Anne Boleyn, Work in Progress 1

November has been very busy for work reasons, and it looks as though it's going to stay that way for the foreseeable.  I haven't done as much painting as I would have liked, but I have unpacked the Airfix 1/12 scale Anne Boleyn and basecoated with Testor's Dullcote:

Not too many pieces, and some of the details are going to be quite challenging.  I learned from experience with Beth's Stuka that relatively large expanses of Airfix plastic don't always take acrylics very well, which is why I used Dullcote.

The box is the original 70s item...

...complete with original sheet of instructions.  And just to prove how old it is:

A small advertisement that was still in the box.  This poorer quality paper hasn't lasted quite so well!

Slingers

Your average manky, scuddy scum slingers, made up from the Wargames Factory Numidian infantry set:

They might be scum, but they're our scum!  I'll use these as psiloi at Plataea.  They'll do for just about any scruffy slingers in most periods anyway...

Welcome to Remco

I've just noticed that Remco from the East Netherlands has joined, so I've reciprocated at his blog here.  He has the hard to find Asterix miniatures set, do go and have a look.  I first saw these over twenty years ago, and I should have bought them then.

Empire: Campaign win for Carthage

Or, I lost again and I don't care.  It's about time the Carthaginians finally conquered Iberia; I think this is their fourth try.  I set up the defending forces of freedom against Punic aggression.  The game basically came down to which side would turn the enemy's infantry line first, with some added spice thrown in by the presence of Celtiberian mercenaries in both armies.  Unfortunately for us, those fighting for Carthage fought well, while ours didn't.

Above, you can see in the foreground the forces on our left, me in charge.  A powerful mix of cavalry  and Caetrati to the left of our Celtiberian foot.  I have more force than the enemy (Gordon).

The infantry centres of the two armies.  Ours is composed of Scutarii at the bottom of the photo (my old Minifigs Romans standing duty).  Theirs is a mixed bag of Celtiberians, Scutarii, Libyan spearmen and a small unit of elite African heavy spears.

The third photo shows the enemy overlap on our right.  There is a piece of rough ground just off the photo to the right, which is infested with more of our Caetrati.  Beyond them we have some light cavalry.

Both armies lead with their left, trying to swing round onto the enemy infantry before the same is done unto them.

We leave one unit of Scutarii to old the high ground as a flank guard for the rest of the line.  We'll see how long they last...

A side shot of the far side of the table from my position at our left.  David's massed Caetrati and light horse await the enemy (Bill).  However, they have enough force here to be able to mask the rough ground and send cavalry in at an angle toward our Scutarii.

The melee on our left.  I an trying to smash my way through here to help out against the enemy infantry.  

Just to the right of my cavalry, our Celtiberians attack.  Rather weakly, as they fail to make a proper impression on the steady spears of the opposition (i.e. no Impetus bonus).  To the right of the shot above you can see Scutarii fighting Scutarii.

The fight develops to the right of our infantry line.   Unlike ours, their Celtiberians go wild. The enemy commander (Billy) sends his cavalry to help; you can just see them arriving at the right hand side of the photo above.  This section of the field will be where it is all decided, and the Carthaginians want to make it swing their way as soon as possible.

The Carthaginian cavalry arrives and makes very little impression.

On our far right, David surges forward from the rough and starts to destroy everything in front of him.

Above: the whole infantry fight.

Above: David's success on our left.  But our centre collapses anyway and it's game over.

This game was always going to be a fifty-fifty fight, and I always lose those.  I used to have role-playing character called Avrin, who was a sneak thief.  He was rubbish and failed most things while his scores were below fifty per cent.  He survived somehow, and when his important abilities got to sixty per cent he never failed anything.  he became a Master thief.  Ever since then, I've had the superstition that a fifty-fifty is an automatic fail for me, while anything better isn't.  I know it's not true; it just feels that way...

Anyway, next up is the Romans in Sicily again.  If they finally take it, we are replaying history and shaping up for the arrival of Hannibal soon.

Hello to Henryk Nowacki and RazorOne223

Or should that be czesc? (Sorry about the characters - can't seem to get those right!) Henryk is an artist amongst other things; his blog is here and has an incredible line drawing of a Japanese castle at the moment.  RazorOne has some lovely Napoleonics up just now.  Sorry for not welcoming you both sooner than this; Blogger told me I had a couple of new followers, but didn't show the icons until recently.  Now that I've clicked on them, I've returned the favour by following yours in return.  Hope you don't mind!

Ptolemy marches on

On Tuesday we played the latest in our Empire campaign games.  I set up a defending Antigonid army in expectation of Ptolemy's successful thrust northwards.  Needless to say, I got hammered.  Wiped out.  Stuffed.  I lost...

Ptolemy's phalanx advances remorselessly.

David performed well to our right.

The final photo shows our centre going crunch.

I ran the left and David the right; we shared the centre.  My dice were appalling, and Gordon opposite me was the opposite.  We were simply steamrollered.  I'm glad I got that luck out of the way...

Anyway, next up is another Carthaginian attempt to take Iberia.

On the painting tray: November 2011

This month I shall be mostly:

• finishing a dozen slingers
• reworking 24 Spartans Willie gave me.  This means I will have four full units of Spartiates and Perioikoi for Plataea
• and, believe it or not, Anne Boleyn.

Explanation of the last item: I want to paint something for a friend of mine who happens to have a Renaissance interest.  A very long time ago I painted several of the more unusual items Airfix produced: some kits of birds and also some 1/12 scale people from history.  An English company called Kit Krazy is a good source for out of production kits of all kinds, and I bought an original Anne Boleyn model from them, still in the 1970s box and all.  This is a bit of a departure for me now, but I am looking forward to it.  I might even do a series of Work in Progress posts.  I'm just wondering if my 25mm painting skills are up to it.  Not to mention my ham fisted glue fingers...