Roman Velites (1)

This entry is showing the completion of my first batch of MR Romans. My general idea for putting together this army is painting 3 legions in corresponding themes along with the cavalry, optional troops and etc for the FoG list. These velites belong to the first such legion which is painted in a theme featuring a basic white as the main ingredient. I varied the tunic colors with a number of shades ranging from canvas to rawhide. The figures are Old Glory 15's and I'm pleased with how well they turned out after I finished painting.

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Basing Revisited

When contemplating on how I was going to produce base cover and effects for my FoG armies, I was lucky enough to stumble upon a great technique illustrated by Scott MacPhee. Making a visit to the necessary establishments I gathered the supplies needed.

• Fine Brown Ballast
• Elmers Glue All
• Elmers Wood Glue

The items already on hand were the nutmeg brown paint, base sand paint from Foundry, static grass, blended turf and varying sizes of stone ballast.

My only deviations from Scott's process was in style. I used different shades for the base and highlight as well as using both the static grass and blended turf flock. Not great leaps of any sort, just a matter of taste.

The one addition I made was the placing of large stones in the wood glue along with the miniatures to cure. This was done to create the visual of stones emerging from the earth and not merely sitting on top of it.

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Moving Complete

Well this last year saw my family move to a house closer to our work while we look for a more permanent dwelling and my lovely wife has graciously gifted me a small corner in the uppermost level to continue my wargaming pursuits. Although the space is much smaller it will do for now. I'm beginning to see a correlation between family size increasing and gaming space decreasing. On the table you can see many projects in stages of finish. Most prevalent are my MRRs for FoG. I'll be updating their progress in the near future as well as the status of others.

At times working up here reminds me of Chevy Chase in Christmas Vacation.

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What a busy year!

Let me tell you its been one busy year. As yet another football season ends and another basketball season nears its end I have been making plans to catch up on my years worth of collecting and the painting which I've done as time permits. The good news for my miniature wargaming side is that I've decided this will be my last year coaching. Too many hours away from the painting table! (I told the wife its to spend more time with her...)

Aside from finishing my ancients project and continuing with AWI and ACW, my reading lately has brought my interest into Napoleonics. I think its safe to say that you'll find me dabbling here, most likely in the direction of Bavarians...or maybe some Russians.

This year will see this blog much more active and thanks to those of you who still drop by.

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In the Interim

I'm currently awaiting a new camera to post any more pictures. Not that I don't like the quality of my previous pictures, but its obvious they could be better. In the meantime I'll give a short update on what I've been up to in the hobby.

Since the release of FOG, I've been buying up a number of ancients. I started with a mid Republican Roman Army made up of mostly Old Glory with a few Tin Soldier and CB for the Numidian Cav. I've also started putting together an Ancient Spanish Army, Iberian. The majority of this has come from CB. I did pick up a few packs of Xyston to see how they'd fit with CB and to be blunt, they are quite large in comparison. However the Xyston are more on par with Old Glory than CB, but having made the leap in bulk with CB, I'll keep swimming in that direction. I'm looking at putting together another 2 armies for the first book, probably Later Macedonia and the Gauls. Once I finish off what's on my table for the ACW, I'll be painting the Rep. Romans.

My AWI project has not seen any new purchases, however I am creeping along with the painting of my Perry Hessians. I do admit to contemplating more purchases weekly for this period, but I need to know where my painting stands with these hessians first. If I do not think my ability is up to par on these I may be doing a number of purchases and shipping them off to somebody else to be done. This, for me, is almost blasphemous as I've never paid for painting before, but time is getting dear and I don't want to stall to long with this project for lack of ability or time.

The ACW project has seen the completion of 2 new brigades which are awaiting their photo op in the near future. I've made a number of purchases here when opportunity has presented itself. The biggest purchase looming is more cavalry. Once I finish what's on my table with these I'll take a short break to do some Ancients.

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Last Things Last

Having finished off a number of the miniatures that I've had hibernating on nails over the winter I came to a stark realization. Basing by my old methods would be a money saving luxury I could no longer afford. Last week I put the chisel, hammer, and Popsicle sticks away I visited Litko. Today my order arrived and I must admit that I am now solidly a convert. Having used metal in the distant past and more recently tried the ultra cheap "do it yourself" method I now believe I'll be a long time customer of theirs. As I'm doing my ACW project in strict JR3 basing interpretation, I needed a number of sizes. Litko definitely delivered on this. As I was already placing an order, I stocked up on the bases I will need for my ancients in the near future, which they stock as standard sizes. The only thing I forgot to do was order up my BG bases for AWI, but I'll grab those next time. After all...I still need to locate and order my GMB flags for that project.

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Imminent Return

The return of regular postings here draws closer as the basketball season winds down. For those of you who don't know me well I'm a youth counselor at a JDC. I'm the head coach for the varsity basketball and football teams that are a part of the facility's high school athletics program. We went 15-2 this season and our last game is this next week. Most of our starters won't be around for sectional playoffs so we won't be competing in them this year. I've been told there is a movie out that pretty much explains what I do, its called "Gridiron Gang." I haven't watched it yet, but will endeavor to do so shortly. Expect a few posts in the next couple of weeks as I resume my ACW, ancients and AWI projects.

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