When it's Too Hot to Paint

Courtesy of the recent heatwave (well it's a heatwave by UK standards) which makes the fumes more noxious, the paint dry too fast, and the temper too short, I've stopped painting for a bit.  Having, like most gamers, a mass of stuff needing doing I thought I'd use the time to finish of some other jobs i.e, my 15mm Ludus Gladiatorius set up and replacement Platoon Boards for my 20mm Chain of Command collection

Ludus Gladiatorius

The arena for my 15mm gladiatorial gaming has already featured in a previous post covering how it was converted from a chocolate box.  But at the time I hadn't completed all the cards and tokens I intended to use. These have now been made and packed away in the arena-box.

The cards describe the characteristics of the different gladiator types for the players, along with tokens used to indicate choice of any special action played or where a thrown net, or spear, has landed.  All in all, with the rules, special action reminder sheets and dice it's quite a pile of paraphernalia to accompany the figures.

The cardboard frame inside the arena-box not only provides compartments to keep these elements in place but for gaming is placed in the lid.  This not only allows cards and tokens not in use (not figures) to placed out of the way in it ... 

... but also lifts up the playing area (base of the box) when placed inside the up-turned lid to give a raised, and (IMO) pleasing, appearance to the arena in play.

This long drawn-out project is thus now officially done and dusted.

Chain of Command v2

Many of my recent posts have covered changes in these rules with the new edition, including a recent post on the replacement Force Morale and CoC Dice trackers I made as the changes had rendered my previous ones defunct.  

As well as rule changes, the organisation of the various platoons has also been changed to better reflect those actually used by the combatants.  So, with foam-board plus my trusty Stanley-knife and steel rule I've made replacement boards for my British and German infantry platoons.

After my opening paragraph about painting in hot weather, I should perhaps own up and admit some paint was involved in this process to colour the sides of the foam-boards in the 'pits' that hold the figures.  The shapes depicted in the pits match the base sizes I use for my figures which are on a mix of single and double figure bases.  Also, I use different base shapes to distinguish junior and senior leaders.

As my German infantry have recently been posing a lot as panzergrenadiers I also made up a specific panzergrenadier platoon board.  Likewise, I made one for my planned British airborne platoon, most of the figures for which were delivered while I was typing this post.

What Next?

So now I have to decide what to start prepping for the painting table once this heat breaks in a day or two.  Aaaargh!  The agony of choice! 

Modified Vintage 20mil Naps Complete

At last, my 2nd Burgos Regiment is finished, this was quite a long job given the amount of modifications made as covered in earlier posts.  That said I'm rather chuffed with how they turned out so now it's time for their curtain call:

First, the regiment in line, accompanied by a previously painted Major General.

Then some drill practise in formations less used by my Spanish troops, such as attack column[1] ...

... and square (I have a habit of relying on musketry to stop cavalry).

And, finally a close up of the command group.

Notes:

[1.]  In this photo an interloper can be seen behind the general - this was the test figure I did first just to be sure I could pull off the conversions before beheading an entire unit's worth of figures.  When I did the unit's rank and file, I did an entire unit's worth in case one of the conversions failed - they all worked so he's now a handy spare.