Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you all!

As promised yesterday, here you are, as a summary, a complete 2020 Advent Calendar in two versions.

Beware: by clicking on the images, you will get a big file (1,4 Mo).

 

 

See you soon, I hope to write a small 'making-of' before the end of the year :)

 

2020 Advent Calendar: Day 24

Today is the last day of the advent calendar, and for that particular day, we need a peaceful scene :-)

Day 24: Along the Silk Road

The name 'Silk Road' is given to a network of trade routes interconnecting all lands between Southern Europe and East Asia. A major item of this trade was the silk, first produced in China. Various historical events, particularly the conquests of Alexander, contributed to the opening of these intercontinental roads. One of the successor state to the Macedonian Empire, the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom, based in Bactria (modern Afghanistan) expanded to the East, leading to the first contacts with China in about 200 BC.

Of course, trade caravans gathered dozens, or even hundreds of beasts and men, certainly heavily guarded since they transported highly valuable goods. In the pictures below, we see only a part of a caravan, a man leading a camel and a yack in a mountainous area. Given the look of the fret, the animals are maybe carrying silk.

Wonderful figures by Linear A, I only wish I find time to paint more of them :)

Here you are, the end of the road for the 2020 advent calendar. The good thing is that I really used every single scene element I had, so beyond 24 images, I would have repeated myself very soon :)

I hope you all enjoyed the journey, that these pictures illustrate very wel.

See you... tomorrow for a short summary ;-)

2020 Advent Calendar: Day 23

 Hello! One more entry in the Advent Calendar, as it's getting more and more difficult to find an idea for a new scene :)

On day 23 of the 2020 Calendar, we have a look at Goth warriors.

Our guys are scouting near Adrianopolis, at the beginning of august, in 378. In a few days, the Wisigoth and Ostrogoth armies, under the command of Fritigern, will destroy the Roman army of Emperor Valens.

The man on the left is an ordinary warrior, fighting with spear and sword. His defensive weapons are a shield and a helmet, similar to those worn in the Roman army, in which he probably served as foederati only a few years before. Figure by Hät.

The man on the right is a chieftain, he's wearing a bronze scale armour. Figure by Miniart.

When I have painted enough Goths, I will be able to play a game against my Late Imperial Roman army.

 Still one day before the end of the calendar, see you tomorrow :)

2020 Advent Calendar: Day 22

One more day in the calendar, and a Roman day again.

Day 22: Roman Legionaries in action

These Legionaries were made by Strelets. They're considered in action since they've already thrown their pila and drawn their gladii (swords), which tells us that the close combat will begin very soon.

They're meant to be part of my Early Imperial Roman army, together with the auxiliary archers (already shown here), and the other Romans of this calendar.

Very classical but a must-have for any Ancients wargamer.

See you tomorrow.

2020 Advent Calendar: Day 21

Today is the 21st day of the Advent Calendar, it's Saint Peter's day. And you know why ? Because it's Mummies day !!

"... and at the 21st day of the Advent, the Mummies will rise again, and their number will be higher than ever..."

 

 Ok, only five mummies doesn't make an innumerable horde, but last time I had only three of them, so 'higher than ever' :D. The two new additions are these:

If we dare to have a closer look, we can see that the first one has a head of Anubis over its own head. Its eyes are glooming in the dark, because it is animated by some sort of... evil ?

The second one looks like a pharaoh, especially the one that is drawn on the cover of a famous Iron Maiden album :D

Remember this one ?

One more family picture, bouh, frightening... Peter, what do you think of them ?

Hope you like them, in spite of their old age :D

See you tomorrow for the next day of this unusual Calendar!

2020 Advent Calendar: Day 20

For today's image, we follow the track of Alexander, the great Macedonian General, as we discover a region never seen on this blog, the Indus valley.

Day 20 of the Calendar: Indian warriors of the Indus valley, 4th century BC

Documentation on these warriors is rather scarce (or my research wasn't good), so I had to follow secondary sources to paint these guys. 

First problem: the skin tones. How were Indians in those days ? I supposed that people in this time were as different from one another as today, so I used 3 different base colors, from dark to light tone.

Second problem: the shields. Probably covered with leather, but painted, or still with animal skin ? I chose to represent both, but once again I'm not sure of the historical accuracy.

Third problem: the clothes. I chose to stick to undyed fabrics, but once again, not sure.

We can see the variations in the close-up picture below:

The Macedonian army of Alexander reached the Indus valley in the 4th century BC, and fought against the famous king Porus on the banks of river Hydaspes. Years after, the Greek and Indian culture melted in what we name today the Graeco-Indian civilization in Europe, and Yavanarajya (Kingdom of the Greeks) in India.

I represented here a Graeco-Indian elephant surrounded by Indian warriors from another kingdom.

The last picture shows an avatar of an Indian god fighting among the warriors that worship him. This figure comes from the Kinnikuman / M.U.S.C.L.E. range, as you can see on this post.

So, regarding the historical accuracy, you understand that I'm not sure of my color schemes. In case you have better documentation than what I could find, do not hesitate to leave me a comment, either to confirm my choices or to help me to fix my mistakes. Thanks!

See you tomorrow!

2020 Advent Calendar: Day 19

Grmmpf... If we had to invent the advent calendar nowadays, I'm sure the painters would negotiate a period with regular holidays, something like a week-end... Well, anyway, I had to work late yesterday evening (because of my job, I mean), and I will soon start another working day today, so I'm in a hurry to finish this post :)

For day 19 of the 2020 Advent Calendar, we jump through time to reach Europe at the beginning of the 19th century, and we have a look at British Riflemen in action.

