From PeterD: Limo to World Cinema (80 points)

First up we I have to take a Limo from Under Construction to World Cinema using this 28mm figure from Bad Squid.  Challenge veterans might remember that I've got a lot of mileage out of a Bad Squiddo Women of WW2 kickstarter that I backed a few years back.  I think that this lady feeding chickens is the last of them.

I've painted her up in standard Women's Land Army kit with shiny wellies suitable for mucking about in the farmyard.  Not the most exciting figure but a lovely sculpt and I have a lot of time and respect for Annie over at  Bad Squiddo for putting this range together.

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As for World Cinema, the blurb says to post something from a different part of the world from where you don't live.  I offer up the Roman trading ship Berenice of Portus Adurni (Portchester Castle).  I can guarantee that there are no sea going merchant ships in my home town of Regina, SK which is about as far from the sea as you can get.  I should note that there is one attempted ship located nearby on the Canadian prairies.  It's a sad story with a Finnish connection.

On a biographical note I should point out that I am the son of a naval officer, was born in England and basically grew up one, in or next to the sea in Halifax Nova Scotia.  Yes, moving to Regina was an odd choice, yes there's a story and yes it's a bit messy.

The ship is 28mm pdf kit from Sarissa Precision. It went together well (even if I messed up a bit at the stern) and painted up nicely.  I have asked my lovely and talented wife to stitch up a sail for her when she has space on her sewing table.  I've named her the Berenice after a trading ship that plays a key role in the Rosemary Sutcliffe novel The Silver Branch.

I did up three crewmen using mostly Victrix plastic bits plus a few Gripping Beast arms. I painted them up in a simple common uniform and left the bases a flat tan to blend into the deck.  During painting I noted that two of them have shoulder belts for swords, but carry no swords.  I guess I call these a late antiquity version of a Sam Brown belt.

A final picture to show that Berenice is not the only vessel to shelter under the walls of  Portus Adurni .  This is a picture of Portchester Castle taken from one of the last sailing trips that I took with my dad before he sold his boat as we sail up to Port Solent Marine.  The keep and church ruins are Norman and there are medieval upgrades other places.  However, the basic walls are from the Roman Saxon Shore fort.

The photo is bit skewiff as the boat rolled as I snapped it.

Points wise I'd count the ship as a 28mm vehicle and there's 3 crew.

Totals

• one vehicle @20
• four foot figures @5=20
• two locations @20 (Limo and World) =40
• Total 80 points.

I will count 35 for the ship and crew towards the SPQR and Carausius Emperor of Britain Side duels.

From TeemuL: What a great story of the ship and its builder, lots of Finnish stereotypes there.

I like the crewmen, they are almost like dancing, but they'd make a nice crew to that ship.

From PeterD: Cat People (70 points)

It will be a multi post day for me this week.  I had my University break last week and in between marking calculus midterms and avoiding my wife's hubby-do list I got some painting in.  Rather than try and stuff it all into one long boring post, I went for three medium boring posts... 

For what ever weird reason, the seriously creepy and noire 1942 original Cat People (along with the Creature from the Black Lagoon) seemed to be on local TV an awful lot when I was a kid.  However, unfortunately this post has nothing to do with Simone Simon, Natassjia Kinski or David Bowie.

I have a unit of 12 more Picts, Gripping Beast figures mostly plastics with two metal figures.   In keeping with my Pict naming protocols involving animal tribes these come from the Cat People.  They are named for the Scottish wildcat, which appears to be both seriously cute as a kitten and seriously bad tempered as an adult.  I had originally planned to avoid the whole Cat people tribe but eventually succumbed to the madness.  I blame a surplus of turnip in my blogging diet.

I only caught this now but I'll need to reprint the label, it should be pale blue to match my other Pict units.

Nothing more to add except to note the combinations of bad plaids, reasonable free hand shields and child like freehand flag.  The latter is based on a cat from the book of Kells, which is Irish not Pictish but that's close enough for government work to my eyes.  

That is 12 28mm foot figures for 60 point. These count towards the Carausius Emperor of Britain Side duel which appears to be a complete dud at this point, since I'm the only one posting points.  This also takes me over my target of 500 points for this years' Challenge.

Ok it turns out that I can't leave the title with out linking to one of my favourite Bowie songs from the 80s.  There are two versions of the song with the film version generally seen as being superior to the Let's Dance version.

