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! 

Donnington Clubmen

 One of the cool new units in v4 of ADLG are the Palestinian Clubmen who appear in a number of the later Roman armies.

With o-one really making figures for them, I had proxied a few Legio Heroica arabs to act as medium Clubmen, to which I have now added some close formation Heavy Infantry using Donnington's Arab MUF10 Sudanese lutatman from their New Era Crusades range

Here are the jolly fellows, together with some more Old School Donnington Auxilia.  

Bank Holiday Pavisiers

With a long weekend in prospect I've had an opportunity to finish off a few odd units which have been hanging around the painting table for a while, starting with these Medieval Crossbowmen with Pavises, from Donnington's New Era ranges.

The "German" designs were done mostly using up some of the smaller "eagle" images in a set of LBMS 25mm knightly heraldry

The "Fleur de Lys" are very old Veni Vidi Vici waterslide transfers.

This time I remembered to turn the loading man around. He comes with a pavise, the other three pavises I bought in a separate pack

I didn't find enough of the fleu de lys designs to do all 5 pavises on the base, hence the rather incongruous "board head" on the rearmost pavisier.

The kneeling chap is exactly the right height to shoot through/round the notch in the Pavise - well done on that bit of clever design Damian!

Whether its worth paying a point for a Pavise in ADLG is debatable, but if you have a spare point left its a good way to spend it up. They also do look really cool !

Both are based on tidy 40x40 MDF bases from Warbases. 

And here they are next to some almost-pavise-free Donnington and Essex crossbowmen.

Donnington Flags

I saw regular show exhibitor Damien from Donnington Miniatures at Warfare last weekend, and he sent me over a bit of info about the flag ranges he's created to go with the rather nice ‘New Era’ Medieval figures he's now producing.

The exciting bit is that apparently some TYW flags are in the works and so if they are up to the same standard as the current flag sheets for Vikings, Saxons, Normans, 100 Years War, Gascons, 14^th/15^th Century Scots, French Ordonnance, Swiss, Burgundians and WOTR it'll be a good extra addition to the list of flag suppliers on my 15mm Renaissance Manufacturers page. 

There is even an instructional video available on the website to show you how to use them.

The flag sheets are available in 15mm scale and in other scales on request to A&M. The number of flags varies, with lots on each sheet - £5 per sheet for 15mm scale and £10 per sheet for 25/28mm scale. For more info contact Ancient & Modern Army Supplies:

Website:                      www.ancient-modern.co.uk

Loads of photos

Just added some US Paratroops with Mohicans from Pendraken to the 10mm Directory - first new 10mm WW2 in ages!

The Ancients directory has also seen some additions, and now has close to having 2000 photos. Latest additions include two brand new elephants just released by Donnington including an armoured Seleucid elephant HEL03 and a re-sculpted Sassanid elephant SDEL01. I've also added some more infantry (painted) from their New Era range of medievals

They've also sent me some photos of
Baggage horses due for release later this month. There are two basic horses, one with a frame and basic baggage bundle over the saddle and the other with a pair of large wicker panniers over the saddle. Each horse comes with a set of equipment/stowage to enable gamers to build the horse to whatever configuration is required. There are different tops for the pannier baskets which can be stuck on to represent different stowage, and all sorts of other bits and pieces such as kit/blanket rolls, bunches of salamis (yes sausages!), wine skins, tools (spade, pick and mattock), panniers full of bread, spears, shields, amphorae and cheese, lances, pole arms, medieval shields, small barrels, jugs and flagons.

The pictures also show the two different figures to lead the horses, one in medieval dress and the other is more generic being dressed in a tunic, trousers and cap.

If you are a manufacturer and woud llike to send me photos of your new stuff so I can mention it, please drop me a line !