Making Things to Make Things

Some folks get so caught up in building jigs that they never end up building the things they intended to make with the jig.  I think this is an unfortunate position to be in: halfway between making tools, and gaining the skills appropriate to work on the project you want to finish.  Although I don’t like building jigs for their own sake, many improvised tools are extremely useful to the project at hand and well worth the effort.

For example, I built this rack to hold plastic miniatures on their sprues while I’m painting them.  I’ve only used it for a few days and it has already saved me more time than it took to build.

The first version used a coat hanger instead of a wooden frame, and the whole thing wobbled so much it dumped my figures on the ground.  With this one I can pick it up by the top portion, and it’s well balanced and sturdy enough to carry between the attic to the porch for spraying primer and varnish.

The figures here are from my latest project: Games Workshop’s Battle of the Five Armies boxed game. It’s based on the excellent Warmaster rules (also by GW), and comes with a metric pantload of plastic 10mm figures.

Pictured on the rack here are the 4 units of goblin wolf riders, and 4 units of wolves.  I like painting wolves and they go really quickly for me, so I did these first.  This represents just under 1/3 of the sprues in the game, but I am guessing considerably less than 1/3 of the total time to complete painting it all.  That said, the paining went more quickly than I expected on the goblins, so I have hope I’ll be able to finish all the miniatures without going insane.

This signals a shift away from DBA painting for a bit, hopefully at least until the BoFA armies are finished.  I may sneak in a few elephants and rough going terrain pieces for variety.  I expect I’ll eventually get back to 15mm historicals to paint DBA armies for Mongol Conquest, more Chinese, and more Alexandrian Macedonians.

DBA Army II/4: Warring States Chinese

At the same time I bought the Mountain Indian DBA army from Museum Miniatures, I also got a pack for II/4a, Warring States: Ch’in Chinese. 

The Ch’in or Qin dynasty was formed in the latter part of the 3rd century BC. The first (and only) Ch’in emperor, Qin Shi Huang, is famous for completing the first version of the Great Wall of China, standardizing the written Chinese language, and for his excessive but very archaeologically useful burial of over 8000 life sized terra cotta warriors. 

The period of civil war that led to the Ch’in Dynasty was called the Warring States period for obvious reasons.  When the emperor died in 210BC, China fell back into civil war for a shorter period, and the Han dynasty emerged. 

In a later order to Museum, when I was ordering some Mongols, I threw in a DBA army pack of II/4c: Chao, since I was ordering overseas (and they were on sale). The biggest difference between the armies is that II/4a has 4x4Wb, and II/4c has 4x4Sp.  Ch’in soldiers are classified as warbands because they were particularly brutal on the battlefield, due to the fact that they were rewarded based on the number of enemy heads they collected during battle.

For some reason, both packs came with the same spear figures for the 4Wb and 4Sp units.  Since they are enemies of each other and have few other enemies, I think this would be very consfusing in a matched pair game.  So, although I started painting II/4a, I finished painting II/4c until I get some halebard figures to use as warband.

Unforuntately, Museum has a limited selection of Chinese figures.  I’d like to see a sword carrying figure other than the general, to build a proper blade unit for some of the warring state armies. The figures seem very well suited to the Ch’in chinese, but Museum uses the same figures for everything from 1100BC to 189AD, which is pushing it a bit.

I am extremely happy with the way this army turned out!  I think it’s one of the prettier armies I’ve painted.  Some of the faces on the spear and cavalry elements are a bit muddy, but overall the colors came out clean, it pained up quickly, and it looks great.

When my halebards come, I’ll paint them up, and I’ll have enough elements to field either II/4a or 4c, and probably a few other Warring State armies.  I also ordered enough supplemental figures to field a double II/4c, or Han Chinese using the same figures.

To paint the light blue and light green, I used a very light blue/green base coat, and mixed a wash of darker blue/green paint.  The wash is approximately 1/3 acrylic paint, 1/3 water, and 1/3 gloss varnish (Delta Ceramcoat brand, water based craft varnish).  I test for flow and coverage on my palette or an old figure, and adjust the water and varnish proportions until it flows the way I like it.  When it’s working, it does a good job of filling in the low spots while leaving the high spots lighter.  In the end it only requires a bit of touchup on the highlights and it’s good to go.

