Victrix Iberian

Unit of Victrix Iberian Warriors.  Shield transfers by Little Big Men.

Tried two paint plans for the tunic.

• Ghoul Skin by Reaper produced a green/grey with good coverage
• Foundry linen triad.  Spotty coverage with poor layers.  End result is a sickly yellow color.  Had better luck just using the green shade color.

To cross the Alps, you must have Elephants!

A pair of Foundry Elephants for Hannibal’s army.

Base is a rather small 50mm square.  I may build out a larger tray that I can drop this smaller base into for games where a bigger base would work better.

Paint Plan

Elephant:  Espresso primer (dark, dark brown) worked up with Dusky skin (Reaper) (which is actually grey)

Howda:  Bastion grey, desert stone, desert stone + yellowed bone

Blanket:  Terracotta (Foundry), gory red, rach red

Troops:  White armor with red tunics.  Tried Reapers Grey Liner as a line filler, worked as a black ink.

Mahout:  Started skin with dark brown, worked up with Ruddy Brown (R)

Painting guides – Horses and others

http://1000footgeneral.blogspot.com/2012/09/dark-ages-color-palettes.html

http://www.modeldads.co.uk/Life-at-the-Front/wordpress/horse-colours-and-patterns/

http://balagan.info/wargamers-guide-to-horse-colours

http://iowagrognard.blogspot.com/2014/01/horse-color-charts.html

http://www.jenniferhoffman.net/horse/horse-color-genetics.html

https://meeples.wordpress.com/2016/08/10/painting-norman-cavalry-the-horses/

My (old) favorite horse color:  Rife Butt (Howard Hues) + Tanned Flesh (GW).  This combination produces a Chestnut color which varies from a dark brown up to a warm brown/red.  Adding Graveyard Bone (Reaper), creates a chalky brown/grey which could be roan or grey.

I think both my Rife Butt and Tanned Flesh have both dried to mud at this point.  Ruddy Brown (Reaper) is the base for my most recent unit of cavalry.  Also from Reaper, Heartwood Brown for dun, Fair Skin for tails/mains, and Dusky Skin for grey.  Foundry triad Chestnut and TerraCotta have joined my painting table.  Expect to see them used in the future.

I’ve often tried to answer the question – what would horses of the ancient period look like.  Appears my solid chestnuts are all wrong….

An international research team under the direction of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) in Berlin, Germany is sorting out the millennia by using horse color. The ancients loved spots, they tell us. Spotted and “diluted” horses were more populous from the beginning of domestication until the end of the Roman Empire, whereas solid colors (bay, black and chestnut) were dominant in the Middle Ages.  Source:  https://equusmagazine.com/blog-equus/coats-many-colors-dna-ancient-horses-54695

A pair of handy reference pages.

Spanish Scutarii

Unit of Gripping Beast Scutarii primed black (by a previous owner….)

Paint Plan: 

Tunics 

• P3 Hammerfall Khaki
• P3 Traitor Green
• Vallejo Khaki
• Reaper Stained Olive (brighten as needed)

Red:

• Vallejo German Red Brown
• Reaper Gory Red
• (R) Rach Red

Shields:

• P3 Hammerfall Khaki + Red accepts
• (R) Stained Olive + (R) Ruddy Brown w/ (R) Saddle Brown highlights

Skin:

• (R) Suntan Flesh + Army Painter Soft Tone

Metal:

• (V) Chainmail
• (R) Tarnished Brass
• (SW) Armor Wash

Leather: 

• (R) Ruddy Brown w/ P3 Gun Corps Brown highlights + (SW) Dark Sepia

Cap:

• (V) Leather Brown

Trim:

• (R) Witchcraft Purple

 

 

Next Up: Republic Romans

This summer I will be returning to a favored project which I was satisfied with:  The Roman Republic.  This linchpin of the period fights with or against a host of opponents:  Carthage, Spain, Samnites, Etruscans and Greek/Macedonians.  First up is a box of Agema Republic Romans.  The delicately sculpted figures provide a full division of Roman warriors with 2 Hastati, 2 Principes and 1 Triarii.  Assembly was smooth, but I wish that they had provided a neck socket instead of a flat join between head and body.

 

 

Battle of Kursk – Adepticon 2017

For a second year, my friend Aaron and I hosted a Bolt Action Kursk game at Adepticon.  This year’s battle was armor only – not historically accurate, but a necessary change to run a large scale battle planned for 8 players.  The table was 12×5 with two large hills, a village on one end, and plenty of wrecks/smoke breaking up line of sight.  The teams each had objectives to achieve – both sides needed to inflict casualties on the other and also achieve a movement goal.  The Soviets needed to place four tanks into the German deployment zone.  The Germans needed to move two tanks onto an objective on one of the hills.

The Soviet players elected to mass their tanks in the central section of the table.   While the Germans stayed put behind the smoke.  For several turns, the longer range of the German guns picked off tank after tank.  It was starting to look like an easy German victory when the Soviets crossed into the German zone and scored their movement objective.  Suddenly, the Soviet team was ahead on points.  After a brief panic, the Germans rushed to claim their hill & continued to pound the Soviet tanks. Final score was 16 to 10 in favor of the Germans.

Set up for the battle:  20 Soviet tanks face off against 12 German tanks

Burning Soviet tanks fill the fields

Aaron created lite smoke columns using tea lights.  Awesome effect.

In the end, nearly all of the Soviet tanks were destroyed.

Panzers in the Smoke   Mission brief and tank list

Russian Village

A new village for the Bolt Action Kursk table, getting ready for their debut at Adepticon Thursday night. Building kits by Sarissa Precision.  The kits are small, inexpensive, reasonably detailed and went together without much trouble.  Paint was an under coat of black, brown and grey spray paint, then sponge painting to lay down the top coat.  Green, yellow and blue were added to spice up the dreary peasant life.

Saxon Troops

More Saxon troops.  I believe the figures are all by Gripping Beast.

Anyone familiar with this guy?   Its a promo figure from Gripping Beast (?) that I picked up in an ebay lot.

 

Saxon Huscarls

A unit of Saxon Huscarls by Saxon Miniatures.   Lovely figures with lots of character, the figures scale well with Gripping Beast.

Panzers

Four Panzers ready for Kursk.  Panther by Rubicon.  PZ IV by Warlord.

I followed a tuturial  to learn how to apply the camo scheme.

Paint plan

• Spray base color of Bronze Yellow (Liquitex)
• Two coats of Middlestone (Flames of War)
• Wash of Dark Sepia
• Reflective Green (Vallejo) and Ruddy Brown (Reaper) mixed with Terrain Khaki (Reaper) used for Cammo
• Top coat of Middlestone/Terrain Khaki
• Wallnut Brown (Reaper) with Oily Steel (Vallejo) used for the tracks
• Rust effects created with Wallnut base followed by Rust (Vallejo) and Orange Rust (Vallejo)