More Roman Cavalry

Over the weekend, I was going to spend time printing out the remaining ships of the North Carolina Mosquito Fleet. I successfully printed several of the vessels. However, I found that the pad that my magnetic build plate was starting to pull off and did while printing the USS Wabash. So another item that needs to be fixed.

While waiting for a print to finish, I looked through my lead pile. Apparently, I have found another stash of Roman Cavalry miniatures. This was an exciting discovery. These are all spear armed and have been mounted on painting sticks and basecoated in black. I will respray the horses in white. I also received my order from Old Glory 15s. This was less than exciting. It turns out that only four of the miniatures were spear armed. The other five are armed with a gladius. Making them not as useful to me. They also came with a round plume of somekind on top of their helmets. That part at least is easily fixed. They will still be painted up. I will probably only use two of the sword armed versions. Between the found miniatures and the purchased ones, I should have three full groups (Infamy, Infamy wise) of cavalry.

In addition, I found a nifty senator figure. This would be a good objective for the Celts to try to grab during a raid.

I have yet to make any progress on the Mansio or Villa. I cut a template for the main roof of the mansio to cut tiles for. I hope to get the roof done today.

Mile Fort and a New Ship

So I managed to get the printer working again and managed to print the CSS Appomattox. This was part of the North Carolina Mosquito Fleet. I purchased the https://www.wargaming3d.com/product/union-or-confederate-army-transport-1-600/ and got permission to modify it. I managed to add two guns and made it into a screw driven boat as the Appomattox was.

I hope to get a basecoat on the ship this week if possible. It should have a simple paint scheme. I kicked off another job to print out another vessel. This will be my second attempt at my Curlew model. Reviewing the book on the Curlew I believe the stern half of the ship is incorrect now. But it will still serve as a proxy until I can do something better. If I am able to get this one printed, I am pretty sure that I will be able to finish out the rest of the ships for the remaining elements of the North Carolina Moquito Fleet. The Union ships will be next.

The Mile Fort

I decided on a paint scheme and ran with it. I am not satisfied with the print job but think it is good enough at this point. Some pieces are better than others. I have added the pictures to the PayHip site.

I plan on ordering another group and a half of cavalry this week. I am deciding between the Old Glory and Rebel miniatures. Both come with a pack of 9 figures and have a look similar to what I have. I also did some work on basing some remaining figures that I had finished. I figure I need another hour to finish that off. I am close enought that I have pulled out my Celts to look and see what I can do for movement trays for them.

Painting More Romans and Other Projects

I managed a few moments to paint yesterday and finished a few figures. I painted the Decurion to complete out my cavalry command. I also painted a Praefectus on foot. I now have him based with two servants behind him. I think it looks pretty good. I painted an additional Optio and one more Auxilia as well. These all need basing. I am basing the Decurion on a round base to make him stand out on the table. I don't really have a standard for the leader figures for my Romans.

I took pictures of the above but they are all terrible. Once the basing of the above is done, I will be working on painting my Mile Fort. I think I will go with the sandstone look. After that, I think work on the Mansio and Villa would be next. I will save the watchtower for later.

I am looking forward to getting these miniatures out on the tabletop. I have an idea for a campaign that I want to run. The Briton/Celts that I have should be mostly ready. I have a base force that matches with the rules and some additional items on order. Both Romans and Celts need some more casualty figures painted.

ACW Naval

My North Carolina Coast campaign has warmed up again with some fixes to the printer. I printed a really nice version of the CSS Curlew. The front half matches the book description of the curlew. The back half should be more like a passenger vessel than what I have but it will stand in. As I was removing the support for the vessel, half of the front deck broke off. So the model ended up in the trash. I kicked off a print job for the CSS Appomattox as well. Will check on that when I get home from work. I think I will start printing these without supports. That should help. Once the miniatures are ready, I have several scenarios to try out. I need to ask the designer of the Dawn of Iron rules about how well his land rules are coming along.

