From RobH - Numidian Field Force - War Elephants (100 Points)

 I have been ill the last two weeks and haven't done a whole lot other than a lot of napping. This weekend I spent about 4 hours to apply the decals to my Victrix War Elephants. I would have sworn I had ordered two packs of Little Big Man Numidian Elephant transfers, but it looks like I have one Numidian and one Carthaginian. In any case the elephants are ready and the Carthaginian Elephants are obviously plunder.

My first elephant took the longest and I learnt from my errors. Somewhere along the line I lost one of the little corner square decals and caused a dogeared effect on one of the hawdah's side panels. Live and learn. Two much detail for my thick and clumsy fingers, which at times are all thumbs.

Two Victrix War Elephants with crew - Numidian Decals

Two Victrix War Elephants with crew - Carthaginian Decals

Points

12 x 28 mm crewmen @ 5 points each = 60 Points

4 x 28 War Elephants - At the discretion of Minion Miles - I started painting the elephants and the trim on the howdahs pre - AHPC, but hit a brick wall and didn't advance on the project until this weekend when I completed basing and decaling. I hope that the time spent may be worth some points.

Great looking Heffalumps Rob! I really like what I've seen of these Victrix ancient kits.  I flat out do not have the patience for 4 hours torture with transfers however nice the end effect is, and yours look very nice.  Once I figure the SSOD out I'll adjust your score to include the Elephants on the bait of "Miles said it was ok".  

I wasn't sure if Elephants count as a vehicle or a mount.  In the end, I went with 10 points per Pachyderm in the full knowledge that someone will correct me and point out the error of my ways.

From BenitoV: Dark Age Warband... and back to the 80's (67 points)

Two new set of entries this week. Firstly, a new unit of warriors suitable for almost any Saga warband of the Dark Age period. 

This project started as an Anglo-Danish warband for a campaign we played just before Christmas; but frankly speaking, these models can fit nicely in any other warband of the same period, Vikings, Saxon, whatever.

The models are from the Gripping Beast plastic Dark Age Warriors range, in this case just straight from the box, no conversions. The same models were used last week for my Late Roman army levies unit. The shields are transfers from Little Big Men Studio.

For my second entry, I walked my way to the past and visited the 80's studio, using for this purpose a model I found in the deepest layer of my lead pile.

 

Saruman and a glittering ball, not for the NY Studio 54 but for Middle Earth's Isengard. The Palantir was the predecessor of the mobile phone, alas heavier and with less mobility from what I saw in The Two Towers film.  The scene represents Saruman in the act of conjuring Sauron and I'm quite happy with the painting work of the eye in the Palantir (in this case, very much inspired in the Peter Jackson's films).

 

 

The model belongs to the older Middle Earth/Mithril range of models (produced when Peter Jackson was a very young man) and I found it at home packed in the original blister, after close to 40 years since buying it. I collected the whole Fellowship of the Ring at that time to be used with the LoTR RPG game; unfortunately the project never took off, as my gaming group's interests shifted to Warhammer Fantasy Battles.

I estimate 67 points for this entry, including  a couple of points (?) for the Palantir:

8 x 28mm warband models @5 points = 40 points

1 x 28mm Saruman @ 5 points  + 2 points for the Palantir = 7

Bonus 1980s Studio = 20 points

Subtotal = 67 points  

Nice generic dark age warriors and that's a great old school Saruman! With four Green zone studios under your belt, will you now be moving into the Blue zone? Straight to Superheroes or will you hop along the yellow-brick road or take a limo ride?

Tamsin

From BenitoV: Late Roman Levy Unit (60 points)

In the nick of time, I could finish on Monday evening my next unit for Saga: a bunch of conscripted levies for a Late Roman Warband (in progress).

 

I wanted to paint a unit  dressed with some uniformity but not too much. Facing different options, I finally discarded  the Gripping Beast's "official" Late Roman Infantry box and instead I used bodies and javelin arms from the Dark Age Warriors box, and spare heads with helmets from other boxes (Goth Cavalry, Saxon Thengs, etc)

 

Some of the unit members wear a the Late Roman army tunic (greyish white with red ornaments) but others had to use their own clothes (either because of running out of Roman tunic stocks or being only lately "recruited").

 

The shields are Little Big Men transfers. I opted to give the unit a common theme as a way to increase the appearance of semi-regular troops.        

This unit is another example of the flexibility and optionality offered by the Gripping Beast Dark Age plastic boxes.

This unit has 12 minis in 28mm, representing 60 points to be added to my Challenge score.  

I also score 1 point for the Squirrel Duel

Excellent work as always, Benito! Good idea to mix and match bits from different box sets to get a non-uniform look.

Tamsin

From DarrellH: Thematic Byzantine, Heavy Tagmata Kavallarioi (130 points)

Thematic Byzantines? They have been in my dreams for years; to put together a Nikephorian/Macedonian Dynasty Byzantine Army. The why of it all etc will become apparent as the story expressed bu my expeditious hand and brushwork become more apparent down the line. Suffice to say, for now, that it goes back to the early 2000's and the games of Warhammer Ancient Battles we used to play with faithful devotion every week at SESWC, Edinburgh Wargames Club. It was Andrew Eason's Thematic Byzantine army that drew my eye then and ever since, I have craved such an army. Gripping Beast's Black Friday sale made this urge a irresistible opportunity!

Here we have what will be the first of four units of Thematic Byzantine, Heavy Tagmata Kavallarioi. Two with barding and two without so I can move with some flexibility through the centuries whilst maintaining a high degree of historical accuracy (approx. 800-1050 CE).

As many of you may know, the Tagmata regiments were full time well trained professional regiments of soldiers formed by Emperor Constantine V as early as 741-743 CE. The idea being to have troops who were extremely loyal to the Emperor at hand to face any of the many revolts that took place with alarming regularity.

I have painted these guys in in speculative colours; both the clothing and some parts of the armours.  Their mounts are barded with lamellar, made of horn or iron. I chose to go with a red and creamy white with the bards and to vary the patterns on each model so's to create a degree of uniformity (these being Tagmata troops) whilst not being too prescriptive. Half way through rendering the horses in the colour scheme I had that uncomfortable feeling that I was a little over the top but seeing them cavalrymen on their mounts eventually waylaid any concerns I was having.

Whilst the army was bought largely for historical and aesthetic reasons I do plan to take part in a friendly WAB tournament sometime early this year. 

Painting all the banners and shields would only have resulted in a much reduced army but the time the AHPC is over so I opted to do both the shield designs and the banners with superb Little Big Man Transfers. I added an extra banner in the event that I might been to add an "Army standard" or something of that nature in the future.

#

This back view of the unit provides a really nice impression of the Klivanion (Lamellar armour) atop of the mail which in turn is atop of an Epilorikion (padded under armour). Each soldier carries a 2.7 meter Kontarion with the exception of the four archers in the back ranks who are equipped with recurved composite bows and archers equipment.

The officer has made the decision for forgo wearing his Pektorarion (sash) but wields his Sideroravdion (Heavy Mace) as the unit canters home. 

Piccies of each mini for more details- all images should be "clickable".

So, 12 Cavalry models at 10 points a piece should earn me 120pts?

Darrell was a late poster last Monday, so I thought that I'd lead with him today. 

The Heavy Kavallarioi are offing amazing Darrell, I really like the red/cream theme colours that you've selected, very effective and quite eye catching.  Also your basing and sabot are wonderful.  I think that we can all be glad that you've succumbed to the solving this Byzantine enigma.

I am upping your score for all the horse trapping and fiddly bits on the armour.