New Toys

In researching the Second Battle of Kharkov, I came across some toys that I "needed". These included some T-70s, T-60s, Matilda IIs and Valentine IIIs for the Soviets and some Panzer III Js and Panzer IV F2s for the Germans. I have not looked close enough at the Hungarians and Romanians to see if they had any armor in the area. Thus far, I think not.

Anyway, I went shopping. My first place was a new vendor. Well, they were not that new. Turns out I had bought some German trucks from them off of eBay before but then forgot about them. They now have their own website and offer a fantastic range of painted 15mm vehicles. Check them out: http://www.wargamemodelsinohio.com. My first order was still from their eBay store as I had not found their website yet. I grabbed up three Panzer III Js and two T-70s.

When I opened the box, I was pretty pleased with the overall look of the models. But the Panzers looked short to me. IN the picture below, you can see a Command Decision Panzer III hiding behind the back left tank. It is indeed slightly shorter. But, in the 3 models that I ordered of the same model, all three have different stowage on the back of the model! I thought that was pretty nice. It came painted with some mud on the tracks. A basic paint job but one that will work. I can throw on some markings and call them done. The T-70s I have nothing to compare them against so they are fine in my eyes.

One thing that is noticeable is the pitting in the surface of the vehicles. It is very noticeable in the T-70s in the front. I could take the time to fix it, but to the naked eye on the table, it won't be as noticeable as it is in the pictures. At $5/tank with no shipping through their eBay store, these are a great value.

But like any manufacturer, they don't have everything. I still have Matilda IIs and Valentine IIIs to get, as well as the Panzer IV f2. Cruising on over to my other favorite site, Gaming Models, I saw that Craig has both the Valentine and Matilda's that I want. Wargame Models of Ohio only has the Matilda II and the close support Valentine III. I sent him an order for three of each. I asked about the Panzer IV f2 and he said there was little difference between it and the G model. To prove it, he said he would chuck one in the box for me to check out for free. Great guy and excellent service. He has made models for me in the past and added them to his inventory. Anyway, those are still on order.

Lastly for me, I ran out of bases for my pirate miniatures. I have been basing my new Sharp Practice stuff on 20mm round bases that fit a Litko sabot base for them. Only using Sabots for the Spanish as my pirates will be not be able to take a formation. The good news is that I have now finished two groups of Spanish regulars and three groups of Spanish Militia. The bad news is, I ran out of the bases and can't complete them. I put in an order to Litko yesterday to fix that.

While I was basing things, I worked on some Soviets for my Cold War Chain of Command. I painted up six infantry wielding Aks with the under slung grenade launcher. I only had bases for 4 of them. The other two remain stranded on their painting stick. I am basing those guys on 10mm square bases. I have also finished out an AGS-17 team and a heavy MG team for the Soviets as well. I have more support options waiting in a drawer for bases to arrive before I start working on them.

Lastly, I had posted about a package of toys from England a few days ago. I saw that Warbases made their announcement about their new 15mm line of Roman buildings. That is what I received. I picked up the Mansio and a villa. They look great. However, there are a ton of parts. It will take some time to get those together. Until then, they reside in a drawer.

Slow but steady Progress - Dux Romans

I managed to get my next group of 8 Auxiliaries on to bases last night. They still need paint and flocking but are getting close. You can see them in the picture below with the sandy bases.

The centurions are primed and on a painting stick. I still have to prime my shields for them. I also have my next command group and 16 more Auxiliaries on the tray. I really need to order some of the Rebel Auxiliaries in the next few days to bulk up the troops.

I also worked on the watch tower. I added a wooden frame to what will be the 'rock' base of the tower. That went well. I cut up some match sticks and PVA glued them in place. I am still trying to work out how I will do the 'rock' portion. I will probably buy some grout or Spackle and carve the rock shapes into whatever I end up smearing on it.

The Centurions Arrive

I just got my order from QRF for my Centurions. Over all, I am pleased with the pack. They all have transverse crests like I wanted. Five of the eight are in chain mail armor. An of the five, three look like they are ready for a fighting formation while two are carrying their vine sticks. So that gives me three usable miniatures out of the pack. I may use one of the vine stick wielding fellows but I am not sure.

Pardon the picture quality. I took it on my desk at work. If anyone is interested in the scale armored fellows and the six shields, I will gladly send them to you for cost of postage.

What they are missing is the phalerae that is worn over their armor. Any centurion should have something there in either gold, silver or bronze. It was held on with leather strapping in a grid pattern. I am not sure if I have the energy to attempt to model this onto the figure. 15mm is kinda small for my fat fingers to make such a small change. I grew rather frustrated trying to mod my padre figure for my Italians in 15mm. I don't think I will try it here.

I plan on getting a pack of the QRF signifers and possibly a pack or two of their auxiliaries as well. That should give me lots of flexibility.

CSS Appomattox - Novel and Roman Stuff

Well, I have submitted my book to some folks who are proof reading it. It looks like by the end of the month I might be able to put it up on Amazon. That might be wishful thinking given the notes I received on the first chapter.

