Newline 28mm Assyrians - the test batch

Lacking a 28mm Biblical army, I've been dithering about picking up an Assyrian army for some time now, on the basis that it is a decent list which I've used in 15mm with some degree of success, and more importantly that it's small, so hopefully not too expensive.

With multiple hoverings over the Foundry website failing to convince me I wanted the army enough to spend Foundry prices (£22 for a chariot! Ouch!), whilst browsing the traders at at the recent Attack! show in Devizes I stumbled across Newline Designs, who I'd mostly associated with 20mm ranges in the past but who also have a substantial range of 25/8mm figures as well.

They had a great value Assyrian Army pack (2 chariots, 9 Cavalry, 80-odd foot for about £75 from memory), with a special show offer of 20% off as well on the pack and any extras.. so a sub-£100 Assyrian Army was immediately bought!

So far I've only painted up a few figures just to see how they come out (the whole army will be a more production-line project), and I've also taken the "same army, different scales" principle to it's logical extreme by painting them up exactly the same as my 15mm Assyrians !

And here they are, next to the Museum 15mm Assyrians, and also some Foundry Commanders that I use in my 15mm army.

They are still a WiP project - I've not even done a full MF base of 6 infantry

The Newline figures come with figure-metal spears which I plan to replace with wire ones - like this guy. The sword is also from the bits box - all the Newline guys come with spears.

Here they are with the Museum 15mm figures

Same shield patterns - not too difficult to be honest...

The Armoured Slingers are over-supplied for ADLG armies in the Newline army pack, but the handful of spares will fill in as back rank figures in bigger units of Line Infantry

A generous three poses of bowmen - here's two of them.

This is the Newline chaps next to some Foundry Officers - a great match on size and body mass as well. The Newline guys look a bit shorter here, but their bases are lacking in magnabase so they are a little shorter due to that reason, not figure height.

Here are the Newline slingers and some more Foundry officers with equal height basing. A near perfect match - apart from on price!

Once the spears arrive I'll get cracking on the Assyrian production line - even these 28mm Chariots will end up with scaled-up versions of the same "wallpaper" I used on the earlier, smaller 15mm versions.

Saga - the return...

Having not played Saga in just over 2 years I wheeled out the Vikings (in a no Cross & Crescent allowed) event in Reading today - and demonstrated how important it is to practice, finishing with nul points out of 3 games.

Admittedly there were times when I didn't have the rub of the green - facing Jomsvikings and their movement-denying Wrath tricks in a scenario where you had to move your troops around to occupy table quarters, and then a previously unseen internet-only Anglo-Danish monstrosity which had three units of un-killable fully armoured Warriors who I had to try and cut through to Kill the Leader...  although forgetting I had the option to re-roll 29 dice in one attack also played a part!

Anyway, the mostly-Foundry figures got out of the foam padding and onto the table, so that bit was a success.

Here are some photos of the boys in action (click on any image to see the full size version)

25mm Late Romans still underway...

With Christmas just around the corner, here's some not particularly festive WIP shots of my Patrician Romans for ADLG in 25 (8?) mm.

They are a mix of the Gripping Beast plastics, some Old Glory mixed barbarians (that I think might be mostly Scots from a slightly later era, but seem to do OK as generic Gothic foot types) with a few Foundry and Footsore figures sprinkled in to make the variety greater.

 Romans prepare to take on the (as yet un-Army-Paintered) barbarian hordes

12 units of barbarians.... let;s hope the Romans are Elite!

Auxilia, with obligatory LBMS shield transfers

The man holding up the shield is one of the "far too many in the pack" Gripping Beast archers, but converted to hold his shield up to cover his colleague from archery

Some of the "far too many" archers acting as, well, archers. I went away from the textbook red colour scheme to make them more exotic.

Still awaiting Testors Dullcote varnish on this lot

A Degenerate Legionary unit with an old-school standard

I think the officer may be a Footsore Miniatures Romano-British figure

Cloaks at the ready...

Foundry armoured cavalry. Probably able to play as Cataphracts as well at a pinch. I used some spare GB plastic spears as their lances, as they are pretty robust and the Foundry metal ones are far too bendy. They don't yet have Army Painter on them

More LBMS shield transfers....

Warlord Games 'Unleash Hell' General and Dog

Again, needing a coat of Dullcote. His skintone is just a wash with Peat Brown ink.

Hopefully I will find time to put a big dent in getting them all table-ready over the festive break...

Random Saga photos

A game of saga at the club on Monday night which may well have convinced me that having Harald Hardrada and the Varangians is the way to go with the Vikings!

Here are some of the lads storming across the ford (or should that be fjord?)

Wading into the Anglo-Saxons, watched by Harald (and his dog)

Thinking about taking on the enemy Warlord...

The rather battered Huscarls at least have captured a wench to take back to their ship...

Some proper battle reports to follow after the actual event itself..

Saga Vikings

Well, I've finally cracked and got myself a SAGA army, of course of Vikings. They ended up being painted quite quickly, and for those of you who have not been following my Facebook Page, here's the progress

The Saga Viking warband...early stage preparation as I finally get back to painting and playing...black undercoat sprayed on, using 2p coins and some Renedra bases I got in an army pack from Gripping Beast. This was taken August 20th. And why do Renedra bases cost more than 2p each ... ?

24th August - All the metal bits, and a first "colour" - in this case Coat d'arms Linen. This might be quicker than I expect... The figures are a mix of Gripping Beast and Wargames Foundry

25th August - Always interesting how much figures can change from this block painting stage to when they get inked later on.

25th August - Gloss poly varnish on the shields, in preparation for some Little Big Men transfers tomorrow - bit of bronze and gold on the jewellery, brown for the backs of shields and wooden spears and they'll be ready for Army Painter..

25th August - Ready for the shield transfers in the morning... Then the Army Painter magic by lunchtime...!

26th August - All glossed up with Army Painter (not the shields with stickers on them - they get clear poly varnish as a topcoat), and then outside to dry .. it's a nice warm day so maybe spraying matt varnish later ? The shield designs are from the LBMS "GB (Large)" and "Foundry, Artizan & BTD" ranges and really make a huge difference to the quality of the figures

26th August, almost all done.... A good weekends work.. all based with builders sand, awaiting some grass and the like on the bases.

I may add some more photos once they are totally done and on the table