Hastati - the formation takes shape.

These 96 figures are all painted as Romans (black over red feathers) and form the Roman hastati of two legions. They are all Renegade figures. Although they should, in all likelihood, be equipped in a similar manner to Principes I have chosen to use figures with pectorals (chest plates) to distinguish the two troops types at a glance.

Putting the hastati and principes together in their manipular formation (the business end of a Roman army) gives me the first real impression of what this two legion consular army is going to look like (without the velites or triarii of course). Once flanked by a similar number of allies (with yellow and blue shields) I think it is going to look pretty good - in all, 576 infantry with a frontage of about 80 inches.

Onwards and upwards - it will be the 48 Roman velites next.

Forza 3 looks really beautiful!

Here are some of my screenshots of this awesome game. Every time I get a new car in the game I always use the photomode first to zoooooooooom as close as possible to all the detail.
And don't miss my Storefront for some great quality custom designs and vinyls I made.
You can also share your own screenshots of the game here if you want.

Ager Sanguinis is finished - Armies of Islam Lists are out now.

The 'Saracen' army lists for Ager Sanguinis are in the November 09 issue (#319) of Miniature Wargames. They include lists for the Seljuks of the northern areas (Rum, Mosul, etc.), the Seljuks of the south (Damascus, etc.) and the Fatimids.

Thus, the series of articles, all of which come full page and advertisement free is finished. The format allows for all 20 pages to be taken from the magazines to form an uninterrupted rule book with cover page.

To recap:

Ager Sanguinis Rules (MW issue 309, January 09) 12 pages.

Crusader army lists (MW issue 311, March 09) 4 pages.

Armies of Islam (MW issue 319, November 09) 4 pages.

I hope you have enjoyed the articles and playing the rules. If this was not your period of interest, I hope the Piquet style mechanisms gave food for thought.

A big thank you to all who corresponded with questions, ideas and encouragement!

James Roach - Olicanalad

DreamForge-Games new web site is up

I got tired looking at the old site, so I pushed up the new one...incomplete and with issues... there are some load issues I need to resolve and some broken links that need fixing but it's nice to give DFG a face lift.

Leviathan Crusader

Working on the Leviathan Crusader, I have his feet done as well as the Vulkan cannon. I will work my way up the legs to the torso and head and finally the claw. The feet took about 35 hours to complete because this model can be posed, everything had to be engineered not only with the movement and collision issues in mind but also with how it would need to be broken up for casting.... Very complex and a challenging build. I feel like I deserve an honorary degree from M.I.T.

Contemplating my naval.

Here are some shots of an ancient naval battle that Peter J. and I are currently waging - Rome Vs Successor State. The models are from my growing collection of 1:600 ships by Xyston. The rules have the working title Fleet of Battle and like Ager Sanguinis have their root in Piquet's Field of Battle by Brent Oman. The rules have been on and off the burner for a few years in various guises and have now reached the 'mechanics finished' stage of development and give a very good game. I am in the early discussion stages (I'm hopeful but no promises) of making them widely available in a complete form - I will keep you informed if anything comes of them.

The beads of various types display navy and squadron (black/red striped white, A, B, C, etc.), yellow spots are squadron flagships, green spots indicate that the vessel is mounting large catapults, red beads are hull damage, white beads indicate crew/morale loss and black beads indicate that the ship is holed, the sea coins show ships are locked together; this naval game does not require roster sheets of any kind - which is unusual for naval games - and allows everything to be determined at a glance, which speeds up play.

Peter and I are taking this game to Fiasco (Royal Armouries, Leeds, W. Yorks) on Sunday 1st November 09, so if you are passing say hi. If you want to give the rules a bash you are welcome to take control of a squadron for a turn or two.

Crimelife 1 sniper targeting compared to GTA: CTW

I just saw this screenshot today from the game Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the PSP and I remembered my own game Crimelife 1. It's the same and it's really great to see that on a top-down GTA game... :)

Khurasan Miniatures - Lion Attack Transport

A look at the printed model, courtesy of Miniature Review, seen in this comparison to a 15mm scale T34/85 tank

The daunting stage

OK, so I've started painting the figures for my Punic Wars collection. The first 100 or so Romans are finished (less basing) and another 100 or so are very near complete. These are my principes (pictured) and my hastati for the four Roman legions - it will be the same for the allies and I have not started the velites, triarii and cavalry. Then it will be similar for the Gauls, Spanish and African / Carthaginians. Almost all will be Renegade figures.

But, oh my................ Almost 200 down and hardly a dent in that pile of lead; sitting like an elephant in the room - I can feel it watching me. It is the way I start all my projects. Research it all - buy it all - paint and base it all.

It is all bagged into batches of 48 (double units) or so for painting. This is what I refer to as the daunting stage of my projects. I have been here before and know that in a year's time the pile will only be half as big and I'll be gaming with the rest. But even so, 'dead' lead still has the power to over awe me. I must keep repeating to myself -

"I've done it before! I've done it before!"

and -

"It's all down hill after the first 1000!"

Updating some old faves.... Vulkan Cannon

In between all the freelance work I get to work on my products... This is a much more heavily detailed arm and gun for one of the Mechs I'll be making.

Some prints are back from Moddeler

John at Moddeler does some good work, keeps me and my clients happy. Hats off to Comfy Chair.

New client and lots of new quirky models

I had the opportunity to work with Chris at Outland Games.

Chris has a great sense of humor and wanted this reflected in his models.

This was a hard project for my to wrap my mind around because I'm so used to designing with a mind set that its got to look lean mean and 100% killing machine. After some back and forth I realized what he wanted and got to work. The large weapons were supposed to be on tripods and gun mounts but I wanted to add some personality and quirkiness to the design. I envisioned the weapons on robotic mounts that would wobble to the next firing position as its crew scurried to keep pace and rather than complicated fire controls on the back of the weapons, just a big red button labeled DESTROY! ;)

Chris describes his race of "Skins" as funny little aliens that use weapons that look like toys, but they are the baddest fighters around.

Ultimately I enjoyed working on this project and hope to work with Chris again to flush out some more not so serious work.