Stuff for my Gallic DBA army

So my first DBA army is going to be II/11 Gallic Army 400-50BC. I already ordered the Italeri figures and am waiting for them to come so I can start painting them up. Of course, the Italeri set, while well-sculpted and life-like, contains only warband figures, so I will have to get at least another one or two sets to complete the army. I still need either chariots or cavalry, or both, as well as psiloi and camp followers. These sets: HaT Gallic Chariot, Italeri Celtic Cavalry, and HaT Gallic Command will more than complete my army - except for the psiloi. But it seems a trifle on the ridiculous side to buy a whole set just to get 2 figures!
So, anyway, for a DBA army you need a few things: either a camp, BUA (built-up area) or both, as well as a moving stick, wheel stick, and ZOC (zone of control) marker, which are all optional but helpful.

This is my BUA, the idea taken from the the Fanaticus resource page here. By the way, Fanaticus  is the best site for getting inspiration for DBA armies, terrain, and other pieces. Their galleries are full of great ideas and projects.
I made this BUA out of three pieces of cardboard glued together and sealed with filler. The stone wall was made from porous styrofoam stuff, also sealed with filler, and stuck full of toothpick halves. To make the palisade fences look like real logs, I carved the top of each toothpick and stuck the point end into the styrofoam. The huts were made from a towel paper roll. The thatch effect was made by covering the roofs with filler and using a toothpick to create lines in it.

 This is my ZOC marker. It was made from three pieces of Styrofoam glued onto two layers of cardboard. It was given a dark wash and then drybrushed to create the stony effect. I used a combination of static grass and flock on the base.

Zvezda French Infantry of the Hundred Years' War 8053

I bought these five guys from my brother, just to paint up and put on display. They're the first knights I've done, and I was relatively pleased with the result, except that I think I put too much black in the shadow wash.

This is one of my favorites. It's a very simple pose, but well executed. The guy's almost even got a look of concentration on his face as he draws back the bow.

I want this guy on my side.

Some more Zvezda Greeks

Here's my latest two batches of Zvezda Greek infantry.

All ten of 'em. Assorted psiloi, spearmen, and swordsmen.

This guy looks pretty good with his white-on-red shield, I think.

This guy is easily my favorite. You can tell from the lamda symbol on his shield that he is Spartan, and that automatically makes him awesome. Also, the pose is really cool and his muscle cuirass helps with overall coolness, as well.

Assorted Terrain and a few Modern Russians

I've not had time to do much in the way of modelling or painting lately, but I've started to work on some stuff these past few days. I made some new terrain, some of which I can use for my DBA armies once they're ready.

And a marsh.

I've also been painting some miniatures. As always, I've added to my armies for my World War III wargame (which is coming along slowly but surely).

DBA... Enter at your own peril!

I've been researching a lot into the world of DBA, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to try it out. It looks relatively inexpensive - beyond miniatures, all you really need is the rulebook, which is only about $20 at the time of writing.
I like downloading wargame rules off the internet and customizing them, as well as making my own rules from scratch, because there's just such a huge ammount of great ideas out there, waiting to be used. But DBA is tried and true, and something with such a huge following can't be a complete dud, can it?
This will be my first officially sanctioned wargame, and it'll be cool. There's a lot of resources out there for new DBA gamers, and I've included a lot of them that I found helpful on my page "Wargame Rules."
If you've never heard of DBA, it's just a fast-play, relatively simple rule system for Ancient and Medieval gaming. There are also versions for fantasy (HoTT) and the Rennaissance (DBR) as well as a version for larger battles (DBMM). The DBA system is compatible with hundreds of ancient and medieval armies for both the 15mm and 25mm scale. (A list of armies can be found here). Figures are based together on 'elements,' and each active army has 12 elements. The types of figures and number of figures you can place on an element, as well as the dimensions of the element, are specified in the rulebook or unofficial guide.
DBA was created in 1989, and since has become a pretty big deal. A lot of people play it, the rules are simple and fast-paced, it's relatively inexpensive, pretty much any ancient or medieval army will do, and the game itself looks good on the table. All these are reasons why I'm going to join the DBA community.
My first army will be Italeri Gauls. I'll need to get some cavalry and chariots at some point, but these guys will get me started.

