JohnBee and the Ancient War Game

 

Don't think I've ever posted these pictures before - some JohnBee Egyptians I got off ebay years ago.

The fact that JohnBee figures were basically Airfix conversions is pretty obvious in these photos...

However, the main use purpose of this post is an id question. I'd always thought that the Egyptian infantry in the Ancient War Game were themselves direct Airfix conversions. Now I'm wondering if some of them were actually JohnBee figures...

At the very least, this lot are based on Airfix. Are they JohnBee? Don't know - poor quality picture, some may (may!) be carrying another javelin in their left hand but... So don't know, but seems reasonable.

On other things, starting a Shem army. The S&S Range figure don't quite fit the description of Shem soldiers but the Assyrian Range does. So I'm painting up a 24 figure unit of 25mm Garrison Assyrians - and it's slow work! Glad it's not a 48 figure unit.

Next, re Black Tree - after the figures arrived I sent a 'figures have arrived Email and asked, well, actually 'Hi John Figures arrived safely today thanks. Should I order more figures, what would the normal expected delivery time be? Thanks'. Guess what? Two weeks later, still no reply. I won't be ordering any more figures from them until I get a reply. Might send another follow up email, they have a lot of figures I would like but...

The Amazonia Zoo

 Living where I do, this could get confused with the Amazona Zoo in Cromer. However, that is spelt without the 'i', so they are different.

This army has a strong tiger element.

Only a very confident enchantress would dare to RIDE a tiger...

I've rebased the beast mistress from an 80mm base to a 60mm one - looks a lot better.

Finally decided to put 3 tigers on a base to act as beasts!

Pegasus had to be painted white... I'm never happy painting greys and here I think the photo (for once) looks better than the original!

Still messing with Amazon spears/javelins/cavalry... 

I'm very happy with the way the 20mm cavalry legs fit on a 25mm horse - so the Amazon top and Greek 20mm legs combination works well.

Still needs a bit of filing/filling, but this spear figure worked realy well - it's come out a bit taller and looks good!

This one should make the cut!

It seems that the '20mm' figures are even more use than I thought.

However I'm not as certain it would work with shields facing front.

One thing that worked - they fit quite well together. It's very rough  - I haven't bothered tidying things up. Especially the right shoulder!

Now all I need to do is get a few good fits together to put on a mould.

Amazon LI and spears update

Only did a unit of 6 and based them as light infantry - not a troop type associated with Fantasy but then I'm not really following any set of rules/traditions slavishly anyway. They're not as 'weak' as they appear though - after all, Lybians were basically shieldless javelinmen.    

Initial lot of 'proof of concept' figures finished with an addition. I've realised that the slimline Amazons fit in quite well with the slimline early Garrison figures - these are really 25mm themselves, I ONLY call them 20mm to distisinguish them from the later 25mm Ancient ranges. So the figure second from the left is a chimera utilising a Greek hoplite like the one standing next to it.

Still not sure which of these (if any) will make it to mould status though. All three have their advantages and disadvantages. Comments welcome!

Amazons with pointy sticks

Starting work trying to find an alternative to bow armed Amazons. Mainly two or three spear/javelin armed figures. Firstattempt is the simple method of cutting the fan of the slave girl with fan to a spear point.

After doing a few I accidentally cut a spear point 'wrong' and it looks better! So a couple more of these made for a mould.

Meanwhile also working on a heavier spear woman and a light javelin woman.

Still working on the proof of concept models - I'm giving the spear woman a complete cloak rather than the scarf of the original, I need to close the hands up and I'll be a bit more careful with the angle of the shields on the arms. Overall, looking good.

Tigers and Amazons

Not sure if this is a Beastmistress or Enchanter with pets...

Haven't decided what to do with the unbased tigers - base some as beasts or leave them 'unattached'? Or paint a few more of course.

Couple more of these units would be a good spine for the army. They're a surprisingly pleasing unit.

Purely archery based infantry would be a bit fragile - I'm working on spear/javelin armed infantry at the moment.

Actually I'm also looking at these archers as the top half of some cavalry.

Enchantress and Slave Girl with Fan make a good officer/standard bearer combination. Fan bearer is being considered as a spearman - just convert the fan as a spear. An alternative is to use the Dancing Girl as a javelin armed figure. Not sure what shields to use though.

Blacktree order has arrived!

 

Order arrived today. Ordered on 6th February  so 5-6 weeks. A bit of a wait, if they had answered emails or told me it would take this long it wouldn't have been a concern. Still, they've arrived so I'm quite happy to put in a second (small) order in - but not about to risk a large order.

Emperor Dalek against normal monster army Dalek. Perfectly acceptable scale wise though probably the worst actual model. The Cyberleader is a bit bigger than the cybermen I have but that is perfectly acceptable to me.

Next, squad of Movellans. Quite nice figures in useful poses.

Comparison with my simple attempt - they match size-wise, so perfectly compatible with my Retro range.

Likewise, they fit in well with other Garrison figures. Overall, useful range that matches other 25mm ranges. These are actual more useful to me than the Crooked Dice figures which are 28mm! Plus they cost a lot less!

So, worth going on with using Blacktree for now - though I'm sticking with small orders!