Reaper Bones Slow Crawl

It looks like the Reaper Bones kickstarter is making progress. I just took a look at this video update of all of the completed figures available in the basic Vampire level package...


That's... that's actually pretty intimidating. And I added on bonus figures. *Gulp*!

Hail Caesar Skirmish #7: Back to Basics

Before children, my wife and our friends Rob and Laura would meet regularly to play games. Catan, Ticket To Ride, Roborally, and more hit the table at least once a month. Since we all started infecting our houses with time-eating rug rats, our game nights have become infrequent at best.  The stars aligned the other night though, and we managed to get a game night with all four of us. Surprisingly  the game I was informed we'd be playing was Hail Caesar . Find out how teaching two wargaming newbs the art of ancient warfare went after the jump.

WIP for Crusader Miniatures Carthaginian "Libyan Spearman"

This big block of 32 Carthaginian spearmen are going to take quite a while to finish, but I figured I could post a progress update. A few more progress pics after the jump.

Agema Miniatures Plastic Roman Republican Velites!

Wow! I didn't even know these were on the horizon! Agema Miniatures will be releasing a set of 16 plastic Republican Roman velites at Salute this year. Nice!

Check these masters out. Look at the hand holding the raised javelin. THAT'S how a hand should look. So much better than the cupped flipper hands you see on so many plastic sets that hold separate weapons.

It looks like they are including wolfskin head pieces too. I love the flowing look of the pelt, something you can't do in single casting metal.

Lots more at the Agema Miniatures site. Can't wait for the April 20th release!

"My Way", WWII from the Korean Point of View

I had a chance to check out the Korean WWII film "My Way" the other week when it popped up on Netflix streaming. Like all wargamers I'm a sucker for war movies, and I'm more than happy to branch out to non-English movies. "Downfall" is fantastic, and Kurosawa's samurai films are classics, but "My Way" was the first Korean historical piece I'd seen. My thoughts after the jump.

Excavations at Lead Mountain

"All right!" I thought to myself, "Time to get cracking on another unit for Hail Caesar." I went elbow deep into my lead pile and emerged with a handful of Crusader Miniatures "Libyan Infantry". A lot of Libyan Infantry. No matter, I've got my shield transfers...

I've got my spears...

and I've got over 30 Libyans prepped and ready for priming.

I started dividing them into like poses to make assembly line painting easier, when I stumbled across an abnormality. One of the four packs of infantry was wearing mail rather than linothorax. Now, I bought these figures two years ago, and I'm sure I had a plan but I'm mystified as too what that was. Was using a few Libyans in chain part of that plan? Did I order them by accident? Was I going to use the figures in chain as part of a command stand and use the remaining linothorax figures for a pike block of 28? Didn't the Carthaginians pick up their chain armor from the Romans? If so, I suppose I could mix them together to represent a unit just beginning to scavenge from their Italian adversaries.

I really wish I could go back and ask myself just what I was thinking.

WWII Germans in Color

I've seen color WWII photos and films before, but I still find them rare enough to be novelties. A set of German propaganda pics popped up on Reddit. I found them interesting and thought you might too.

Panzer III?

Is that a lend lease Sherman and T-34 on the easter front?

In researching German uniforms I was aware that the Hollywood gray was much lighter than what the Heer actually wore, being darker and greener like the dirty faced fellow below:

But check out the uniforms on this anti-tank crew. Even taking into account the altered hues in this early color film, their uniforms are nearly black. Is that a "trick of the light", or did the uneven production quality of German textile mills produce such sinister looking uniforms?



More photos available from the original imgur album.