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My demo tile is shaping up nicely. I need to add some work in the fields and work on the road, but it looks like this will work out okay. It is incredibly time consuming, but hopefully it will be worth it.

Like a Magpie, I seem to be easily distracted with minis. I am reading a book about the Roman frontier (along the Rhine), and there is a great photo of a reconstructed watch tower in it. I couldn't help myself and have started on one for my table. It has an extra story, but I thought this would help make it more impressive on the table top.





Knocked it up last last night and today. The heat gun helped a lot with bending the stone textured plastic sides. I have to do the roof, railings, and some putty work before painting.

Really nice quick work on that tower, looks the business. The field is looking awesome too.

Finished up a unit of Late Roman foot over the weekend. I will see if I can get some better photos, but I'm fairly happy with out they turned out. On one of them you can tell I started with a LBM shield transfer, and opted against it for the rest. I think I will stick to painting by hand. It is slower, has less 'flavor' (i.e. scratches and what not), but ultimately seems to be easier/look better. Getting the decals just the right size and matching painting without having an obvious decal edge (as their stuff is really thick) is not easy. For these figures a single model made it apparent that I would have spent just as much time messing with the decal as painting. I do still need to add iris/pupil, but...





Once I get the watchtower railing on, and painting started I will try and get a better picture with it included.

I think the hand painted shields are great

I finished up the railing yesterday and finished painting today. I think I will try LEDs inside it and the window film so I can light it. Now I just need to build a ladder or stairs, any opinions on which?

Looking good dude. Really like shield designs.

EDC

I have recently finished Edge of Empire: Rome's Frontier on the Lower Rhine by Jona Lendering & Arjen Bosman (which inspired the tower). I found it to flow well and have a lot of interesting information. It is a little colored by modern morality in the need to make opposing nations seem more similar than they perhaps are. The authors at least note on this and admit their research is a little biased by modern ideology. Still a good resource on the area and time for any historical gamer interested in life on the Roman Frontier.



Their tower was an all wood one, but in looking through other examples I found loads of half and half or all stone towers.

The tower is looking stunning bud, perfect colouration on the wood.

It has been a while, but I have been working on my Samurai lately, and have finished the first of my Shimazu Clan bushi. I chose Shimazu as my main force is the Otomo Clan who were eventually defeated and absorbed by the Shimazu. Also, the Shimazu traded heavily with the Portuguese, and were the first to use firearms in Japan.

I am thinking of building some palisades for the watch tower, and/or using them for a small fort. Most of the wood i'll do with a brown undercoat dry brushed up with grey to depict wood that is mostly a few years old. I wonder though about making some of it lighter/cream colored to suggest repairs to the wall or do you think that would look odd?

I'm going to use a berm system similar to this:



However, I will use bbq skewers to build up the palisade with boards as the walkway and rear support. I might do part of the rear retaining wall as stone, I'm not sure yet.

In terms of wood, I envision something akin to this for the most part:



Then a few boards or sections of skewers done in a lighter brown like this:



After all, a wall would have been a living thing, kept under regular repair or it was worthless.

Any opinions?

Also, I'm pretty sure I want to do a stone, or half stone gate. This would have been the first part of the fort to be replaced with stone, and I like the dual arch motif:

I have recently been working on a mass of figures on my desk, making slow but sure progress. This chap is a V&V Miniature, and is an amazing cast. Very high quality piece that will work as a Viking, Anglo-Danish, Anglo-Saxon, or similar warlord. I notice I need to clean a little static grass off of his cape, but otherwise I am quite happy with him.

The figures are looking fanyastic. As to the fort, I like the idea, and whole heartedly agree with patches of repair, will give it some life.

I have been on a roll lately and have finished up a 4th point of Romans. These are Gripping Beast plastics. There are a lot in the box, but the poses are very limited and I like the Footsore stuff better. Mostly done with the Levy unit as well, maybe a few more days of work for them.





Then something different. My gaming group plays Blitzkrieg Commander, and with the release of a new version I painted up a US P-47 for our group. Red Tails were highly sought after by bomber crews, the Tuskegee were famous for staying the fight longer and for more crews making it home again. This one is being fired at but still coming in for some close air support. All figs/vehicles are 1/285th scale.






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Then we have some whip. The will be the banner bearer for my Geats/Saxons. Beowulf is tied with the Iliad as my favorite book, and so I choose to use a Dragon for the banner instead of the common Raven. Beowulf as a boy fights monsters in the sea and later dies from wounds received in combat with a dragon. Lastly, longboats are often called out as dragon ships for their carved headpieces. Once the filler dries I can base and weather him.

Ectheow the banner man for Schild.



Then a present for a friend. My wife and just finished watching Hell on Wheels. It is a fictionalized account of the building of the Transcontinental Railroad. The title character, Cullen Bohannon is fictional, but many others are not such as Thomas C Durant and Collis P Huntindon. Part way through the series Cullen is wounded and walks with a limp for the rest of the show. I modified a Knuckleduster Virgil Earp to make Cullen with his cane. I hope he will like it as my friend is a mechanical engineer.

These are delicious limes. Can you tell me where you got the late Romans from? I've never done any historical stuff.

