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.