15mm Baggage

I have had a number of Museum Miniatures lying around for the past eight years and am in need of some 15mm baggage for the gaming table, so I decided to move five wagons along with three Forged in Battle ox-drawn carts to the front of the queue:

The first of the Museum Miniatures models is an engineers' wagon:

Along with two large hay carts:

And a smaller single-horse version:

My favourite however is the beer wagon, complete with three barrels for a thirsty army. It puts me in mind of one of my locals which is the last pub in Queensland to still serve beer on tap from a wooden barrel although, to be honest, I can't really tell the difference and suspect it is brewed in the same steel vats as the rest of the beer they serve:

The Museum Miniature models fit together very nicely and are provided with two horses. I ordered four additional horses but found, after painting them, I preferred to stick with the original teams of two. The models are also available with a choice of solid or spoked wheels. The spoked wheels give them more of a middle ages/renaissance appearance, as opposed to the three Forged in Battle ox-carts which have solid wheels and a much earlier look about them:

These will do double-duty as combatants for the DBMM Ancient Spanish army list which also allows the use of flaming ox-carts as an expendable troop type.

I was feeling quite pleased with myself after having completed them, until I went back to the email confirmation of the original order and realised I have another four of the Museum Miniature carts packed away somewhere. I now have a small side-project for the second week of my Christmas break in hunting through a few dozen storage boxes to try to find them, although I am hopeful this will also allow me to locate a mislaid Peter Pig Parthian army and some 28mm Renegade Carthaginians.

15mm Numidian Skirmishers

I have managed to make a fair bit of progress with the Numidian project over the last few weeks, including the completion of thirty-five elements of Numidian javelin-armed light infantry:

These are the usual mix of four different poses available in the Xyston packs of eight figures each:

As with the Numidian cavalry, I kept the colours fairly simple and gave them a mix of animal-hide shields:

I also managed to complete eight elements of bow-armed light infantry, and another eight of slingers:

I found these a little more interesting to paint, mainly because they were at least carrying some equipment in the form of a quiver for the bowmen and a bag of projectiles for the sling-armed figures:

I have also managed to complete a few elements of baggage train which I am just finalising at the moment, and hope to have up in a few days' time.

15mm Numidian Light Horse and Generals, and Roman Bath House

With the recent finalisation of my Carthaginian army I wanted to return to complete my remaining Numidian cavalry, having painted twelve elements in October. That left me with another twenty-two elements and three generals, or twenty-five elements in total:

The figures are again Xyston, with the usual mix of four rider poses among the light horses and another four poses in the general packs:

As with the earlier batch, I have tried to keep the tunic colours fairly tame, and kept to a few basic shield designs:

Apart from the generals where I incorporated a bit of colour:

That's thirty-seven elements now completed, with some Numidian skirmishers next in the queue:

I also managed to complete another Roman building in the form of a 15mm Forged in Battle Roman bath-house:

This is a solid resin building so no interior, but it is nicely proportioned:

I have one Roman villa left to complete, my intention being to then combine them all into two large terrain pieces for use in DBMM.

15mm Carthaginian Army

The completion of the eight Carthaginian heavy chariots means that I have now finished the ancient Carthaginian project, so I thought I'd haul them all out for a few group photographs.

The project gives me enough options for the DBMM early and late Carthaginian lists, spanning just over four hundred years of history, so there are figures here that will never actually be deployed on the table together. The term "army" is therefore probably a bit of a misnomer, but nevertheless I thought I'd assemble them for the sake of posterity.

Here are some early citizen militia based as auxilia, with the Poeni cavalry and Libyan heavy chariots immediately behind:

A close-up of the Sacred Band on the opposite flank:

With Carthaginian generals and chariots behind them:

A closer view of some of the elephants, which I thoroughly enjoyed putting together:

Some Libyan skirmishers:

With early Libyan spearmen behind them, followed by the veteran Libyan spearmen and city militia:

An overview of the entire assemblage:

The project took around three and a half months, and was comprised of the following:

         12 Libyan javelinmen skirmish stands

         18 Libyan spearmen elements

         18 veteran Libyan spearmen elements

         7 cavalry elements (including 3 generals)

         8 Sacred Band elements

         12 city militia spearmen elements

         8 city militia auxilia elements

         5 command personality stands

         10 elephants

         8 heavy chariots

         2 bolt-shooter artillery pieces

All up that is 363 foot and cavalry figures, 53 horses, 10 elephants, 8 chariots and 2 artillery pieces.

Next up I have a few 15mm wagons to complete, and then I'm hoping to get stuck into some more 15mm Numidians I have prepared and which are next in line in the queue.

15mm Carthaginian Chariots

This is the last of the Carthaginians, which presented a bit of an obstacle to overcome. Given that eight heavy chariots means having to paint thirty-two horses and affix thirty-two pieces of fuse-wire for reigns, I knew that this would take some time.

The chariots themselves come in six parts and required gluing together, which is quite fiddly in 15mm, but I am quite pleased with the results:

The Carthaginians had phased out chariots by the Second Punic war, although they did use them for chariot racing. They featured at the battle of the Crimissus River where the Sacred Band were also wiped out.

The crew figures are Libyan rather than Carthaginian, which fits in with the theory that the chariots were actually supplied and crewed by Libyan mercenaries:

The DBMM Early Carthaginian lists lack a but of punch, so the chariots appear to me to be an essential addition to give them a chance against other armies of the period:

That's it for the Carthaginians. Quite pleasing in that I managed to get them finalised in just over three months:

I'll assemble them all and do a final headcount over the coming week, and try to post a group shot or two of the completed project.

15mm Carthaginian Personalities and Artillery

It has been a little while since the last post, due mainly to work and study commitments. At least the latter is now over for the year, so I can finalise the Carthaginian project. As part of this I had purchased many years ago the Carthaginian personality pack and, since I had over-ordered on command figures as well, decided to base these as separate elements. First up, another Hannibal figure:

And another, depicting the great man crossing the Apls (the others look less-ravaged, but unfortunately I didn't have any other Alp-crossing figures):

Including a mounted Hannibal, three so far with a fourth seated counting coins which I am going to use for a camp setting.

The set also comes with a Mago figure, one of Hannibal's brothers who fought alongside him throughout the Second Punic War and appears to have met his end at sea:

And Hasdrubal, Hannibal's other brother who died at the battle of the Metauro river while trying to lead reinforcements for Hannibal through Italy:

And a figure of Maharbal, a Numidian cavalry commander who was one of Hannibal's closest friends and confidants:

I also purchased a 28mm Xyston Hannibal just for good measure:

Also completed are two Carthaginian bolt-shooters:

I am just putting the reigns on a few Carthaginian chariots and hope to have some pictures of these up before the end of the week, whereupon the project will be completed.