From TeemuL: David Bowie, eh? Well, at least it will please the Snowlord. :) And no, I have nothing against him, I just haven't listened him a lot. But let's focus on the Cat People, very nice, good colours, looks dangerous. And the Picts, yes they look good, too. :) I'll grant you 10 extra points for the shields and banner.

From PeterD 28mm Picts (70 points)

 

Aberlemno Stones

I have a unit of 12 Pictish spearmen this week.  Most of the figures are from the Gripping Beast plastics Pict box set.  There are two metal GB command figures and some a bits from the Victrix Late Roman Infantry kit.  The GBP picts use the same torsos was the GBP Irish (and the Welsh although I've not seen these in the flesh) with appropriately Pictish heads and odd shaped shields.

The metal horn blower is a bit of an awkward pose.  I added a shield slung on his back but I am happy that he's a back ranker.

As I've talked about before, the Picts are a rather shadowy people from beyond the outer fringes of civilization. They've left no written record, we don't know what language they spoke or if they ever had a  written language.  Most of what they left us is enigmatic rock carvings.  But these carving give us a decent idea of what their warriors looked like, as shown above.  I love these carved images, there is some meat to go on but also a lot of mystery.  they are look very Tolkienesque.

The wargaming convention tends to give the Picts spearmen, reasonable light cavalry and archers (some with crossbows).  This gives an army with a different flavour than their contemporary Scots-Irish and Saxon allies and/or foes.

Unlike Ray, I like my unit labels to stand out from my bases.  The Blue background will differentiate Picts from Green Scots/Irish and White Romans.

I've kept up with giving my units a unified shield base colour, red oxide in this case with white Pictish or Celtic squiggles.  I've decided to name my Picts units with tribal labels based on animals, in the case the Deer people.  This follows on the tribal names used by the Epidii in Rosemary Sutcliffe's Eagle of the Ninth.

The flag and shields are hand painted. the flag is not my best one, but I am out of practice and it looks good enough for the table top.  I'm not all that happy with the plaids but they look ok when squinted at from a distance.

From TeemuL: The miniatures are not exact copies from the carvings, but close enough. They do look much better in colour, lots of colours, in fact. Labeling the bases in highly visible has advantages regarding gameplay, but might break the immersion. One of the balances we all seek and find in different places.

Edit: I'll give you 10 points for the shields and banners.

From PeterD: Roman Infantry for Under Construction (80 points)

Next up for me is a unit of 12 Late Roman Infantry for the Under Construction theme. I had a good burst of painting activity on mid to late October and got these figures partly painted during that time. Then my wife came home from visiting her mother and suddenly there was a lot of other stuff to get done.....

Anyway they are finished now, 12 28mm figures all of them Gripping Beast.  Ten of the figures are stock from the Plastic Late Roman box kit while the standard bearer and one of the officers are metals from the Arthurian range. 

I have painted them as members of the Legionis Secundae Augustae based at Rutupiae near Sandwich in Kent, now known as Richborough Castle, under the command of the Comes litoris Saxonici per Britanniam. This is one of the units based in Brittania which are the descendents of Legio II Augusta who had been part of the original Claudian Invasion force and never left the island. Rutupiae is where a lot of the action in Rosemary Sutcliffe's novel The Silver Branch takes place.

So far I have painted several units based on Legio II Augusta including some Lanciari and a ballista earlier in the Challenge. I'll treat this as a standard unit of Auxiliary, neither Verean or Raw, under the To the Strongest ruleset we've been using. The GB plastics give a nice regular look to the unit with a couple of archers in the back ranks for a bit of long range fire power. The vexillum has a rough impression of the Capricorn (a sort of goat/mermaid hybrid) emblem of Legio II Augusta.

I also thought I'd share some photos from a recent game played with my Barbarian Conspiracy period armies, which I began work on during Challenge XII. It's at Curt Clubhouse using his terrain mat and river, but you can see my British Village, Dark Age fort and a lot of my troops on table.  Also visible are JeremyM from prior challenges, SylvainR (with beer) and Curt's legs.

The Scots Irish deeply so as to give the ballistae in the fort a wide berth.

Roman battle line

The bases I used are a little wide for the fort's ramparts so we used MDF bases to prop up the missile troops

Typical late antiquity scrumming the background, with Roman Cavalry in the foreground.