Fantasy Wargame Shopping Checklist

I've been contemplating starting a fantasy wargame for some time now. It's just one of those ideas that stews on the back burner until either it starts burning and sticking to the bottom of the pan or you finally remember it and do something with it. There are a lot of really cool 1/72 fantasy figures out there, and they're a heck of a lot cheaper than models from an official wargame, such as Warhammer. It would be really cool to get a few armies, paint them up, and let them do battle with swords and sorcery.
So here's my Fantasy Wargame Shopping Checklist. It contains all the available (relatively) cheap 1/72 fantasy armies out there, as well as some historical armies that I think would work with the fantasy theme. Of course, these latter are chosen purely based on my opinion, and you can get whatever historical armies you think will go well with your fantasy world. Or, for the even more imaginative, you can customize your armies even further - for instance, headswapping Greek helmets onto your elves. Sounds cool to me. Use your imagination. It is, after all, fantasy. No rules.
Anyway, this is just a list of all the available fantasy armies, compiled here for your convenience. For anyone looking to create a fantasy world/wargame, pick and choose to your heart's content.
Also, provided here is a link to Plastic Soldier Review's review of the Caesar line of fantasy products. Normally PSR only reviews historical sets, so this is special.  PSR Caesar Fantasy Review.
BTW, the Light and Dark Alliance sets are manufactured by Orion.

Good armies (fantasy):
Light Alliance Elves Set #1 (40 figures) - 72004
Light Alliance Dwarves Set #1 (44 figures) - 72007
Light Alliance Dwarves Set #2 (44 figures) - 72008
Caesar Fantasy Heroic Adventurers (15+ random figures) - 104
Caesar Fantasy Dwarves(35) - 101
Caesar Fantasy Elves (37) - 102

Good armies (historical):Zvezda Vikings (41 figures) - 8046
Caesar Philistine Warriors (42 figures) - 46
Caesar Celt Warriors (36 figures - 64
Caesar European Foot Soldiers and Archers (34 figures) - 88
Caesar Dismounted Crusaders (34 figures) -86
HaT El Cid Spanish Infantry (96 figures) - 8176

Evil armies (fantasy):
Caesar Orc Warriors (35 figures) - 106
Caesar Goblin Warriors (35 figures) - 105
Dark Alliance Orcs Set #1 (45 figures) - 72001
Dark Alliance Orcs Set #1 (50 figures) - 72002
Dark Alliance Orcs Set #3 (40 figures) - 72003
Dark Alliance Light Warg Orcs (12 mounted figures) - 72009
Dark Alliance Heavy Warg Orcs (12 mounted figures) - 72010
Dark Alliance Light Warriors of the Dead (40 figures) - 72011
Dark Alliance Heavy Warriors of the Dead (40 figures) - 72012
Dark Alliance Light Warriors of the Dead Cavalry (10 mounted, 2 foot figures) - 72013
Dark Alliance Heavy Warriors of the Dead Cavalry (10 mounted, 2 foot figures) - 72014
Dark Alliance Half-Orcs Set #1 Pikemen (32 figures) - 72015
Dark Alliance Half-Orcs Set #2 Infantry (44 figures) - 72016
Dark Alliance Half-Orcs Set #3 (40 figures) - 72017
Dark Alliance Warg Half-Orcs (12 mounted figuers) - 72018
Dark Alliance Wargs (30 unmounted wargs) - 72019

Evil armies (historical):
Zvezda War Elephants III-I BC (2 elephants and 7 figures) - 8011
Zvezda Scythian Cavalry (18  mounted figures) - 8069
Zvezda Persian Infantry (42 figures) - 8006