I’m not as fond of painting chariots.  Thes turned out well, especialy the red parts, but it’s not my favorite.  I used more different hair color patterns on the horses, which also turned out fairly well.  But the crossbowmen, spearmen, and archers were my favorite to paint here despite their very uniform appearance.

This army just collected its first win, in a solo match versus my Skythians.  I really like the balance of elements in the Chao army, but I was really hoping I’d learn something about how not to lose with the Skythians, since Battle at the Crossroads is coming up next weekend.

Last of the Later Achaemenid Persians?

Well, probably not the last, but I painted some more, anyway. 

To finish off my DBA Later Achaemenid Persian triple army, I chose multipurpose figures.  Based on the DBM army lists, I chose Cretan archers for the 2Ps elements, which are also allowed in Alexandrian armies, and Paphlagonian light horse for the 2LH elements.  These are Magister Militum Cretan Archer figures and Paphlagonian Light Horse. 

 I also needed to finish one more LCh or 3Cv element, and since I already have 7 3Cv elements I settled on a chariot.  I know chariots were basically unused at this point, except to help Darius III flee the battlefield more quickly, but they do look good.

The chariot is a bit of a mashup.  The chariot and driver are from Magister Militum, but the chariot was originally scythed.  The Magister Militum 2-horse chariot seemed even more out of place for a Persian army.  The horses are from an Essex scythed chariot that will certainly not fit 4 horses across on a 40mm base.  The archer is another Skythian from my Falcon army pack, painted to look pretty much just like a Persian.

This finishes the figures I need in order to field a triple Persian army.  However, I’ll likely paint a few more eventually.  I’d like to build a 3Ax general and a few Scythed Chariots.  I’ll also paint more Hoplites, because no one can ever have too many of those (if they have any at all), and I’d rather not use Spartans as my Hoplite mercenaries.

Skythian Camp

It has become apparent that in order to prevent being ridiculed while playing DBA in public (mostly kidding), I needed to paint a separate element of Camp Followers instead of modelling camp follower figures directly on my camps.  I also didn’t have a very appropriate camp for my Skythians, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone.

This is a generic camp model, though I chose a cart based on suggestions in the Osprey Skythian book that they used a ring of carts/wagons at their camp.

The base is 80 x 40mm plywood with a sticky magnet on it.  On top there’s an Essex cart, and a fire and supplies from a Museum Miniatures camp pack.  I added a 20 x 40mm section of sticky magnet to hold the camp followers down.

Sticky magnets are excellent. I’ve found they’re cheapest when you buy them in the form of business card magnets.

The camp followers could double as a Psiloi element in a pinch.  All Skythians had bows and knew how to use them, but they’re nomadic.  So I decided archers would be more appropriate than civilians with farm implements.  These archers are more Falcon miniatures left over from my army pack.

Essex Elephant: MEPA23

The next elephants in my series of elephant pictures are these Essex miniatures 15mm elephants, MEPA23: Elephant with driver and pikeman.

As with the other Essex elephants I’ve shown, the castings are 3 parts: two body halves and one head. Thes are unarmored elephants for use by the Alexandrian Imperial army and early Alexandrian successor armies. They have a single phalangite with a pike as well as the driver, carrying what looks a lot like a brain spike (emergency brake).

I installed the driver in the wrong place, as far as I know. I think he should be up further on the elephant’s neck, as on the rest of my elephants.

I decided to face the pikeman rearward, based on an article I read in Slingshot issue 260: Elephants and Things, by David Edwards. His conclusions were based on logic, not on historical evidence. He concluded that the only way a pikeman with a 20′ long pike could protect both sides of the elephant without decapitating the driver or knocking him down is if he were facing rearward. The elephant can take care of its own front just fine, thanks. Later, with large crenellated howdahs, riders could stand and move around more easily, but probably still wouldn’t bother lifting the pike over the elephant instead of swinging it around the rear.

Museum Miniatures Elephant: IE10/IE15

This elephant came as a part of a DBA army pack, and was labelled as a Museum Miniatures 15mm elephant IE15: C In C On Elephant Elephant/Howdah/Crew Umbrella. However, it looks identical to the image on the Museum Miniatures site of IE10: Indian Elephant Howdah Mahout, Archer Javelin.

