Scythians

This week I finished a box of Zvezda Scythians (1/72) for the Greek-Persian Wars project. These were very nice figures, lots of detail, and took quite a bit of time to complete because they are irregular with quite a mixture of armour, armament and fabrics. They are based on 60mm frontages for DBx but plan to use them in Impetus with 2 elements per unit.

There are 4 stands of 3Cv noble cavalry

General's element

and 4 stands of LH, horse archers for Impetus, these guys are underrepresented in the box contents, I would have thought they should make up the bulk of a Scythian force.

Next up I have some Muslim 28mm cavalry in the pipeline, and then I might either prep some Thebans for the Greek-Persian Impetus project or something else for my 28mm HOTT army for our next EDBAG campaign now that I have a plan.

Back from hiatus

Bit of a gap since the last post. We took the kids to California for a week and met this chap:

and they miraculously grew these ears:

and wet their feet in the Pacific Ocean for the first time:

We returned in time for the annual Edmonton Wargame Group MayDay convention, which was a smashing success. I have a few pics of my Warhammer English Civil War game of the Battle of Inverkeithing which saw a disturbingly historical outcome with the English causing the Scots to flee the field, leaving the road open for Cromwell.

I also felt inspired to revisit the El Cid project, here we have some Gripping Beast camelry out for a walk in my backyard on a glorious May day in Edmonton.

A couple of characters

Sometimes it's nice to spend a few hours on a couple of specisl figures instead of a whole unit on the assembly line. Since it has been snowing in Edmonton for like the last 36h, gotta find something to keep busy with. Here I have finished a highlander (Wee Wullie, the one that comes with the Black Powder expansion, thank you Bruce!) who I plan to use as the chieftain Hector Maclean of Duart for my MayDay Inverkeithing scenario.

I also did this dark age Scottish chief who came with the Saga supplement from Gripping Beast. This is a really nice figure, I may use him to lead my Vikings at MayDay.

Persian heavy foot and bow

Been working away at these guys for the last little while. They are Persian kardakes or Lydian hoplites and some armoured Persian archers. The figures are Hat 1/72, which are okay, but not quite up to Zvezda. The shields are topped with LBM transfers which are superb, although a little small for the shield size. They are based on 60mm frontages which can convert to just about any ruleset. I'm thinking Impetus but have been reading FoG too.

More Persians and the last Bondi

Here we have the last of the Vikings for some time, these are 8 bondi with hand weapons (Crusader 28mm with LBM transfers) to fill out my Saga warband for MayDay. I am not sure whether to field these as Vikings or as Jomsvikings as per the expansion list. I think the Jomsviking abilities are kind of beardy ubervikings, but beardiness/cheesiness goes with being a Viking in most games systems. Usually portrayed as being tough fighters even though their track record against nuns and peasants defines their reputation more so than their track record against more manly foes. 

Also completed were a few stands of Zvezda Persian foot and a couple of heavy chariots

This is a converted Assyrian chariot that will serve as a command stand.

Persians

 I've been working on some 1/72 Persians, another one of this backburner projects that I have been picking away at for a few years. This week I did a batch of heavy mounted Persian cavalry (some Zvezda and some Hat)

And a few Sparabara, I like these guys:

And before the big snow came this week, I managed a bike ride with oldest daughter, the ice is just breaking up on the Saskatchewan River. Later in the week we got a foot of snow....

Viking Hirdmen for Saga

More of these lovely Crusader 28mm guys, I now have a 4 point warband.