Siege Machines WIP

This weekend I had planned to build more urban terrain for use in modern era games. Instead I was sidetracked by the very nice Zvezda Siege Machine sets that I had been slowly stockpiling over the last couple of years.

A stockpile of siege equipment.

 The models come from the two  Zvezda sets that are reviewed at PSR here and here. Some of these models were included in a couple of the Zvezda Age of Battles games that pitched Russians in a wooden fortress against Mongols with Siege engines. These games included both sets of siege machines, so I have a combination of 3 lots of set 1, and 2 of set 2. I haven't included the cauldron for boiling oil, as intend to include them if I do a post on the collection of castles I have acquired over the years.

Hollywood style catapults.

I have included in all the photos one of the figures included in the games, a Russian knight from the set reviewed here at PSR. This hopefully gives a good sense of how big these machines are - especially the onagers and the ballistae! I have seen some of these models used with 25/28mm figures, so I wonder if they were designed to be compatible with the Zvezda 'Ring of Rule' series of figures.

Ballistae, based on the standard V&B artillery base.

The ballistae come with a choice of ammunition, a large bolt, or a round ball of presumably stone. I still have to decide on what figures to use as crew. Ideally I would be able to have a generic ancients type who could also pass as a medieval figure! So I need figures that could span roughly two thousand years... or I could permanently assign them to a given army/period:)

 

Battering Rams with knight for scale.

Suspending the ram from from the ceiling of the wheeled gallery was not fun. I used wire and harsh language on the first one to achieve an indifferent result. On the other one I used a much smarter approach consisting of two main steps: Step 1, Read and follow the assembly instructions, Step 2, Ask my lovely wife to attach the battering ram using thread. Following those two simple steps made assembly of the second ram a breeze!

I also removed around 25mm off the length of the shaft. While I have been told the length of battering ram shaft of a should be in proportion to the weight of the ram's head so the center of gravity will be in a useful place, the original length looked out of proportion, and was going to make the ram difficult to store. So the reduction was made.

Mantlets, loads of mantlets.

Finally I assembled up eight additional mantlets to go with the three I had previously made. I'm not sure I should base these as not doing so will allow greater flexibility across gaming systems. Still having eleven will provide a useful quantity for any game.

Ancient Refurbishments.

Since I have had a degree of success in refurbishing Napoleonic, AWI, and WW2 figures, I decided to give refurbishing ancient figures a go. After all, brown wash is timeless!

One of many boxes of figures.

I obtained from Glenn a vast number of painted 1/72 scale figures - the vast bulk of them from various HaT sets. They were all based on sections of polystyrene. I have wondered if this was to either to protect the figures during gaming, or to make it easier for a child to use?

Figures were removed from the bases and sorted into groups. These are Hat Greek Mercenaries.

A mix of Persian Bow from Hat and Italeri.

I decided to base the figures using the same size stands I use for Volley and Bayonet. This is because I like the way numbers of 20mm figures look on stands of those size.

HaT Thracians, touched up and washed.

Refurbished Zvezda Greeks.

I've put two ranks of figures on a stand.  A Greek phalanx was commonly eight ranks deep.

Of course once I have sorted out these painted figures, I still have vast amounts of unpainted ancients figures to deal with.

HaT Macedonian Phalangites..
 I put this on the bigger base in order to get a better visual effect, and because they were generally sixteen ranks deep.

So far I have been viewing the basing of the figures as being experimental, while I figure out how to get the best visual effect from these figures. The idea is that I will also be able to use these as a teaching aid when teaching Classics. I am still toying with the idea of creating up some formations on a one to one scale.

Hat  Punic Elephants.

And finally some War Elephants. This doubles my holdings of War Elephants, and may spur me towards finishing painting up these ones that have been neglected in favour of other projects. Of course I may yet get more elephants in the meantime.

18th Century Teeth and Tail Round Up!

I'm been painting up some more bits and pieces for my AWI Volley and Bayonet forces - a project which is probably going to morph into something much larger no doubt - and have been attempting to finish items that are sitting on my work bench.

Some field works from an Italeri set.

An Airfix Hessian Jager Amusette - a view of the business end.

And the view from behind.

Currently these Jagers are amongst the very few stands of AWI Airfix that I have painted from bare plastic. (Click here for the previous post on these)So far I have been able to produce stands by refurbishing figures painted by others. On that note I would like to thank Geoff (via Glenn) for providing the figures for the below stand. All I needed to do was touch up the very nice existing paint job, wash them, and then base them. Easy!