I think I mentioned this project once before. It is set close to 1880 in an alternative history where the Confederacy won its independence through the recognition of France and Great Britain. The Confederacy has aligned itself with Spain and is fending off the colonial ambitions of the Germans who are trying to seize Puerto Rico.

I am excited to have this project mostly completed. This puts 2 items close to being published (Mud and Blood supplement that Rich is working on).

Roman Stuff

The tower now has a base that it is resting on. I am trying to figure out how to do the stone work for the base. I will be cutting up some matchsticks to frame it and provide the base for the ladder to reach the door. Next up will be making the tiled roof. I am not sure why I want to go with a tiled roof other than I just want to. I have a plan for how I will go about this. It will be based on round, plastic coffee stirrers. Basically, I plan on cutting them in half long ways. Then over lap them to provide the tile look. Glue the mess together and when it is dry, cutting it in strips and gluing it down. It probably won't work but I have high hopes. I will try to take pictures as I go.

Next up are some more Roman Auxiliaries. The miniatures are done all but for basing and shields. The standing pack of CB roman auxiliaries all came with the shields as part of the miniature. These had the shields separate. I actually like that better. I have the shields painted except for the edges. Then I still need to dip them in my watered Windsor and Newton ink and varnish. The designs are the same as the other Romans but I don't think I had quite as steady a hand this time. I will probably base the miniatures first before finishing off the shields.

I only have 2 more packs of CB auxiliaries left to paint. Both are with swords drawn. They should be at least started before the week is out. I will then have 34 auxiliaries. That is a less than half strength centuria but enough lead to start pushing around the table to see if some of my ideas will work. I will probably get a bag of Rebel minis Auxilia to flesh the centuria out. Any day I should get my QRF centurions.

That is it for this update. Hopefully I will have more soon and with pictures.

More Roman Reinforcements Arrive

I placed an order with Eureka at the beginning of December and it arrived. I took advantage of the free shipping coupon that they were offering to get a sample of the AB and Museum miniatures offerings that they have. The miniatures look great. The AB are fantastic. My only gripe is that the AB Optio comes with the shield already attached. To get him to fit in with my Auxiliaries, I will need to file the thing into an oval. Not really what I want to do. Might just save him for a supporting role for some future legionries that may come along later. The AB are a good head taller than their Museum miniatures compatriots. They too come with the shield attached. The Museum boys look a tad under fed compared to the AB fellows as well.

In the picture above, the miniatures are from left to right: Museum miniatures Auxilia Infantry, signifer, cornicen, Auxilia centurian, Auxilia infantry 2, AB Optio, AB Centurian, AB Pilus Primus. I also wish I had received the second variant of the AB Centurion, the one without pony tails. Still, they are nice miniatures all around. I have to wait till I get home to see how they match with the Corvus Belli and Rebel Miniatures that I already have. Then I will decide what I will use to fill out the ranks of the 3 centuria that I want to model.

Buying more Toys - The Roman Legions Grow

Eureka Minatures has offered a special for free shipping from Austrailia for the month of December if you are a subscriber to their newsletter. This seemed like a great time to try out some figures.

Image taken from here: http://www.viajesconmitia.com/category/nuestra-tia-recomienda/musica-ratonera/

I had been eyeing some of the AB Romans for a while. I love their Napoleonics. The Romans looked as good in the pictures so I ordered a couple of sample figures, namely their Pilus Primus, Centurion and Optio figures. For some reason the line does not have any Auxiliary figures. But these looked like dandy big men. We will see how well they mix with Rebel and Corvus Belli Romans.

While cruising through their catalog, I saw that they sold Museum Miniatures from their website as well. I could not find any images of these figures anywhere. What interested me was that they had a variety of Auxiliary miniatures that included Auxiliary Musician, Standard, Centurian, Infantry. On the Eureka site, they sell these as individual figures. From Museum, they are sold as packs of 8. There are two different codes for Auxiliary Infantry so I am assuming that there are only two poses of these fellows. I will soon find out.

So I will have a force of Romans that is very command heavy at the moment. I have lots of command figures and now 2 infantrymen on order. My next order will be for a pack of the Rebel Auxiliary Infantry. Those look like they only have 2 poses as well. I will probably get a few packs of Corvus Belli as well. Ultimately I will need to get some packs of shields from Corvus Belli to make sure that shields matches between the units. Also I will only have to buy one type of shield transfer. According to the Red Rampant site, I probably want a shield that features an eagle with lightning bolts as the unit I want to model had Roman Citizens: Cohors II Raetorum civium Romanorum equitata.

I will start with the infantry and add some cavalry later.

More Thoughts on Roman Dux

First things first, welcome JP. He is the latest to join up here. He is a busy man with two blogs that are well worth looking at. The first is Herefordshire 1938. The second is The Very British Civil War Miniatures Guide. The Very British Civil War is something that keeps trying to tempt me but I have held firm on so far.

