There I was, happily minding my own business, preparing some World War 2 1/285 scale aircraft for painting, planning then to move on to my 6mm Anglo-Saxons, and then perhaps off to something nautical, perhaps 1/1200 scale galleys or modern vessels when Little Wars TV presents First Manassas. They show the battlefield, then discuss the tactics and Gen. McDowell’s performance. Just have a look at this.
Now I am getting an almost uncontrollable itch to paint 6mm American Civil War figures. Of course, to do that, I would need to purchase some 6mm American Civil War figures as I do not have any in the lead pile. English Civil War, Ancients, Napoleonics, World War 2 and Cold War figures in stock aplenty but no American Civil War figures. I have several sets of rules on the bookshelf, lots of reference works but no figures.
So, I had only just posted that I’ve got a spare Pikeman … or two! and what should turn up at Makati Central Post Office but a book! And what a book.
This is Volume 1, covering all our favourite diadochi, like Ptolemy, Antigonus, Seleucus and Lysimachus, to name but a few. Mithridates of Pontus even rates a mention.
The re-purposed Romans … almost completed the basing. Figures by Baccus 6mm
I have been re-purposing some 6mm figures recently and had re-based and am in the process of decorating the bases of some Early Imperial Romans. I purchased them a few years ago to base for Polemos’ SPQR Ancients. I decided to move off SPQR Ancients and return to DBA and/or Basic Impetus for my Ancient Wargaming, partly on the basis of space. When I purchased the Romans, I also purchased Numidians and a Pontic Army. The Numidians have been hacked around providing filler for the some other forces I have and I had clean forgotten about the Pontic army.
I rediscovered those figures the other day when looking for some decals in a little accessed box. Goodness I have a few. In fact, the following (all Baccus 6mm):
144 x Thureophoroi
18 x Skythian Light Horse
48 x Foot Archers
6 x Generals
18 x Tarantine (??) Cavalry
18 x Cataphracts
144 x Imitation Legionaries
144 Phalangites with no Sarissa
192 Pikemen (pikes forward and raised)
192 Pikeman (pikes raised)
16 x lights, chariot crew, don’t know what
Bags of 6mm successor figures, pikes, imitation legionnaires and the like – the Pontic Army in 6mm
Quite a mountain of figures so … a re-purposing is in order. I can make a Mithradatic Pontic force (DBA Book II/48) from this bunch and will likely have enough figures left over to build another DBA army, maybe of Successors. I will need to add a couple of things though:
Scythed Chariot (maybe 2)
some slingers
some Javelinmen (maybe I can get some leftovers from the Erik Bloodaxe project)
some Companions (for guard)
Of course this will naturally segue into more forces as the enemies need to be built as well and Pontus managed to acquire quite a few over time:
Skythian
Kappadokian
Bithynian
Sarmatian
Galatian
Parthian
Marian Romans (although I can substitute the Camillan (Polybian) or Early Imperial Romans for these.
I am really enjoying the ancient period again and I can see my lead pile increasing in the near futures again!
I received some Napoleonic reinforcements recently and I now how wargamers like to live vicasiously, looking at others toys so here I the unpacking of the Baccus 6mm reinforcements – Dutch Belgians along with a few Brunswickers. Just what I needed, more figures in the lead pile. At this rate I will live forever.
