit of Triarii to add to the penal legion. I'm actually not at all sure how quickly I can do this, so I'm as interested as anyone to find out whether that's really ambitious or I'm ridiculously low-balling my goal for the month...

To prove these aren't already painted, here's a picture of the models still in the bags (although I do already have the bases ready)...

Pictures From Triples 2011

Yet more Saxons

So, Triples is coming up fast, and I'm getting closer to having the Saxons finished.

First off, I've painted another warlord!

This is another West Wind model - from the Pictish Command pack (although I've used a Saxon head and shield). One comment from the previous warlord I painted was that the cloak looked quite flat - this is probably because I didn't use much beyond ink to shade it. This time I've added a couple of layers of highlights before adding the ink, which brings more light into the cloak - I've done the same with the rest of the clothes on this model as well.

So that covers all the infantry models that I need to have painted for Triples - I do have another 3 models from the Pictish command pack which I'll paint up, but if I don't manage to get that done before Triples, Rich has very helpfully painted up the rest of the Saxon fighters so we'll have all the warriors we'll need.

I've also started on the basing:

The good thing about writing is blog is that I get a lot of free advice! Here I'm taking some from Al, who suggested using coloured filler on the bases. As you can see I've done that here, I'll add some sand and gravel and then paint the lot to get a nice even colour. I'm pretty much planning to do that in one batch, as I have a day off coming up on Friday...

And finally, the ship is well underway now.

I've basecoated the whole thing, and used some magnets to attach the mast - that doesn't work perfectly though, so I might try to wedge it with some tape around the bottom of the mast.

I think that if I somehow don't get chance to do anything else on the ship it would be "passable" for Triples, but I really want to get some highlights on here and add a furled sail.

Watch this space and find out if I succeed...

Finally Back to Posting

Right, that was a long time between posts. Whoops. Still, let's not worry about that now, I have at least been doing something, and now I painted almost all of the Saxons that I need to get done for the game at Triples.

They might be a bit blurred, but there's loads of them and they're painted!

I've still got to base these, and I need to do another lord and paint the ship, but other than that anything I do on these is basically window dressing. So, since I'm pleased with myself, and I've got a shiny new camera, it's time for a bit of gloating.

Might as well start with the warlord:

The first warlord

And from the back

This is from the West Wind "death of Arthur" pack. As with all of the models with shields, I stuck to a simple geometric design, and tried to get some contrasting colours on there to make it stand out. I've given him grey hair in the hope that he'll look experienced and battle-hardened that way, not just old!

For the huscarls, I've used some more West Wind models - armoured Saxon spearmen.

Huscarls

The West Wind models have a lot of good detail which is picked out well so they're easy to paint. I have noticed that the heads tend to be quite large in proportion to the rest of the model with these, but once they're painted up you don't really notice.

All aboard the SS Half Painted

The scenario we're using for Triples calls for a few unarmed Saxons to represent villagers caught off guard by the Viking attack. Since I won't have a lot of use for unarmed warriors after the event, I've tried to build these so that they can be armed later. This has had the minor side effect of making these models look a bit like they're carrying an invisible barrel under each arm, but we'll gloss over that.

Unarmed Saxons

Since these are unarmed you can see how the clothes are painted - I've tried to keep the colours pretty flat as I don't want the common Saxons to stand out too much. By keeping these pretty muted I'm hoping that the lords and huscarls will stand out more.

The archers also count as peasants in the Saga rules that we'll be using, so these are painted in a similar way to the unarmed models.

Archers on the ship

Archers showing the "leader" model

Warriors with shields

As I said earlier, the shields all have simple geometric designs on them, and in most cases I've picked out a line between the different colours to make them stand out.

The "Death of Arthur" pack that I got for the warlord also had (obviously) a casualty piece in it.

"He hasn't painted that bit over there yet, look!"

This is a nice little piece, and hopefully I'll have a use for it at Triples.

There was also a kneeling warrior, which I don't really know what to do with but I've painted it anyway.

Kneeling warrior

As is obvious from many of these photos, the ship needs to be finished. I'm slowly painting it brown, which is a fairly tedious process, and my plan is to drybrush some highlights on after that and add a mast from doweling. Hopefully I can do another post soon to show some more progress on that, and if I cross my fingers really hard, someone might even read it...