I make it 60 points for the figures plus 20 for the Under Construction theme.  The base points count toward both the SPQR and Carausius Emperor of Britain Side duels.

From TeemuL: Good looking Romans and they don't even have too-complex shields with them. There has been some different minion decisions regarding Under Construction Studio, some have rewarded full points for minis, which were partly started before, others have rewarded only the Studio bonus. Personally I think both are bit extreme and there is clearly room for confusion. So far I have awarded the full points and I will continue like that until whipped.

Your games look nice, having a friendly Snowlord nearby with a nice garage is a benefit.

From PeterD Late Roman Limitanei (60 points)

 

I've got 12 Late Roman infantry from a Limitanei cohort of Tungri. Figures are Victrix plastics, which went together well and painted up nicely. The units designated Limitanei were essentially garrison troops and typically not as well equipped, trained or led as the Comitatenses in the field army. However, quality likely carried considerably between units from part-time militias of farmers who showed up to drill on occasion, to full time regular troops. Some of the later got drafted in the Field Armies as pseudocomitatenses.  Benito recently posted a very fine looking unit of the part timers, while I am envisioning my Tungri as more regular.  

There were two similar named units in Britain in the late 4th Century. The Cohors I Tungrorum was based at Borcovicio (the Housesteads fort in Northumberland). A second unit under the officer Praepositus militum Tungrecanorum were at Dubris (Dover).   That means that  can comfortably field my Tungri against Scots-Irish, Pict and Saxon raider alike. The cohort names indicate that the units were likely originally recruited from Tungri tribesmen in Northern Gaul.  However over time they morphed into locally recruited units of Romano-Britons.

While I did want this unit to be reasonably well equipped, I didn't want them to look as turned out as my veterans from the Field Army of the Comes Britanniae.  Only one officer has metal armour with a couple of sets of leather army and I tried to make them look less look as tightly drilled. I modelled severall figures with outstretched left hands and this gave me troubles keeping some of their shields glued on. Based on an illustration from Simon MacDowell's book on late Roman Infantry I went for blue tunic decorations instead of my usual red one. It took several tubes of blue before I found a colour that I liked and I think that I'll be going back to red in the future.

According to some source the static Limitanei troops typically had more uniform equipment as they drew on local suppliers and arsenals where the Field Armies ranged over large territories and therefore picked stuff up as needed from where ever was local at the time. That might have been true for the units Juilan took from Germany for his disastrous Persian campaign, but my I figure that the Comes Britanniae had a much more limited range and therefore drew from the same armouries.

Reformatting the photos, I noticed that there is stray hair that needs to trimmed from one figure.

I again free hand painted the shields. They look like the work of a 5 year with lacking any artistic talent up close, but ok from a distance. The Notitia Dignitatum doesn't show shield patterns for Limitanei troops so I opted for a variation on the "Head on a Stick" design shown for several Auxiliary Palatina infantry units. I used a crimson vexillum with an impression of a winged victory (or angel) design held by the rather stout and self important fellow in the leather armour.

Twelve 28mm foot figures should be another 60 points, which will also count against the Carausius Emperor of Britain and SPQR side duels.

From TeemuL: Good looking infantry, I like the cloak and everything. The bases are great, too. I'll use my minion superpowers to grant you 10 bonus points for the shields and the banner.

From PeterD 28mm Attaccotti (67 points)

Hey look Curt I used the watered down white glue to stick down my scree before photos this time! 

This week I have a unit of 12 Attacotti fanatics as foes for my Late Romans in Britain.  The Attacotti are a shadowy Celtic people who were most likely based in the Western Isles of Scotland.  The historian Ammianus says that they took part in the Barbarian Conspiracy of 367 (along with Picts, Scots-Irish, Saxons, Franks and Roman deserters).  Later the Notitia Dignitatum lists Attacotti Auxilia Palatina units among both the Eastern and Western Empire armies and there is a funeral dedication in Illyricum to one of these Auxiliaria soldiers.  The writings of St Jerome mention Attacotti, who are at one point he describes as being cannibals. 

Tail end Diarmaid in the blue hood turned out to be a bit needy.  His shield arm kept requiring reglueing, including just before photo time.  

