Wehrmacht infantry test shots

I personally believe that pictures and all kind of eye candy is very important for a good blog. Because of that I bought a photo tent, since the sun is of no use to me in this season. These are the first test shots of my Wehrmacht infantry I painted some years ago. I added highlights and more grass, which looks better on the tabletop. I am quite satisfied with the pictures, but what do you think?

A long, long time ago...

... you may still remember, I used to blog something now and then. I was idle for quite a while, but, of course, for some good reasons. I don't want to bore you with the story of my life, so here's the short version: I moved permanently to Berlin, found a new flat and I'm still working, even if the job is still just a temporary one. You can see, I had much to organise and stuff like that. As some may know, I also do LARP, another time consuming hobby. But now I'm settled again and enjoy the diversity of a big city with a vivid wargaming scene. This also lead me to a new project, but more on that later.

First of all, I want to pick up where I left and finish projects I started a while ago. The next thing I want to show is my DBA Roman army (the one I started over nine months ago...). After that I'll see what comes next, but I promise to be more active from now on! I hope there are still some people out there who read my blog ;-)

My new working space. The PC on the left, in the centre the painting station and the sewing machine, on the extreme left the shelf filled with hobby stuff (it's much too small...).

Supply lines - Russian GAZ-AAA Truck

Hello there,

again, I needed some time to present something new to you. I've been busy (again) in the last month, now living in Berlin und actually working full time, which leaves less time for the hobby and even less time for blogging and shooting pictures. Because of that I'll present something to you I finished some time ago.

I painted a Russian truck for my Barbarossa campaign setting. It's not easy to find some trucks for this period! In the end I took a GAZ-AAA from UM Models, a Ukrainian manufacturer. It's a highly detailed and complex model set and was annoying to built. This is no wargaming model for sure!

Battle report [DBA]: The Lamian war (323-322 BC)

A good friend of mine was visiting me on sunday and so we made some matches of DBA. He has played tabletop earlier but isn't an active gamer anymore. Anyhow he quickly learned how to play DBA - it's simply a great game, easy to learn but difficult to master! Ok, he has played DBA twice before when we met after christmas, but that was also some time ago.

So I set everything up and we chose our armies. At the moment I basically own Greeks and Macedonians, so it had to be a combination of these two. My friend chose to field the forces of Antipater. I looked in the list for potential enemies and found Athens, which I played. With these armies we simply had to play the Lamian war (323-322 BC), which broke out after the death of Alexander the great. The Greek cities rose up again to regain their freedom, but were ultimately suppressed and lost their autonomy forever. Focus of the war was the town of Lamia (therefore Lamian war). This conflict was overshadowed by the wars of the Diadochoi, but indeed has much wargaming potential with it's land battles, sieges and marine operations. We decided to interprete the history for our needs, so the following battles are recreated, but only set in the context of the Lamian war 

1. Battle of Lamia

As in history, in our first game the Greeks were attackers. They marched north to conquer the town of Lamia. A Macedonian army was hastily send to prevent this. Both armies clashed on the fertile plains near Lamia. All hills were gentle, so only the woods were difficult terrain.

The view from the Greek perspective: the hoplite phalanx on the left, fully extended. Psiloi and auxilia behind the woods, on the extreme right a unit of cavalry. Not in the picture is a unit of light horse on the extreme left.

On the other side stood the Macedonians. On their right flank was a mighty elephant, in the center the extended pike phalanx. Auxilia closed the gap between the phalanx and the hill. On the hill were the psiloi, behind them the cavalry in reserve.

The deployment from another view.

The Greek general (that was me) wanted to resolve this battle quickly. His plan was to use his longer line to overwhelm the Macedonian phalanx before they could outflank him with their superior and more numerous cavalry (bottom right on the picture). So he pressed on with all his troops.

But it was too late! Antipater destroyed the auxilia, which should guard the flank of the phalanx. Things went bad for the Greeks, who seeked the decision in infantry combat.

This is how the final close combat began. Despite their longer line the Greek phalanx was thrown into disorder. To make things worse the Macedonian cavalry wheeld around to hit the phalanx in the flank, just in time. The Greeks are trapped and so the line collapsed. As the casualty rose the hoplites threw away their shields to run away. The battle ended with a glorious Macedonian victory, they didn't even lost a single base!

Conclusion: it was a fast and fun battle. The Macedonians had a good timing which brought them victory. I need to paint some casualty markers (you don't need them for DBA, but they look pretty cool and I'm a wargaming aesthete). 

Greek and/or Macedonian camp

Hi there,

I've been busy the last months, finding a new job and such stuff. This left not so much time painting or even playing. Unfortunately this development will go on the rest of the year...

But beside that I do have finished something - a camp for my Greeks and/or Macedonians. It's suitable for FoG and DBA with its size of 12x12cm. The tent, which I shortened a bit, is from Italeri's 'desert well and tents'-set (great stuff!). The miniatures are take from Linear B's 'Roman market', but I think you can also take them as Greek civilians. The miniatures themselves are rather chunky, but do look good painted. The hoplite is from HäT.

 

 

Project: One Week - One Army. Part 3

To confess a defeat is never easy, but sometimes inevitable. The weekend was filled with work, not just painting, but also making scenery (not for me, so I unfortunately forgot to make some pictures).

