Running alongside the "red flower on the base" Tlaxcalan Warriors are these sets of "purple flower" and "yellow flower" chaps:
19 Sept 2025
A few more Tlaxcalan Warriors
15 Sept 2025
The Tlaxcalans are here !
A somewhat epic painting project has now finally reached the "lets spray varnish outside before it gets too cold and damp" phase of completion, much to the delight of vendors of multicoloured grass tufts, as my first Meso-American army finally gets finished off.
All of the figures (apart from a handful on the baggage element) are from the rather wonderful and characterful range sold by Fighting 15's - who sadly are kinda winding down their business, potentially selling off the moulds and rights at some point in future (we hope!).
These guys are from the same family as the Egyptians I own, and have bundles of personality baked into the sculpts. They are the sort of figures that really do make you wonder whether 3D modelling and printing, with its ability to make and print out anatomically accurate poses even at 15mm without the constraints of traditional sculpting or even the need to design figures that can be cast in, and removed from, rubber moulds, will ever quite capture the magic of what is very much a work of art rather than a 3D product develped by the technical application of science.
Anyways, I'll be posting pictures of the various troops in batches over the coming weeks, starting with the main body of Warriors.
These guys are a mishmash of different figure codes and are equipped with all sorts of weapons - as you'll see later on, there are some specific, names units who soak up most of the figures I bought with particular or specific weaponry, so these "standard" warriors are a bit of everything that was left.
The painting on these is a mix of contrasts and normal paints, with some of the new Warlord Fanatic normal paint "triads" of 6 (erm..?) slightly different tones as well.
I didn't use any static grass on these, instead going entirely for grass tufts and flowers to try and create a more unique, jungle sort of vibe to the basing - after all, they will only ever fight alongside a handful of bases of Conquistadores, so they don't need to be all that compatible with my other armies.
3 Jul 2025
Almughavars!
As the UK has been recently basking in weather more suited to the beaches of Barcelona, it seems a good time to share some "test painted" Catalan Almughavars from the Lurkio range, now being produced by Gripping Beast.
And these are the jolly little chaps - rather "hobbity" if I may say, but not without their own charm and looking somewhat similar in style to some of the Baueda ranges too (so maybe the same sculptor?).
At full price from Gripping Beast these guys are now about 68p a figure, with the Eureka ones not much more at 75p each, making it a bit of a no brainer to go Eureka IMO
14 Jun 2025
More 3D printed Numidians
I've finally finished off the 3D printed, 3D Breed-designed Numidians I started back in April, and what a jolly nice - but jolly brittle - bunch of fellows they are too.
I've based some up as "Cavalry" at 3 figures to a base, and some as "Light Horse" at 2 to a base
They are great looking figures, but OMG these particular prints are really brittle.
So far I think I've completely broken 7 of the horses off their bases (ie legs snapped, superglue comes out..) simply in the process of painting and photographing them, and I've lost count of the number of spears that have pinged off, usually into god knows where.
The saving grace is that they do glue back together again very easily, but with this second batch I've deliberately attempted to position all of the figures such that they can be superglued to an adjacent model at some point, in the hope that it makes them a bit more robust.
Part of the problem is no doubt that they are so light, which means it's super easy to knock them off the table, or see them slide off a tray when you are carrying them around.
I've also used far less magnabase on each base compared to metal figures, as otherwise I feared that I'd break them almost every time I tried to lift them out of the tin.
I suspect there are better, more flexible and robust resins out there that would make these a bit more survivable - and in future this will get even better as materials technology improves as well.
I also saw that the eBay seller I picked these up from no longer has any items listed for sale, after what looks like a lot of negative feedback for late deliveries in recent months too.
My guess is that suspect he's found the whole "setting up a 3D printing business" a little harder than expected, and has thrown in the towel - somthing I can imagine will happen with a number of other sellers on eBay and Etsy going forward. Perhaps this brittle resin lead to a higher volume of returns than expected, and that also contributed to him stopping too - who knows?
But, despite the missing javelin-ends, and bits nipped out of some of the horses legs, all in all they are still nicer looking figures than any metal 15mm Numidan range I've yet found.
Whether I am confident enough in them to pack them up and take them to a competition though is something that needs much more careful thought!
28 Mar 2025
Museum Z-Range Gallowglass
Earlier this year I dithered for a while before just sneaking into the end of the Museum Miniatures January sale to pick up some mail-clad, axe-waving figures to use as Galloglass / Galloghalich / Gallogalisghaghs / whatever, those post-Viking 2-handed axemen who feature in Irish and Scottish armies of the early Medieval period.
I've been using Vikings for these guys when I've dropped an army on table, but it isn't quite right and with some decent looking figures in Museum's new Z range Saxons that looked like they would fit I decided to drop some cash and buy on in there with some packs of 15/ASX13 Dark Ages double handed axe plus a few more Saxon range figures for added variety (as the ASX13 only has 3 poses)
- Vallejo Ivory (the off-white)
- Warlord Fanatic White
- Warlord Army Green
- Warlord Abomination Gore (dark red)
- Warlord Fanatic Gunmetal
- Warlord Fanatic Leather Brown
- Warlord Deep Blue
23 Mar 2025
Forged in Battle Byzantine Infantry Skirmishers
Now you're probably sick of seeing horses for my Byzantines, here are some pedestians!
Yes, the Byzantine armies can often have a handful of foot slingers, archers, and javelinmen - including, in ADLG terms, some actual proper Medium Foot javelineers, and fortunately FiB do a pack of mixed javelins and slings to make up these chaps.
The pack in question is WE-BE08 Early Byzantine (Justinian) - Psiloi (Slingers (12) & Javelins (12), which has rather more slingers than is needed in ADLG, but fewer javelinmen.
My solution was to base up a mix of Light Infantry with slings and javelins, and then to make up 3 bases of Medium Javelineers using 3 javelin figures and two slingers lurking behind them.
I've painted them in three distinct schemes, which I suspect will help as it seems likely that a slinger and a javelin light foot will be found in each of the three commands in my arm - when it gets on table eventually.
I also didn't go with shield designs on these, partly as they are lower class troops so may not have invested as much time and effort in shield designs, but mainly as the shields are pretty small, so it would have been too hard to do a decent design on them!