A route march for the second cohort ...

The legionary fort prefect (praefectus castrorum), is ensuring the legion is ready for campaign; he thinks the second cohort is looking a bit sloppy and wants them out on a route march to toughen them up-  the Pilus Prior 2nd Cohort, responds "Yes Sir, I'll get them marching.."

The 2nd cohort starts to form up ....

[new items:
Senior Officer -  Rose Miniatures; Centurion, Cornicien,Standard Bearer, Two legionaries - Call to Arms conversions; Legionary in marching gear - Italeri Fabri]

Trouble with slaves ...

The Governor decides on the fate of a couple of runaway slaves, Athenicus and Aelia, on his estate who have been captured..

The Governor, usually lenient, makes his decision - as Athenicus has been a frequent trouble maker and attempted escape before he decides to send him to his own gladiator school;  Aelia will be made to work in the fields for a month before returning to duties in his palace.
 
[new items: 
Slave in chains -  Marx, with added hair.; Slave girl - Rose Miniatures.]

The Governor visits the temple ....

The aim from now on is continue in a semi-story mode with little scenes etc identifying newly completed items as I go with a note at the bottom of the post 

The governor, unsure of the next action to take over the unrest in the local tribes,  has visited a temple to make a sacrifice and take the auspices from the resident augur.....

Meanwhile at a 'checkpoint' near Botulinum ...

Centurion: Let them go, these are not the slaves we're looking for.

[new items: 
Temple - altar with sacrifice and priest - Atlantic 1/32
Checkpoint - two females and one male figure (at back) from Marx, with slight conversions.]

Auxiliary Cohort

Finished off the Auxiliary Cohort comprising mostly Timpo Toyway Heroic figures,

these will make a welcome addition to the forces available to the governor to quell unrest amongst the local gallic tribes.

Auxiliary Archers....

The auxiliary archers get some practice in before they travel to Botulinum .....

Mounted legionaries - WIP

Working on a small number of legionary cavalry, shown below are two with the main assembly completed using Timpo Toyway Heroic top halves, Call to Arms bottom halves sitting on HAT horses. They are waiting for swords and shields - the horses still need a bit more work - reins etc

The auxiliary archers are nearly finished and the new auxiliary cohort is ready for painting as well. I'm painting some more civilians as well.

Gallic village ......

decided to keep the look of the gallic houses more toylike and left the 'fur' thatch as is, so a little village scene....

A cornucopia of delights ....

Managed to pick up a job lot of mixed Atlantic 1/32 figures off Ebay; it includes most of a Romans/Christians set, most of an Egyptian chariot set , and some oddments from other sets (Trojans, Egyptian and Roman Infantry).

I've also bought a box of Italeri Gauls as well so I've enough to keep me busy; Oh yes I've got to paint the roman legionaries too !

Celtic round houses - WIP - 'hats on'

A little job done this weekend, the basic roofs for the celtic round houses (which look like pointy hats for them); made foamboard with a covering of thick 250gm paper.

Roman Auxiliaries - WIP

This time Toyway Heroic roman legionaries in chain mail with oval shields get the treatment; they form the bulk of a new Auxiliary cohort with a aquilifer made from a BMC one with Call-to-Arms legs and face

the front rank have Call-to-Arms roman legionary sword arms as the original swords were all bendy; the rear rank altered to be holding spears; some work to do yet - some spear points would be handy - out with green stuff to finish off ...

Blowing the trumpets ....

A couple of trumpeters from the Marx chariot/arena set, with BMC Roman heads.

Blowing a fanfare...

Used up the 'good' pose Toyway Heroic roman legionaries in lorica segmenta, modified to use by home made pilums, who are they looking for ?

 

Officer:  Any sign of him ? 

Legionary: No sir

getting ready for a snack ...

The purchase of the Timpo Toyway romans has got things moving for the romans on this project, so I'm getting wound up to work on the legionaries that are waiting in the painting queue.

I've been working my way through the Timpo Toyway figures I've obtained; there were a couple of kneeling chaps, I though a head swap for one and quick conversion for the other to hold a stick would be  a nice addition to a camp fire scene ...