Limes is the Roman term for Border or Boundry. The Roman Frontier forts were/are known as Limes Forts. In this case I was making a play on "Hold the line!", although I do love limes (the fruit). My Late Romans are a mix of Gripping Beast plastics and Footsore metal figs.

Gripping Beast:

https://www.grippingbeast.co.uk/GBP09_Late_Roman_Infantry_plastic_44--product--5328.html

Footsore:

https://footsoreminiatures.co.uk/collections/late-roman-romano-british-early-byzantine

This is when you know you might have a small problem with your ambition:

Hunting mosquitos, Roman style:

Nice scorpion (I think that’s what they were called ) is that a warlord games design?

Warlord Scorpion with some Gripping Beast parts and putty


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Wait half a tick, those are half men:





These are the first two of my Halfmen from Westfalia miniatures. Lovely figs, very well detailed, and I love the more historical feel than the typical Halfling. I will be doing them with a fall themed color scheme.

Work hasn't stopped on the villa, just stalled on the main buildings somewhat. I picked up a grain storage building from Warbases (https://warbases.co.uk/) who make some lovely, affordable, MDF terrain. I know I have the Tithe Barn, which I built, but this looked like a lovely building and I couldn't resist it. I've done most of the building with a white wash, and added some moss to the roof to give it some character. It can go in as an out building for the villa once done:

Front:


Rear:


I've started work on the covered walkway for the villa as well. It took me a while to decide how I wanted to do it, but here she is at her most basic form. There is a gap I'll have to fill, but that should be easy (the angle lines helped getting the cuts close, then some manual adjustments brought everything back in line for the support pillars. I do have another pillar to put at the back corner to suggest a diagonal support structure):




Next is an oasis/pond that has been a long time coming. The ruddy faux water bubbles, and those bubbles don't rise up, so be careful how you pour it. Still, a good use of an old cd, some foam, and sea moss:



Last, but not least is my bannerman for my vikings. Wait, you say, that isn't a raven! True, for while the raven was a symbol of Odin (Hugnin and Munin, sic, were his ravens that brought him knowledge and gossip, their names meaning Thought and Memory), it wasn't the only viking banner. I've chosen a stylized bear for several reasons.

1. Bears were common enough, and feared/respected enough that the name Bjorn effectively means 'bear'. Bjorn Ironsides was one of the most successful and ruthless viking leaders, so a bear totem seems plausible
2. Berserk may come from a number of different sources. One theory is that it comes from two root words that means 'bear' and 'shirt', and that berserkers wore bearskins. Again, another good reason to use a bear
3. My favorite animal is a Polar Bear, so that didn't hurt any.





V and V miniatures really makes some gorgeous stuff. I may find myself breaking down and buying their Vikings with Dane Axes (to swap into my Anglo-Danes) and possibly some Normans. I really would like some unarmored Normans (Saxon miniatures, I'm looking at you), but their Normans look so darn nice that I might have to pick some up anyways.

 Maniac_nmt wrote:
Limes is the Roman term for Border or Boundry. The Roman Frontier forts were/are known as Limes Forts. In this case I was making a play on "Hold the line!", although I do love limes (the fruit). My Late Romans are a mix of Gripping Beast plastics and Footsore metal figs.

Gripping Beast:

https://www.grippingbeast.co.uk/GBP09_Late_Roman_Infantry_plastic_44--product--5328.html

Footsore:

https://footsoreminiatures.co.uk/collections/late-roman-romano-british-early-byzantine

Yes I know, it was a silly pun on my part. Sorry. Thanks for the links, and that villa looks amazing.

Of ancient elvish make, Erdingerblitz, glows blue in the presence of good beer.

Loving the work here! And love seeing more historical items here on Dakka Dakka.

Keep it up!

All looking fantastic, really love the bannerman, excellent work. That building is a real beauty too, off to look at that store.

Well, so much for minis between now and Christmas. We took our kids to Disneyland and California Disney for the first time and my son has asked me to build him Radiator Springs for Christmas. If you haven’t been there, it is easily the coolest land in Disney:



Neon is beyond my skill, but the buildings I can do. On a 4’x2’ board, I should be able to get the Courthouse/FD/PD, Ramone, Flo’s Cafe, Lizzie’s, the Cozy Cone, Docs, luigi’s, and two generic buildings.

First up is Luigi’s Casa Della Tires:

Here we go into the deep end:



Start of Luigi's shop:



The roof tiles are easy, as are the windows and awning. The tire stack I'll have to think about.

Potential wall decoration incoming:

https://imgprod60.hobbylobby.com/sys-master/migrated/h0d/h73/h00/9368271192094/496893-1216%5B6%5D.jpg

I am well into Lizzie’s Curio Shop now. First some signs to hang on the porch or stand up in the yard:



I made the porch deeper than it should be so that cars could drive across it easily:



Being impatient, I started painting and slapping stuff on the walls. I will need to remove the grey in spots, but this still the beginning.

Excellent build. Nothing wrong with rescaling the widths to suit play. You have managed to keep it believable. Great ambition, every confidence in you. This will be epic.