Step by step: Basing a giant scorpion

 Hi everyone!

Today, I'd like to share a new step in the building of my 1/72 Mythological Egyptian army - the previous episode is here.

You certainly know that 1/72nd scale is much less used by wargamers and role players than 28mm or even 15mm. Aside from the fact that you can't find a player for miles, one of the consequences is that the number of manufacturers is rather small, particularly regarding Fantasy. And so, it is difficult to find mythological creatures for your 1/72 army.

Is it ? If I have a figure of creature in 28mm, it can be considered as a giant creature in 1/72. And if it is a giant creature in 28mm, it becomes an extra-giant creature in 1/72. Ok, that's easy, and I've soon discovered that many gamers have had this idea already. But what if you want to be able to use your creature in 28mm AND in 1/72 ? You will probably need different bases (unless your system is very open regarding bases, or you don't care). And even more if you have figures on round bases that you want to use with wargame rules that work better with square bases.

So you have to adapt and create a new base in which you can insert the original mini. That's what I've done to get a giant scorpion in my 1/72 Mythological Egyptian army. Let's have  look:

 This scorpion comes from the 28mm Conan range by Monolith. All the figures in this game are sold on round bases (35mm in diameter here), and I since I'm playing that game, I don't want to remove that base. And the other hand, I need to put it on a 60mmx60mm base for a Fantasy variant of l'Art de la Guerre. So I've cut a round 35+mm hole in some balsa wood (very easy, even with an ordinary cutter), and I've stuck the outer part with wood glue on my MDF square base.

No no, Mxxxxrix isn't my sponsor :D

 

The hole in the balsa wood is a bit larger than just needed, inserting the figure will be easier

Then I've stuck a few stones (gravel) with wood glue on the balsa, and now we wait until it's dry.

When dry, I cover the base (except for the hole) with some desert sand by AK. It gives the base a nice sand texture, but I don't like its color. No major problem of course.

 

When the result is dry (yes, you spend more time waiting than anything else, so it's better to do several things in parallel), I cover with a better sand color in my taste, GW's Zandri Dust.

And I add some dry grass - my desert must not be completely sterile!

 

Last step: I need to dry brush the sand with a mix of Zandri Dust and White Scar.

 I'm happy with the result, and I have at last a good method to base my whole Egyptian army. Last picture, some 20mm Romans in front of the scorpion for the scale: it is a giant scorpion, indeed :)

 

 

Here you are. I hope you will find this modest tutorial useful, and that you like this cute scorpion - by the way, he resembles those that live at my mother-in-law's house in South France, same color and size. The real ones are completely harmless :)

See you soon! 

 

Egyptian Mythology: of Gods and Beetles

 Hi everybody!

Sorry for the lack of update on this blog. Not a lack of mojo this time, it's just that sometimes, real life's stronger than hobby. I didn't paint a lot since last winter, though I have a few figures to show. After Nordic then Greek mythology, I wanted to extend my Ancient Egyptian army into a fantastic version. It's far from complete but I have enough figures for a decent post.

First, the family picture:

 If you've read this blog in the past, you might identify some mummies on the left of the picture. Let's have a closer look:

These figures come from a Dark Alliance set, ALL72045. The same manufacturer also produced some Anubites (named after god Anubis, a reference to the Mummy movie series, set ALL72053), and you can see them here:

I also wanted to represent some Egyptian Gods. Fortunately, Reaper Minis produced some in their plastic 28mm range, and I chose to paint Thoth, god of the Moon, wisdom, knowledge, writing, hieroglyphs, science, magic, art and judgment. He is often depicted with an ibis head an a human body.

A could also find a swarm of scarabs in the Reaper range - though big for 1/72, they do the job.

Of course you also need some human troops. Here they are so far, some archers:

Some heavy warriors, including a few Sherden elite.

And the usual light infantry. Nubian archers:

And Libyan warriors:

Still a lot of work to complete this army. I need:

- a second scarab swarm figure

- more heavy warriors

- more Anubites (my favorite figures in this army)

- some giant scorpions (I found some in the Conan range by Monolith)

- a sphinx (Reaper)

- some Chariots (some are on my workbench for aeons...)

- and some generals, foot and chariot

Hope they are worth the wait :) 

EDIT: I also wanted to apologize for the lack of answer to your nice comments lately, but there's a security issue between Firefox and my Google account, so that I am now unable to write a comment on my own blog!!! Very sorry. I'm considering leaving Blogger if I don't find an answer to that problem.

