Gentlemen, it’s been a while since I contributed anything
to the MPGC blog. To be honest I think I burned out on the Trojan War project
but hopefully, what follows, will be the start of few diary type posts
chronicling my latest endeavours.
So, let me introduce you to the 'MF Plan'. No not another
fad diet but a strategy to get some of my oldest war gaming figures on the
table. Yes these boys are Minifigs, circa. 1970 something, in all their nicely
proportioned but smooth featured glory.
It all came about after our 3 month stint of Bronze Age
action on the plains of Troy. After such a Herculean effort to put on the Troy
game at WorLad III, it seemed a good time to try something a bit different and more
‘lightweight’. Also, with my hols looming I didn’t feel inclined to invest too
much time and effort into a new project – yeah right!
As an aside, for my aforementioned hols, I shall soon be
jetting off to Paphos, in Cyprus to catch up with my old friend, Uriah the
Hittte …………or at least that was the plan. As it turns out, Uriah will be here
in Durham when we’re in Paphos. Sod’s Law or what! You travel thousands of
miles to see a mate and he’s not even there – typical. [Only kidding – honest]
Incidentally, according to Google, Paphos is 2,875 miles
away and you get there via the A3!
So back to choosing the next game and the consensus was
that we fancied a spot of Dark Age gaming. Now Dux Britanniarum is a firm
favourite at the club but, having just played the Bronze Age variant for 3
months solid, we thought we would check out the opposition, namely Dux
Bellorum.
At first we just wheeled out our Dux Brit armies and put
them on sabot bases. So my Gripping Beast & Foundry Romano-Brits, with
Saxon allies, faced off against the Captain’s Irregular Miniatures Picts and
pseudo Picts (Corvus Miniatures Welsh), whilst Uriah (who was meant to be in Paphos – did I mention that?) watched from
the wings. And a jolly time was had by all. Mind you, the Captain’s parting
shot was the rather dangerous comment that, ‘it would look better with more
figures’. At that point the Pandora’s box, that is the combined stash of the
MPGC’s stockpile of old Minifigs figures, was unleashed upon the world. To cut
a long story short, the Captain has been painting hordes of old Minifigs Picts
and I rediscovered my long forgotten Minifigs late Roman army.
A quick figure count revealed that I had almost the right
amount of figures to represent the complete Dux Bellorum Late Roman army list.
Now these boys are almost certainly based upon the old WRG ‘Armies and Enemies
of Imperial Rome’ and faithfully reproduce the illustrations therein. However,
times have moved on and they are now looking a bit dubious, in terms of
historical accuracy. Nevertheless, they do have a certain charm of their own
and they were my first ever 25mm army. As individual figures they’re not great
but based up in units they don’t look so bad. So the plan is to base up my old
25mm collection for unit based games and keep my more recent 28mm figures
individually based.
So my four point plan is as follows:
1) Repaint
and base up the Dux Bell Late Roman starter army.
2) Repaint
and base up my remaining Late Romans
3) Repaint
and base up my Saxons
4) Repaint
and base up my Romano-British.
I have already completed phase one and have made progress
with phase two and hope to get to the basing stage before my holidays. Stage
three will have to await my return but I’m keen to crack on with this as Uriah
has suggested that we do a ‘Barbarian Conspiracy’ campaign. As it happens my
original Dark Age collection grew from just such a project back in the 1970s –
serendipity strikes again!
Unfortunately, I didn’t think to take any photos before I
started the project but I did manage to get a snap of some bits and pieces that
illustrate just what I’m working with here.
The figures were still based up for
WRG 5th edition on some very elementary bases and with the worst
possible flock ever sold by Beatties model shop. Why I ever thought a ‘chunky’
flock in a dark bottle green would pass muster I don’t know. I also seem to
have glued it on with the stickiest substance known to man – 40 years later and
the bases are still tacky to the touch.
I would have liked to just rebase the figure but the
paintwork is truly appalling but I guess does show the evolution of my painting
technique (or lack of it). The early figures are in Humbrol and Airfix enamels,
later moving to artist’s acrylics; all finished off with a nice high gloss
varnish. I think the brilliant whiter than white tunics are particularly
fetching! If truth be told, I can’t be arsed to repaint all these so am just
painting over the worst bits as it were. Unfortunately, in a few cases this is
most of the figure – ho hum.
So far they’re not looking too bad but I will save posting
any pictures until I have finished the project.
Ah well, I'm not back in Durham by my own choice! Friends in Pathos tell me that it is 41 degrees today. Hope you get good air con in the hotel! Wish I was there.
ReplyDeleteLoving the Minifigs by the way. We will have to write the campaign up on the blog. I will temporarily change my name to Uriah the Saxon.
I know - only pulling your leg. Think of it as retribution for leading me astray; it's now nearly a year since I was distracted from my Napoleonic project by the temptations of the Bronze Age. Now you have me musing on the Sudan and perusing the Newline website!
ReplyDelete