Streets of London

fg came by this afternoon with the PVC foam boards he bought and we made the first two of the six boards we will need for our Empire of the Dead campaign.

The street surface is a cobblestone pattern printed on A3 sized paper which we glued to 60cm x 45cm x 3mm PVC foam boards using some tacky spray adhesive. The pattern disguises the joint between boards quite well - you can just about make out the joint in the background.

The building is a pdf from Stoelzel's Structures, glued onto 1mm PVC foam board. The pavement is from Metcalfe - I used it 'as is' for the shot here, but we will probably make the pavement wider for the actual set-up.

We need to print out a few more A3 sheets to complete the project, but at least now we how to do it relatively painlessly.

The boards will just be the beginning of the whole project: we need to make enough buildings and board clutter to make the whole thing look good.

Will take a while, this...

Merneptah and his followers

I haven't thought of a catchy name for the gang, but at least they are all painted.

The figure in the brown suit and fez is from Artizan's Thrilling Tales range, and the rest are from the North Star set.

With the mummies I've got and the figures from my Blood Bowl fantasy Egyptian team, I am set for our Empire of the Dead campaign as far as figures are concerned. We now have the task of building a set of terrain boards and buildings.

Meanwhile, Spartan Games has finally announced the release of their Ottoman ships for their Dystopian Wars range. It's going to be a busy year for me...

Cultist No. 1

All great villains need henchmen, and Merneptah is no exception.

After some discussion with fg, I decided that my robed cultists will be dressed in off-white with an Egyptian Blue trim. I did consider getting some decals of the Eye of Horus for the robes but then I decided they were cultists, not a football team...

Anyway, here is the first of the cultists, fending off an intruder to Merneptah's mansion using a stick of the stout persuasion.

One thing that painting this figure has done is to convince me that I need reading glasses...

Punic Action

We played another game of Dux Bellorum using our house-rules for the Macedonian and Punic Wars this afternoon. I still haven't got all the rules down, but we've got a pretty good grasp of the basic mechanics and turn sequence.

The two lines close.

Legionaries face down elephants.

Professor Flinders Petrie

History records that the mummy of pharaoh Merneptah was found in 1898. History is wrong.

The mummy of the pharaoh was in fact discovered by Professor Flinders Petrie almost two decades earlier. The ka of the pharaoh possessed the body of the young Egyptian assistant at the professor's side when his sarcophagus was opened; it was in that form that the pharaoh won the professor over to his plan of recovering the ancient artefacts that will restore him to his full power and allow him to reign over Egypt again.

Keeping his find a secret, Professor Petrie returned to England with his newfound master and the duo began to recruit followers with promise of arcane power and earthly wealth and luxury in the afterlife...

Portrait of Sir Flinders Petrie, c. 1886

The Merneptah stele, discovered by Professor Flinders Petrie in 1896

Horsies!

I've been trying to find a cheap 28mm draught horse for the past few days but given the recent increase in postage it was no easy task. Then today I came by a shop and found this:

A toob full of horses of about the right size, plus a couple of riders. There are eight different horses, each with a description of the breed or colour on the belly on the horse. As you can see, they are just a bit bigger than a Perry plastic horse.

Now the reason why I needed a draught horse was because I just received a Miniart 1/35 farm cart. For a long time I have felt inadequate because I lacked a wagon or cart model. I know there are many on the market but they are either too expensive for me, or else too... MDF, if you know what I mean. Anyway, I took the chance on the Miniart kit and was quite happy with the detail. However, as befits a 1/35 scale model, its wheels, at 40mm, were too big for my purpose.

The wheels are taller than a man!

What I needed now was a smaller pair of wheels. These Lego 34mm wheels are almost there. fg is going to pass me a few metal wheels from his bits box - hopefully something in the 25mm to 30mm range will do the trick.

 

I really like how heavy draught horses look. They may not be as graceful as an Arab or Andalusian, but the Clydesdales and Percherons have a power and majesty of their own. Now I just have to figure out a way to create a harness for this beauty...

Mummies!

I managed to paint up another one of the figures from the Servants of Ra pack over these past three evenings, and it joins my little gang of mummies.

The new addition is the one in the middle. Most of the rest are from Wargods of Aegyptus, a line which I love. The guy on the extreme left is from Eureka, and the tall guy on the right trying to blend in is a Reaper figure - I like their Nefsokar range too.

One reason why I chose to base my gang on the Darkfire Club in EOTD is because the Club President has the power to raise zombies - naturally, mummies are the logical equivalent formy gang! The rules call for a group of ten mummies when raised, but I think it's rather silly that mummies are being raised right here in London, so my fluff is that they are summoned magically, and so they will be accompanied by some of my animal-headed figures to bulk up the numbers. Or I can use the skeletons from my Blood Bowl team - in fact, the new guy can play for my team too...

Return of the King

While I wait for my next order of Xyston to arrive, I decided to start working on my gang for our VSF campaign.

My choice was the Servants of Ra set from North Star, chosen because I already own a few mummies and fantasy Egyptian figures used for my Blood Bowl team. Coincidentally (or maybe it's just a case of racial stereotyping), the boss of the gang spots the same bald look as my Blood Bowl team coach. I decided they would represent the same character in his Victorian and "native" dress respectively.

The character represents a young Egyptian man possessed by the ka of Merneptah, son of Ramses the Great, who plots his return to power.

Assorted Asiatics

As we explore further expansion of our Macedonian and Punic War campaign, we realised that we already own small "clusters" of figures which can be recruited: fg has several bases of Numidian horse and foot painted, and Martin has figures from his Sassanids which can be used. On my part I found that some of the figures from my Hittite Empire army can be used as African or Asiatic troops.

I guess that's the beauty of ancients gaming.

"Customisable" terrain Part 2

Remember the area-terrain piece I made?

I decided to increase the number of options I can use with it by doing up a few more sets of bases.

The first is a set of resin rocky bases, for the "rough terrain" option.

Then I made some pools to convert the piece into a marsh or bog. The texture of the water comes mainly from the texture of the bases themselves, while the bubbles on the surface are actually from the diluted PVA glue I applied over it.

 

Finally, there is the "Unholy Ground" inserts, made with Mantic Zombie parts, presented in daylight and also "night mode".

This was a fun project, and I think I may add to the collection if I come up with any more ideas.