The reliquary and some thoughts on Pulp Alley

I've not updated lately, as work on my thesis has taken priority. It's a massive project, but time on other things is also important. I've also been working on some terrain tiles and adapting Pulp Alley to better suit the period. It has had the unintended consequence of getting me excited about (eventually) going back to my Pulp project... but I'm trying to focus here!!

But I wanted to share a small update on the sanctuary. I have completed the reliquary and you can see it below:

This is going straight to my feed #bucketlist #instatravel #militesofinstagram

As you won't get to see it much once the building is sealed up, I didn't mind using a less-detailed piece (I'd rather save those for plot points). It's supposed to evoke the Casket of Teuderic, or something like that.

It started off as a pretty rough plaster cast, I'm not sure where it came from. But I glued some hobby nails in for the gems, painted them and applied some gloss varnish.

I'll be finishing off the interior walls in good time, nothing fancy though. And my rooftiles came in so it's nearing completion. More on that another time.

I also wanted to include what I've done for the plot points so far. I've been careful not to take too much out of the Pulp Alley rulebook, and this is strictly intended for personal use only. You can find out more about Pulp Alley and buy the rules here. As you can see, there's quite a bit of adjustment for some fields, but I wanted to keep the spirit of the original. I've had to remove some tables completely.

Take a look and please share your thoughts in the comments below! 

As for me, back to the books - 'til next time!

Sanctuary building update: interior frescos

Hey all, managed to get a little more work done on the interior:

I am pretty happy with how it turned out. There were some things I wanted to do which my skills didn’t quite permit. I also don’t want to get too bogged down when you won’t really get to see a lot of it. But it’s good practice for when I tackle something a little more ambitious, like a villa.

The plinth is from the incredible "Hellenistic Sacrifice" set from Baueda. It comes with a bunch of jugs and a very large krater which will likely find its way into this projects somewhere.

Here’s an in progress shot:

Nice fresco... would be a shame if something “happened” to it.

And where it’s at right now:

You can probably get a sense of what you’ll see during games. I’m actually looking forward to taking a shot from the doorway looking in. I've only got to decide on what the reliquary will look like and the interior is mostly done.

As for the design, I drew inspiration from a commercial weight showing two Imperial figures in martial dress, which I've taken from Bendall's Byzantine Weights: An introduction that I'm currently reading:

Source: Bendall 1996: 47

It seemed like a suitably imposing figure, but I haven't quite settled on who he is or what makes him a saint yet. I also did a search for Late Roman frescos, but mostly just worked with the colours I had on hand at the time.

As for the final verdict... well, it could always be worse:

Building update: sanctuary interior

Hey everyone!

I've done a bit more work on the sanctuary, here's some of the interior.

The first section I'll be working on.

Here it is with the interior colours all done. 

Wasn't sure if I should push it with another white layer? 

First of two angels for the alcove... Where's the treasure?

I've decided to work in sections and glue it all together when individual parts are done. It's good to have a sense of what you'll be able to see (and what you won't) when it's all finished. I've decided to have a permanent roof over the vestibule as placing figures there is going to be impractical.

There will be two angels in the alcove, and two warrior-saints flanking the portal. Doing a little bit of weathering but keeping it minimal. As for the inside, I plan to have a small reliquary... I have a few ideas for that.

So, a fair bit done and not bad for an evening's work. This will probably be the last update for a little while: I've got some thesis milestones to finish this month and am on a bit of a roll... but this certainly is a nice way to spend a break.

Take care everyone!

Painting and building update - Christian sanctuary and some fighters

Salvete omnes!

After my last post I was itching to get to work on the small church from the Zegaani monastery site. So, during a break from my research I started playing around with the measurements and drew a couple of walls.

So far, so good...

I figured the entry would probably be a little taller and skinnier than a normal figure, although in hindsight I realised it could just as easily be a squeeze to get in.

I'm glad I went with my first instinct, though, as that left enough room to place a based figure in the vestibule (I think that's what you call the little antechamber at the entrance). Here are some progress shots:

The plan is to have either an altar or reliquary in the chancel/alcove and relatively clear space in the main area. This will all be done up with an interior, including frescoes, and detachable roofs. I just bought some styrene JTT Spanish tiles online, they look like this:

Excuse the white space, the photo came like that...

I've tried using corrugated cardboard in the past and wasn't 100% happy with it. I ended up buying a Hirst Arts pantile mould but they're a bit big for 28mm (but perfect for my Flintloque buildings). It's on its way, along with a Renedra plastic wattle outbuilding, hopefully here soon.

To wrap it up, the exterior will be weather a little bit, but nothing like that photos of what it looks like now! I imagine it being quite useful in the scenarios I have planned... a place to raid or defend from raiders, or perhaps a place to seek sanctuary (not always guaranteed to work).

I have also painted a couple of miniatures, although they aren't fully based yet. Here they are:

Saxon archer, Eureka and Viking, BTD... what is that helmet?!

One is a Saxon archer from Eureka, the other a Viking from Black Tree Design. I'm not too fussed about the ethnic labels, as you probably know (if not, read my earlier posts!). They're fighting men and that's good enough! 

As for rules, I'm looking at Pulp Alley to start out. I bought the first edition a long time ago, and just purchased the solo module. I know there's a second edition out, but will try these first. You can field small groups of 5 or 6 figures to about 15... although the more numerous the less well-trained they are. This gives me enough to play around with for narrative games to decent skirmish battles.

Anyway, I've gone on long enough now - thanks for reading!