In war-gaming terms, the Attacotti are typically lumped in as an option for fanatical war bands in the Scots-Irish list. I've modelled them mainly using Gripping Beast plastic Picts with add ons from GB Irish and Victrix Late Romans sets.  Gripping Beast put out plastic box sets for Irish, Picts and Welsh which all have a common set of torsos with differing heads, weapons and shields.  For instance the Picts get Emperor Palpatine hoods, crossbows and oddly shaped shields.  The Irish get bare heads and round shields and I don't what the Leek lovers get as I haven't bought a box!  A couple of figures have wrap around cloaks from the Victrix Romans.  There are also two metal Gripping Beast figures, the horn blower and standard bearer.

I will add unit tables across the back of the bases shortly.  Still tinkering with font and colour options.

Most of my Scots-Irish have beigish tunics to represent plain wool, but I've painted my Attacotti in an indigo blue for easy identification (they're in blue they must be fanatics).  I've no historical basis for this, but the seam of historical ore that I am mining is pretty thin at best. This summer I read a novel by Adrian Goldsworthy (better know as a very good Roman historian) about the Usipi .  These were Germanic auxilaries in the Flavian era who revolted and turned cannibal and pirate in the Irish Sea.  Goldsmith has them wearing black, which I lightened to being an indigo.

There's some pretty good motion in some of the plastic figures and lots of head and arm combinations to add variety.

I had some fun trying out plaids and stripes on the cloaks and added freehand shields and a flag.  I am a little annoyed with myself on the flag as I had to a point that I was happy with it and decided to add a wash for texture.  Unfortunately I rushed the timing and the design bled a bit under the wash.

Seamus on the right has one of the Victrix cloaks round his torso, as does Feargal in the middle of the left base..

As Challenge veterans will remember (and Curt will remind them).I am firmly in the free hand shields over transfers camp.  Some folks seem to get truly wonderful results from transfers (BenF) but I can't put a sticky label on a freezer container or a name badge to save my life.  And a reply enjoy researching and painting the shields.  I timed myself this week and it took me 45 minutes to go from beige base coat and plain paper to 11 shields plus the flag, including some time searching Google images.  It is not a matter of a fine eye as my handwriting's unreadable and I can't draw worth beans.  Simple geometric designs and focusing on getting the overall feel right are way more important than precision.  In my younger days I would paint a variety of shield backgrounds for each unit, but I've long since changed to a uniform background so as to identify units with varied designs.

No theme points for me this time, but 12 28mm foot figures should be good for 60 points which also count for the Carausius Emperor of Britain Side duel.

From TeemuL: What a nice and colourful lot from you, Peter! And thanks for the brief history lesson, I would have said Attaccotti is some kind of Italian food, but I do make errors from time to time... I'm not doing an error for granting you some extra points for those hand painted shields and flag. I'm quite sure there are some beards and mustaches, too. Very nice, and the basing looks good, too.

From PeterD: Roman Lanciarii (33 points)

 

Second post for me this week, a group of 6 Lanciariiiii for my Late Romans.  These are 28mm plastics, mostly from the fairly new Victrix boxed set plus a few add ons from Gripping Beast plastic Romans (shields and a head or too).

Lanciarii were detachments of Legionaries or Auxiliaries told off to form a skirmish line much like the Napoleonic Light companies.  The name references the use of the lancea, a light throwing spear.    I've also thrown in a couple with plumbata, essentially militarized lawn darts with a lead weight added for extra distance and punch.  I again painted shields to match up with Legio Secunda Britannica.

I am normally late to the game on new figure releases, but when Victrix released Unarmoured Roman Infantry this year I was pretty quick on the PayPal switch.  They make an interest contrast to the Gripping Beast Plastic Roman Infantry.  Comparisons are summarized below.

• Gripping Beast are better value, 40 figures for 24 quid vs 36 figures for 34 quid.
• The GB box includes torsos for armoured spear/swordsmen, unarmoured spear/swordsmen and archers while the Victrix has no archers and they are mostly unarmoured.  Consequently there's less variety of poses to form a single unit using the GB figures, but this gives them, a more "regular" appearance.
• Both kits come with lots of possible head and arm/weapon combos.   The GB he's are all "roman" and include some in Pannonian caps which Victrix lacks.  Victrix does both Roman and Barbarian heads.  So far it appears that heads and arms can be swapped about between ranges.
• The GB torsos have the sleeve and should decoration carved in, while these have to be painted on the Victrix figures.  Therefore GB make good Romans or deserters, while Victrix figures can double as Germanic tribes. 
• I think both boxes are good and useful, and I'll like buy more of each.

