Sunday 24 March 2013

More Scythian Nobles & a moan about the weather.

Another quiet week on the painting front, but these miniatures are quite time consuming to paint.



Here on the Welsh border there is nearly 12" of snow lying, which for the first days of what is supposed to be spring is a bit of a disaster. This time last year it was close to 70 degrees F & a drought was forecast. This is what you get for living in a country with weather instead of a climate.



Should be out at work today but the prospect of handling wet, cold steel gates is less than appealing so despite my usual dislike of office work it is proving the lesser of two evils.

Sunday 17 March 2013

Scythian Noble Cavalry.

Some more progress has been made with these today:



Still not happy with the horses but I'll live with them. Also re-thought the basing scheme, 40mm round bases allow for a reasonable wedge formation to be assembled but with the advantage of deploying in skirmish order as well.

More Eastern Types.

Its been a slow couple of weeks on the painting front, due mainly to the horrible weather. Coming in wet and cold makes sitting in front of the fire with a glass of scotch & a decent book more appealing than painting figures in a draughty kitchen.

One bright spot was a visit to our "local" wargames show in Wolverhampton last Sunday. Not a bad show at all and seemed a bit more lively than last year, plenty of nice demo games to look at with AWI being strongly represented again but only one Ancients game showcasing Scarab Miniatures War & Conquest rule set.
Purchases were limited this year to two packs of Crusader Miniatures Thracian Cavalry ( now using Ebob horses I think, which is a vast improvement ) and a unit set of Scythian Noble Cavalry from First Corps, the first of which is below:



Overall these are nice figures & come with separate scabbards, bow cases & shields. The riders are amongst the best figures that First Corps have produced to date but the horses a couple of the four horse variants supplied are off anatomically & poorly posed. This is something I may have to rectify in future but given that things are tight financially at the moment I can learn to live with them.
On the plus side, at least First Corps do complete their ranges.

Nothing else very exciting to report from WMMS this year though it is interesting to note the number of laser cut MDF buildings & accessories now available. Whilst lacking the character of their resin counterparts they make up for it in spades by being a lot cheaper & not so vulnerable to being on hard surfaces. A sector of the market to keep an eye on, I think the creative surface has only just been scratched.

To finish off this week a few more Crusader Persian infantry & their Vendel officer.