Thursday 25 February 2016

From EvanH - Veni, Vidi, Velites! (45 points)

Hi Challengers, back again, a week late and several figs short, but time is short and the weather is horrible - we got ourselves a heatwave here in Sydney, and undercoating is an act of the purest futility.

Thankfully, I had already undercoated these bad boys, nine 28mm Roman Velites from Agema. These are some of the best plastic figs I have ever laid eyes on; the detail is excellent, and the anatomy is spot on. Agema are definitely on my list for future acquisitions (space permitting!).

I've been fairly, well... restrained in my figure output so far, and a unit is a bit of a departure from my usual single-character submissions. It's a bit daunting when you try to ramp up the painting rate a notch. I had to keep telling myself, "paint the unit, not the man," though with figs this good, you want to do a proper job and lavish a bit of time on them.

Right, lads, off to annoy some elephants!
I've based them on Warbases 60 x 60 mm MDF bases, built up with white pumice to conceal the figures' moulded bases and give them a bit of texture. I've based the figures as light javelinmen for Simon Miller's excellent Ancients rule set, To the Strongest!, and the base sizes mean that I can use two bases per unit on a 15cm grid and three for a 20cm grid. 


I've opted for a vaguely North African basing scheme, as I've got some Carthaginians stashed away and I want to give myself some motivation to produce a Battle of Zama force. The bases were painted with a raw sienna acrylic from a craft shop, and highlighted up with progressively lighter blends of the base coat with Vallejo Desert Yellow.


The tufts and rocks are Diorama Elements from Tajima1 Tufts, in this case, the desert pack. They work every bit as well as the rest of the tufts in Tajima's range, and stick readily to textured surfaces.

So, nine figures at five points each makes a grand total of 45 points for this submission. And what's next on the painting table? A bit more focus would be nice...

Stay tuned!
You've been keeping these ones under wraps haven't you Mr Hughes? Here's me thinking you were working on something pulp and then out these pop! 
Very well put together in every way I must say from the brushwork to the basing. I suspect you will regret letting me see these because I am now going to hound you mercilessly to see more. 
That's 45 points for your total and well done mate. Cheers, Millsy.

19 comments:

  1. 41 degrees here too and the paint drys on the brush before you get it to the mini oh well. Very nice Velites and I too agree that the Agema minis are excellent and good value too.

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  2. Very nice brushwork,Evan! They make an effective looking phalanx in the base posing too!

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  3. The weather is being kind to me here. Motivation is not!

    I love it when people do multi figures to a base at large scale. It shows a confidence on getting a lot of figures on the table at one time. These look every bit as good as I could possibly wish for.

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  4. Excellent work, 0 degrees here, probably nicer than 41, especially if you look better in a jumper than budgie smugglers

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  5. Nice job on these Evan. Hope things cool down for your guys and warm up for us!

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  6. Lovely stuff Evan. You've done a wonderful job on the figures and your basework looks spot on for the arid North African plains. Keep it coming!

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  7. nice work Evan!

    the emblematic Velites of the punic wars roman army with the pectoral protections of the hastatii that's how we imagine them.

    all the best.

    GillesW "of wolf and man;-)"

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  8. Nice work Evan. Going up against elephants would be bad enough, but apparently the elephants were drunk too? I suspect "velites" was a tough gig...

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    1. "OK, Jumbo, I think you've had enough."

      "I'll TELL YOU when I've had enough!" *thwack*

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  9. Lovely Ev.. Paint the unit ... That's the way me boy!

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  10. Very nice painting and basing!

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  11. Really nice! Excellent basing. That's a nice review you gave the miniatures. Makes me very interested. cheers

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  12. Thanks for all the kind words, folks!

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