Heraclea at Partizan

The boards and figures were loaded into the car and we made the trip down to Kelham Hall near Newark.

We'd met up with Keith and Adam from Aventine the previous evening for a couple of pre-game drinks and it was good to see them again on Sunday. Also taking part in the game were Simon Miller (AKA BigRedBat), his son Harry and James Symmons.

We used Hail Caesar, tweaked by Keith, for our refight. Keith was a real Saint over the course of the day; he was the only one of us with more than a passing familiarity with the rules and he was frequently called on to direct we no-knowledge Tyros!

Various people took pictures over the course of the day and I'm sure many of them will be better than mine! Unfortunately, the lighting can be quite strange in the building and some of the shots look to have been taken through the early morning mist! Quite atmospheric.. (no pun intended).

The quality of the pictures is a bit mixed, but hopefully will give you something of the flavour of the thing before far better photographers get to show off their snaps. Enjoy!

 Pyrrhic deployment, with pikes in the centre, flanked by Tarentine hoplites and cavalry and light infantry wings.

 Roman deployment, just after they've (mostly) crossed the river.

 Close up of the cavalry and light infantry on the Roman right during the initial stages of the river crossing.

 Roman left flank

 Pyrrhic right centre.

 Pyrrhic right wing cavalry

 Pyrrhic left centre

 Close up of left flank Tarentine unit

 Keith and Simon (L-R) get stuck in on the Roman left flank

Close up of the scene.

Overall, a great day in great company. Although we didn't quite play the game to a conclusion, we declared a Pyrrhic victory following some pretty freakish dice throwing over the course of the day...

Aventine Southern Italian Hoplites Finished

Finally!

These have taken quite a while to complete, but are now finally done. Finishing touches have included "dusting up" the shields, adding a few blood smears and one or two signs of battle damaged. Hopefully it works!

I'm pleased with how they've come out, but I'm looking forward to doing something slightly different and a bit less complex.

Pictures have been taken using my iPhone, together with a new mini studio that I bought for just under £30. It comes complete with two "daylight" spots, a camera tripod and all folds away into itself. It also comes with four colours of backing cloth, white, blue, red and black. A very neat piece of design - I'm impressed. Excellent value for money.

Bases are organised in groups of 16, with a command base for each. I've used a couple of alternate standards that are also offered by Aventine to give some variety to the lovely dolphin that comes with the range. I've also set up a full 48 figure shot that I think looks pretty impressive. I had to set them up three deep to make them fit in!

Pics below.

Massed Ranks of Hoplites

Basing now underway. Now need to paint, highlight, add tufts and some static grass. I'll also do a bit of dusting up of the lower parts of the figures just to give them a bit of a "lived in" look. Phew, nearly there!

Apologies again for the quality of the photo, again taken with my iPhone under artificial light. I plan to finish the basing over the course of the week and will hopefully get to take some decent shots under natural light at the weekend.

Final Stretch

Couple of quick images of the last batch of hoplites.

Apologies for the quality of the photos - taken under my painting light with my iPhone.

This last batch in white tunics. I couldn't resist using the shields as a backdrop for the pictures. They've now had a bit of highlighting on the metal rims and a blast of matt varnish, which has successfully killed the shine of the earlier image.

More Southern Italian Hoplites

Not had chance to post these WIP figures as I've not had good enough light to photograph in.

These are basically the same as the previous batch, this time with red tunics. Next batch are grey tunics, which are almost finished, with a final batch of off-white to finish. Plus loads of shields to do of course. Oh, and not forgetting the basing......

On another note, I'm being sorely tempted by the thought of the new advancing pike from Aventine. Just waiting to see what the rest of the packs look like. Keith tells me that there's another pack of linothorax to come, plus some command figures. Already have a colour scheme in mind, based on the image below, another Macedonian tomb painting.

Probably go for a nice blue helmet to top them off, based on the Alexander Sarcophagus

Southern Italian Hoplites WIP2

Title says it all, really.

Finished the shields and attached them to the figures. Shield designs by LBMS, cut to fit and overpainted around the edge in an attempt to make them blend. As you can see in one or two cases this has been in vain and I need to go back and do some touching up. Seeing something in a photo about six times bigger than it really is can be sobering....

I temporarily attached the figures to bases with blutack to get an idea of how they'd rank up. Apologies if one or two look a bit wobbly. Worthwhile doing, as I quickly realised I need to have the spears angled slightly to ensure each rank will line up behind the other.

 As mentioned previously, I need to wait until all 48 are done before I can start basing for real - very frustrating for someone as impatient as me! Part of my painting psychology is to get some figures painted and based as early as possible as inspiration to get stuck into the rest.

Southern Italian Hoplites WIP 1

These are the first batch of 12, from 48 I currently plan to paint.

My approach to these is to paint four groups of 12, each with the same basic tunic colour, but with varying levels of trim. These have a base of blue (bet you didn't spot that, did you?), the next batch in line will have red, with grey and off white to come.

Colour choices are based on various tomb paintings that have survived from Southern Italy. Try a Google Image search for "paestum tomb" and you'll get the idea.

I've done the flesh tones on these slightly differently to some previous figures, with less contrast. Not sure I'm happy and would be interested in other opinions.

Shields are mostly finished and just need adding to the figures. Will try and get some photos of them up tomorrow.

Tarentines Completed

Managed to finish these off in the week but had to wait until today to get enough natural light to photograph them. It's already past the time of year that it's too dull on a morning for photography before I leave for work and too dark by the time I get home, a fact that will become far more obvious as we descend into Winter.

I'm pleased with the shields. I used various LBMS hoplite variants for several different figure ranges; most didn't fit! The rimmed shields I decided to use for these figures have a relatively small central area, so I had a bit of careful choosing and trimming to do to make things work. I'm happy with the results.

I used a slightly different mix of tufts this time around and I quite like the effect. Haven't decided if I should add a couple of flowers or not.

As noted before, painting these has helped me formulate plan for the Southern Italian hoplites that are next on the agenda. I've decided to use four basic tunic colours, as here, with varying levels of trim. To achieve this, I've split the 48 figures into batches of 12 (didn't know I did maths, did you?). Body armour is mixed, with variations from none, plain T-Y, padded T-Y, reinforced T-Y and plate armour on some of the command figures, so lots of scope for mixtures of white, yellow, red, blue and anything else I can think of....

"Tarentine" WIP

Some pictures of my Aventine "Tarentines" in progress.

Painting is finished, just need to add shields, varnish and base. How I base them is the reason for the "".  I can't decide  whether to base them in 3's, so general Southern Italian medium cavalry, or in 2's as more open order light cavalry. I'm hedging towards 3's, as I think they'll be more useful that way, but if anyone's got any ideas, I'd love to hear other opinions.

 

Pictures are clickable.

Next project is some Southern Italian Hoplites. I'll use the same basic colour scheme as I've used on these to give them plenty of variety and colour.