Sunday 21 July 2024

Two infantry units Late Roman 3

I finally found some time to do a bit of painting, here are two Late Roman infantry units, in chainmail mostly from Black Tree design but I don't think they do these anymore which is a pity as they're lovely figures.  I picked them up second hand at colours and then Salute some time ago , along with the chaps for my Picts, Irish and pagan Saxons and also with the Romano British infantry who are also in the paint queue currently. 















Hand painted designs again, one from the venerable osprey illustrated by Gerry Embleton The Roman army Trajan to Constantine, one of the first Ospreys I got. Nice to paint, more dark age types are fighting it out with Napoleonics on the painting tray, Napoleonics have been there longer but dark ages are faster! There has been some other painting going on, a pair of cut outs for our 25th Vegas wedding anniversary party as modeled by me and a nephew, of course these are 4' x 6' hardboard on 2"x 1" flat frame,I've kept the cut out, with a little bit of repair they could both be additonal gaming tables should the need arise!





 


All the best

 Iain 

Thursday 11 July 2024

Birthday Bolt Action and Armourers Hall

 My nephew Ben has now got a workshop/ office/gaming space at the end of his garden. For his birthday he had a day of gaming, I missed the first half as I was still working on the flat , three of them had some games of dead mans hand, I brought along bolt action figures, terrain and the 6' x 4' gaming board I built during lockdown. As I keep my boards hung from the ceiling I'd decided it was too heavy and have replaced it with a lighter hardboard and 2" x 1" framed board, it was nice for it to find a new home. We ended up setting up with Ben's paras and Dan's Canadians  at one end of the table and Des's Germans and my winter Germans at the other end with the objective of being in occupation of the church ( more or less in the middle) at the end of turn four. 

























The black foamboard buildings have mostly moved on a bit, I'm pretty happy with them, we had an entertaining tussle with losses on both sides, Des as almost always lost his Panther early, I ended up trying to drive a Tiger tank into the church twice,unsuccessfully! The unit I did get in there was anhihilated so in the last turn it was the para spotter in the bell tower who with the last roll of the dice was hit by our sniper but failed to wound so Ben and Dan won, I guess it was Ben's birthday!  What it has done is make me enthusiastic about Stalingrad or the fall of Berlin or both, I  really like the picture of the greatcoated troops making their way through the ruins and a  table of those would be great I thought? I've got a factory and will use the black foamboard buildings once they're complete, so Pavlovs house and a ruined theatre/cinema ? More earlier Wehrmacht and vehicles, I've got the earlier Soviet armour at Partizan so all good there, talking of armour.

I was lucky enough to go for a lunch in the armourers hall in the city of London recently, I got there early and thought these photos might be of interest. 














Mostly seventeenth century although there was a fair bit of Elizabethan armour               ( including Elizabeth's champions armour) , a nice demilancers armour and some gendarmes armour and dopplesoldier swords, the food was nice too which was a bonus! Anyway back again, flat's done, I've actually started painting figures again which is great as I've missed it. I will try and  catch up on everyone's blogs as soon as I  can.Next up ? Late Romans, Napoleonics or terrain but stuff is getting finished again! 
All the best 
Iain