Painted In August

 Finished two more units for my Dragon Rampant army.

A six man unit of Heavy mounted (Fire Forge Games Northmen Cavalry)

A unit of Bellicose Foot (Conquest Games Norman Infantry)

Last month I added 18 figures to my painted portfolio.

The yearly total is:
     Vehicles (1/72 scale):              0
     Artillery (28mm):                    0
     Infantry/Cavalry (1/72 scale): 0
     Infantry/ Cavalry (28+mm):    126
-------------------------
             Total 126

Dragon Rampant

Started working on a Fantasy army, initially will be for Dragon Rampant, but MAY expand into a Oathmark army.

You can't call it a Dragon Rampant Army if it don't have a Dragon, so...

Serving it are several boxes of Fireforge Northmen.

A pair of  pairs of  Wild West Exodus K9 Dogs. (A buddy of mine subscribes to Wargames Illustrated and one issue came with a pair of these minis, the magazine arrived with cover torn so they sent him a complete replacement that also had another sprue of these minis, he has no interest in Steampunk so he thought he was dumping them on to me).

Currently my Dragon Rampant army looks like this:

In the works in a 6 figure unit of Fire Forge North men Cavalry (Heavy cavalry) and a 12 man unit of Conquest games Normans with Dane axes (Bellicose foot)

Painted in July

I was struck by painting malaise in mid April until the second last week in July.

The Funk dissipated, and I cranked these out.

First off I started with this box of FireForge Northern warriors;

Then feeling ambitious I moved on to a Bones Dragon, Gauth.

Followed by a Box of Fireforge's Northmen Bowmen.

Then my second box of Fireforge Northern warriors.

Last month I added 39 figures, although It feels like the Dragon should count as more.

The yearly total is:
     Vehicles (1/72 scale):              0
     Artillery (28mm):                    0
     Infantry/Cavalry (1/72 scale): 0
     Infantry/ Cavalry (28+mm):    108
-------------------------
             Total 108

Painted in April

April had an even lower painting output than March.

At least one scenario for Clash of Spears needs a couple of herd/flock bases, and I didn't have any, so I painted what I had.

the Brown steer are ERTL Cow town (surmised scale id 1/64th), I got several decades ago. The Whitish ones are some 1/48th scale I purchased at Hotlead last year.

This Month I added 8 figures, one of which would not fit on the base.

The yearly total is:
     Vehicles (1/72 scale):              0
     Artillery (28mm):                    0
     Infantry/Cavalry (1/72 scale): 0
     Infantry/ Cavalry (28+mm):    69
-------------------------
             Total 69

Painted in March

I got even less painted this month than last month.

Six figures

Balearic slingers from my Clash of Spears Carthaginian warband box.

 Every time I got the urge to paint, it quickly went away, unless I immediately sat down and started.

The yearly total is:
     Vehicles (1/72 scale):              0
     Artillery (28mm):                    0
     Infantry/Cavalry (1/72 scale): 0
     Infantry/ Cavalry (28+mm):    61
-------------------------
             Total 61

Action Tokens

Recently my current area of attention is ancients, more specifically "Clash of Spears".

   In Clash of Spears you have to track how many actions a unit has taken in a turn. The Kickstarter did come with a tokens, which look pretty good, but recently I have been trying to reduce what I call "ugly token clutter" wherein your unit is followed by a bunch of coloured markers, counters and/or tokens. While they do convey what they need to, they detract from the visual appeal.

   In an effort to alleviate some of the ugliness I have started to make my markers blend in a bit more. My first serious attempt was with the Action Markers for Clash of Spears, but they can serve in other games as well. My dice pods were more an attempt to stop players accidentally picking up dice, that were marking pins.

Here are my prototypes in use, they are next to the dice pods that track fatigue.

  They were pretty simple to make, here is how I did it.

Materials:
Circular bases (I went with 30mm wooden ones)
Metal washers
Acrylic Caulking, Brown (saves a step, no painting required)
Aquarium Gravel
5 minute epoxy
Flocking

First start by gluing metal washers to the bottom of your wooden bases, I used 5 minute epoxy as I wanted them to stay glued on. You could skip this, but I find thicker bases are easier to pick up and with the washers being smaller that the bases you can push down on one edge and the base tilts up for even easier pick up.

 When the glue is set, cover the upper side, of the base, in caulking, then press 1, 2 or 3 pieces of Aquarium gravel into the still fresh caulking.

Let then cure overnight and then paint the stones a light grey.

This picture illustrates why you should paint any dark stones a light colour, they are difficult to see at a glance.

 When the painted stones are dry, flock the bases however you wish.

That is all there is to making them.

Here are some pictures showing the material and tools I found useful.

Caulking gun.

artists' spatula for spreading the caulking and a magnetic tipped pointer.

Pointer so you can hold the base easily.

Aquarium gravel.

Painted in February

Was another low production month.

Some Blacktree Design crossbowmen for use in crusader skirmishing and finished painting the last few figures from my Warriors of Carthage box from Victrix Miniatures.

Crusader crossbowmen

Saracen crossbowmen

Romanised Infantry for my Carthaginians.

2 characters and their retinues for Clash of Spears

A total of 22 Figures, all 28mm in size.

The yearly total is:
     Vehicles (1/72 scale):              0
     Artillery (28mm):                    0
     Infantry/Cavalry (1/72 scale): 0
     Infantry/ Cavalry (28+mm):    55
-------------------------
             Total 55

Less than February of last year, even not counting the 1/72 Scale figures.

Imperial Romans and Gallic forces

   One of the occasional attendees of my local gaming group [The Historical Gaming Association of London (Ontario)] was divesting himself of some figures, his new dedicated wargames room in his new country house would 't have room for figures he had not used in over 5 years. He offered them to any member that wanted them, I eventually offered to take them as I had heard of S.P.Q.R. and thought this would be a good way to get a head start on two warbands for that rules set


   Here is what I got from him they are all painted, they are better than any of mine, (he's even painted their fricken eyes).

  I then saw some demo videos of S.P.Q.R. and knew that is was not a set of rules I wanted to play.

   A few months later I saw an announcement for Clash of Spears and was relieved that I would be able to use these figures for those rules.  The rules do not cover Imperial Rome... Yet. But they claim play-test armies for Clash of Spears that cover Imperial Romans and Gauls are on they way, then I will be able to use them.

We will start with the Gauls a mix of metals and plastic.

 The plastics

The metals

    So a fair few figures (about 100), they were based for Hail Caesar, so I had to first de-base then re-base for my use. I am thinking I can use the Gauls as to fight for and against my Carthaginians.

   Here are the Romans, they are all metal, a mix of Wargames Foundry, Front rank and others (he couldn't remember).

There are well over 400 Romans.

A rough estimate is that they are almost a $1,000 worth of figures.