French Gendarmes d'ordonnance

Finally out of the oven on the weekend some of Eureka's fine Gendarmes, these figures are superb and have a large number of variations due to the plug in weapon arm and plumes a real plus for the peons who like variation in their armies. I tried to tie the unit together primarily using red as the main colour so they look like a unit. Hopefully Joe will use them well in his French Army! 

cheers

matt

Pontic Thorakitai (imitation legionary's)

After Mithridates VI armies battlefield failure against the Romans in the second Mithridatic War, it prompted a radical change in his army. He almost replaced all of his phalangite units with thorakitai. Roman authors thought he was copying the Roman method (as he had a number of Roman advisors), but thorakitai had existed in eastern armies since the 3rd century BC, normally guarding the flanks of the phalangites or operating as heavy skirmishers, fighting with a large shield, short sword, thrusting spear and javelin. Mithridates' primary reforms increased their numbers and the quality of training. The Pontic thorakitai, while giving a good account in battle, ultimately they were defeated by the legionary's led by Lucullus in the third and final war.


This unit will join my Pontic army and also be suitable for my other earlier Successor Army (Antiochus III the Great) as the thorakitai guard perhaps. As with the rest of my Pontic army I have continued with the Greek mythology for the unit, so this unit has a image of a Calydonian Boar on its shields (VVV decals) and on the banner (hand painted). The figures are from Gripping Beast veteran Carthaginians range, although I have added some roman pilums into the throwing hands (I may possibly go back and replace with just javelins).

cheers

matt

A Gruesome Collection

A gruesome collection of heads from the Foundry Thracian Collection, I will use it as a marker for WAB some time in the future!

cheers
matt

Landsknechte Artillery

Out of the oven last week also some artillery. The Landsknechte mercenaries had artillery so finding suitable figures was a pain until I thought of Games Workshop. Some of their fantasy ranges are quite fanciful and over the top (to much accessories) but I managed to get some earlier GW miniatures that fit well for renaissance miniatures, and as a added bonus I like the gun also! GW sculptors do some very fine faces and I enjoyed painting them very much. The photos were taken at night so I may replace them with some daylight ones later next week.

cheer
Matt

Equites Exploratores

Equites Exploratores

Finished  some late Romans from A & A, they are just beautiful to paint and really look good, I remember drawing the shield from a mosaic as palace guards. I searched the Notitia Dignitatum but no reference exists for the shield pattern. I will continue to look around in my research books but until then they will remain unnamed!

Cheers
Matt

More Saxons

Well some more dark age Saxons out of the oven last week, these are from the crusader range, very nice models, the open hands are the only thing that annoys me as I prefer to drill out hands for spears rather than lay it in a open hand which tends to allow weapons to be knocked out under handling, all of the shields have been hand painted. These figs are actually for a customer in QLD and will end up on impetus bases beating up Vikings and Normans!!!!

cheers
matt

Australian Napoleonic Congress 2011

Well another congress is done and dusted, a great weekend of gaming and chatting and buying of Napoleonic's was had. Saturday had four games and Sunday three very fine participation games for people to join in.

On Saturday Colin, Richard and myself played two peninsular games using Colin's very fine french ( Perry's) and Nathan's(superb front rank), Richards (yes more Front rank) . Mark and John Primrose put on the 1812 War games using a mix of figures from foundry and front rank. The Wollongong boys lead by Sparker with Marks fine peninsular terrain put on a very fine Albuera. Craig and Boyd hosted the Napoleonic Naval games which were over very quickly with lots of ships colliding and and on fire!

On Sunday Colin, Alan, both Richards, Ian, Ralph, Sam and myself played Gebora, a epic cavalry clash happened  on one of the flanks with 9 Spanish and 11 French Cavalry regts(of 24 or more figures each) having at each other the french coming away with a victory but were well spent, the French Infantry failed to push the Spanish off the hill so a minor win for the Spanish

Naval Game Battle of Tamatave (Trafalgar), Battle of Tippecanoe (Brother against Brother), Albuera 1811(Black Powder), Lundy's Lane 1812 (shako 2), Gebora 1811 (Grand Manner)

cheers

matt

Napoleonic French 5th Hussars

5th Hussards

Well the Australian Napoleonic Congress is on this weekend so there has been a mad rush to get everything ready, I managed to paint 40 Americans for the 1812 skirmish game and 24 hussars so not to bad but not as much as I wanted to do! I went down and helped Colin try to finish Hougoumont for the Congress, but we failed when I got sick on the weekend, so we lost two nights and days of construction, hopefully we will get it done before Christmas! Looking forward to a big weekend of Napoleonic gaming and catching up with some mates for lunch, dinner and a few drinks! madly trying to finish some terrain for Sunday's game so I best go!

cheers matt

Warwick Gold Cup Winner 2011

And now for a off topic post ................A big congratulations to my brother Tom Williamson who won the Warwick Gold cup on the weekend on his horse "Serene Acres". The Black Toyota Warwick Gold Cup is Australia's premier campdrafting event with prizemoney and trophies to the value of $76,370.

When I was younger my parents dragged my  brother and sisters and myself all over northern NSW and southern Queensland competing in this unique Australian horse sport. Tom has always been competitive and has won a lot of campdrafting events in his life (I have won two!) , this event has been at the top of his dream list to win, to top it off he won the event on his 40th birthday!!!!!!

Tom currently is the CEO of the family farming enterprises and runs his own Quarter Horse and Australian Stock Horse stud "Moore Park" at  Pinkett NSW, standing a number of QH and ASH Stallions.



Cheers

Matt