Negev 1948 Campaign

I had a request to dust off my old SOTCW scenarios for my Israel War of Independence scenarios. I decided to rerelease the original scenario set which was written for the Arc of Fire game system and used the Skirmish Campaigns format. I converted one scenario of it to IABSM years ago and did nothing else with it. In reviewing the scenarios, the maps are terrible. So i will redo the maps in Campaign Cartographer before releasing. I did one of the maps so far and it looks much better. I do want to finish the conversion of these scenarios to either Chain of Command or IABSM at some point. But probably not any time soon.

France 1944

I have been working on a pint sized campaign on an action that took place in Singling France in 1944. It presents an interesting set of challenges for how to present it on the table. It was a combined arms attack that would allow the players to each have a platoon sized element to work with. I am working out how to make them work as stand alone pieces or make them for a games day type of action where two tables would be going simultaneously and a reseve force would be allocated as needed for each side. There is some really good documentation on this small battle that I am working through. It has proved to be a fun research project.

Early Imperial Romans for Infamy Infamy

I think I am now at a point that i am only missing 4 figures for my Roman Auxilia. Three cavalry figures to round out the last group and a Cavalry command figure. All in all, some good work over the holiday week last week.

I managed to finish my Medicus figure by giving him a patient. The dead Roman is a Xyston model. The Medicus and box is from 3dBreed miniatures that I printed.

I finished a basic engineer cart. I may go back and give the cart an ink wash as it looks a bit too new. Or possibly place some form of materials in the back of it. But it is close enough for now.

The first of what will be two engineer groups is also done. One thought would be to make the base part of a Roman road. But I couldn't figure out how I wanted to show that. Still, they are complete.

Here is the core of my Auxilia infantry. I have six groups of 8 Auxilia. with a Cornicen, Signifer, Optio and Centurion.

I also have a group of 8 Auxilia with bows. While they normally would be separated out into separate Sagitarii units, the game calls for them to be a group. I have two additional bow figures as well. For some reason, I have two different manufacturers. I am not sure of the manufacturers. The ones in a loading pose are probably Corvus Beli figures. Not sure who the giants are.

I also have a spare command group with a Cornicen, Optio, Signifer and Centurion. I figure these may come into play with Midgard.

I have a senior command element as well. Two figures I can use as a mounted or dismounted Praefectus.

I also finished my cavalry figures. I have a group of 8 Auxilia cavalry, a half group of Auxilia Cavalry and a standard bearer. (can't remember the name of the cavalry standard bearer.) As noted above, i still need 3 more figures to flesh out the group and a command figure. Also in the picture are some support elements that were finished, a pair of pack mules and a scorpion with crew. All of these have their basing finished but I didn't take a picture of them yet.

I also have been working on a command base for the Praefectus. The plan is to have a shield bearer and a slave with a wax tablet standing behind them on a small Flames of War base. i have a replacement figure for the foot Praefectus that I need to paint. The two background characters are already painted. I also have most of a 3rd command group painted. I need to finish painting the Optio and get a good Centurion figure for it. I will likely giev the centurion a fancier comb on his helmet to signify him as a Primus Pilus or the like. I also have a seventh group of Auxilia Infantry ready to go. They just require a movement tray. The problem is, I have no idea if I cut the movement trays myself or bought them. I have the start of an 8th group of Auxilia Infantry. There are three painted figures on an old base that they need to be pulled from. I also have a lone Auxilia on a painting stick leaving just 4 miniatures to be purchased. But as it stands, I should have enough for a game.

I do have a number of Roman Auxilia in more skirmishing poses that are either thrusting with a spear or throwing one. The problem is most of the spears are either bent or broken. A longer term item would be to purchase some wire spears and replace them then base these to be an additional set of groups. If I were to do this, I would be coming close to having a 1 to 1 Roman Century worth of Auxilia. This is really not needed for either Infamy Infamy or Midgard. Still, it is something.

Terrain:

I painted some test pieces of Hadrian's Wall. One in a gray stone pattern and one that is supposed to be sandstone. I can't really decide which one I like better.

I like how the sandstone came out. My wife likes the gray walls better. Still debating.

I have not done any more work on the existing Mansio, Villa or Watchtower yet. Hopefully soon.