Painting update - bacaudae, soldiers and more!

I'm going to open up with a picture of what I've done so far, with some discussion below...

A cast of thousands!

I've imagined this guy to be an assassin, bandit or a leader of the bacaudae.

Source: Black Tree Designs

There's some contention as to who the bacaudae were: either organised groups of militarised peasants or (less plausibly) the semi-militarised thugs of local strong-men outside of the control of provincial government. Kulikowski settles on "well-organised bandits who were so a general feature of Roman provincial life". Either way, they were a significant enough threat and were dealt with brutally.

Speaking of which, here are some soldiers.

Source: Gripping Beast

I'll be adding more to join them. I see them as an elite unit, or bodyguard, operating in and around the frontiers between Italy, France and Spain... more on my choice of setting another time!

Uniforms and war gear provide little distinction between "Roman" and "barbarian" armies. For the narrators of history, such as Gregory of Tours, the word "barbarian" was typically synonymous with "soldier". When Theoderic Amal (454-526) designed policy, he designed it with a classical ethnographic distinction in mind - "Goths" were typically the military elite, but they served Rome.

When I started painting these I had an alternate icon on the top - a chi ro - which I copied from other examples. I started to wonder why this is so popular... this is perhaps a legacy of Constantine's labara (as seen on some coins), and much later the San Vitale mosaic of Justinian shows a spectacular shield with the chi ro. As these sources are potential loaded with Eastern Imperial propaganda, I started to look around for more information.

The original shield design. A bit bleh.

What we know of shield for the armies of Late Rome are usually drawn from the Notitia Dignitatum. This has a list of the "units" of the Eastern and Western Roman Army with a shield representing each. Peculiar shield designs for each cohort seems to be what Vegetius describes in a passage of Book II of his De Re Militares. The Notitia also lists other "offices" such as political and administrative roles (e.g. the Urban Prefect of Rome). This is presumed correct for the late 4th/early 5th centuries.

But why the excess of chi ro shields in the tabletop armies of Late Antiquity? I don't really have an answer, but they look nice and are probably easy to fit onto your miniatures. Again, the iconography from coinage and art is another source, but may be somewhat misleading.

Further down the track we see that, in the West, Classical iconography presented alongside more contemporary Christian icons like the coin of Athalaric minted in Rome below. The scene above harks back to the myth of Romulus and Remus, still in popular memory in the early 6th Century. Note that bronze coinage probably had a different audience and purpose than the gold Victoria coinage of the period. But every decision made when designing and minting coins is intentional. It can communicate an idea, identity, quality assurance, authority, or serve as an administrative measure. Can we consider shields in the same way?

A bronze coin of Athalaric from the mint at Rome. 

Source: Roma Numismatics Ltd, Auction IX, Lot 870

So, for me, it wasn't a stretch to play around with shield designs.

I've come across some promising images of shields across the web, but will look into this more for another post.

FURTHER READING

Kulikowski, M. (2010) Late Roman Spain and Its Cities, John Hopkins

On the workbench - April

This is what I've got planned for April. These figures have been sitting around for years, so it's nice to finally get to work on them. I've been a bit of a stickler for miniature figure sizes in the past, but must be mellowing with age or something.

They’re based on washers, with a little bit of filler or clay to even out the surface, and some pumice paste for texture. For metals, like the chainmail on a few figures, I gently scrape away the undercoat (black gesso) with a hobby knife.

Here's a rundown of manufacturers (l to r):

Eureka Miniatures: one of Beowulf’s companions (who seems to be a stereotypical representation of a Frank), a Viking and a Saxon archer. These are really nicely sculpted by Alan Marsh, with lovely details.

"Phwoar! Check out that bloke on the left with the furs - he must be a barbarian, yeah?"
"Nah mate, that's Lucius - he just came back from a holiday in the Rhineland."

By the 5th century it seems that warriors of the period had abandoned this peculiar style of dress, although the fashion does have some precedent in literary sources. I wonder if he might instead serve better as a lumberjack? I'm still looking for reliable information on fashions of the time (but this looks promising).

Black Tree Design: The figure in the centre has had a bit of work done. I added an eye-patch, short cape, sword and shield to the base figure. Possibly a little dagger hanging from his belt, too. I see him as a kind of soldier-of-fortune or other roguish type. I'm not sure what happened to retired warriors in the 5th Century... I'll see what I can dig up.

Crusader Miniatures: Purchased for a Gladiator project that flopped spectacularly, I’ve kept this fellow for use as a senator, parvennu or other aristocrat, all whom continued to have an important role in Roman society in the 5th and 6th centuries.

Gripping Beast: Do these need any introduction? The heavily armoured soldiers in the back row are from the Arthurian and Late Roman ranges. Although intended for games set in Cornwell’s Warlord trilogy, they’ll likely see action across the Pond instead (I'll do a post on the where and when soon).

All these figures fit nicely alongside each other, if you’re not too picky, although the sweeping chronology might lead to a few anachronisms. But, nothing that a weapon swap here and there can’t address.

You'll notice that I'm a little wary of using homogenous "ethnic" titles. There's significant debate around this practice which I'd like to go into from a wargaming point of view as we go on. The short version is that when we use terms like Goths or Franks, we are usually referring to the elite minority, and not a homogenous group that identifies ethnically with that term. A term like Germanic, which even more monolithic, is right out (unless we're discussing languages, which we probably won't).

Shocking, I know - what will all those Saga players do now?

I look forward to having these painted soon, and I can already see a few scenarios brewing.

Vale!