The 30 points will count for two Side Duels (Carausius Emperor of Britain and SPQR) and I'll fill in the requisite forms once they go live.

From TeemuL: Good looking Lanciarii and nice to share the comparison between different products. The solution seems to be buy everything. :) I'll give you a few extra points for hand painted shields.

From PeterD: Pict Hunters (30 Points)

 I have a small unit of Pict Hunters with bows.

Figures came from. bag of (IIRC) Old Glory 28mm Welsh Archers that I acquired 15-20 years ago.  While packaged as Welsh I figure that they are hairy, badly dressed and generically Celtic enough to work as Picts.  Being Old Glory, posing and anatomy is um... interesting at times.  Also it wasn't until I had these guys primed and ready to paint that I realized that two were wearing the Late Antiquity version of Ray's Budgie Smugglers.

According to Ancient Wargamer cannon (book of WRG) Picts differed from other hairy barbarians by using longer spears and more bows (including Crossbows).  It's all pretty circumstantial based mainly on 1500 year old rock carvings, but it means that a Pict war band has a different feel than a Scot-Irish warband or Saxon raiders.

I tried free handing plaids on a couple of figures but gave it up as a bad job after the first two.  I've left a clear space at the back of the bases for unit tables but I'm still playing around with the fonts that I want to use for Picts.

In terraforming my bases I tried to make these look like rougher terrain than typical with lots of rocks and low bushes. In his comments on my Intro post, Martijn noted that I had primed these figures on their bases and asked if it was something I often did.  It was a short lived experiment and after a single session they were pried off, put onto pennies for painting and then returned to their bases when ready.

Points wise I make this 6 28mm figures for 30 points and no theme bonus.  But I can apply the points to the Carausius Emperor of Britain side Duel.

TeemuL: Hairy barbarians they are! The rough terrain looks good and it is nice to see some old figs getting paint on them. Your math is correct, 30 points it is.

From PeterD: Late Roman Cheiroballistrae For 80s Retro (60 Points)

It always takes a while for me together my first post on the Challenge no matter how small I make it.  My last uni exam was written on December 22nd and by the time I had it marked it was late on the 23rd and then there's Christmas, etc. whine.....

Anyway I have two Late Roman cheiroballistrae (sp?)with crews for my first post.  I am not intending to focus too much on the Studio map but will take the theme lot points when and where these are available so I will count this as 80s Retro.  Back in 1980 Halifax, 18 year old me took a windy route home from my first year Philosophy Class (Death and the Mind) to stop in at a new Hobby Shop.  Turned out that this was run by Ross MacFarlane of gameofmonth a regular gaming partner for the next 18 years before I moved very far west.  One of the games were played back in the 80s was WRG Ancients 6th Edition using Ross' Late Romans and then later Greeks and Persians.

The models are 28mm Gripping Beast metals.  The ballistas went together easily enough once I downloaded the picture from the GB website and the crews were nicely cast.  I like the age old trope of the grunts doing the heavy work on the coffee grinder winches while the officers kneel around and look important.  I free handed shields to match two of my infantry units.  The bolt shooters themselves would be more use against elephants or cataphracts than against unarmored Celts, but do give a longer range and with some punching power.

Exculcatores Iunores Britanniciani

Legio Secunda Britannica

I also found six members of my first ever 25mm ancients unit.  Greek slingers for my Spartan army of Agesilaus II in Asia Minor.  Slingers are Ral Partha, the flautist is a Minifig. They were painted 42 years ago but have seen action on table in the last 10 years.

Points wise I make it 

• two crew served weapons @10=20
• 4 foot figures @5=20
• 1 theme lot @20
• Total =60 points

The non-theme points will go against the SPQR and Carausius Emperor of Britain side duels.

_______________________________

It's good to have you back with the Challenge, Peter, and now on the points roster too! 

Great work on these Late Romans and a nice walk down memory lane with the Greek slingers (Stacy would be proud). I remember seeing the artillery in one of your preparatory photos, so it's nice to see them in all their painted glory, ready to pin the enemies of Rome like wayward lab specimens. Also, very nice work on the painted shields. All those radiating lines and wings can prove to be tricky brushwork, so well done with that. 

Now my friend, gird your loins for your minionship this Monday. You have a rough and tumble mob to manage. ;P

- Curt