Wednesday 1 May 2013

May is... Dux Bellorum Month!

After a couple of months in the twentieth century it is time for a change of pace and set the time machine to the Age of Arthur!

I've always wanted to do the Arthurian period ever since I saw this wonderful picture by Richard Scollins in Military Modelling back in the eighties.*

I picked up a few packs of Foundry Arthurian figures a few years back and the excellent WAB book but it was really too big a project, even if the Romano-British would make for excellent fantasy humans as well.

Mike Baumann donated a box of Old Glory Arthurian figures to the cause a couple of years back but it was the publication of Osprey's Dux Bellorum last year that proved the spur.

The game only requires armies of around 50 miniatures a side so I dug out Mike's figures to see what I had and what I needed to get to finish them off. Luckily West Wind had a sale on so I was able to fill the gaps quite easily. Unfortunately due to pack composition I am the odd figure short here and there but I am sure I can find some spares or proxies.

So I have a nice pile of unpainted white metal, enough to make a Romano-British army, a Saxon army and an Irish army. The target this month is to finish at least two of them...

* Richard Scollins is a bit of a pain on this front, I always had a niggling urge to dabble in the American War of Independence after he did some fantastic illustrations for an article on Guildford Court House - I am NOT looking at the Perry plastics though, honest!

6 comments:

  1. Good choice. We have really enjoyed Dux Bellorum. I now need to make time to paint a second army for it, but which one? There are so many good armies to choose from ... :)

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  2. Scollins the master of military art great picture, what other pictures would have he painted if he hadn't died at a relatively young age....have collected any book with his artwork in. Looking forward to seeing the finished armies

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  3. Excellent picture right enough. I remember the issue well, and indeed some of his other work for other periods in the magazine.

    Good luck with the project and look forward to hear about your future DA exploits.

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  4. Guilford court house is at the center of my plans for a 10mm AWI set up, all thanks to those illustrations you mention.

    All the best

    Airhead

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  5. You had the same Arthurian inspiration as me! That issue of MM had two Rick Scollins paintings in it, both of which captured my imagination. Happy Dux Bellorum month by the way :-)

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