It did come with the top part of an umbrella, but there was no obvious place to mount it, so I left it off. The crew is the same as on the IE10: a driver; a kneeling archer, identical to a ground archer; and a kneeling, thrusting spearman.

If I remember correctly, the elephant itself is a single part casting. It isn’t as tall as the Essex elephants, but it’s longer front-to-back. The howdah is a separate part, and the crew are also separate. There’s no blanket or any other covering under the howdah.

These are nice looking castings with a good skin texture that is easy to paint. The pose is very animated and a lot less lethargic looking than the Essex selections, but the elephant doesn’t look very warlike.

Here’s an image comparing the Museum elephant, on the left, with an Essex MEPA23 on the right.


Update: Edited to change “IE16” to “IE15” after I looked at the actual bag it came in…

Essex Elephant: MOGE23

The second elephant in my series of elephant miniature pictures is the Essex Miniatures 15mm elephant MOGE23: Armoured elephant, driver & four javelinmen. It’s an Indian elephant with Indian soldiers helping it along.

Again, the elephant does not fit 4 javelinmen comfortably, so I added only 2. The driver is the same as with the MOGE19 elephant, and all 4 javelinmen are identical.

As with all the Essex elephants I’ve assembled so far, this is a three piece casting: two body halves and one head.

When I saw this one unpainted, I thought “what the heck is that armor supposed to be?”

After a bit of Googling, I found pictures of elephant armor that seems to match the Essex miniature. The actual suit of armor is on display at the Royal Armoury Museum in Leeds, UK. I can’t seem to embed remote pictures very well, so I’ll include links, instead.

Flickr user Gidzy posted a good picture of the armor from above the rear quarter.
About.com has a composite picture with close-up details of the construction.

The armor has areas of metal scales and decorative plates, connected by mail. It is exceedingly detailed compared to the huge scale of the animal, but most of the detail is lost on the 15mm figure. The circles I painted gold on the miniature seem to correspond to larger metal plates decorated with a raised images of elephants and other animals and decorations. The Essex figure had no obvious tie-downs on the side of the elephant, so I painted the fringe and rear ties red instead.

It’s worth noting that the real elephant also doesn’t seem to have room for 4 seated archers as well as the driver!

Essex Elephant: MOGE19

Essex Miniatures does not publish images of their elephant models in their catalog. This makes purchasing elephants difficult since you can’t see what you’re getting before you have it. I have decided to post pictures and descriptions of all of the elephant models I have, to help others make informed purchasing decisions.

This is the Essex Miniatures 15mm elephant MOGE19: Unarmoured elephant, driver & four archers.

The back of the elephant obviously doesn’t fit 4 archers along with the driver, so I only painted three archers and the driver. When I went to install the archers on the elephant, I couldn’t find a good position for 3 passengers that didn’t look like they were falling off, so I only included two out of the four archers here. All four castings were identical.

The elephant itself comes in 3 pieces: two halves of the body, slightly hollow, and the head. The pieces don’t fit perfectly, and require some sanding and gap filling to get a good fit. I used epoxy to hold the elephant together, and pinned the archers in place (but not the driver).

The elephant skin is nicely textured, and lends itself to dry brushing. However, the large two-layer blanket has no surface detail, and really begs to be painted. I’m not very good at flat work, but did what I could to spice it up a bit.

DBA Army III/10c: Hindu Indian

Here is my latest DBA army: Medieval Hindu Indians “other,” army III/10c. The figures are from an Essex DBA v1 army pack, and did not include the Artillery element that is optional in the DBA v2 army list.

The army consists of 1 Elephant General (I choose the one with the red blanket), 2 Elephants, 2 Cavalry, 1 Blade, 4 Bows, and 2 Psiloi. The Artillery, if I had it, would replace one of the elephants. I have a bombard I could paint up for this army, but no appropriate crew yet.

I plan to write more about the individual Essex Elphant models soon, since I have had a horrible time finding any useful information about what they look like and how they should be painted. For now, let’s just say: these things are tanks! The two on the right are very heavily armored except for their legs.

I tried to find information online about how the Medieval Hindu Indians should be painted, but I didn’t find anything other than other peoples’ paint jobs, and indications that they were also guessing. Off white is always a reasonable choice, or red if you need some color, since it seems to be one of the most commonly available dyes. The cavalry are the only elements that have much color (other than the elephant). I chose primarily red, with green barding and some blue shirts.