EDIT #2: I've found a way to solve my problem, at last! If I use Firefox private navigation, I can write comments on my own blog, and also on the others. If this info is of help...
 

1/32 Alla corte del Faraone (At the Pharaoh's court)

 Hi everyone! 

Today's post is an unusual one, because:

- the title is in Italian (but only the title, sorry for my Italian neighbours)

- the figures are 1/32, and not the usual 1/72... except for one

- the figures are displayed UNPAINTED !!!

But keep cool, there's an explanation to each of these statements...

You all know, or can easily imagine that I am a big fan of Atlantic (an Italian manufacturer) Ancient figures - they are regularly mentioned or shown on this blog - for instance here, or there. Well, after checking the links, I can say that they were mentioned at least in 2017... but look at my avatar :)

Believe it or not, as a kid, I only knew of their 1/72 range. It's only been a few years since I discovered that there were also a 1/32 range, thanks to an incredible collection that Mabo displayed at Benno's, and I began to desire those wonderful Atlanticses, my precious, and looked for some for a looong time... until last week, when I eventually found an offer on a website dedicated to second hand items: a complete original Atlantic 1/32 box, At the Pharaoh's court.

And there you are, in my own hand:

The box was complete, including the mummies and their sarcophagus.

And of course my favorite figure, the scribe. On the picture above, you can see the 1/32 version next to the 1/72 one - this latter looks soooo small.

Mini-me, next to Maxi-me :-D

I was so happy to receive them today that I couldn't help taking pictures and show them on this blog, even before they were painted.

Hope you like them :) Do these figures bring some childhood memories back ?

Musician of the month: Egyptian drummer

Hi everyone! In this rainy Sunday afternoon, nothing better than to paint a figure related to warmth and sun. I also would like to challenge myself once again (2017 saw a complete failure, only 5 guys instead of 12): to paint a musician each month.

So, a musician under the sun ? The best would be an Egyptian drummer, for my New Kingdom army !

Ecce homo (after a famous Angus McBride illustration, no doubt):

And to show that he doesn't play alone in the desert,  a family picture (me, seating on the left :))

Hope you like him. I must say that the Caesar range is a real pleasure to paint.

New Kingdom Egypt II - Sherden Mercenaries

The Sherden were one of the tribes of the Sea People confederation (see the related post: The Sea People). They are mentioned in Egyptian and Ugaritic records in the late second millenium BC.

As for most Sea People tribes, their origin is still a matter of debate. According to the Eastern origin theory, the Sherden might come from Anatolia, while they might find their origin in Sardinia according to the Western origin theory.

Concerning their appearance, the Egyptian reliefs show men wearing round shields, short broad swords, spears, and horned helmets.

After their defeat against Ramesses II, some of the were incorpored into Egyptian service as Royal bodyguards. They are believed to have added on their helmets a disc representing the god Ra as a sun.

I chose to represent my Sherden warriors in Egyptian service. I used Caesar minis, who wear typical Egyptian clothes, and I decided to use a fair skin tone that I believe coherent with the two origin hypothesis explained above.

A warrior as a guard:

Several warriors, one of them using the characteristic round shield.

I hope you like them :)

New Kingdom Egypt I - archers

Hi! Not so easy to keep on painting minis and writing on the blog when you want to get outside in the spring sun after a long winter :)

Today, I, Philotep the scribe, wanted to start a series of posts related to the New Kingdom Egypt. My intention is to paint A NKE DBA army to fight against the Sea People (their army is growing, see the Sea People post), the Nubians (their army is not growing, but one day... see the first 2 Nubians here) and the Libyans (not very numerous as you can see in that post, but they will ally with the Sea People).

Back to the Egyptians. Let me introduce you the first unit, the foot archers. There were many archers in the egyptian army, and we can still see examples on the reliefs of several archeological sites.

I took these pictures in the region of Luxor a few years ago:

Ramasseum - Siege of Kadesh under Ramesses II

Medinet Habu - Fight against the Sea People under the reign of Ramesses III

Medinet Habu

I used the excellent minis by Caesar to represent the archers - great minis!

The archers in line, waiting for the invaders to come:

The first close-combat fighters arrive just in time to prevent the archers from being wiped out by the ferocious Peleset.

See you soon for the next unit: the Sherden.