Roman Dux
I am getting closer to the point to getting miniatures for this. But I want some more things fleshed out. I am still attempting to decide if I am going to aim for a Hadrian's Wall based campaign or on one of the German Limes along the Rhine. The Rhine one is sorely tempting me. Those are fortifications I think I am capable of modeling. A long wooden palisade and a ditch with scattered watchtowers with signal pyres. Definitely doable. Then a fort further back to support troops. This rather than the Hadrian's wall model with two towers and a milecastle supported by a fort.

In either case, it would be the Auxiliaries that would handle most of the man power. So that led to a couple hours of Google time looking up Auxiliaries. The formation that caught my eye was the Cohors Equitatae. Since nothing is easy (Nil Facilis Est), this type of formation could have 2 different subtypes. Both offer possibilities. The first is the Cohors Quingenaria. A small force of around 500 men with 120 being mounted and the rest formed into six centuries of 80 men each. The second is the larger Cohors Millaria of around 1000 men featuring 240 cavalry and 10 centuries of infantry.

While looking into these I found an interesting sentence that I could not find anywhere else. There is a claim that these units fielded archers in addition to normal infantry. This would make one of these formations a true all arms force. Perfect for a skirmish game. I will take the smaller force as it neatly fits into the fort that would support a section of Hadrian's Wall - 6 centuries and 120 cavalry. Some sources point out that the cavalry would be more messengers and skirmishers than true fighting cavalry. But that is fine for the purposes here.

How to split this up? Well, I am determined to try the 8 man group size to base the troops on. Who would be the leaders. Well since the size of the force would be a cohort, the commander of the Cohort would be a senior centurion, the Pilus Primus. But we can't have lowly centurions being in charge of anything. This detachment will need some noble senator or the like hanging around to inspire the rabble...er...men to deeds of greatness. So that means we need s tribune who was given an independent command. (probably as a punishment for something said while in the cups at the officers mess to end up our in some backwater). Each century would have its centurion. In addition, an Optio would be present to support the centurion. Also a Tesserarius would be present in each century as a third in command. That gives us an officer pool to draw from for our games. The cavalry would be led by a Decurio. The senior Decurio commanded a turma of 30 cavalrymen.

A watchtower would be garrisoned by a 8 man tent party that would be rotated regularly. A foot patrol would be anything from 1 to 4 tent parties of infantry led by an Optio or Tesserarius (watch commander). A cavalry patrol would be lead by a Decurio and contain two groups of 4 men. (OK a Decurio would have had 10 men under his command but what can you do) Now this is too small a selection of forces for Dux B. So what we are interested in is not small patrols but what tribune would put in the field when the locals are acting up. The whole force of 500 is way too much. So what do we do?

Lets look at what our force has. Taking some liberties, lets assume that one century of our Cohors Quingenaria is sagitaria (archers). That gives us 5 centuries of infantry. Given that we are an Auxiliary unit, our forces would be entirely Warrior rated for Dux. (Maybe. We will see) Our Vexillation that we will send in the field will include: 1 tribune (has to cover himself in glory after all), a centurion, an Optio, 5 groups of 8 Auxiliary infantry, 2 groups of 4 archers and 2 groups of 4 cavalry. The cavalry would be counted as heavy and are armored with swords.

Opposing Forces
Now, the problem part is who do they fight? For the German Limes, we have Germanic tribes. Because I am fundamentally lazy here, they would look like... Saxons. But what troops would they have? Hmmm.... Well the best way to address this (remember I am lazy) is what miniatures are out there? Well Peter Pig (I am a big fan) has javelin armed troops, Sword armed men, archers and light cavalry. Essex has javelin armed, spear armed, axe armed, and heavily cavalry. Some are naked. Obviously those poor guys must have had Mussolini as their quartermaster.

My idea is to leave the less disciplined German or Celt tribes as 6 men per group. So our enemy would have a Chief, a hero, and two sub-chieftains. They would have 6 groups medium infantry that may not form a shieldwall. They are rated as warriors. They have an additional 2 groups of levy troops armed with shields and javelins plus some hand weapon. Again no shield wall. The javelin armed troops may throw their javelins before they charge. They have one group of skirmishers (4 men armed with with either bows or slings). They also have two groups of skirmish cavalry armed with shields and javelins.

Ideas, Frosting and other nonsense:
In order to reward the performance of our little lead troopers, lets look at the awards presented to Roman Troopers.

As a bravery medals, the Romans gave soldiers torcs (worn on the chest rather than neck), Armillae (arm bands), phalerae (early medals in the form of gold, silver or bronze discs worn over the armor. About 4" in diameter or so), hasta pura (a small silver spear awarded for saving a life), vexilium (a miniature silver replica of a infantry standard) and a cup (probably bronze/silver or Gold). Also several different crowns could be awarded for service. This gives us some trinkets that our Tribune could be awarded out to our lead troopers.

Wikipedia has a nice picture of some phalerae. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalera_%28military_decoration%29

A renactor site shows a centurion with some torcs above some phalerae. See: http://www.legionxxiv.org/centurionpage/

Also a unit could be awarded phalerae as well as individuals. So the signifier would add them to his standard. The greater the decoration, the larger the unit pride.

Anyway, this is just some random thoughts.