Magister Militum

When I decided to take up wargaming seriously as a hobby I started by buying two 15mm army packs, Romans and Carthaginians, from Richard at Magister Militum in the UK. Naturally, those two army packs were soon supplemented by additional figures, and the collection expanded by other armies. It quickly became necessary to purchase from other ranges and manufacturers too, but the figures that began it all for me were those Chariot Miniatures from Magister Militum.

I don't imagine I am the only person in the world who got their introduction to the delights of miniature wargaming in this way.

At that time of course you didn't order by filling an online shopping cart: you looked at the catalogue, emailed the company with the packs you wanted, waited for them to confirm with a price and shipping estimate and a means of payment. If I remember rightly, I might even have had to call Richard up from Japan to give him my credit card details over the phone.

At any rate, there was contact with a human, there were pleases and thank yous, and all those other little interactions that you almost forget were commonplace before shopping carts and secure online payment systems.  

It is therefore with some sadness that I see Magister Militum is closing up shop and putting their ranges on the market. 

I'd like to quickly take the opportunity to thank Richard and all the other folk who may have worked at MM, and hope that life after MM treats them well.

For those to whom MM closing up is new news, I think you still have a couple of days to get a last order in.

I guess the most appropriate thing to do at my end is get those Romans and Carthaginians out on the table for another game....

15mm Roman cavalry

With the 'primed-and-ready-to-paint' boxes almost empty, I've been rummaging around in cupboards looking for figures that a) I feel like painting, b) might be useful and c) won't require spray priming in the current summer heat and humidity.

Fortunately, I found a box of Republican Romans I got in a deal with someone, and on looking more closely saw that all the cavalry was ready for paint, so I decided to make a start on those.

I actually feel a little guilty about this lot.  It is made up of a mixture of Chariot and Strategia e Tattica 15mm figures, which is a bit of an unusual combination. I know, because I did a post here suggesting that the two go together reasonably well.  Anyway, someone had bought selections of figures from the two lines, primed them, and then decided that they didn't really want to paint them up after all. I saw him advertise this fact, got in contact with the chap, and bought them off him.

The guilt comes from my wondering whether my original post (which I'd also put up to a wider audience on TMP) had been somehow instrumental in him making the purchase, and then of course in his being disappointed.

I hope not, but in any case, the best way to deal with the situation is to paint them up and use them!

So, to the painting.

These were done a little differently to my old style of painting Romans. I didn't bother with washes or stains prior to painting; my conversion to the dip method means that I now leave that to the end.

I did the horses in various shades, did the browns, the flesh, then cloaks in different reds. I did give a quick black wash on armour and spearheads, then painted on the bronze and silver. Shields were next, then plumes, belts, horse furniture and, finally, whites on the tunics and pteruges. There was a little highlight for cloaks and plumes, and then it was time for the dip.

There is quite an over-representation of command figures in this lot, but I'm sure I can find a use for them!

The photo above shows the problem that comes from skipping the pre-paint wash step I used to do - you can see I've missed a couple of spots on the hand and scabbard. If I'd used a brown wash to begin with those would not have been so obvious. Fortunately, due to the wonders of digital technology I've now seen them and can go and fix that up!

Here is a comparison with the older style painting.

You can see that the cloaks are darker and the folds more pronounced. I do quite like the slightly more cheerful look of the newer paint jobs though. Six of one, half a dozen of the other...

To finish these completely I'll bash out a few blazes and socks on the horses, then it's a case of waiting till autumn so I can give them a hit with the spray varnish.

Normans for Dux Bellorum

Here are some recently painted Normans for (modified) Dux Bellorum. There are a few Bretons still straggling in and some foot reinforcements to come, but this is the bulk of the army.

The figures are Essex 15s, bar a couple of exceptions that we will note as we go, and they are all mounted on bases 60mm across.

First up, the light horse.

These are lovely figures to paint. Blocked basecoat and a dip is all I did with them.

Next, archers.

There are true Normans and some from the Breton DBA army.

More foot. This time heavy infantry, crossbow and levy skirmishers. The mailed chaps look to be Bretons and 9th/10th Century Franks rather than Normans, so I need two or three bases of heavy foot with kite shields to bring me up to 1066.

And to the big boys: knights!

Is the grandsire of Reginald Front-de-Boeuf amongst them, perhaps?

The standard bearer here and the chap with the Normans-in-Italy crisscrossed shield are not Essex. They came in a pack labelled Thistle and Rose and evocatively titled 'The Bastard'.

You can see the biggest bastard of them all above centre. He was a bit too chunky to mix with the Essex, so I put him on his own base.

Command base.

You might note a fourth imposter here. Although he came - black-undercoated and missing his lance - in the Thistle and Rose lot, he looks to me to be a Chariot figure. I should have got rid of the black undercoat because he doesn't quite match. Oh well, too late now!

I'm actually quietly chuffed with how these came out. The new wet palette did wonders in allowing me to easily mix colours for horse coats, so there is a lot of variety without the grief that ensuring such used to entail. I was a bit apprehensive about doing the shields at first, but using an ultrafine Gundam marker to outline the patterns beforehand made things very simple in the end. It was also pleasing to get to use up four figures from the bits and pieces box.

