Assyrian army

Assyrian army

Monday 29 June 2015

RAFM Chinese Dragon

Like this figure. Trouble is, not sure how to paint it...

Somewhere along the line I've decided I need 2 of these, so taking advantage of RAFM's sale there's another one on order.






Think I'll probably do the next one blue.

Sunday 28 June 2015

Manticore

By Mirliton.

Nice figure, quick and easy to paint, still a lot more Mirliton figures I would like, pity it's unlikely I'll ever buy from them again.



Tuesday 23 June 2015

RAFM order arrived

Posted on 27th April... by sea rather than air will that.

Nice figures, well worth the wait and I believe they have a sale on at the moment...






Incidentally, sent an email to Mirliton a while back re the wrong wings - no reply yet, happily I can always use Garrison wings though they're a bit small. Unhappily, until the part is replaced then, in my book, the order is not yet completed to a satisfactory degree so future orders from that source will be put on hold.

Sunday 14 June 2015

Sphinxes, Demons and Cyclops

Carrying on with the Mirliton order I've started on the demons plus a Cyclops and a couple of sphinxes.

At least, started a couple of sphinxes. One no problem, other one had 2 left wings...



Demons are an interesting crowd, first couple completed others getting there.

The Cyclops took a few minutes to complete - virtually all drybrushed. Actually, both the sphinx and Red Demon were mainly drybrushed as well.


Verdict on the figures so far? Excellent, virtually no flash, nice detail, easy to paint. I like them - could be another order going to Italy at some stage, lots more in the Range I'd like to have. My photos and painting simply don't do them justice.

Friday 5 June 2015

Nightgaunts

OK, going to keep on with the Egyptians while having a play with my new toys.

Nightgaunts.

Initial thought, plain black, no shading or anything. Alternative thought, paint the thing.





Thoughts, everyone? Not sure about the body colour on the 'painted' version, on the other hand other colours don't seem right either. Still, got a couple more to practice on. If they don't work, there's always Dettol...

Thursday 4 June 2015

Mirliton order arrived

Being the second part of my birthday order. It does leave the problem - continue sorting the Egyptians or dive straight in to the Mirliton figures?

Decisions, decisions...


Monday 1 June 2015

Sorting (some of) the Egyptians

As I've previously mentioned the Egyptians need some sorting. In some cases, figures have to be stripped and repainted, others need less drastic action. Some have to be painted from scratch. Because of the work involved anyway I've also taken the decision to resize the units - Harry's Egyptian army was based on  40 infantry to a unit, mine are based on 12 cavalry/light infantry, 24 close order infantry per unit.

I acquired 9 painted and a load of unpainted chariots from Harry. As the 'real' Egyptian army was organised in up to 4 'Divisions' I decided on 4 squadrons of 4 chariots plus the Pharaoh. So, Pharaoh plus 8 chariots below painted by Harry, other 8 by me. I've tried to get the style more or less the same, for example the black rings on the bow and colour  and ornamentation on the chariot. It seems to have worked OK.Crew and horses are a bit different, but still fit.

 I had 9 of this unit plus a few  others with different shield patterns and spear colours. So 3 of the others had new shield patterns added and the unit got a change of spear colour. I do have another, unmodified, unit of these as well.
 The slingers were easy. No changes, just needed to be varnished and based.
 On the other hand, the light archers were all over the shop. Easiest thing was to just strip and repaint. A second unit is still in the Dettol . Nothing fancy with these - very rough and ready quick paint job, looks fine en masse.

 There are lots of Garrison units lying around, these horse archers were saying saying 'finish us' so I did. Still have more 'S' Range horse archers to paint as well.
 Lots more figures still being worked on. I'll feed them into the blog over the next week or two then, at some stage, probably do an 'S' Range Egyptian Review - though probably not a total Egyptian Review.

'S' Range Nubians

I'm willing to admit to a slight mistake here. One of the things I'm doing at the moment is putting together  the 'S' Range Egyptians. This is the army I got from Harry that needs most work. Firstly, I had some of my own. Second, I'm buying some off the Internet. Third, Harry's figures were themselves from several different and not always compatible sources.

Anyway, coming to do the Nubians I was convinced that assorted bows were part of the Hyborian Black Nations army, hence one of the reasons I painted up those Zulus...

The Black Nations army consists of 1 Rider general, 6 Rider cavalry and 5 Warband!

Coming back to the Nubians, several different figure sources and I didn't want to strip and repaint them all. So instead I've simply jumbled them up within the units.  The officer and standard bearer in the 3Bw unit shown in the first photo are later EA figures. They are unmodified Internet additions - all I've done is give them a coat of varnish before basing.

 

I've based 2 units so far, a 24 figure 3Bw unit and a 12 figure 2Ps unit. A DBA Nubian army needs a couple of 3Wb elements, plenty of them lying around when I need them, so Egyptians have some useful allies plus a potential opponent sorted.

HoTT Hyborian Black Nations

Such as Kush, Darfar, Keshan, Punt and Zembabwei.

Still waiting for those birthday orders to arrive so started to look around for things to do...

Many years ago I bought a load of Zulus at a Bring and Buy to act as Nobades or Subject Kushite spearman for use in DBM Bk2 army 55.

OK, for a Black Nations HoTT army I could have simply used my current Kushite hordes... plenty of Warband lying around... but I wanted something more colourful. Cavalry, colourful enough, warband, not.

So I've painted up some of the Zulus instead.

Really, should probably have stuck with white and blue for the plumes and clothing, just couldn't resist the red.


The army would be easy to expand - got plenty of Kushite cavalry and Zulus left, plus could take it out of the Hyborian range with a couple of elephants, or perhaps some of the RAFM Um Cijo figures. However, I think that's unlikely - this particular build was more opportunism to use figures already lying around and to give a potential opponent for Stygia rather than anything else.