Impetus Gallic army on parade!

This spring, I painted Mid Republican Roman, Pontic and Gallic armies for Impetus.  I finished my Gauls in May and wrapped up the project with a ton of pics.  Unfortunately, the pics turned out to be garbage (arg!) so this post went on the back burner until I could reshoot them. Photography is my least favorite part of this hobby but I finally got them lined up and photographed.  Here's the first and last muster of my Impetus Gauls before they left for a new home.  Boys, we hardly knew ya!

Naked Warriors:  These were easy to paint thanks to the great sculpts by Xyston-clearly a fit and trim bunch.  While sculpting the hills and cliffs with clay was a messy and slow business, the end results were decent!

Light Cavalry:  To my mind, the Impetus method of using one base per unit is genius.  Light horse looks like lights, do they not?  And you have the space to tell a story.

Medium Cavalry:  Looking suitably tough as they descend a hill to loot a camp near you.

Light Chariots:  Xyston doesn't do Gallic chariots so I grabbed these from Splintered Light Miniatures. I was very pleased with them, especially the shaggy ponies. Splintered Light is another top miniature modeler.

Javelinmen Skirmishers:  In Impetus, a skirmisher base is 20 mm x 80 mm. I doubled these up for the visual effect.

Warriors: 10 bases of warriors.  Xyston command packs have some heroic poses and the basing allows these figures to shine.  

While Impetus did not catch fire in our group, I don't regret this project for a moment. This was the most fun I've had painting minis to date.  I love the spacing and opportunity to tell a story on a single base. I love painting each figure with great care, knowing the basing allows the extra efforts to be seen.  I also love the game itself!  The only part I didn't care for was my armies sitting in boxes and not seeing the light of day.  To that end, I put my unused armies up for sale for an end-of-year reset.  Off went my gladiators and all 3 Impetus armies.  The upside is:

• 2 gentlemen in Kansas City will use my Romans and Pontics for a tabletop adaptation of Command and colors.  
• A gentlemen in Wisconsin will use my Gauls in his Roman v. Barbarian slugfests. 
• A gentlemen in Kentucky will surprise his club with my gladiators on game night.
• I'm getting a commission as well, which means I'm not done painting and basing Impetus.  
• Lastly, I have funds for my next project.  On to the next thing!

Gone camping - Gallic and Pontic camps

To finish the Impetus armies I started last spring, I needed a Gallic and Pontic camp plus Pontic command stands. Here are the results!

Gallic Camp: Seeing as how they're on the move, I think the player who deploys this camp should be allowed to move it across the tabletop each turn!  Old Glory driver, Black Hat wagon, Splintered Light dogs and handler, Xyston rider.  

Pontic camp:  Xyston figures and Baueda tent. Bark from the banks of the Mississippi doubling as rocky terrain.   Brent, I'll need a fresh baggie the next time we get together!

Pontic command stands:  Xyston Greek command figures.  

That wraps up my 15mm Impetus projects once and for all.  Next week, I'll explain why all of these fellows moved on to new homes.  

Royal Banderium meets AC/DC

The Royal Banderium were the finest troops in Matthhias Corvinus’ Hungarian Black Army.  They were composed of nobles, exceptional mercenaries and high ranking members of other bandieras.  Inspired by the picture below, I painted the Royal Banderium in black.  I did work them up a bit as straight black left them looking like they were primed and waiting for paint.

The Royal Banderium, "Back in Black" version:

I recently had an opportunity to get in on a large Essex Miniature buy.  Having sold off my Hungarians over the summer, I was looking for a new medieval army. After studying the Field of Glory army lists, I decided to buy and paint a new Medieval Hungarian army. Yea, that's kind of embarrassing...

What sucked me back down this road are some ideas for painting version 2.  True to their name, I plan on using black as a reoccurring color throughout the units.  Mind you, I won't paint them all black as that'd be boring.  In my mind's eye, this will be a 15th century armored badass meets AC/DC.  The Black Army, "Back in Black."