The Creature thus be formed... The Creature thus be formed!!

I was inspired by Jimmy Kimmel's finger of shame bit.  This beer can with a straw in it was really 

bad.  I think that a construction worker was sipping on this while he worked.  He has every right to relax while laying asphalt.

 How shameful is this?

I was thumbing through the DbMM book 1 and 2 looking at the Early and Later Greek Hoplite lists.  The DbA 3.0 list also has an option to field Greek rowers with improvised weapons.  It seemed like a chance to do some nice modeling.  A few stands of Irregular 6mm Sumerian skirmishers and a couple of Baccus Greek skirmishers was all it needed.  I had to strip them and start from scratch.  I realize that the sailors did not use their oars as weapons.  It gives them a more character GpS look (Greek Pelopponesian Sailor).

Here they are coming to shore with the rest of the Athenian army.  They are landing on my new DbA waterway terrain board.  If a Littoral force defends they have to place a WW on one side of the map.

Here is the naval landing party from the Early Greek Hoplite army from DbMM army book one.  This is what I would take in my allotted 6 triremes.  They can definitely cause some trouble on the enemy's side of the board.

I finished up some new Warfare in the Age of Madness troops.  These stands include the Dew Lords command team, the Dew Heralds recon team and a generic m113 and a pick up truck.

 The command team is a self portrait of sorts.  I am the guy with his hand up in the air.  My friend Eric is in the middle with the auto shotgun reaching for the hand set the radio man is offering him.  The bandoleer of shotgun shells is a nice touch.

These two guys are the scouts of the Dew Heralds.  They are a cautious bunch.  

This is the Dew Heralds medic.  He rides with the guys in the FaV.  I gave him a Hawaiian shirt as a nod to all the silly GI Joe characters.  This guy was originally a Flames of War Vietnam infantry lieutenant.  The back pack was sculpted by me.

These vehicles are generic and could be used by any force.  I painted them because they were loose ends on my painting table.

My ancient Greek army needed an olive grove.  This can be used for DbMM and DbA 3.0.  I tried to research the hut as much as possible.  I made a guess as to whether or not Greek farmers had thatched roofs and mud brick walls.  I could find very little evidence on this issue.  My creation came from watching "The 300 Spartans" on Netflix.  The goat herder lived in a hut that had a thatched roof.  The hut is made out of cereal box and gauze bandages and putty.  It is surprisingly sturdy.

 The olive grove also has a few farmers wandering about.  I looked up olive trees in the Mediterranean.  They average between 20 and 45 feet in height.  I think they are to scale with 1mm = 1 foot and 6mm = 6 ft.

I started making some Gods for "Of Gods and Mortals".  I have been wanting to play this in 6mm for a while.  The game is very easy to learn.  I am not really adding anything to my expenses or painting because most of the stuff used in the game is from DbMM.  The extra models are one shots or stuff I have lying around.  It is fun to figure out how to Legend model in 6mm.  It took very little time to do the conversions.  Athena was really fun to build.

I posted Zeus again. 

 Here is Athena and Ares.  Ares is a stock Greek commander from the Baccus range.  Athena is a Germanic peasant with a brass rod for a spear, a Hoplites shield and bit of green stuff for her helmet.  I based her off of a Roman marble sculpture of Athena.  Ares is surrounded by bubbling lava.

Odin is under the tree.  He has ravens on his shoulders.  Thor is still being finished.  He has sheep converted into goats.  The charioteer is a microworld games Viking command model.  Thor and Odin are also Microworld games.  The chariot is a Baccus Elf fantasy model and the goats are Baccus 6mm baa baa sheep.

This is the first stand of the spartans for DbA 3.  There will be more of this later.

I decided to do a DbA 3 army in 20mm (1/72).  This is partially for my kids when they get older.  It is also from my great love of ancient warfare in general.  I might be able to foster more interest in DbA 3.0 at a hobby store with 20mm armies and terrain.  In my experience 6mm models do not grab people's attention.  Maybe I scare people away with my seriousness...or my nudity.  This stand is of 20mm Gothian cavalry.  Plastic Soldier Review had some negative things to say about this kit.  I liked the price of the models and the detail is amazing.  It does lack the mass of 6mm but I can make several 20mm armies for the same price.  The guys are bigger for little hands to move around.  I hope my daughter and son will enjoy playing DbA with me.  The Goth cavalry will be used in a Patrician Roman II/82 force and an undecided historical enemy.  It will probably be the Huns or a Gothian force.
20mm is a nice scale for ancients.  Caesar, HaT and Italeri makes lots of good models for a low price point.  A complete Polybian Roman DbA force is dirt cheap.  I recommend www.Hobbylinc.com because they sell those kits at a reduced price.  The detail on the 20mm models really sucked me into it.  It lacks the mass, but you can see the eyeballs on these models.  I cut the horseman's sword off and added a piece of filed down wire.  The sword is very flimsy.  The Italeri kit comes with 15 horsmen and was $16 at Hobby Town.  They were 10% off.  That means that one box will give you 5 stands of Gothic horse.  If you are considering 1/72 scale as a wargaming medium I recommend it.

This lion is a 52 cent soft rubber toy from Hobby Town.  I have my eye on the crocodile for an Egyptian "Giant Crocodile" Legend.  The lion is going to be the Naemean Lion that Hercules beat bare handed.  He is pretty big for a 6mm model.  That is fine as this lion is supposed to be pretty terrifying.  I will post finished pics soon.