La Legion

This years challenge has started quite slowly for me but at long last I'm finally able to squeeze in an adequately sized submission. Curt, ChrisS, PhilH and myself are running a Spanish Civil War side challenge and if I'm not completely mistaken this entry should put me in the lead... for the moment at least. As per our agreement it's a legally playable force for Bolt Action.

Western Roman Cataphractarii

The Cataphractarii were the tanks of late antiquity. Like their eastern equivalent, the Clibanarii, they were heavily armoured and also made use of the contus. The contus was a long cavalry lance of between 3 and 5 meters. It should be noted that medieval lances only measured about 2.50 to 3 meters in length. Due the extreme length the contus had to be used with both hands and thus the Cataphractarii didn't use shields, or if so only very small shields strapped to the upper arm.

Balbus the disfigured - Early Republican Roman command stand

Finally I've made it! My first scheduled friday-submission!
Well, live is rather busy around here with me being away on in-company training for much of the time as well as taking over new responsibilities in my job. Normally I would have planned to have more time for painting this challenge, but alas it was not to be. I'm rather sure most of you know such real live issues only to well so I stop blathering and will come straight to business.

If walls could talk...

It was a sad day for Frank Sperber, Obergefreiter of the Wehrmacht, when he returned home for the first time in over a year. The last time he saw the house he had called his home was when he departed for his first assignment after basic training, sitting on the floor of a horse cart, holding a lock of blonde hair in his left hand. He was to join a newly raised Panzergrenadierdivision in France and he could still vividly remember his parents, standing at the garden gate, waving him goodbye with tears in their eyes as if they'd knew what was to come. And there was Anne... 

Eastern Roman Clibanarii

The Clibanarii are thought to have been the eastern Roman equivalent to the western Cataphractarii. Both were inspired by the heavy cavalrymen Rome encountered in her battles against the Parthians and later Sassanids. The word Clibanarius probably stems from the Persian word griwbanwar (neck-guard wearer).

'Liberated' R35 in German service

As certainly some of my regular followers will be aware of, I'm currently taking part in the frenzy that is the Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. Thus service on this blog might be even more erratic than usual. 

Panzerkampfwagen 35R 731(f) - France June 1940

Red Devils on the prowl

I actually wanted to start this post ranting about the latest update to the Blogger Dashboard...
but it being Christmas Day and all I decided to save my breath. But I'm in all honesty considering to stop using Blogger. It became a pain in the butt to work with on the tablet and thus I'm considering different possibilities for the future. Also I want to apologize for a lack of comments on your collective blogs. I'll try to make good for that in the next few days. But that's enough of my whining for now, so on to the miniatures I'd say!

A bridge too far?

I hope you don't mind my rather pathetic title for this post but honestly no matter how hard I tried nothing wittier sprang to mind.

Fallschirmjäger crossing a river near Monte Cassino - May 1944

Final Fallschirmjäger installment... for now

I would never have guessed it when I (re-) started work on my Fallschirmjäger force for Bolt Action, but I actually managed to paint up all the figures I had sitting in the lead pile for this particular project. Well, the white metal ones that is. I've not yet decided if I'll go down the plastic way for future reinforcements or if I'll bite the bullet and stay with heavy metal.
At the moment that doesn't matter that much though, as the force is at about 1600 points now and as such more than fully playable.

As mentioned in previous posts I'll be using the Fallschirmjäger Theatre Selector from 'Duel in the sun' for this force and as such there were several choices I still needed to round out my force.

The Landsknecht experience

As I only recently finally finished the Panzer IV I owed my good friend Chris, it was about high time to finish the figures I had agreed to paint for Curt as well.
We do have a small trans-atlantic miniatures exchange program running where he paints one or two miniatures per year for me and in exchange he get's roughly the same number from me.
We don't have a set topic for the miniatures we paint for each other. It's more a combination of what we do want to paint and what the recipient would like to get painted.

During last years Challenge Curt started work on a wonderful "Italian Wars" project and also painted up a spiffing and quite extraordinary piece of equipment called "The Death Bell of Breugel Bosch". If you haven't seen it already I strongly urge you to have a look at this rather inspired and twisted take on renaissance artillery. Well, be it as it may, when I first saw it I knew what I wanted to paint up for Curt. If only had I known what I was in for...