15mm Ghaznavid Palace Ghulams

After a year and half painting 28mm AWI figures I thought I'd get stuck into one of the 15mm DBMM armies I have in the pile as a nice change of pace. After seeing Phil of Toy Soldiers Studio's beautiful Ghaznavid army (Toy Soldiers Studio) I was keen to make this my next project and started off with three command elements and six stands of Palace ghulams:

The Ghaznavid empire was centered on Ghazi in modern Afghanistan and covered large parts of Iran, Pakistan and north western India between 977 and 1186 AD. I wanted to put together an entire army of Forged in Battle figures and found these to be true 15mm figures rather than the larger 18mm often associated with other manufacturers. There is enough variety to cover most troop types in the list, but no dedicated general figures so it was a matter of picking a few commander-type figures from the cavalry packs and nominating them as generals:

Ghulam means slave or servant in Arabic, and the Ghaznavid ghulams were either mercenaries, prisoners of war or sometimes slaves who had been purchased as young boys. Many Turkish soldiers were employed in the ranks alongside Afghans and, later, Indian soldiers following seventeen individual campaigns over a fifty-four year period. The Palace ghulams were responsible for protecting the royal family and were the most elite and heavily armoured so again I selected the most appropriate-looking figures from the packs:

I splashed a bit more colour on these than I am planning to do with the regular ghulams, and attached some Little Big Men Studio banners to more easily distinguish them:

I didn't have enough of the banners I originally wanted to use and thought I'd have to purchase some more. I noticed in the course of doing so that they have gone up from £3.50 a year ago to £12 which is quite a jump in twelve months (although still worth the money at that price in my opinion), but a quick search in my stash of flags and transfers unearthed several sheets I had forgotten about and so I was able to apply them immediately without holding things up:

That's the first nine elements completed:

Next up will be fifteen elements of the regular ghulam.

15mm DBMM Camps

 The holiday period has been quite productive to date, and to round out 2020 I managed to complete some camps for use in DBMM ancient games. 

For anyone not acquainted with DBMM, camps add a morale bonus when included in army lists but must be kept out of harm's way as they can have the opposite effect when sacked by an opponent. 

This provided me with an opportunity to use left-over figures and to employ them alongside some Baueda terrain pieces, which I particularly enjoyed painting. First up are a couple of Roman legionary tents accompanied by two Xyston Roman civilian figures (well, three if you count the infant clutching his mother's left leg):

Next up a Praetorian tent. Looking at it now, the woman holding the baby could be asking "Have you seen Regulus? I have something I need to tell him" while the other woman with her hands on her hips could be saying "Yes, he's my husband, and I think you need to tell me":

The Praetorian tent is an example of why I am so fond of Baueda models as the detail is just right, making them fun to paint (although the Dullcote appears to be a little reflective in this photo):

Here are the remaining civilians from the Xyston Roman pack who have formed a circle and grabbed the nearest clubs and spears to protect the family pig and chickens:

I also had a spare Julius Caesar, Brutus and Cicero figure left over from the Julius Caesar Xyston personality pack, so decided to place them on a stand together. 

This put me in mind of a school trip to see an amateur performance of Julius Caesar when one of my schoolmates shouted out "Look out, he's behind you" at the pivotal moment. It was a little unfair to the actors and he got the cane when we got back to school for his troubles, but it was funny at the time:

Next up are a couple of Forged in Battle stands, with a shepherd and a fellow tending some cattle and a goat:

Finally, a Baueda field kitchen with figures as supplied:

And two versions of the Bauda 'Camp Cooking' set:

The thing I like about these last few elements is they can be used for ancients right through to medieval, when I finally get around to completing a few of those armies I have ahead of me in the pile.

Well, that's about it from me for 2020 as it's New Year's Eve here in Australia. Thanks to all who have viewed and commented throughout the year, and I wish everyone a happy, healthy and productive 2021.

A Handful of Numidians and a 15mm Tibetan Camp

The recently-completed Roman command packs also included a figure of the Numidian King Massinisa and, as luck would have it, I found a spare pack of Numidian horse that had become lost in the Roman pile. This was perfect in terms of providing a couple of extra figures for another Numidian command element, with the others making up an additional element of light horse:

King Massinisa was the founder of the Numidian Kingdom and was initially allied with Carthage, marrying a Carthaginian noblewoman, although he later became a trusted ally of Rome (which is obviously why he was in one of the Xytson Roman personality packs).

While on the theme of utilising surplus figures, I also completed a couple of Tibetan camps using some left-over Tibetan figures, Forged in Battle livestock and a couple of Tibetan command tents I purchased from Baueda:

According to the Baeuda website, white tents were a sign of status and they were generally reinforced along the seams with strips of black cloth. I'll take their word for this as I am no expert in Medieval Tibetan military tent design, although I'm sure there is a PhD, or at the very least an Osprey, in there somewhere:

I have a fair bit more Baueda stuff to complete and really must do more of it as it is a very enjoyable diversion.

Now back to the Romans and the last unit in the form of some Itallian allied cavalry, which I should have posted by the end of the week.

15mm Republican Roman Hastati and Roman Villa

While commencing the Tibetan army project I thought I'd also make a start on a 15mm Republican Roman army, The idea here is to have enough options to span the DBMM lists from the earlier Camillan Romans through the Polybian list, to the reformed Marian army.

They will be organised into the four core urban legions of the earlier Republican era, starting with twenty-five elements of sword-armed hastati:

The figures are Xyston and are large even for 18mm figures, but I think they look the part when assembled together in bulk and it is still quite easy to fit the required four figures on each base:

While many prefer to field their legions with plain shields, I like the Little Big Man Studios shield transfers and believe they provide the figures with an additional level of interest:

Even though they are simply-attired the figures are nicely sculpted with quite sharply-defined detail, making painting them very enjoyable:

I have also recently completed the last of my Forged in Battle 15mm buildings, this time a Roman villa:

This is a two-part model, with a main building and a separate courtyard:

That gives me fifteen Roman buildings in total, and I am currently debating whether to affix them to a terrain board or keep them detached so they can be placed on top of one of several cobblestone squares I have. The latter obviously has the advantage of being able to remove buildings or move them around as required, but I am still leaning toward the idea of putting them into some form of permanent arrangement.

It's back to some more Tibetans over the coming weeks. We have a game planned for them in six weeks' time so I want to give that project a bit of a push and see how many I can complete before then.

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 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.