ECW and Gladiators

A bit of a mix bag as I plod on just trying to get some figures painted up while I still just don't feel like gaming at the moment. So first up is 3 more regiments of Pike and Shot for Simon. That makes 4 of the 10 completed. As he hasn't specified any particular regiments I have gone with very generic coat colours. That way he can use them as he wishes. That's the beauty of the civil war and that there is very little evidence of coat colours for the majority of the regiments. So 1 regiment in blue, the other 2 are in differing shades of brown.

 

After painting these it was another couple of Gladiators or my collection. Both figures are from Crusader miniatures, a Hoplomachi and a Secutor. This brings me up to 14 completed figures for my Ludus. I do have another 4 on the painting table.

In other news I have been looking around for a new project. I want to stay at 15mm as I prefer the look for larger battles. Sticking with the Basic impetus rules I have decided to paint up some Republican Romans, so an order has gone into Museum miniatures from their 'z' range. I also have a large number of Greek hoplites that I can re-base as well as some Hellenistic Greeks as direct opponents of the Romans. Should keep me busy over the summer months and into winter.

More Gladiators

Another three Gladiators to add to my Ludus as I try and cover most of the different Gladiator types. All three models are from Crusader miniatures. They represent the Scissor, Thraex (Thracian) and a Hoplomachi.

Scissor

Thraex

Hoplomachi

I just have another 6 models to paint as well as a plastic sprue to create a couple of the

Lighter Gladiator types.

Plugging away

Just a couple of figuresI managed to get finished this week. These are two more Gladiators, a Retarius and a slave. Both are from the EM4 miniatures range. Nice figures and can be bought as singles. That's a bonus as I only want one or two more specific Gladiators to finish the collection.

I went with lighter bases this time and prefer it. I felt the dark edging didn't match. So ended up doing the rest of theGladiators as well.

So what is left? I have a Murmillo, 3d printed by Mitch, 3 Secutors, a Scissor and two Hoplimachi to finish. I also picked up one of the Gangs of Rome sprues from Wargames Atlantic. Should give me enough parts for a Velire and a Sagittarius. The left over figures will be handy as extra slaves.

Not totally idle

I hadn't realised it has been more than 2 weeks since I posted anything. I must admit wargaming has taken a bit of a back seat at the moment. I think I just needed a bit of a break, so giving the club a miss to try and re-charge. Since I started a new job in December I often found myself rushing to try and get to the club, not good after a 12 hour day. I also found I was the one organising the games and then taking on the role of the umpire. So apart from some mass participation games such as Gladiators and What a Tanker, I'd only actually played 5 games in 6 months run by others. Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy running games, but it would be nice if I could actually use my own figures in a game or play a game where someone else has organised a scenario, the forces and set the table up.

Back to the hobby in general, I did manage a little painting. The first being another 3 casualty markers for the Marston Moor game.

The figures are from Peter Pig and the dice frames from Pendraken. The other painting I did was another regiment of ECW for Simon. He had sent a box of 10 regiments for me to paint. A bit of a surprise as I wasn't expecting any.

I chose red coats as they are quite common for the period. Like the last batch, Simon is adding the flags and bases.

Another Gladiator and extras

Continuing with the Gladiator theme, I put some paint on another model. This is a female Murmillo gladiator that I picked up from Colonel bills. Nice and easy to paint up.

I'm now waiting on an order from Crusader Miniatures, a couple of packs covering Thracians, Hoplomachus, Secutors and a Scissor. I also added a lion from the Northstar range to the order. I also ordered a couple of gladiators from EM4, a Retarius and a slave for extra variety.

Now apart from gladiators you also need a few wild animals for the games, hence adding a lion to the order. It was after this that I remembered I had a few old lion models from Irregular miniatures, I think. I dug them out and also found a foundry bear. So the bear and a lioness completed. I also have 2 male lions just needing their bases finished. They do look a little on the small size and a bit rough, but why waste a model.

Now for actual games I decided to make a small board. You don't need a lot of space for the Arena of blood rules as there isn't much movement. So I decided to use a cake stand as a base, it has a diameter of 12 inches, so perfect. I covered it with a piece of old flocked sheet. As it was green I gave it a spray of chocolate brown, I then dry-brushed successive layers of terracotta, dull yellow and then pale sand.

basic cake stand

Covered in flocked sheet

After dry-brushing

Collection so far

In future I may add a base to the arena and build a fence to surround it for a provincial gladiator arena. I could even add a cage for the animals as I know Sarissa produces one.