Essex phalangites

Another batch from the recent US deal. These are Essex phalangites which were quite nicely painted already. The pikes needed straightening out and tidying up, then it was a white highlight on the linen armour and a dose of the dip. I needed to paint up and add 7 other figures from my Old Glory command set (the gift that keeps on giving!) to make up the numbers.

And here's a wee size comparison to some other 15mm ranges.

Black Hat 15s:

Xyston 15s:

These guys will be handy for big Successor battles, even if they are a lot smaller than the Xyston...

Persians

Next off the painting conveyor belt is a bunch of Persian horse. These make a start on the Late Achaemenid army I have had languishing in tool boxes for about ten years.

These should really be fancier, but I can always come back later and add a little bit of decoration to the tunics.

For now I just want to make some progress in reducing the number of the boxes I have full of prepped and undercoated figures...

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These are mostly Old Glory 15s, with a couple of Essex in there as well.

It wasn't all plain sailing though - I managed to knock over and spill my decade old bottle of magic acrylic stain tonight, so I'm going to have to head down to the local hardware store tomorrow and see if they still stock any of the same brand, and hope that if they do, the formula hasn't changed!

#firstworldpaintingproblems...

As an aside, I've noticed that in the last calendar month I've managed to knock out 170 foot and 27 horse, which must just about be a record for me. I still have a couple of days to go, so might have to pull finger and get something more finished, just to make sure!

More grist to the Dux Bellorum mill

I am very happy to report a new batch of figures done. These are in fact the first figures I've managed to get painted all year, which is pretty poor, even by my generally miserable standards!

They are a mix of Essex 15mm Dark Age cavalry and Frankish cavalry and were the last lot to do for my Normans/Saxons/Vikings Dux Bellorum project. I say Dux Bellorum, but they can be used for any 'unit-based' rules-sets, such as the Neil Thomas rules, Impetus, or whatever.

They had been sitting in a box for quite a while. I don't know if you've ever had that feeling after you've made a big push to get most of a project done that the bits and pieces - the non-essentials - can be quite a bit of a mental hurdle. It's not so bad if it's twelve generic foot or something, but when it's 30 cavalry it's a little more than just a night's work! Anyway, I couldn't face doing so many leftovers in one go after having maxed out on Normans, Vikings and Saxons, so into a box they went.

But they've been done in the end. For this project I've been using a simple dip method: block colours in, give a darker wash for horse tails etc, then give everything my acrylic dip treatment. I may then highlight a very select few things (the odd cloak, a leader's helmet, but that's it), base on 60x40, and hit the varnish. It really does help get troops on the table.

Anyway, here they are. Still needing their matt varnish and flock, but aside from that, done. Phew! The year is still young - could even get a few more batches done...

Anglo-Saxons for Dux Bellorum

This is my other recently completed 15mm army.  They are mostly Essex figs but there are a few Tabletop chaps in there as well. These should allow me to field Anglo-Saxons from earlier times right through to 1066. Again, bases are 60mm wide to match the Normans and forthcoming Vikings.

This is two DBA armies' worth, plus about 10- Tabletop figures.

Shieldwall. These are later period.

Shieldwall of somewhat lower quality...

Your bog-standard shieldwall.

Huscarls, thegns etc.

Skirmish types.

The lot.

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...

Baggage

These figures (foot are Essex, not sure about the mules) were generously sent my way by the strong right arm of Simon Miller (Bigredbat), putter-on of spectacular multiplayer ancients games, all round top bloke and author of To The Strongest!

I'm not usually one to muck around too much with bases, but I thought I would try to go a bit fancier than usual for these.

To help me in future, I'm including a little reminder of what I did.

1) Paint the figures!

2) Set some puddles using larger stones and apply a mix of fish tank sand and glue.

3) Next, paint sand with a mix of watery earth brown, followed by a drybrush.

4) Apply glue. Pour flock on...

5) Shake flock off.

6) Add a couple of foliage clumps and dribble Klear over the water holes.

This was a lot of fun to do. Thanks again, Simon!

Saxons (and maybe a few Angles...)

Well, the (Anglo) Saxons are done. This is two Essex DBA armies' worth; Anglo Danish and Middle Anglo Saxon. Glad to have these done, and with the dip to help out they didn't take too long at all. This is the first time I've painted an army made up completely of Essex figs, and they were very nice to work with. 

Next step is to flock them and then onto the Normans, Bretons, and Vikings, I guess. There may be a Samnite or Gallic interlude though. We'll see how things go.

Camel cataphracts done.

Well, after my little armour disaster (and subsequent repaint) the camel cataphracts are finished. These figures are Essex 15mm and something else (Tabletop?) that all came in a TMP deal, and I thought I would get these done as generic 'heavy camelry' types (+ their scout...) for, perhaps, Commands & Colors: Ancients, or To The Strongest! scenarios. I think these are actually Sassanids or Parthians, but as far as I'm concerned (or until I take the time to read something on the subject!), a camel is a camel and I'll use them as whoever.

These were a little fiddly to paint because I couldn't get the thin Essex bases to sit firmly on either two-sided tape or blu tack and had to keep picking them up individually. Next time I do Essex mounted I think I'll just glue the damned things down to avoid this problem!

Anyway, good to have something more done, and for all my muttering I do actually like the figures, too.

Xyston and Essex comparison

This is just a quick comparison for an Ancmed member who is wondering about figure compatibility.

Xyston Persian command centre and left; Essex on the right.

From the rear.  Xyston figures are chunkier, but I don't think unreasonably so.

The horses: Xyston slightly longer, but the height is about the same.

Some more from different angles.

My conclusion is that they'll go together fine - especially being well-fed and caparisoned commanders - but I'm less picky than some!