Can't wait to get them on the table.

But before I do that, I'll have to show off the Saxons...

Shots of Sentinum

I was looking through the camera today and found some shots from a solo game of Sentinum I played in January.  It's a slow news day, so why not post some?

Game was, naturally, Lost Battles.

15mm Minifigs here, with command stands from Magister Militum.

Mix of Lancashire, Magister Militum, Old Glory, Tin Soldier and Xyston for the Samnite and Gallic foot

Miniatures Wars (from Strategia Nova) Romans, Miniatures Wars and Old Glory Samnites.

Old Glory Chariots, Xyston Gallic horse, Magister Militum Romans. 

I think we can see who won this!

Some notes on the whiteboard...

Boots of Spanish Leather

I thought I'd post some shots of my recently finished 15mm Iberian army.

The figures are a mix of Old Glory and Magister Militum/Chariot, with four Essex cavalry in there to make up numbers.

This army will rarely fight on its own; it will most frequently be broken into constituent parts as allies for Rome and Carthage.

Depending on which set of rules I'm using, there are three to five units of medium cavalry, or 15 bases altogether.

There are 8 bases of light cavalry, so there are two to three units there, as well.

There are nine units of caetrati light infantry, or 36 bases.

Of Iberian scutari there are 28 bases in seven units.

And of Celtiberian scutari there are 44 bases in eleven units.

I do like my Iberians and hope that they will perform creditably!

Workbench

After being inspired by Jason over at Light Bobs and Paint Blobs, I stopped in at the hardware store today and picked up a lamp for painting.  As a result, 6th Fleet got put back in its box and the figures and paints took its place on the table for what was the first decent painting session I've had for a while.

Although I have piles upon piles of boxes filled with prepped figures (and many more with unprepped), the ones I've really been wanting to finish off are my Punic War era Celtiberians.  There are about 180 of them in various stages of completion and there will be psalms in wargaming heaven when I finally get them done.

I got these little guys about seven years ago and the ones that I painted then look a bit ragged compared to the ones that I'm painting now, so the project has had to expand to bring the older paints into line with the newer ones, as I did with my other Spanish.

The truth of the matter is that this is real production line stuff.  I'm relying on the shield painting to standardize everything and hoping that the different painting styles I've gone through will, when combined within the same unit, promote a 'pleasing sense of irregularity'.  But we shall have to wait and see on that score!    

New lamp and workbench

Paionian horse having had some left over brown applied to their spears...

I'd also like to welcome Craig, who is the most recent person to have begun following my blog.  Thanks for doing so, and please feel free to introduce yourself and/or jump in with comments or criticisms any time.

Reinforcements from afar...

A box of goodies arrived from the UK, today; reinforcements for my Republican Romans.  I don't really need them, but as they are mostly the now sadly out of business Strategia e Tattica range I felt compelled to respond to an advertisement placed by one of the good fellows at theminiaturespage.com.

I feel like a got a good deal and I hope he does as well.

Ah hah!

Some bonus gladiators.  I think I can do something with these...

The lovely Strategia e Tattica range!

A minor jumble, but nothing is damaged thanks to some good packing.  I spy some Chariot/Magister Militum 15s in here as well...

And the foot.

I'm not sure when I'll get these painted, but they will be a good project for a rainy week.  Many thanks to a stand-up trader!

Batch done...

Well, the latest batch of figures has been finished up and given a coat of matt varnish.  All they need is to have the bases flocked.

Old Glory horse archers, with four Essex figures mixed in:

Old Glory slingers:

Chariot (now Magister Militum) javelinmen:

I'm pleased to have finally got all these guys out of the way!  Onto the next lot...

More Spanish

Here is my next batch of Spanish, which are about ready to be given a Klear coat, a spray of matt varnish, and then a good old-fashioned basing. 

These guys are a mixture of Old Glory and Chariot 15s figures and are also a combination of newly touched-up and freshly painted.  They are part of my ongoing project to clear the remnants of the Punic War era lead and bring older paint jobs up to speed with newer ones. 

Tomorrow night I'll do the Klear coats and (weather and family permitting, of course...) might be able to get the varnishing and basing done on Monday.

Will be nice to get them off the bench and onto the table at last (they've been staring at me for a while!).

Some Carthaginians finished

The Carthaginian bits and pieces I've been working on are now finished, thankfully.  First up is a unit of Citizen cavalry made up of Corvus Belli figures supplemented by a Chariot standard bearer and Old Glory commander.

Next up we have some reconstituted units.  Here are some Old Glory Spanish cav touched up and rebased to include some newly painted Essex figures.

More reconstituted units - this time older Chariot Citizen spearmen rebased to add in Corvus Belli figures.

  Finally, some Chariot Italians that I got in an ebay deal years ago touched up and rebased for play.

I've been experimenting with basing troops as units, a la Basic Impetus, with infantry elements 80mm wide by 30/40 deep and some 40mm wide to add a bit more flexibility.   This is because I only really use unit-based rules these days, and I do like the look of the bigger elements.

I'm pretty pleased to have these guys out of the way.  Next task to tackle is the odds and ends Spanish - around 150 of them, I regret to say!

To finish, here's the lot of 'em: