The end of one project, the start of another.

I have finally finished my DBA Ptolemaic army that I started 18 months ago (or was it two years). These were the first miniatures I've painted since about 2005 or so, which was a few Warhammer Savage Orcs. 

Then, one day, I walked into East Manchester Historical Games in Hyde. I'd wanted to get back into the hobby for a while, and having discovered a club just 5 mins from my front door, I now had a perfect opportunity. 

The people I met couldn't have been friendlier, and I soon fell into a group that were playing DBA, 15mm ancients. The game was fast and looked fun. 

I sat down with Keith, we played a game with his minis and I was hooked. 

I decided to collect a DBA army, and the army I chose was Ptolemy, mostly influenced by someone else I met at the club, Carl, and his Seleucids. I bought all the army from Xyston, with Carl kindly supplying the mdf bases for free (Thanks Carl). 

This will be quick and easy I thought. It was not quick, and I had forgotten most of my painting skills. I between being a dad to two young kids, it took way longer than I thought. 

Anyway, to cut a long story short, here is 15mm DBA Ptolemaic army. Please forgive my photography, I will endeavour to take better photos and re-upload. 

Xyston miniatures Pantadopoi Phalangites

Shield transfers by Little Big Men Studios

Close up. The bases turned out better than I thought they would. 

More of the army

So, what is next? 

I have a Republican Roman army for DBA that has been prepared and had the base coat applied. 

However, I do feel like a bit of a change, so I am going to paint something different from 15mm ancients. All those ranks of spears and shields just put me off. 

So instead I am going to do some 10mm fantasy Dark Elves, a completely different type of ranks and ranks of spears and shields. These are resin prints that I bought off ebay some time ago - the sculpts were by the excellent Forest Dragon, with a large and ever growing range of 10mm fantasy, mostly useful for Warmaster. I just wish they were metal as I both refer the feel of metal over resin and plastic and I have found the resin really very brittle, with some spears snapping off. I hope a few coats of paint and a good varnish will help that. 

I don't have any photos of the work in progress yet, but here is an image from the Forest Dragon Patreon page. 

Dark Elf 10mm stl files by Forest Dragon.