1st Corps Scythed Chariot.

The latest addition to my Seleucid host:

Originally I was going with an all red finish as depicted in the Seleucid Montvert but then I was divinely inspired to alter this to a more 'Starsky & Hutch' livery. Sorry thats just a pack of lies, what I actually did was a fast re-paint job after viewing Dean M's sterling effort on his WAB Corner Blog. Many thanks for the inspiration Dean.
On a technical note the reins were added using thin lead foil and copious expletives.

More Pointy Sticks.

The next victim of the cleaning obsession is.... An ECW Royalist Army.

I've owned and modified this army since my university days back in the late eighties, what started out as purely foundry figures has over the years metamorphosed into mainly Renegade & Redoubt with 2 troops of Foundry harquebusiers.

Instead of following the tedious norm of recreating The Oxford Army or Sir Ralph Hopton's Cornish this is an army based around units from the Welsh Borders and the Northwest. The foot consist of the regiments recalled from Ireland in 1644 who amalgamated into the Shrewsbury Foot and Sir Thomas Tyldesley's Regt from Lancashire; The horse are Sir William Vaughan's ( the wonderfully named 'Devil of Shrawardine'), John Marrow's & Sir Marcus Trevors.
They're a handy little lot, despite having been bested historically at Whittington,  Nantwich, Montgomery & Denbigh Green I've always enjoyed a good degree of success with them using both Forlorn Hope & WECW rules.

Lots of Hellenistic Stuff.

Took all of my Hellenistic figures out of their chest of drawers this afternoon for a spring clean, the photos below show them in their full glory. Apologies in advance for all the ramage in the background, but we have only been moved in a year and I've only got one pair of hands.

This little lot stretches 15' into the messy distance of the conservatory and consists of troop types from 330-200BC give or take so strictly speaking its not one homogenous army. In reality most of the earlier units have stood in for their later counterparts at some time. A case in point being the Persian heavies in the foreground, they have variously represented Eumenes Cappadocian bodyguard, Molons Companions  for Apollonia & Parthian catphracts.
The alarming thing is there are still a few bits and pieces to add in following Alumwell; another scythed chariot, a unit of half barded companions & another 28 figure phalanx. To cap it all in the time its taken me to assemble this little lot those malingering peasants at Warhammer Historical ( or whatever they presently call themselves ) still haven't managed to publish the long anticipated army lists.

Alumwell Show Update.

All in all a very successful foray to Wolverhampton last weekend. Sadly no photos forthcoming because I forgot to take a camera. The demo games were of a good standard, the ACW offering and the Battle of Towton being worthy of mention. The Towton game in particular featured some of the best terrain I have seen in a long time; really evocative of a damp, cold Yorkshire day.

Purchase wise admirable discipline was displayed, I came away with a 1st Corps scythed chariot & a unit of their half barded companions and a couple of packs of Copplestone Castings Somalis as shown below:

These rogues are to be used as Arab irregulars for my Seleucid Army circa 217BC. The germ of the idea was planted by a post on The Miniatures Page concerning suitable miniatures to represent this unit at the Battle of Raphia. My thanks to Mr. Allen Curtis for the suggestion because to my mind they look just the ticket. I will take some credit though on account of the added beards on some of the more mature looking warriors. There are a few more to follow and then work will commence on the 1st Corps stuff, stay tuned for further updates.

The Great God Pan.

To make up for the lack of pictures in the last post here is a shot of Studio McVey's Pan, a current work in progress. Enjoy.

WMMS Tomorrow

Hooray! off to WMMS at Wolverhampton for some retail therapy tomorrow, which is well deserved after another 70 hour week. Hoping to part with some well earned at the 1st Corps stand to supplement my later Seleucids with some barded Agema & Companions and one or two scythed chariots. Warlord Games will probably get a visit to try and weadle out some details of the upcoming Hail Caesar ruleset. Other than that a trawl round the demo games to get some inspiration for future projects at some nebulous point in time when work slows down again.
Happy Days.

Burgfried Internals.

As promised some internal photos of the Tabletop World watchtower, they start at the bottom and progress upward.

I know the last shot of the roof isn't strictly speaking internal, but it does have a curiously pleasing aspect.

Furniture.

Here is a selection of the interior furnishings supplied with TW's watch tower, it was this level of detail that persuaded me to chuck 100 euros at it in the first place.

More Tower Pictures & A Macedonian Slaphead.

First off Gripping Beasts aged mercenary captain.

And a rear view.

Quite pleased with him on the whole with the exception of the oversized blade on his kopis, on reflection I should have filed it down to more sensible proportions. At least he can give my Renegade celts a run for their money.
This propensity for figure designers to equip oversized weapons is a real bore, I thought I'd left it behind when I weaned myself off GW stuff 15 years hence.

Following on from that the Tabletop World watch tower nears completion.

The garrison has been augmented with some old GW Dogs of War and shutters have been added to the hoardings on the third floor.

Still not sure whether or not to lighten the woodwork with another layer of dry-brushing, it looks fine outdoors in the sunlight but under artificial lighting it still looks a little dark.