From RobH (HerrRobert/RobertH): Señor Oliverios' Retainers (50 points)

Señor Oliveros crouched down in the scrub, waiting. El Borracho sat nearby, drinking straight from a green bottle with one hand, checking the cylinder of his revolver with the other. In all the years he'd known El Borracho, Oliverios had never seen the man without either whiskey or weapons to hand. His pet iguana, El Guapo, crouched on his shoulder. Men from his hacienda dotted the rough ground nearby, ready for the signal.

Señor Oliverios' Retainers

So begins my second entry into the 15th Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. Señor Teodoro Oliveros leads the men from around his hacienda to confront someone, be they the French, the Yankees, banditos, Villistas, Federales or perhaps even Spaniards or Cuban revolutionaries:

• Teodoro Guerra, Raúl Luna, Luis Aguirre and Loco Sanchez (remember him?) have armed themselves with machetes
• Martin Reyes carries a large scattergun or blunderbuss
• Octavio Montoya and Luciano Peña have muskets
• Javier Solis carries a repeating rifle, perhaps a Winchester
• El Borracho and El Guapo have a six gun

Señor Oliverios leads from the front

Eight of the ten figures (all but Solis and El Borracho) are Wargames Foundry figures from the Old West pack OW161 - Mexican Peons. I'd bought them years ago off ebay, and they'd been sitting cleaned, washed and ready to paint for at least two years now. After our last Legends of the Old West game of the exchange, they called out to paint.

El Borracho is a Reaper Chronoscape figure marketed as Lobo Sanchez, Bandito. My figure's package came with a smudged label which read more "Loco Sanchez." Since I already had Loco Sanchez, I needed a new name. Given that the figure is carrying a hefty bottle of something alcoholic, El Borracho, The Drunkard, seemed appropriate.

The figures weren't too bad to paint up, although the sandals and El Borracho's serape and inner thigh had some trouble spots, as did his hair and Señor Oliverios' cummerbund - the red kept bleeing onto his white shirt.

Three of the figures were painted to test a khaki color combination for the Spanish-American War: Delta Ceramcoat Terretorial Beige for shadow, Khaki for main, and then a wash down with Army Painter Soft Tone. It works for rough cloth, but is too dark for a khaki. I will probably try using a pale gray wash next time, and see if that is lighter.

Rear view of the party

The rest of the figures had the same white I did for Loco Sanchez as a prisoner in my previous entry. Señor Oliverios' pants and hat, along with El Borracho's hat and serape, were both done with Territorial Beige as main and Vallejo Cork Brown as a highlight, then washed down with Strong Tone. It makes for a good medium brown. I switched up my straw hat mixture, highlighting with Reaper Buckskin Pale after the Soft Tone wash, instead of before. It worked much better than doing the Soft Tone wash last, so I went back and touched up the prisoner's straw hat from my last entry.

Before and after capture, showing the touchup on the hat

I label all of my 19th Century colonial figures on the bases, with the yellow, green, blue, red or black of the label indicating skill. It's something I picked up playing a homebrew set of rules for gaming the Indian Wars in my teens/early twenties, and since I started basing my figures for that rule set, it has persisted. Figure names are written in with either white gel pen (0.3mm tip, brand new for the challenge) or 0.005mm artist marker.

The band from overhead, showing the labels

I'm a little more satisfied with the photos this go around. I got a slightly better camera app for my phone, which allows me to control the focus point, exposure and light balance better than the usual point and click of an iPhone. I also bought an attachment for my tripod, so I can use it with the phone. They're not as crisp as the black background photos Curt shoots, but they look better. I may switch to a white background though.

Springing the ambush on some French invaders (the French I bought at a con and need to rebase)

Scoring this entry is:

• 10 28mm foot figures @ 5 points per figure = 50 points.

That's also my first Squirrel Point, and 50 more points in the Colonials duel.

 

 

Sylvain: Not only are your miniatures very colorful, the characters you depict are also very colorful. I like how you add stories to your post,as it makes looking at your figurines a lot more interesting. I also find inspiring the way you coded your bases. All in all a great entry. Excellent work!

 

 

From FrederickC - Roman Gladiators and another Circle of Hell [Violence] (150 points)

For this week's submission I present a selection of Roman Gladiators from Crusader Miniatures that I plan to use with Wiley Games 'Arena of Blood' rules. In the past I have played gladiatorial combat with a variety of rules, some which were very complex regarding planning your attack or defence, while other required special dice to play, or a hex grid area. 'Arena of Blood' is a fast game that requires no measurement, and still provides a wide scope for both tactics and strategy. DaveV and I have taken the game to two games conventions so far, and the people who join in the game found it easy to learn, and fun to play.

After some initial play testing with other members of the Fawcett Avenue Conscripts, we found that we didn't have figures for all the different types of gladiators available in the rules. A quick order to Crusader Miniatures filled the gaps for most of the types we were missing.

The figures were cleaned up of any mould lines, etc. and glued to some hexagonal bases that I picked up at Historicon. The two mounted gladiators and one of the velites all required a small javelin that I made to a length of florist wire. I added a layer of fine sand with PVA glue, and then primed them with Vallejo Desert Tan using an airbrush. I mounted the shields onto some popsicle sticks using some blue tack to hold them while priming, and painted the back side. The gladiators were painted using a variety of Vallejo and Army Painter acrylics. I made a point of varying the skin tone on the figures to present the different ethnic groups that became part of the Roman Empire using Flat Flesh, Cork Brown, and Chocolate Brown. Once the main figures were completed, I mounted the shields and then painted them. When everything was done, I finished off with a wash of Army Painter Soft Tone. Here is the final result.

"Ave Imperator! Morituri te salutant."

