Iberian Holiday

I'm still on the warpath against the many small projects that have taken up space on my painting table for far too long. This time is was just a handful of 15mm ancient Iberian cavalry. I only have a small Iberian army, which was initially made as a ally (or enemy) for my Republican Romans. I'm pretty certain I have many more of them in a box somewhere. However, because I chose to hand paint all the shields, these guys are not an easy paintjob.

They do make up a respectable force but not nearly as large as I prefer. They're certainly large enough for a ally to sit on the Roman flank. Unfortunately they have only ever been used to fight along side my friend Peter's Carthaginians against my Romans!

These are the figures that have been taking up room on my painting table for the past 2 or 3 years. A unit of light horse and a cavalry commander. That's it. They were very dusty but it didn't take much to finish them.

Looking through this blog I found that I never did a post dedicated to these troops. All I ever did were piecemeal post of units as I painted them. So I decided put the whole little army on parade and take some photos. Here they are:

Scutari - Heavy Infantry

Caetrati - Light Infantry

Balaeric Slingers

Heavy Cavalry

Light Cavalry

Commanders/ Heroes

And that's them. They definately need more heavy cavalry. However, they also need more heavy infantry and every thing else too. Maybe I'll get onto it sometime in the future, but maybe I won't. 

By the way (I should have mentioned this earlier); all the figures are Xyston Miniatures.

Cheers and thanks for reading.

Venusians, Galaxians, and Dragoonians

I'm still getting small projects off my painting table. Most of these figures have been sitting there half finished and gathering dust for the past 18 months or more. Some of them I painted about 12 to 13 years ago and I was adding to their numbers when I stopped painting.

Venusians: First up are the beautiful Venusians and their ruler: Yllana ~ The Queen of Outer Space! These figures are Valkeeri from Hydra Miniatures. I bought them for a space-pulp demo game in 2013. I painted half a dozen of them and never managed to do the rest. Until Now!

They are great figures so it's good to finally get them finished and looking beautiful.

I now have two atomic-blaster squads of these beautiful space vixens as well as the Queen, a heavy atomic-blaster and a speciality figure with a Venusian neutron-whip.

I don't actually know what the speciality figure is supposed to be but she's obviously a mistress of the lash so I gave her some beasts to obey her every command. The critters are from Eureka Miniatures and I initially got these for a King Kong game I put on a long time ago (back when I first started the blog). I rebased them to match the ladies.

Galaxians: I also finished a squad of Galactic Patrol (again from Hydra Miniatures). These must have been sitting on the desk for longer then 18 months because they had a fairly heavy coating of dust. I painted the first lot a while back but I don't remember when.

I'm thinking that these guys and the Venusians might go well in a Bug Hunting game. I have a good collection of space-bugs and all I've needed are some brave troops to take them on. 

I like the thought of that.

Blues Squad

Orange Squad, with heavy weapon.

Leader and Hero.

Dragoonians... 

Who are the Dragoonians???

Well they're just a couple of French, Napoleonic dragoons on foot. I had these figures that I made from the Perry plastic French Dragoon boxed set. I thought they'd make interesting bases to add to my French skirmish line. Also a base of regular voltigeurs (also Perry plastic). I have one base representing the two dragoon regiments I currently have.

I really enjoyed painting these figures. I always love the finished result of doing Napoleonic regiments and battalions. I have four battalions of metal Young Guard that I'd like to paint. I hope I can get on to them soon.

And that's it. A few little projects off the painting table. I'm hoping to finish a 15mm ancient Spanish cavalry base and I might finish constructing some Perry Prussian Dragoons. I made the horses a year or two back but never made the riders. It's about time I got them done.

Thanks for reading.

Cheers.

The Hairy Kraken Sails Again

Yesterday I played my first game in a long time. I was invited to play a pirate game. The club that I attend use to put on a massive pirate game every year at the end of September called Pirates in September. I played a major role in several of the events but gave it up a few years back. But I was invited to yesterdays game and I had a great time.

The event has been scaled down quite dramatically in recent years from about 40 odd captains and crew to just a few friends. But there was enough for a good game and plenty of laughter.

I reverted to my old captain persona of Don h'Emmingo - the Spanish scourge of the seven table-tops (my surname is Hemmings). I gave my ship and pirates to a friend a few years back so I only have a bunch of marines but I didn't have any pirate crew so I had to borrow some for my basic crewmen. My ship is The Hairy Kraken and I got to use it again.

The Kraken Archipelago: Where every scurvy dog that ever sailed on top of a billiard table will eventually meet his fate.

The view from the crow's nest.

Captain Don h'Emmingo once again, strides around the poop deck.

My mission for the game was to rescue Capt, Johnny Finch from Turtle Island (far left) and sail off the edge of the table. Unfortunately, I was to start on the opposite table edge.

Below is Peter's ship. He doesn't know it yet, but he's not about to have a good game. 

As well as other pirates to contend with there were other hazards that could pop up depending on the dice roll. One of these was The Kraken, which could erupt out of the sea and randomly attack any ship.

I drew first blood for the game when my lookout in the crows nest took careful aim and shot one of Peter's crewmen as we sailed past. The first of many he was to lose during the course of the day.

When sailing between the islands the walkways were ignored by ships although figures could walk over them.

I managed to sail past a couple of pirates and only lost one crew member to shooting (even though I was the main instigator of most of the violence). I got into the archipelago and was on my way to an easy win.

L - R: Peter, Robin, John, Gary, and Steve (Darryl is off camera).

As I was about to sail to victory I was hit by the other peril of the game: The Maelstrom. After three turns of floundering my ship was turned 180degrees and headed back in to the archipelago and I had to navigate a new rout to Turtle Island.

I eventually got to Turtle Island after my journey across the table.

The elusive Darryl watches on. His ship started out, sailed a bit, got hit by the maelstrom, spun around, sailed again, got hit by another maelstrom and spun around again and finished the game about half a move from where he started.

I rescued the stranded Captain Finch and... Robin's ship sailed off the opposite table edge and he won the game. In the next turn The Hairy Kraken sailed off the table and I came in at a close second. 

Below is Peters ship and his remaining crew. His crew got to the island, found the buried treasure, and got it back onboard ship. He was shot at with musket and canon, The Kraken attacked him twice and by the end of the game only the captain was left standing, stranded on his half sunken ship.

It was a great game and I'm glad I took part. It was great to get back to flexing the tape measure and rolling some dice. I was invited by my friend Michael who organised and umpired the whole event.