Another stand of Airfix AWI for V&B!

The same stand, but from behind.

So that's the teeth part of the round up done, now on for the tail! First up I have a canoe from Nexus reissue of the Atlantic "Davy Crockett" set. (As always here is the link for the review from PSR). The set contains a number of very useful items for making up logistic and transport stands for both 18th and 19th century North American games.

A trapper in a small canoe.  I have another to paint up.

Another view of the canoe. This will be dwarfed by the big canoes from BUM.

 And of course I have more wagons. First up are an Airfix wagon that I got from Glenn. I replaced the team of small horses with two from the Revell Thirty Years War Artillery set. The second is a rather cart like wagon from one of the ranches in the Bum Wild West Town range. It has gained a driver from the Airfix Wagon set, and a horse from the French Artillery set.

Wagons? Or a wagon and a cart?

 I am also trying to make up my stockpile of Conestoga wagons before I start on my other wagons. The reason being that they are the most 18th century American wagon I have, and I figure I should make them up before I start on the others. So I finished the one I had started on here - and this time I managed to put the driver/rider in the correct place!

Another completed Conestoga Wagon., and the one I made previously....

Two more Conestoga await construction..... 

 And naturally, I have started another project before I have finished any of the others, but I have managed to have a cull of surplus items (look here for such items) - or use the shiney new tab at the top!

New stuff via Glenn - Alexander and some friends...

Of Catapults and God Kings

 Today's post is going to be largely pictures as I am feeling particularly lazy.

A box full of cool toys!

In my last post I mentioned that I had won the Horrible histories competition held over at Small Scale World.  The product review and competition has heaps more information and links about this range, and I would strongly encourage you to check it out.

This afternoon I received a package which contained a great deal of stuff. Awesome stuff. Stuff that lets you hurl rubber pigs about the place.

The Egyptian Starter Set.

The Roman Starter Set.

The back of the Egyptian box.

The back of the Roman box.

The four blind boosters - each one contains a historical hero to add to your  army.

Inside the box was two starter sets - one Roman, and one Egyptian, - and four blind booster packets.

Unwrapping a fiery Iceni Queen.

I got two Boudica figures from the boosters.

An unnamed Highwayman in the third.

And Blackbeard the pirate in the fourth.

The group shot.

Each of the starter sets contains a leader, a catapult, 3 rubber pigs, two soldier figures, two peasant figures,  three action cards and a copy of the rules. Also included was a spare rubber band for the catapult.

Inside the Roman set.

The cards - used in the advanced game.

The Roman cards.

Caesar and his starter force.

The pig hurler catapult. Loads of fun!

The back card of the Egyptian set.

Inside the Egyptian starter set.

The Egyptian cards..

The Egyptian catapult.

Pharaoh and his starter set.

Both sides get this nice  head spike rack and scoring system.

All the figures together!

Once again - Thank you to Hugh from Small Scale World for the competition - I have been having loads of fun firing rubber pigs around the place!

I do intend to play at least one game of the advanced rules, but the sheer joy of shooting stuff with rubber pigs cannot be underrated!

Elephants!

One of the projects that I have been working on for some time is building up Punic and Roman forces suitable for wargaming the Punic Wars, and also suitable for use as teaching aids. Hat has produced a range of figures which are perfect for this project, the only snag being that I have to base and paint them! The rules I am intending to use will be a homebrew set based on Frank Chadwick's Command Decision and his unpublished set of ancient rules. But for now some much better pictures...

Two of the six War Elephants from the Hat set.

While still a work in progress, I am quite happy with how they are turning out. According to what I have read on the matter it appears that there is some debate about the usage of towers on the backs of Punic Elephants. The available evidence doesn't seem to rule out towers, but doesn't rule them in either! Happily for me, this means I can keep the towers because I think they look cool!

A frontal view of the beasties!

I still have to base these fellows up before they can join a Punic Army. The shields on the towers are either going to be painted as polished bronze or have a suitable Punic insignia painted on. Choices for this insignia range from a crescent moon, a palm tree, or a horse standing in front of a palm tree. The symbol of the Brotherhood of Nod is also tempting.

The Elephant Storage System (ESS)

After the sheer number of earthquakes and aftershocks, decent storage has been a major issue. So I decided to make a custom ESS for all six elephants. The idea is to paint the outside of the box so that I can also use it as a terrain piece - A Punic elephant stables.