28mm Cowboys and two Romans

This wasn't the last submission for the Painting Challenge. It was sent before the Shieldwall final stand but due to the very busy time it wasn't posted until after the final Bonus Theme post. These figures I pushed over the line to completion as they had sat in a very close to completed state for a while on my table and some longer than others.

An Early Imperial Roman Army Standard figure by Warlord games and a Gladiator from Foundry. I managed to get a few of the Gladiators in my collection completed in the challenge. Still some to do though. 

The Standard bearer had a lot of flash to remove and many others have mentioned that this is common with Warlord Metals. Takes a bit of time to fix but it's a great figure with nice detail.

The Black Hat Gang below continues to grow after having been started near the start of the challenge. Only a few more of these Foundry Cowboy gunslingers remain in the unpainted outlands. 

This wounded cowboy below has been sent to Curt in Canada as the entry fee figure. Foundry actually sent me two of this guy like they had for the HUGE hatted twins above. I thought it is a cool looking figure.

 Not my best photography but not my worst as well. The light was problematic on the day I took these. But you get that in the Wet Season.

Cheers from Brendon
PS: Win free stuff here at Model Dads Blog site. Looks like a nice kit.

Cowboys, Normans and, Gladiators

No, it is not some sort of messed up title of a new Hollywood epic movie. It is a bunch of figures I managed to complete at almost the same time. I have been painting a variety of figures since the challenge began in no particular order and often all at the same time. I sent Curt 3 submissions to help me clock up some points but also because I may not get much done for a week as we will have a relative come visit. It will be a lot of fun as I am taking some time off as well.
These miniatures sort of all got in a very close to done at roughly the same time so I set a goal of pushing them over the line to completed.

Cowboys from Foundry. Got to like the Bean eating cowboy straight from 'Blazing Saddles'.

Conquest Games Norman Plastics and a Metal big boss.

As usual I think I could have done some things differently but overall I am pleased with how they all turned out. I recently acquired some GW Blood paint (a relatively new product) and it looks the part with a glossy finish. Not normally a big fan of the sometimes over use of blood on miniatures but I may use it more often on my Gladiators as it adds a splash of color to the plain simple scheme I am now using.  

I don't have any Battleflag Shield decals for Knights left so I hand painted 2 with yellow above but used one of the smaller Infantry Shield decals on the King looking metal figure. It wasn't big enough so I had to enhance it with matching colors and a steady hand. It's a great figure and should stand out on any gamer's table.Painting cowboys is new ground for me. I went for a gang with the common color of black. I use Panzer Gray as black over a black primer for most of them. Once I gave them a semi-dry brush of Khaki it improved them a lot in my opinion. I can't shake the Motorhead lyrics "The rider wearing black, You know he's gonna shoot you in the back! In the western movies". I also was inspired by them in Cowboy outfits from the cover of 'Ace of Spades'. Hard to pull off at this scale though as it makes them very dull and lack visual pop. But I kind of wanted them dull, gritty and dusty looking.When I make some time I will try and get some better images. I still lack in the miniature photography area.Cheers from Brendon

Painted Gladiators 28mm

Another submission to score some points in the Painting Challenge and generally get stuff completed. This time it's figures from my collection of Gladiators. They are made by Foundry or Crusader. I decided to go for simplicity as I seemed to have fussed over detail on these in the past and it may be one reason why I stopped painting them. White loincloths and metal colored shields seem to capture a particular type of classic look. Once I came to that conclusion the process somehow felt as though it sped up. The flesh tone has turned out a little pale in these images compared to in seeing them in the flesh.

Among them is a Hermes Psychopompus (arena official) who stabs downed Gladiators to see if they are actually dead with a hot poker. Another official has a hammer to finish them off but he is not painted yet.

I probably don't need as many Gladiators as I have collected for gaming purposes but, I like collecting them.

In 2014 the creators of SAGA will be releasing a Gladiator game....'JUGULA'. I am looking forward to that.

 The blisters had a shortage of the classic rectangle curved roman shield so one above has acquired a plastic one from a Warlord Legionnaire set. It's crazy to think that this type of extreme sports was entertainment back in time. But today lots of folks like to watch UFC and MMA octagon fights.

Cheers from Brendon

Spartacus. The board game

So September has now weighed anchor and started it's journey. September for me means it's my Birthday. This year the family got me a copy of the Spartacus board game and the expansion. What fun it is so thanks family. I have had 2 games. First test run was with 3 people and second game was 4 players. Both times without including the expansion. First time we got some combat rules wrong... we only rolled for initiative once instead of every round. But we got the feel and hang of the game by the end of the first game.

Can we play the Spartacus Board Game as well!

As you may know this is not a game of combat but of playing the role of a Lanista trying to claw your way to become the most influential Ludus at the table by playing 'schemes' on each other, buying your way to the top or getting noticed because of success in the arena. Getting to 12 Influence points wins the game but we started on 7 for the first game so it was over before we knew it. The second game with four people was a real doozy. My measure of how good a game is often by if it becomes apparent that some sort of narrative starts to appear. You know.... if the game has plot twists and starts to feel like a story could be written from it. Well this game is very successful at that. Lots of drama takes place with laughs aplenty as gamers borrow money from each other, bribe each other only to be betrayed.
While the Combat phase is not the focus of the game it can be really entertaining. Especially when all players have Denarii placed on the outcome. Winning helps your influence go up but that's not the only path to success. Enough gold and you may be able to buy your way to the top and be the top dog Lanista.
The group I played with was not my usual bunch of gamers. People that do not play wargames but they like occasional board games. It was refreshing actually because there wasn't the over analyzing of strategy's and game play and so on that many experienced gamers are prone to do.
I am looking foward to including the expansion stuff (2 new Lanistas and a heap more cards) in our next games. This will see combats in the Arena go from having money (wagers) riding on the outcome of 1 versus 1 to 2 versus 2.
I highly recommend this game.

Cheers from Brendon (The Kiwi)