Garrison Gauls

 

So all the work on the Romans has got me thinking about the Carthaginians. One component of a Carthaginian army was the Gauls, so I've finally got an incentive to start sorting some of the Garrison Gauls I got from Harry... current state they have been taken off their bases and washed ready to get a coat of varnish and based. They'll be based 3 to a base as early army lists list then as irregular LMI.

One thing it gives me a chance to do is start getting some photos of the range.

GA3 Officer. 

GA4 Infantry, spear and shield. These I might base four to a base as mercenary spearmen.

GA5 Trumpeter

GA6 Infantry with spear/axe and shield. The figure was designed with a spear point at one end, axe head the head - cut off the one you don't want!

GA6 - The axe version.

GA7 Infantry with spear/axe and shield, animal head dress. Another dual purpose weapon.

GA7, The axe version...

GA8 Infantry with bow unarmoured. Good basis for Scythians - I sometimes 'convert' them to Scythians with just paint.

Still to do standard bearers and cavalry.

RE14A Auxiliary light javelinman with shield, unarmoured (Velite)

 

For light infantry I'm just doing 12 figures per unit - a 24 strong cohort is just too much!

Admit to liking the figure even allowing for the historical inaccuracies!

Obviously a velite and so should be part of a legion - except legions in 60AD aren't supposed to have integral light infantry.

Well, they're my toys so I've painted the tunics red anyway!

From their armament I'm not sure they should be based as light infantry. Later on I might do a full 24 figure auxiliary unit of them as 4Ax. They're already historically inaccurate, might as well take it a step further.

REC5 African auxiliary cavalry with javelin and shield, unarmoured

 

No idea why this figure wasn't made sligtly differently and put into service with the Carthaginian range but...

Nice figure though and this unit will act as the light cavalry component of my Garrison Romans.

And here's one I made earlier. Might try cutting away the quiver and shield detail to convert it into  a Carthaginian Numidian.

REC4 Roman cavalry

 

Another Roman cavalry unit, REC4. After this I'll do a unit of REC3 and 5 so that I've got a unit of all the Garrison cavalry figures. 

An earlier picture of this figure...

So getting on quite well with the Romans - this phase needs a couple of units of light infantry and two units of cavalry to be comple, but the army itself will still need more auxilia and, possibly, another unit of REC4. Another possibility would be to give them a dedicated unit of Sarmations as well.

The Trigan Empire

 

For those unfamiliar with the Trigan Empire (see Rob's comments on my last post) this was originally a comic strip series starting in the late 60s. There have also been various book/graphic novel versions, last one seems to have been in about 2020. This is my 1978 copy of the original hard back graphic novel.

As for 'Shades of the Trigan Empire' comment itself, yes, quite heavily influenced by the Roman Empire, except it was set on an alien planet in the distant past and the Trigans themselves were 12 foot tall!

REC6 Roman cavalry and general

 

Slowly getting on with the Roman cavalry.

I'm treating these as Guard cavalry  - this element is the general in purple.

While this lot are from the unit.

The entire unit...

Not great photos I have to admit

Here's one I painted and photographed earlier. About 20 years earlier...

Officer

Standard bearer

And REC6 itself

And another one I painted earlier...

Most of the classical range horses don't have any markings on the base. This one does and is RECH6!

War of the Worlds Tripod

 

As well as Romans and Newhaven I'm also working on various stand alone type figures. In this case I came across a War of the Worlds Tripod...

It's from Minifigs/Matchlock and I think I need a couple more to make it up to three. Nice figures.

Here with the on-going Newhaven build - in front of the park, graveyard to the left. Still working on those...

Better idea of it's size compared to a couple of unpainted 20mm figures. The blue background is a prettyfied river - I've done A4 mdf sheets part water, part paved, to give a river front. 

Roman auxiliary RE14B Unit

 

Ran out of paint for the bases so basing the figures will have to wait until the new paint arrives...

I don't have any specifically Auxiliary command figures so just picked out an officer and standard bearer that seemed reasonable.

At the moment I'm painting a couple of cavalry units and some LI in wolfskins.

Newhaven park update

 

The basic model of Newhaven Park is finished with a few touches still to add. I keep thinking some of these tiles are a bit too bright for Newhaven.

I've still got a playground to paint and other items are subject to change, but it's mostly there. I'm calling it Peabody Park - on the one hand, it's a Lovecraftian name, on the other hand it's reminiscent of the name 'Peasholme', a park in Scarborough. Peasholme Park has a definite wargames link... 'Naval Warefare Battle The park is home to the oldest continuously simulated battle in the country - a unique miniature sea battle named 'The Naval Warfare'. Taking place July and August each year this popular event has been a unique family holiday tradition since 1927' Seen it a couple of times - spectacular and well worth the visit.

We usually spend a few days in Brighton every year - it's easy to get to and we like it. This year we stayed in an apartment next to the Royal Pavilion. The Pavilion has a cafe called The Pavilion Garden Cafe - which gave me the idea to put one in Peabody Park. The model itself virtually built itself - I got some thin card, tried fittied some balsa into the structure, then realised I just about finished making the thing! So I painted it up and finished it. Easy to make, gives me a good template for things like fairground/circus/Christmas Fair stalls etc. The other groundkeeper's shed isn't glued in - it's higher than the height of the wall finials so would make stacking difficult for storage. That shed is one I already had lying around and just repurposed.

Gates are an issue. I would have liked using decorative gates for all of the entrances but they aren't cheap! So I used ones I had as part of bought wall set ups and just used plain balsa for others - I did the same with the church and cemetary.

This finishes the original plan but I'll be doing a lot more. I like the idea of  set boards and the use of balsa walls, so expect to do a lot more of this kind of thing in future. Next 'project' probably needs to be the waterfront area.

Roads, playgrounds and tombstones

Had a couple of deliveries today...

Roads in the past have just been bought piece by piece. For this 20mm layout I thought 'let's do enough in one go'. Bought from War Worlds Gaming.

Meanwhile, some accessories... tombstones, a funeral party and children's playground. Buildings may be cheap, but the accessories side is creeping up! Tombstones and playground being below the level of the wall finials will be glued down. By Langley.

Church and graveyard base

 

Still a few finishing touches to add - bought some plastic stuff I didn't like so I've ordered some 1/76th scale gravestones from Langley. 

This is how I expect to use the set up. Those squares represent 3' square paving stones in 20mm. 

Alternative way round, but prefer the previous one.

Of course. once finished I naturally start thinking 'could I have done it better'. That pavement is 12' wide. If I had made it 6' wide this layout would have been practical and I could have made the graveyard bigger. To be fair though I think I still prefer the original.

I admit I really like these bases. Cheapish, easy to make and gives a nice modular system. Light and sort of stackable - suspect might cause baldy patches on the finials though... Park next, then might see about using the system for  housing developments...

The Night Flier plus a few problems

A made up monster, though there is a Steven King story about a serial killer called the Night Flier. It's seen here next to a 20mm figure.

 

It's a bit like a cross between a flying ant and a bat...

Haven't decided on it's characteristics yet, but not one of the good guys

Meanwhile, sad problems with some of the previous models I made. They are going very sticky and starting to deteriorate.

Apart from cracking paint the materials seem to be softening as well.

On this one the base has softened and the figure is falling over!

I'm guessing that the problem is that they weren't cured right through but just surface hardened. Possibly the plasticisers are seeping through causing the problems. I assume I just didn't leave them to cure long enough or it was a bad batch of polymer!