 

Murmillones & Crupellarius - A Murmillo was a heavily armoured gladiator wearing a fish crest on his helmet. Murmillones were typically paired with a Thraex opponent, but occasionally with the similar hoplomachus. A Crupellarius was the most heavily armed gladiator, whose armor consisted of a lorica segmentata, manica on both arms, and high segmented greaves up to the thighs. The helmet was typical for ancient Roman gladiators, completely covering the head and face with only small openings for the eyes and mouth.

Murmillones (1,3,& 4) and Crupellarius (2)

 

Secutores & Scissor - The Secutor ("Pursuer") developed to fight the retiarius. The helmet of the secutor covered the entire face with the exception of two small eye-holes in order to protect his face from the thin prongs of the trident of his opponent. The Scissor fought using a weapon consisting of a hardened steel tube that encased the gladiator's entire forearm, with the end capped off and a wicked semicircular blade attached to it.

Scissors (1) and Secutores (2 - 4)

Thraeces & Hoplomachi - The Thraex's weapon was the Thracian curved sword. The were introduced as replacements for the Gaulish gladiator type after Gaul made peace with Rome. They commonly fought murmillones or hoplomachi. The Hoplomachus was Romanised Greek for "armed fighter". He was equipped with a gladius and a very small, round shield. He also carried a spear, which he would have to cast at his opponent before closing to hand-to-hand combat.

Hoplomachi (1 & 2) and Thraeces (3 & 4)

Eques - Early forms of the eques gladiator were lightly armed, with sword or spear. They had scale armour; a medium-sized round cavalry shield (parma equestris); and a brimmed helmet with two decorative feathers and no crest. Later forms also had greaves to protect their legs, a manica on their right arm and sleeveless, belted tunics. Generally, they fought only other equites.

Provocatores & Dimachaeri - Provocatores were the only gladiators protected by a breastplate (cardiophylax) which was usually rectangular, later often cresent-shaped. They fought with a tall rectangular shield and the gladius. They were paired only against other provocatores.  The Dimachaerus (Greek διμάχαιρος, "bearing two knives") was a type of gladiator that fought with two swords. They were referred to as fighting against a hoplomachus class gladiator.

Dimachaeri (1 & 2) and Provocatores (3 & 4)

Velites & Sagittarius - The Veles (pl. velites - "skirmishers") is presumed to have fought on foot, armed with a spear, sword and small round shield (parma); this also assumes that the type was named for the early and lightly armed Republican army units of the same name. The Sagittarius was an archer whose main weapon was the bow.

Velites (1 - 3) and Sagittarius (4)

"The Wood of Self-murderers - Violence" by William Blake

The points being claimed are as follows:

22 x 28mm foot figure @ 5 points =  110 points

 

2 x 28mm mounted figure @ 10 points = 20 points

1 x Circle of Hell - Violence = 20 points 

 

"Are you not entertained?!"

Thanks for stopping by.

Sylvain: I always look forward to your posts because I know I will learn some new and interesting historical facts. With your description, my imagination brought me into the coliseum and I could almost hear the crowd and see thumbs pointed up (or down). What a marvelous collection of gladiators all painted to a superior standard. I hope next time I go to a convention that I will have a chance to try your game. Great job!

LES COPAINS DU SAMEDI AU CAFÉ CANADIEN-FRANÇAIS

 Leonard Cohen

You may have read in the newspaper that, not long ago, Mister Legault, premier of the province of Québec, wanted students at McGill University, an English-speaking institution located in Montréal, to take a successful French test in order to graduate. Isn’t this extreme? Why do people in Québec always seem to be “overreacting” when it comes to French language?

We remember, from previous postings, that the ingredients for the identity of a Québécois used to be: 1. To be catholic, 2. To live in rural area, 3. To speak French. Since people in Québec have abandoned churches and farms, there is only one "ancestral element" left for them to anchor their identity, and that is the French language.

Regularly, Statistics Canada publishes the results of national surveys about the proportion of speakers of various languages in Canada, and when the numbers are out, many people in Québec adopt an alarmist attitude about what they read.

Question: What percentage of the population of Canada can speak French? Answer: 22%. Year after year, French speaking people are loosing ground in terms of demographic weight across Canada, from 27.5% in 2016 to 22% in 2021. The alarmist view goes like this: if French Canadians lost 5 percentage points in 5 years, does it mean that, at this rate, the demographic weight will reach 0% in 25 years? To imagine one’s own end is always a great source of anxiety. Of course, French Canadian will never disappear and the main cause of this sudden shift in proportion is the influx of immigrants who mostly choose to speak English.

Question: What percentage of the population of the province of Québec are native French speakers? Answer: 77%. Indeed, the proportion of French native speakers is 77% (2021) and only 46.95% (2011) on the Island of Montréal. Many immigrants moving to Québec often choose to speak English instead of French. All these trends result over time in a diminishing proportion of people speaking French in Québec. The introduction of Bill 101 in the 70s was an attempt to reverse the decline. That legislation was making the use of French mandatory in the work place and for signage. As a result, many English-speaking people living in Québec made the effort to become bilingual. But even today it is possible for someone to live in Québec their whole life without speaking French. And it is possible to be an English native speaker and a Québécois at the same time. This is why people in Québec see Leonard Cohen as one of their own.

If you walk on the streets of Montréal, you might see two giant murals of Leonard Cohen on the side of two buildings. As far as I know, no other artist, even French Canadian, was honored in such a way in Montréal. Leonard Cohen is considered a true Montrealer, maybe in part because his song “Suzanne” refers to locations in Montréal. Another song, “The Partisan” is one third in French. We might have to thank his love interest Dominique Issermann, from France, for enticing Leonard Cohen to perfect his French, to the point that he could answer difficult questions during interviews.

Here is “The Partisan” (with subtitles).

Next week: Humour