A Call to Arms Zulu Wars British Infantry

To go with the ACTA Zulus I did a while back, I finally got around to painting up some of my ACTA Zulu Wars British infantry.
These are nice figs, but only after you cut off the immense amount of flash that they come with. The flash does not come in large flaps as with Airfix, but in narrow strips of mold line that run all around the figure. The flash is also in tight spaces, like between the poor guys' legs, and who wants to have surgery down there? The flash can be pretty difficult to remove.
However, once the flash is removed, these are very nice looking figures. The poses are not the most original, and another big detractor to the set is that there are only 8 poses, with 4 figures of each, for a grand (or not so grant) total of 32 figures. This is a smaller number than most other manufacturers put in their boxes. This is because A Call to Arms is a manufacturer that normally does 1/32 scale figures, and most of their 1/72 sets are scale-downs of their 1/32 sets. Thus, you don't get a whole lot of pose variety, or a whole lot of miniatures.
I would have preferred either the Esci set or the Hat set (of which there are a few, including a command set) but this was the only one that was easily available to me.
I painted these guys up using the well-known colors of the 24th Regiment of Foot. This regiment is the most famous of the Zulu Wars because it was the primary regiment at Rorke's Drift, and has been immortalized in the movie Zulu with Michael Caine.
The 24th's regimental color was green, and they wore this on their collar and cuffs. A picture of their uniform can be seen below.

This picture shows a corporal (right) and a private (left) of the 24th Regiment of Foot

My Zulus attacking the 24th Infantry at Rorke's Drift

Unfortunately, my "matte" varnish made these guys appear glossy, and I hate the toy soldier look.

This is my corporal. His white chevrons are barely visible in this picture.

Not a good time to be reloading, bud...

Shopping list for WWIII Wargame

Here are all the figures and vehicles I will need for my World War III wargame. I will update this page as I feel necessary, and as I cross off sets one by one. It may take me several months (or years) to collect all these figs.

RUSSIAN FEDERATION AND ALLIES:
Russian Federation
72003 Orion Modern Russian Federals 1995
556169 Italeri Para Russian Spetznaz
03190 Revell T90 Russian Battle Tank
72911 ICM Models BTR60PB Armored Personnel Carrier
72121 Ace Plastic Models 2S1 Gvozdika Tracked Armored Vehicle

Sword of Allah terrorist organization and other Middle Eastern armies
72002 Mars Mujahideen Warriors
31 Caesar Modern Urban Resisters
63 Caesar Modern Militia
72002 Orion Chechen Rebels 1995

German Army (Bundeswehr)
62 Caesar Modern German Army (Bundeswehr)

UNITED STATES COALITION:
United States
556168 Italeri Modern US Soldiers
30 Caesar Modern US Army
7276 Trumpeter US M1A1 Abrams MBT
7255 Trumpeter Stryker ICV Light Armored Vehicle]
7245 Dragon Models HMMWV M1025 ASK w/LRAS3 & w/Loudspeaker (2 models)

Israel
57 Caesar Modern Israeli Defense Force
72040 Orion Modern Israel Army Set #2
7103 Trumpeter Merkava Mk III Main Battle Tank

Britain
60 Caesar Modern British Army
001 Caesar British SAS
07215 Trumpeter British Challenger II Main Battle Tank Iraq
7102 Trumpeter British Warrior Tracked MCV

Zvezda Greek Infantry (5)

This is my second batch of Greeks. I'll get around to posting the first batch sometime.
The reason I do such small batches (of five figures) of these Greeks is because each one's different - they don't all have the same uniform. This necessitates a greater amount of time spent on each one, instead of going through them factory-style.
I'm painting the entire army in red colors - there is red somewhere on every figure. This is just in case I end up getting a second set of these Zvezda Greek Infantry to make a Peloponnesian Wars-style wargame - Greek vs. Greek. Then the only way to tell them apart would be color difference, so I would paint the other army in blue colors.

This batch has only 1 psiloi figure - the guy with the javelins. Psiloi were Greek light infantry.

I really like the white-on-black effect on this shield.

This is my favorite guy.

First two squads of Revell British Paratroopers (Falklands)

I painted these guys up in two batches. The first batch I painted earlier this year, the second more recently. So far there's two squads of riflemen with a radio operator and two heavy weapons stands.
I don't have anything specifically in mind for these dudes; maybe sometime in the indeterminate future I will try to make some Argies through headswapping and other methods, as I have seen some other bloggers do (here and here). The world of 1/72 scale gaming has a sad lack of Falklands-era Argentinian forces, despite there being two good Falklands-era British forces sets - the A Call to Arms British Infantry of the 1970s and the Matchbox NATO Paratroopers. The Revell British Paratroopers I painted up are just a reissue of this set under the false label of 1/76 scale.

My entire army so far - two squads with heavy weapons teams in support

Note the face paint.