A Festive Bonus - a dozen Gladiators!

 Yes, the interminable ADLG 28mm Republican Roman army project has now hit a Christmas milestone, with one of the novelty items in the army list hitting the interweb in the shape of these dozen Gladiators.

They are all from the Crusader Minis range, which I think do a very good job of staying stylistically in keeping with the mostly-Foundry Legionaries I've posted previously, but at a much lower price point of £7 for 4 instead of £14 for 6! 

They were done surprisingly quickly, with the non-metallics being mostly Contrast paints - however on these figures the non-metallic parts are rather smaller than the metal-clad bits!

I also did almost all of the shield patterns myself, the exception being the chap at the back who uses a spare Crusader Roman Cavalry transfer from LBMS - unsurprisingly the shield was an exact size match for the CRusader cavalry shields ! 

The flesh is my now-standard layering of white base, Darkoath Flesh contrast then Vallejo Dark Flesh real paint, whereas all the matallics are black undeercoat and a drybrush of metallic.

  

I was particularly pleased with how this laurel wreath shield came out - it's a white base coat, GW Contrast Blood Angels Red (which does leave a bit more texture on the shield than a straight normal paint coat woudl do), then the laurel was initially picked out as a series of white blob over which I then painted GW Contrast Mantis Warrior Green. 

 

Very chuffed with the musculature of the guy front left as you look at this base of figures. The casting really helped show where to paint, and the Darkoath Flesh layer then gives you even clearer guidance as well.

The yellow on their loincloths is Yanden Yellow Contrast. 

The blue shield pattern is hand painted too (OK, this is a bit half-hearted compared to transfers, but...), but the notable thing about this is that the yellow bits are painted in a single layer straight onto (wider) black lines, using the new Warlord Games Fanatic paints - Demonic Yellow in this case. 

This is the first yellow paint I think I've ever owned that had enough coverage to give this density of colour on top of black, straight out of the dropper bottle - highly recommended.

The same technique and paint was used on this red shield too. 

Talassar Blue is the loincloth colour here.

And, here are the set, ready to accompany the Roman army into battle, and you to the dinner table for some turkey and stuffing!

And here's an AI-generated video of the guys being animated and aggressive!

 

It's New Year.. but he's still Spartacus..!

With the dawn of 2024 still fresh, it's time to wheel out an army that I picked up way back in 2019 (pre pandemic!), and only got around to painting at the start of last year - and which first took to the tabletop at the very end of 2023, at the 3rd Devonian Classic competition in always-sunny Brixham.

Yes, this is Spartacus! is now appearing on your small (ish) screen in full polychrom cinematic glory (OK, they are almost all painted in Contrasts..) in 5 battle reports where the Slave Revolt struggles for freedom against the oppressive hegemonoies of the Greek City States (twice), the overweening imperialist ambitions of Alexander The Great, the Eastern Empire of the Comfy Kushans, and the Francophonic stylings of the Gauls. 

There is oodles of  additional irrelevant content shoehorned into these 5 reports, including some dubious "facts" about Spartacus' links to Torbay,and some very strange AI-generated images of poorly armed kitchen workers and gardeners leading the charge against oppression

There is also loads of commentary and analysis from all of the usual suspects, including of course the final word in critique from Hannibal, and an array of non-sequitur captions which occasionally veer into philosophical musings on whether rodent-scat-based segregation criteria are good for military discipline and morale. 

Go on, let this happy chap brighten up your hangover this New Year's Day with his tales of derring-do and liberation from oppression and servitide achieved through the aggressive deployment of kitchen equipment in a hitherto unforseen combat context in these 5 Madaxeman battle reports! 

    

Totally Unarmed Slaves!

 OK, so you probably remember the Spartacus army that I finished earlier this year?

Well, actually it turns out that it wasn't entirely "finished" after all.

The L'Art de la Guerre Slave Revolt army list has an option for a couple of Mediocre Levy - totally unarmed, totally combat-ineffective bodies of peasants who just provide a smidgeon of moral support through their sheer mass. 

(And, at only 2 points each, they can help spend any left-over points up to the standard 200 point army limit in a list where everything else has a minimum cost of 4!).

So, having forgotten this when I based up the full army I ended up buying a couple of packs of Xyston Civilians from Donnington, and also some of Donningtons own new-casting Classical Civilians as well - and here they are:

OK - so I have 4 bases worth, not two. 

Well, I wanted some variety of figures, and it seemed a waste to only order 2 packs when there's minimum postage .. so, it sort of happened that I made up 4 bases worth. I guess that means they can look forward to being a hostage screen for the Timurids someday as well?

The Xyston and Donnington packs were surprisingly compatible - I'd been concerned they might be different in height or stature, but they actually integrate really well together with the Xyston folks having a lot of "women and children" and Donnington having some almost Senatorial Romans in togas.

As with the rest of the army these bases were a slap-chop + Contrast Paint project, in which the main challenge was to not go too crazy and upmarket on the colours of their clothing whilst still trying to make the figure's arms and faces stand out from what could easily be some very "beige" clothing options suitable for their low social status. 

All in all I'm very pleased with them - however if they ever end up featuring in a battle report you'll know something has gone badly wrong on the tabletop for the rest of the (fighting components of the) Spartacus army! 

The Army of Spartacus in 15mm

 A few years ago (2019 to be exact) I won an unpainted army in a raffle at the L'Art de la Guerre Worlds in Rome. The figures were from Italian manufacturer Strategia Nova, and the prize was actually an Arab army, however as I have Arab figures in abundance I asked the guy who'd provided them if I could swap for a different army. 

And, of the ones he had, the Slave Revolt army of Spartacus looked like the best bet!

I've now finally finished painting the army (almost 4 years later!), and have uploaded them all to my website in their full Cinemascope glory, complete with an added YouTube video so you can watch the pictures that are already on my website flash past you in a matter of minutes as well. 

Some highlights are:

Basing underway

The Slaves

The better armed slaves 

Slaves in captured Roman equipment 

Spartacus leading his Gladiators

Big Spartacus 

More poorly armed rebelllious slaves

The Work in Progress.

You can see more shots of the finished and part-painted army on my website via that link, or watch a YouTube video of them too.