Meanwhile, back in the slave market...

Photo by Rob Young of Garrison Miniatures

The Rose Miniatures 30mm 'Roman Slave Market' figures I mentioned recently (Rude Romans) are now available once more!  See more at the Garrison Miniatures website  At £0.80 each I reckon these are quite a bargain!

RIP* Von Kluck

It is my sad duty to report the demise of my chicken, Von Kluck, after a short illness. 
Kluck has appeared several times on this blog and it is on account of her modest international following that I post this news here.  Kluck was always by far the fastest of our three chicks and moved with a grace unattainable to the others.  Indeed it was issues with her movement which first alerted us to her being in less than perfect health - to the point where she was falling over.

Kluck a few months ago on top form - hurtling across the garden at high speed!

Our concerns about her movement and the need to ensure her safety led us to bring Kluck into the house, and she lived for the last two weeks - apparently in good spirits - in a large cardboard box in Sara's office.  Sadly her ability to move continued to decline and latterly needed to have food held in front of her in order to eat.  We decided last night that the time had come and Sara took plucky Von K to be put to sleep by the vet this morning.  When I last saw Von Kluck she was tucking into her breakfast of scrambled egg and tomatoes.

Von Kluck in her command bunker.  Luckily I recently bought a new printer!

The other two chicks - Shelley and Fluff - initially seemed a bit lost without their chum, so we'll have to keep a close eye on them.  The plan is to look into getting more chicks in the spring - any new arrivals will be featured here.

The original chicken post can be viewed here: Link

* RIP = Roost in Peace.

Crocus Plain, 352 BC

This game was played a few weeks ago but with my customary inefficiency it has taken me some time to write it up.  The historical battle saw the Macedonian army under Phillip II defeat a Greek force under Onomarchus.  Would history be repeated?  Given that I took Phillip's role while Martin was the man in the Hoplite outfit it seemed unlikely...

My 6mm toys were given an outing for this game.  Most were picked up on ebay last year and are on 6cm wide bases.  Here we see Onomarchus with some of his top hoplites ('toplites'?).

An overview of the field.  This and all other pics (all original full-colour engravings) are as viewed from the artist's vantage point atop a convenient mountain...

Macedonian cavalry surge froward on the right - while my skirmishers run away.

Phil finds himself facing the Greek army alone!

Bloody pikes - I knew they'd never work.

It will be clear from the above - and my apologies for the relative lack of photos - that the battle did not go well for Phil II.  Due to drawing consistently shocking cards I was never able to mount a decent attack and my phalanx - first hoplites then pikemen were soon put to flight.  I expect Phil went home in a rage and killed his son or something. I forget his name - Alexander maybe?

HMS Repulsive - part 2

Repulsive is now complete and running trials on the modelling table.  She has been subjected to my usual 'rough drybrush over black' paintwork and is ready for a proper voyage and battle.  Which I really must get round to organising.