Yer actual Toy Soldiers!

The Romans are coming along nicely. well into the second legion now and hopefully I can get them done just in time for Victrix new Latin allies to be released!

I fancied a change today though..

Although I have long admired the wonderful Toy Town soldiers and various other unique and fanciful offerings from Eureka, I was a little put off by the prices to get anything underway. However a chance ebay purchase snaffled me a small force of these for a rock bottom price..they have been a drawer waiting to be painted for a little while now.

Today I thought I'd paint up a couple as 'test' figures, work out what colours to use etc. The uniforms are vaguely Danish 1848ish.. but ultimately these are Toy Town and not historical! 

Once they are dry, I am going to give them a good gloss varnish, hopefully can get them looking bright and shiny! (Which goes against every toy soldier painting bone in my body!

I have done an infantryman (white plume), and artillery gunner, and a lancer (have a few of these, and will be replacing the bendy whitemetal lances with something suitable and homemade)..

Although listed under '28mm' figures.. they stand around 35mm base to eye.. the lancer measured from wheelbase (!) to top of his plume is 65mm high.. so they are fairly substantial.

First Hastatii for second legion

Having completed my first legion of Agema Republican Romans, I've made a start on the second. I wanted these to look distinct from the first, but for the 'regulars' to somehow look part of the same army. I'm working on a belief that a limited shared palette is the key here.

I think when I get around to the Latin Alae, these will have a more irregular appearance, even if they share the organisation of the two legions.

Anyway, I took a bit of a punt and decided to have a go at basically swapping the tunic and shield colours from the first legion.. ie these are going to have red tunics and buff shields. 

First unit of Hastatii done today and I like the look of these, I think they'll stand very well next to the first.

First Legion of Agema Republican Romans

Not updated for a little while, but I have been doing some painting and basing (Also had an unexpected but very entertaining game of 6mm AWI last night)

I've decided to base the Roman infantry units ('Small' Hail Caesar units) on 80mm x 60mm bases, the extra depth just giving a little more wiggle room, whilst hopefully not affecting any aspect of play. The Velites look to be able to operate formed up as Light Infantry, so I've based them on single 20mm round bases, but provided 8 man unit bases too.

This is the first legion, based up and ready (apart from a tidy up of the base edges and a spray of clear matt varnish). The plan is to build a second legion to the same structure (figures already bought from Agema), and then to expand with Latin/Italian Allies.

All the figures are Agema, mostly plastic, with one of their metal 'maniple command' packs added to the Principes. Painting is dead simple.. block colours and army painter strong tone wash. I may go back and highlight here and there.. but overall I'm fairly happy with the slightly grungy look.

The first legion

Principes

Principes

Principes

Triari

Velites

Dux Bellorum battles

Recently Scrivs and I have played a couple of games of Dux Bellorum. They have been enjoyable affairs, but to be honest, a bit of a test of the rules too.

For me, there are aspects of these rules that I like.. but I end up feeling a little disappointed at the end of a game. Not sure if that's a case of needing to play more and learn the subtleties.. but playing until one unit is left on the table (not always going to happen I know), just feels wrong.

We wondered whether the game would work better with more or less units..

I'm happy with the basing that we've opted for - 120mm unit bases look good.. so not sure what's next.. either tinkering with the game.. or try something else.. Hail Caesar, Impetus..?

Scrivs posted great accounts of the battles on his blog so I won't repeat them here.. just a few pictures...

Scrivs uses these character figures to represent Leadership Points

British general gets stuck in a melee that he never escapes from

the lines clash

Saxons putting pressure on the British general

the sole British survivors about to meet their maker 

Romans in Progress

Slowly making my way through the Agema Romans I bought at Salute.
Need to pick up some command figures and Agema have recently released those too, in metal.

Still a little unsure over basing these - I've tacked them to 80mm bases, in units of 8 figures. In Hail Caesar these will be 'small units'. I feel they lack some presence, but if I picture twice the number of units it starts to look better in the minds eye.

Painting so far has been simply block colours and a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone. I may add highlights - another decision pending as yet.

The Velites are based on single 25mm bases

I am a little nervous of the fragility of those plastic spears

Agema Republican Romans

I went to Salute expecting to spend loads of cash on new toys. Actually, the only toys I came home with were the ones I had pre-ordered from Agema.. their brand new Republican Legion figures..
I've been looking forward to seeing 28mm Republican Romans in plastic for ages.. I had built up 15mm DBM Roman and Carthaginian armies years ago and always quite liked the idea of seeing these armies in the larger scale.

Victrix Romans are due in June, and will be interesting to see how they look alongside the Agema range.

Anyway - I won't do a review as such, just to say that I like these. In the box you get 40 figures, enough to make up 16 Hastatii, 16 Princeps and 8 Triarii. I also picked up a box of 16 Velites as part of their launch deal. If I use Hail Caesar rules (which I will probably), this will give me 5 small 8 figure units, plus the skirmishers. I've stuck together most of the figures, which didn't really present any problems. I'm not convinced about the longevity of the Triarii spears.. but more on that later perhaps. 

So, onto a bit of painting..

Here are 8 Hastatii.. I've done half with Pila and half with swords drawn. The 80 x 40 mm base is tiny and I have my reservations about this..so for now I'm just going to tack them down, until I'm happy with the unit base sizes.

I had intended to have the pilum throwers in the rear rank, but found that this way round all the figures fit better on the unit base.

Colours - I've gone for a fairly drab buff for the tunics, and brown plumes.. and then for contrast, a classic Roman red for the shields. I did consider other colours, but somehow, this seems like the right choice for the first unit. (I'll keep this for the first legion, and go for a more varied look for the second Allied legion, or 'Ala' ?) 

All just carefully block painted and then given a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone 'ink'. I may yet pick out some highlights to freshen up the look of them, but I'm aiming for quite a 'businesslike' look for these guys, so want to keep it muted.

Keren 1941 game at Salute 2014

Some time ago James Morris and Scrivs asked me to join the team putting on the ambitious display game depicting the Battle of Keren 1941.. This game will be appearing at a few more shows, but yesterday it had it's debut at Salute in London.

The preperation for this has been huge. James had put together a fascinating and visually stunning game which is also an engineering work to be admired. I was delighted to play a small part in the proceedings.

As well as showing up and helping to play/present the game, I was happy to have contributed something towards the physical element too. I had painted up a box of Perrys 8th Army which represented the West Yorkshiremen on the day. I also had the modelling challenge of representing the 'Broadcasting House'.

For a brief explanation of this interesting little piece of real estate.. see the Pathe News story here (around 5.15) 

Tom, Scrivs and Steve are all regular bloggers who are on the team and took lots of pictures.. so please visit their sites for more .

A couple of pictures of the hut..

and the specially adapted infantrymen running out another speaker..

And a few of the game on the day..

James Morris overseeing his mountain

Broadcasting House in situ

Tom's impressive Booms!

The Wellesley bomber, drew a lot of attention

My Yorkshiremen, ready to start climbing

The impressive slope seen from below

Near the top

James Woodward considers the Italian options

The display table was well received

An overview.. for much of the day you couldn't this clear view for the crowds gathered around it