At the beginning everything looked good. I deflashed my miniatures and made some minor conversions. Note the red spears of the cavalry and triairii. They are made of brooms and are much more durable than the soft plastic spears. The legionaries kept their pilum, because it's much shorter and is very detailed.

The next step was priming. I primed my miniatures in GW skull white, as one should always work with bright colours when using the army painter dip. The horsemen are missing on that picture.

I decided to start with the main bunch of the army, the legionaries. This meant painting 24 similar miniatures. Although I saved time by working on so many figures at once it was also very exhausting and sometimes frustrating. It took me all saturday and sunday to complete them. The picture on the left shows them in WIP status.

Even though I had a plan, I did not so much on miniatures monday and tuesday. Yesterday evening I applied the dip at last. They need to dry today. After that I'll white their shealds and put on the decal. Then they need to be varnished and based.

I failed my project. It started good, but I underestimated the work and my very own motivation and working speed. I didn't even finished 24 miniatures, not to speak of the whole army. This is of course a bit disappointing.

But I'm an optimist and always look on the positive things in life. The legionaries are nearly finished, the most work is done. I have never painted so many miniatures in such a short amount of time. The army as a whole is pushed a big step forward. And I'm motivated to get the rest done. So, in the end, not everything failed.

Project: One Week - One Army. Part 2

I'm very busy with my project and don't even find any time to write on my blog! So here's a short update:

I removed the paint on some miniatures using oven cleaner. It works well with badly primed soft plastic miniatures, but took some time too.

 

 

 

No paint left

Working space. I sit on the left, my friend on the right.

Cleaning the miniatures after deflashing.

I'll report more later!

Project: One Week - One Army. Part 1

Hello and welcome on my blog!

This time I want to start a project and share it with you. The title is, as you may have seen, 'one week - one army'. To be more precise: I want to paint a polybian Roman army for DBA in one week, starting today the 24th of January 2013. I'll show the whole way, from deflashing, priming, painting, dipping, finishing and basing. First I have to admit that I already cheated because I have done two elements of skirmishers (called psiloi in DBA) in November. 

The background of my project is the following: a friend and I want to present a participation game on a wargames convention (the Do or Dice in northern Germany, 14th April 2013). Our theme will be the (first) battle of Ausculum 279 BC, which was fought between Pyrrhos of Epiros and the Roman republic. We have enough Greeks and Macedonians, but no Roman army! So my will hopefully visit me one the weekend and we both will only do one thing - painting (and probably some other hobby stuff as well).

Romans of the Pyrrhic wars. Picture from Johnny Shumate.

1. The beginning

I want to start with the DBA army list for polybian Romans. It requires: 1 cavalry (general), 1 cavalry, 6 blades (principes and hastati), 2 spears (triairii), 2 psiloi (velites), 1 camp. This means in miniatures: 6 horses, 6 horsemen, 24 legionaries, 8 spearmen, 4 skirmisher and the camp which will be made of 3 tents and 4-8 miniatures (civilians etc.).

My manufacturer of choice is Zvezda because they have everything I need and look very good. For the infantry I take this set. The cavalry is taken from this set. Civilians in the camp are taken from here. I maybe also add some miniatures from this HäT set to the scene. The tents are made from Rusus. I bought them on the Tactica last year (hey are missing in his shop).

The first step will be deflashing. After that I'll remove the paint, as some miniatures were painted before, and wash all of them properly. Then I'll prime them all with GW skull white.

Raiders from the North - Thracian Light Cavalry

During my painting sessions in December I was able to finish some more units. One of them was a battle group of Thracian light cavalry. As you may have noticed I did two bases for them some time ago. The only thing I did was to add four more bases, so now I have a complete battle group for Field of Glory. The figures themselves are again taken from the hellenistic cavalry set made by Zvezda.

The Thracians were a people living north or north east of Greece, roughly in the region which today is Bulgaria. They were devided into many small warlike tribes and therefore also often made raids into the nearby territories of Greece and Macedonia. Thrace itself was rich of timber and metals, the Thracians often served as mercenaries in Greek and hellenistic armies. They were known for their skills as light infantry and cavalry.

The four new bases:

The battlegroup as a whole:

Grey Beasts - Hellenistic War Elephants

And once more I needed much time to update my blog again. I moved again because I finished my studies (just waiting for my last paper to be checked) and currently I try to find a job or something like that (isn't easy as political scientist and historian). Despite that I had some free time which I spend mostly on painting. Today I managed to make some pictures, so I decided to finally continue my blog and start the new year the right way!

I finished two hellenistic war elephants in december. They are made by Zvezda and are as usal very good looking. The box art indicates that they are fighting against each other, so maybe the battle of Raphia 217 BC is shown. They are both much to big for ancient elephants, but do look impressive on the battlefield. I'm also a big fan of these beasts, as they were a common feature of hellenistic warfare and despite other opinions had influence on the outcomes of battles (heraclea, ausculum, cynoscephalae, just to name a few). Two elephants make one FoG battlegroup and are enough to arm two DBA armies with them because all hellenistic DBA army lists only have one elephant maximum.

I painted the elephants and their crews in a bright and colourful way, to indicate their elite status in the army. Unfortunately the dip was very pasty, so it left some spots on larger surfaces (I diluted it afterwards).