The lances held by the left element here were molded on, so I left them until they break off. On the right, I used Xyston wire spears instead, since they had to be glued in place anyway.

The infantry are easy: off-white butt wraps and head wraps, with red shields. I don’t even know if these figures are appropriate for medieval era Indians; I’d expect them to be wearing a bit more armor or maybe a robe. On the upside, these guys will give me a head start on Classical Indians, and they’re compatible with the Mountain Indian figures I’ve already painted.

Was my most recently painted full DBA army Mountain Indians? It seems odd, I feel like I painted something else in between… I guess that was my 10 other DBA elements for the Persians.

Have I actually played a game of DBA since I painted the Mountain Indians? Well. Maybe 2 games, I guess… but I haven’t played with the Mountain Indians yet.

Game report: Uncharted Seas, 2…

…In which our heroes remember the importance of reading the rules ahead of time.

Frank and I played Uncharted Seas again on Saturday. We didn’t get to the “setting up and remembering how to play” stage until 10pm or so, and then we had to find the rules for all the new models we’re using.

We were playing almost 1000 points per side. My Dragon Lord fleet consisted of 2 battleships, a squadron of 3 cruisers, a squadron of 3 heavy cruisers, a dragon carrier, and 2 squadrons of 3 frigates each. Frank’s Dwarves had a battleship, a flagship, two squadrons of 3 carriers, a squadron of 2 heavy carriers, and two squadrons of 3 frigates.

The scenario was a simple “line them up and knock them down” setup since we’re still figuring out how to play well. The game ended up lasting about 3 or 4 turns, which is to say, until we stopped at 2am.

When we called time, I had basically lost: I lost all of my cruisers, all but one frigate, and one wing of 3 dragons from the carrier. My carrier was damaged, but my other models weren’t. Frank had damage on many of his models, making them less useful, but only lost a few carriers and a few frigates.

I learned several things not to do, but I’m not sure what I should do instead!

Dragon Lords are fast and have good long range firing, but don’t have good armor or short range guns. Dwarves have heavier armor and much better short range guns. They’re also better at firing forward instead of broadsides.

This presented several difficulties. First of all, my fast frigates were really easy to get too far ahead, where they were stuck out by themselves and got into trouble. Once they were there, they got in the way and acted as a screen, preventing my cruisers from firing through them… until they were crushed. The frigates can only shoot at short range, but once they get that close they’re hosed by the Dwarves.

The other problem Dragon Lords have is difficulty bringing all its guns to bear. To stay at long range, you need to sail around the edges of the table and shoot towards the middle. But if you do that, you’ll only ever get one broadside and possibly minimal front arc shooting. But if you close to get both broadsides into combat, the Dwarves crush you in close shooting.

So maybe I need to use the Frigates as a screen in a more conscious way, or possibly as bait to send the enemy where I’d prefer them to be.

A few problems with the rules are showing their head as well. Maybe it’s just a lack of tactical skill, but I’ve seen this in many miniatures games. When there are both weak and powerful units on the board, the weak ones all tend to get killed off quickly, leaving a duel between a few large units. With large ships being harder to hit by small ones, but killing the small ones much more easily, an equal number of points of small and large ships aren’t really balanced because the small ones can hardly touch the large ones.

The other problem I have with the rules is the specific implementation and maintenance they’re doing with the actual rule book. Spartan Games sells their rule book, but they release rules for new models online instead of selling them. They also make rules corrections and additions available online for free. This is good!

The problem is, these rules additions are spread aross many files and it’s a big pain in the butt to actually use them, especially in combination with the rulebook, which is not available online. The best case scenario would be One Big File of “everything else” you need except the rulebook.

The reality is much worse. To figure out how to handle the Dragon Carrier, I needed to consult 4 different files: the stat card, front; stat card, back; Nogdra Dragon rules; and Flying rules.

Using these separate files makes it easier for Spartan to release a single update, but it makes the rules nearly unusable because you’re not sure which files you need until a question comes up.

I also don’t like the revision control they have on thier rules. They call the files things like “Flying rules- final.” Well, what happens when you change the final rules? Nothing is ever final, but they don’t have any room for new version numbers.

Overall I’m happy and I’d still play the game again, but maybe not 1000 point battles until we’re more familiar with the rules.