The Halloween Display

Most of last week and all of the weekend, our living room, hallway, and conservatory (used as main entrance) has been decorated for Halloween (our daughters both had several parties to attend, and some of the friends of the oldest one were coming here to prepare).

When entering the conservatory, this was the sight that met the eye:

Our living room (that dark thing in the corner of the first pic is a clàrsach).

On the sideboard, I had placed a lot of my horror-related painted minis:

A lot of those headstones were painted tyhe last week, and I shall take a separate photo with those for my 'October Output Post' one of the next days.

Hoplites!

When I was looking for information on the very early Roman military/warriors, again and again I was met with the word 'hoplite', and it prompted me to dig out the two boxes of Warlord Games plastic hoplites (generic Greek and Spartans) I bought second-hand quite a while ago.

A quick look in my wargames library revealed that I can use Greek hoplites for Broken Legions, Of Gods And Mortals (OGAM), A Fantastic SAGA, and A Song of Blades and Heroes, and I decided to start building a warband for Broken Legions (Argonauts) right away.

The standard warriors are called Argonauts, basically heavy hoplites with the option to take a spear in addition to their standard 'hand weapon' and shield. I am going to make nine of these in 'bell cuirass', seven with spear, two with just the sword (there are five in the Greek Phalanx box, four in the Spartan Hoplites - one per hoplite frame).

The guy in the muscle cuirass is going to be the Argonaut Captain, and I have two more destined to become Heraclean Champions.

I shall also add an Orphean Champion (bard/musician) from the Greek Phalanx box, and an additional five 'Mercenary Hoplites' in Linothorax.

At first, I was puzzled by this component, but a brief research revealed it to be a 'Mitra', worn hanging from the front of a bell cuirass, so I shall probably use a couple of those to ensure some variation in appearance of the Argonauts (they are all the same basic body, arms/weapons, and heads/helmets can be varied a bit).

I am actually quite eager to start painting a few of these, as I have always liked the aesthetics of the classic Greek warriors (and it does nothing to temper my enthusiasm that I can use them for several games I already own).

Usuthu! Zulu War (1879) British WIP

Well, time seems to fly away on the wings of ornithopters these days.

I have been busy getting the last potatoes out of the soil, as winter has finally arrived with forecasts of -10 C this night, so I thought I had better.

I have not been completely idle on the hobby front, though, and I have assembled my first five British infantrymen for my Africa/Zulu War project.

As you can see, some of the ready/advancing stances are almost passable, but the shooting stances are really horrible.

Unfortunately, each sprue comes with only three sets of arms for each stance, so I have to use two sets of shooting stance arms out of every five models (with twenty in the set).

There is a right arm with an empty hand that may be usable with the extra Martini-Henry provided, so I think I shall try out that option from the next sprue.

I still think these will be OK as assegai-fodder at an arms length when I have given them a table-top quality paintjob, but I certainly shall not be adding more of them to my collection (unless someone actually throws them at me just for taking them).

I shall add some 'rough' to the bases with some filler, and then they are ready for priming!

USUTHU! - Another Project Born...

'Zulu!' and 'Zulu Dawn' have long been my favourite films depicting redcoat action in the Age of Imperialism, and I have felt the itch to get some action going on the South African plains (and as any native Africans can easily be pressed into service for Pulp games, this is actually a no-brainer).

I have now set out to scratch that itch, first getting these books from Osprey:

(In Her Majesty's Name rulebook should be in the mail any day soon)

Heroes, Villains and Fiends contain rules for using Zulu in IHMN, so I expect to start making a Company or two of Zulus (unmarried and married springs to mind), and one of Brits, then perhaps expand by making Pulp Alley leagues of some of the other native peoples available (like Ngoni, Matabele, Pygmies, Azande, and perhaps some 'fantasy' cannibals and other imaginative Africans).

At first, I thought about doing Colonials in 1/72 plastics as I already have some Esci Zulus and British infantry for the Zulu War (1879), but there seems to be a limited supply of figures for this period; although a lot of sets have been made over time (notably from HaT), only a few seem available at the present.

So, I end up - as usual - collecting and painting 28 mm sized stuff, and as I remembered to have a box of these, I dug it out and have begun prepping a few redcoats.:

The models are not great, but I got the box as a freebie when ordering WGF's Republican (Caesarian) Romans, so no harm done in getting them a lick of paint so they can be brutally slaughtered by the natives of many a distant corner of the Empire.

I shall be basing them on 20mm washers, and go for a 'ready' or 'avancing' pose for as many as possible, as I really do not  like the sculpt of the firing right arm/hand - and I am primarily going to use these for skirmishing, so it only seems right to use poses better suited for open formations.

For the Zulus, I am almost set on getting the Empress/Warlord Zulu Starter Army, which should keep me occupied for several gaming seasons.

Just need to get that November paycheck...