Triari

During the last moments of Christmas day I finished basing the completed triari for my first legion of MRRs. These are OG 15's and painted up well. These minis represent a couple of firsts for me.

Xyston Spears
I substituted the wire that came packaged with the minis with the spears available through Xyston. My first concern was attaching them as I've rarely encountered this situation aside from the odd standard bearer. After much trial and error I've decided on a method of scoring ridges on the spear and model before applying JB Weld for its fixture. During the painting process they had many an opportunity to come off but always stayed firmly attached.

LBMS Transfers
Back in '08 when I was buying lead and hatching this project I had decided that the triari in each legion would go beyond a plain shield design to further suggest their status. I quickly decided to go the way of LBMS as they offered transfers to fit OG15s. When it came time to try them for the first time I had my doubts, but having read many an endorsement I took the plunge.
At first my doubts were given validation, but only due to my own oversight and possibly some clarification needed by LBMS on their site although I do not fault them. I had purchased the minis and transfers at the same time last year and did not have the minis prior to ordering the transfers. If I had, I would have seen that the OG triari shields are of a slightly different proportion than those of the hastatai/princeps. Not only are the triari shields longer, but the center of the shield is further down the axis. This contrasts with the hastatai/princeps center being exactly that, center. The problem is of course that the transfers are made with the hastatai/princeps in mind.
Rather than withdraw I reinforced the situation and made some slight trimming adjustments and made them fit as best I could. After this I needed to touch them up considerably to match the shield colors and contours. I had a couple of areas of buckling due to the slightly different shape, but that was easily dealt with buy making a small cut and allowing an overlap which after touch ups is not noticeable. Despite the oversight and the extra touch ups I'm happy with the finished product and will use them again. If I have one tip to give any first time LBMS user, its to not get discouraged. At times it may seem like they might not look as good as you hoped, but with a little help and after drying, varnishing etc, they turn out just fine. Even the simple act of application gets easier by the time you get 16 minis done, so keep trying, LBMS has a great product.

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Hastatai & Princeps

Today I finished the 16 bases of Hast/Princ belonging to the first legion in my MRR project. Unfortunately the light I had always used to photograph with burned out and I had to send away for a new bulb, so please forgive the ad hoc lighting.







These are Old Glory's 15mm hastatai and princeps advancing figures. I painted them using the simple technique of 2-3 shade colors over a black primer. At the end of the day I'm pleased with how these turned out, but I feel I can do better on the next legions whenever I choose to take on those.







Once I finish the triari and a group of Cretan archers my next step is undecided. I may go right back into painting the next legion or take a break and do some of the Antigonid force I've collected or put paint to that mound of lead under my desk, aka. an ancient Spanish army from Corvus. There is always the repainting of the my poor AWI Hessians that were lost to an unfortunate Armory Sealant malfunction.

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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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