Auxiliary Archers- work in progress

I spotted something useable for my romans some time back - Timpo (Toyway) Heroics Roman Foot Soldiers

the pack contains 10 different poses, which includes one archer reaching for an arrow. I managed to obtain a couple of lots of these (unpackaged) from Ebay, they are a bit bigger than 1/32. From these purchases I only had three archers, so I converted three soldiers holding swords in left hands to archers, and did conversions to make two firing. The arms are from some medieval archers,  bows made from florist's wire...

The little unit of archers - work left to with some green stuff...then onto painting...

Asterix's House ....

Made a up a low relief building to represent Asterix's house (the stonework is from a self-adhesive floor tile)

Queen Who ?

Managed to get a Horrible Histories Boudica, with a little additional paintwork and a replacement spear she's read to take command of the celts/gauls; shown below with a converted scalectrix female spectator and a converted kellogs Little John.

What to call her ? was thinking of something along the lines of Cartimandua (an actual 1st-century queen of the Brigantes) - perhap Gargamantua as she is a little on the larger side.

Roman Villa

A busy week, finishing working on scenic items and the last in a small flurry of posts today - the Roman Villa. For its construction I've made extensive use of printed paper sheets. The two buildings shown in the previous post and some walling I finished recently are used with the villa - here 'tis then

Couple of buildings (one Roman, one Generic)

Two buildings finished. Firstly a roman building which could be if viewed from one side a small house or from the other side a small barrack or stables

Next a generic building - possibly a barn or store house:

Celtic round houses - basic shells

made up some basic shells for three celtic round houses, used some pape-mache round boxes from Hobby Craft, the lids will form the base of the roofs (and will be removable)

Wattle Fencing

Finished off the wattle fencing sections, shown below with a donkey and some Britains cows

roman villa - initial build

Yesterday decided to get on with the villa - the final item has to be capable of use with 40 & 54mm figs - so maybe a bit smaller than would be right for 54mm but a bit large for the 40mm. First measured up and added the main walls in foamboard, with doors cut out.

 then today added the roofs (which lift off) and the basic covered colonnade at the front

That's all of the roman buildings initial build done, so I've got the villa and two others made up which were shown in the previous post - onto the detailing for them next. I may put a basic interior in the villa - some mosaic floors and simply decorated walls.

What about the gauls/celts ? well eventually I'm aiming to build 3 huts and one low relief building plus a pallisade to go in the corner or one of the short sides of the gaming table.

more work on buildings...

Making up some more buildings for the romans, firstly a couple of small generic ones, carcases done, one with possible layout sketched out on the side ....

and also the base borad for a small villa; made this on a scrap piece of MDF, have laid out the outline - I'm going to try and make it with lift off roofs (maybe).

Been doing walls ...

Working on walls for the last week or so, firstly some resin wall sections

 and also some Britains wall sections; I had quite a few of these so I made them up into some corners, singles and doubles - height wise they are a tad low for 54mm but OK for 40mm;

Rules used available

If you are interested you can find the rules used in the game 'Supplies to Sorviodunum' here
(link to rules amended 18/jul/2019)

Supplies for Sorviodunum...

A supply convoy is heading for roman fort of Sorviodunum. There have been reports of unrest amongst the gauls, gallic cavalry were spotted on a recent patrol - the commander is taking no chances and some of the garrison stand ready on the walls, and by the gate - including a detachment of auxiliary cavalry.

The supply convoy has been spotted in the distance and the auxiliary cavalry set off to escort them in...

The supply convoy on their way to the fort..

The cavalry meet up with the supply convoy ..

Gauls in the woods !

A flurry of slingshot and arrows fell some of the cavalry ..

The ballistas on the fort wall open fire on the gauls, to little effect (long range)

Gallic cavalry canter round the wood and towards the romans ...

As the gauls move forward to attack the rear of the convoy, more gauls appear on the other side...

The auxiliaries at the rear of convoy do their best but are outnumbered .....

The roman cavalry see of the gallic cavalry and the ballista fire fells some too... the convoy and escort make a dash for the fort .....

The pack horse is captured by the gauls ....

The rest of the convoy make it safely into the fort under covering fire from the ballistas and a small detachment of the garrision ...

The gauls hold off - deterred by the ballista fire and the prospect of facing more of the garrison ...

The gauls retire with the captured pack horse and melt back into the woods.