In the previous post, I was inspired by a painting made by Angus McBride. For today, my inspiration finds its source in the wonderful work of a fellow painter, Bill Slavin, whose blog can be seen here.

Bill's scenes representing the war of the Peninsula are very nice: excellent paint job (full units, not only a few guys) with serious preliminary research, and also excellent modelling for the landscape.

My own guys are defending a small field, surrounded by hedges and even an old wall. We can notice some fruit trees in the background. These Riflemen belong to the 95th regiment - they are easy to recognise because of their typical green jackets. On the pictures below, we can see a few soldiers from various line or light regiments fighting as well.

All Napoleonics fans will have seen that the Riflemen come from the famous Revell set.

The red fusiliers come from Airfix, Hät and Qualitycast (metal).

I almost used my last scenery elements in this scene, with some hedges and a cultivated field. Fortunately, there's only 5 days to go, so 5 ideas still to be found :)

See you tomorrow.

2020 Advent Calendar: Day 18

Back to Fantasy! For day 18 of the Advent Calendar, we focus on a mythological creature... A Centaur, at fight with Thracians!

 

The scene takes place in the North of (mythological) Greece, in the mountains at the border of Thrace. The Centaur, half-man and half-horse is equipped like an hoplite with bronze helmet, linothorax (linen armor) and a hoplon (large round shield). His opponents are Thracian peltasts, easy to recognise thanks to their typical patterned coats.

The scene is loosely inspired by a famous illustration by Angus McBride showing Greek warriors skirmishing against Thracian peltasts in a snowy landscape.

Close-ups on the Centaur, a figure by Dark Alliance. The pattern on the shield revealed more difficult to paint than expected, I had to do it twice before reaching something correct.

Hope you like him - it would be cool to see more mythological creatures in 1/72 :)

See you soon.

2020 Advent Calendar: Day 17

We stay in the Roman world today, not during the Empire but at the time of the Republic. 

For day 17 of the Advent Calendar, we have a look Samnites warriors.

 

Among the main competitors for the control of Central Italy were the Samnites, a confederation of Italian tribes living in the mountains, north of Neapolis (modern Naples).

The Samnites and the Romans fought three long wars between the 4th and 3rd century BC, at the end of which the Samnites were defeated and surrendered to Rome. They revolted and supported Hannibal during the 2nd Punic war.

In the next picture, I added figures painted formerly, in order to form two elements for DBA / AdG. On the left, ordinary warriors, and on the right, some elite warriors of the famous Legio Linteata (white clothes and silver weapons). The scene is an attempt to represent hills or mountains :)

Hope you like them :)

See you tomorrow !

2020 Advent Calendar: Day 16

One step hotter... Imagine, for a moment, that you are surrounded by thousands of people speaking, screaming or shouting. Your feet are in the sand, a bright sun shines above you, really hot at noon. You have a strange sort of helmet on your head - you don't hear very well and you can't see everything. And moreover, another guy like you starts to strike heavily on your shield. A real nightmare...

For day 16, let's get a closer look at gladiators!

 

 

The man below is a Secutor (meaning 'follower' or 'chaser'). His equipment consists of a large shield, a gladius, and a characteristic helmet with two eye-holes. It is believed that this helmet was designed to make the Secutor the usual opponent of a Retiarius, armed with a trident: its shape would prevent the man from behing thrust in the face, and made him not easy do catch.

Emperor Commodus (2nd century AD) is known to have fought as a Secutor in the Coliseum in Rome.

This man is a Myrmillo. He wears a helmet with a huge dorsal fin, a large rectangular shield and a gladius. This crest is an evocation of the momylos, a sort of sea fish that gave his name to this sort of gladiator.

 That's all for today, see you tomorrow for the next day of the calendar :)

2020 Advent Calendar: Day 15

So far, this calendar has displayed only one rider, a French Hussar. It's probably time to show some more, at the head of another fierce warband.

For Day 15, we have a look at a group of Ancient Germans on horse.

 

In ancient times, the area between the Rhine and the Danube was covered with forest. When the Germanic tribes were going to war, they gathered in warbands and fought mainly on foot. As in the Celtic world, the noblemen could buy horses and fight as riders, so most Germanic armies had a few cavalry units with them.

We can see below three riders armed with javelins and shields, running out of the cover of the trees. They look rather impetuous...

Of course they're not alone, since they're heading the main warband of their tribe. Or they going to attack the Roman fort of day 13 ?

These Strelets figures will be based together as a 3Cv element for DBA or L'Art de la guerre.

Hope you like them. See you soon :)

2020 Advent Calendar: Day 14

I needed one more sunny scene, and maybe this feeling is shared by those of you who live in the northern hemisphere.

For day 14 of the Advent Calendar, we discover Normans sunbathing on the shores of Sicily.

The Normans are not only known for the invasion of England and the battle of Hastings in 1066. Some Norman mercenaries began to arrive in South Italy during the 10th century AD. At first, they served either for the Lombard nobles or the Byzantines. After a few years, they became strong enough to rule several counties and in 1061, they crossed the Strait of Messina and began to invade Sicily, that was ruled by several Muslims lords. We see here three Norman knights on the shore near Messina, standing but ready to fight.

On a technical point of view, the most funny thing to do in this scene was to create a credible Mediterranean Sea for the background. I must admit that I don't know what the area of Messina looks like - maybe my sea is closer to the Atlantic Ocean :D

Hope you like them anyway. See you tomorrow !