Milites on the march

An outdoor event we went to yesterday afternoon ended much earlier than expected due to thunderstorms, so with a clear conscience I decided to finish off the Milites for Dux Britanniarum.

Trying for size.

The dip has turned a bit syrupy over its time in storage, but seems to have worked just fine. A coat of matte varnish over all finished the job, although I noticed the (supposedly dry) red ink used for the decorative trim on the tunics bled into the varnish a little. It's barely noticeable and I put it down to the vegetable dyes used during the period being less than colour-fast. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it...

The figures are lacking shields at the moment. I intend to get some decals when I can and will wait until then to fit the shields.

Once dry, they were ready for basing. I used discs of cardboard, with Liquid Nails sprinkled with sand for the basing material. It doesn't shrink or warp, allowing me to use the cheap/free card. I'm on a tap-water budget here.

Almost ready to go off to war against the Saxon dogs.

The spacing is perhaps a little bit too wide. I think it'll be less noticeable once the figures have their shields attached. In any case, all my figures for both Romano-British and Saxons will be based the same so there's no major gripe against it.

Next up on the painting block will be the elite warriors of the Roman-British, the Comanipulares, and the Lord and nobles to command the army.
 

Milites on the painting block

The edits on my next book are in the final stages, and another book has been accepted for publication - always a good thing for an author! More hurry-up-and-wait as far as the house sale goes, however. To get away from things for a while my wife and I attended the Marcon 52 weekend in Columbus, OH, which was... okay. Numbers seemed way down from last year, which may be due to the event falling on Mothers' Day here in the US. By contrast the gaming section had been moved to the main floor and seemed packed. Go figure.

Back home, I resumed painting the Milites, the twelve-figure mainstay of the Romano-British Dux Britanniarum forces.

These are 15mm Splintered Light Miniatures, and rather nice they are too. I haven't much left to paint now - just the hair, leggings, shoes and bases and decorative trim - before highlighting and dunking them in the varnish and ink dip. Once these are done I'll move on to the Comanipulares, the elite troops of the Romano-British army, along with the nobles and champions. After those it'll be on to the civilians, the long-suffering taxpayers all these armed and armoured fellows are paid to protect from the Saxons.

Limbo, limbo...

So, our house is back up for sale. The buyer had to back out for various reasons, leaving us in a state of limbo with much of our stuff packed in boxes.

...

Yeah, it's frustrating.

I've got book edits to do, and I might as well get something growing in the garden. Hobby wise, I'm going to get my paints and brushes out again and work on the Dux Britanniarum figures. The new resin bases are all painted and ready for them. Buggered if I know when I'll get a game in again. We'll see.