Back from the DBA 15mm Tournament at Ulm...

Back from the DBA 15mm Tournament at Ulm first i have to say: BIG BIG thank you Norbert for the excellent location, organisation and hospitality. The 15mm march tournament is always a pleasure to be at. Like the last year there came 18 peoples from Swiss, Germany and Great Britain (who live in G.)!

The atmosphere was very friendly and we heared a lot of broad laughter and victory screams ;)

I started with my Thracians and i have enjoyed playing them. If you are interested in following my battles at the tournament please feel free to visit the battlereport i wrote here:

http://derfigurenschieberbattlereports.blogspot.com/2011/03/dba-thracians-raiding-all-over.html

My Thracians also shared the "BEST PAINTED ARMY AWARD" with SirTobi's beautiful French Ordonnance IV/82a army, which can be seen here:

http://http://www.ulmer-strategen.de/FrenchOrdnance.htm

Thanks for all your votes! You made me very proud!

DBA 15mm Thracians I/48

I did it! Yesterday i made the last stand ready for battle. But cut to the case here are the pics:

The army consists of:

1x3 Cavalry (General)
3x2 Light horse (i took them as Scythian ally)
6x3 Auxilia (Warriors)
2x2 Psiloi

The Auxilia in combat formation.

Second rank Auxilias.

The Scythian ally.

The Generals element: The King of the Thracians with battlestandart and his young greek influenced sons.

Cloaks stitchery.

The Baggage elements. For play i just need one but i had so much civilians that i did a second one. Both are made "generic", without specific symbols, so i can use them for several armies. I especially like the small waterfall which is made of wad, a translucent plastic and varnish.

All army miniatures are from Xyston Miniatures, baggage miniatures are from Xyston Miniatures and Corvus Belli.

Hope you like it. Comments, hints and critics are welcome :)

Some scenic elements..

For my Thracian army i need some scenic elements which are two steep hills and two woods. Both count as rough going terrain.

The woods are displayed by a wooden hill...

...and a huge rock populated by great fir trees.

As steep hill terrain i use some grassy hills added with little self made rocks.

Because all rocks are movable they can declare a hill as rough/steep or as gentle hill. This give me the opportunity to take the same hill for different terrain types.

This idea was given me by MENIC whom all honour is due to.

Hope you like it. Comments, Hints and critics are welcome :)

DBA 15mm Thracians some new pics

Yesterday i made some new pics. Only two riders, spears&shields and some grass on the baggage elements must be done. The army is ready for battle now.

Hope you like it. Comments, Hints and critics are welcome :)

DBA 15mm Thracians on the verge of being done

An Overview about the current status of my Thracians. Missing on the picture are two elements of Scythian Light horse which are already painted except two riders.

My entire proud in this army are the freehand stitchery on the cloaks of the generals! Every element has some freehand stitcheries but in my opionion those are the best. On picture the stitchery on the left cloak can only be guessed. Sorry for that.

Hope you like it. Comments, Hints and critics are welcome :)

Tutorial - How i make my bases

In this tutorial i will show how i make my bases and which things you will need in order to try it yourself.

Part I

Things you need:

1. One Base
2. modeling mass (air aging)
3. dental technican instrument
4. water
5. a small schist rock

Step One

Apply some of the modeling mass to your base and burnish the borders with your dental instrument. I use an instrument called "Le Cron". Note that its better if your instrument is wet - the wet mass will not "glue" on your instrument and will disperse itself easily.

Step Two

Now we need the schist rock. Use the border of the rock and press it careful in your modeling mass. The mass will adopt the schist structur.

Step Three

Put your miniatures on their "final" positions and burnish the crossing between miniature base and mass with your wet dental instrument. If you followed the steps above your base should look loke this:

After that let your base aging for 12 hours. During this time you can paint some miniatures :)

Part II

Things you need:

1. Woodglue
2. Static gras
3. GW Colours Scorched Brown & Bleached Bone
4. GW Colours Codex Grey & Fortress Grey (not shown on the picture)
4. MiniNatur gras & flowers (Summer, Spring, Autumn in all sizes, Flowers are "Blumen (violett)" MINA_998-24S)
5. Vallejo Sierra Calcinado pigments
6. Some bushes
7. Sand (not shown on the picture)

Step four

Now use the woodglue + sand and bond the base first with glue then with sand. Let it dry for some hours and seize the time for painting :)

Step five

After drying paint the sand with GW Scorched Brown and let it dry again. Then drybrush the base with GW Bleached Bone. Pay attention to the fact that no moisture and not much paint is on your brush! Maybe i can add a picture in the future how your brush should look like but i guess most of know have the knowledge about the drybrushing technique.

In addition for the rock you need the GW Colours Codex Grey and Fortress Grey. Prime the rock with Codex and after this drybrush it with Fortress. Its the same technique like above.

Step six

The key step in my opinion. We take now the Vallejo pigments! A very very useful product for basing, weathering and so on.

Dip your brush in the pigments and strip as much pigments as you want off. How much it is lies in your hand depending on your basing are. Experience a little bit.
Put the pigments now on the base and drybrush them in any direction. Yes, you see the drybrush technique is very effectiv :)

If you are not pleased with allocation of the pigments take some water on your brush and wash it away.
If you think there are too much pigments on an area just blow them away.

Drybrush the rock in the same way. For both, base and rock, i use Vallejo Sierra Calcinado pigments. It looks very realistic for some sandy terrain.

Step seven

Now we make the base "alive". Take the woodglue and bring on some grass, flowers and bushes. Voilá we are ready.

I hope this was helpful. If you have any questions or think that something is not detailed enough please feel free to contact me.

Comments, hints and critics are welcome too :)

DBA 15mm Thracians Update

The next bunch of fearless Thracian warriors is done. Only 8 miniatures left unpainted!

The work of my last days. As you can see 3 elements of Thracian auxilia, 2 Thracians and one Skythian Rider. In the background are the next Xyston models shown.

My favourite Thracian element, 1x3 Auxilia.

The whole bunch of warriors, Cavalry and baggage in the background.
Next will be the generals element and the last 4 Skythian riders.

Hope you like it. Comments, Hints and critics are welcome :)