Just in case folks are thinking: "Hello, another Blogger run out of steam..." tis not the case - just work and painting/modelling and writing been getting in the way....
Leaving work (paid) out of the picture (despite previous suggestions by drinking buddies this is NOT a pic of me with work colleagues...).
I have been painting my 1/72 schilton (Strelets bods, with plastic broom handle bristle "lang spears") and getting bods & buildings converted and painted up for my "Was going to be Summer but looks like Winter" Jewish Revolt project....
The schiltron is bigger than I'd planned (the ol' "mission creep" - a serious fault of mine...) but getting there.
My Jewish Rebel army is apparently going to be, um, an army (mission creep again) - and not just a skirmish-level force (I have around 600 1/72 Romans, legionaries & auxiliaries - with more half-painted; but no way will I match those numbers in rebels.... We don't mention how many Western Barbarians I have. Seriously. We don't....).
I have (among other things) been sticking Roman heads & shields on good ol' Robin Hood bods and generally going mad; with variants of all types to make the rebels look a hotch-potch.......
The buildings will be a mix of cheapy, self-assemble MDF adobe types & some posh, purpose-built Roman building kits bought online. Plus scratch building.
Cheap palm trees should be en-route. Civilians also being processed (Strelets Roman bods mainly).
I also want to make a more Mid-eastern-looking teddy-bear mat at some stage, but this may wait a few months.
Research-wise I've been reading up Josephus etc. and gawping at Google Street View (pic) and maps for terrain ideas and sketching maps. My campaign map may be in zones, like my "This Ain't Siluira" effort....
Writing: I've been asked to put out my House Rules as a PDF, but of course that means I tweak them, then test the tweaks, then tweak again etc. etc .etc........ New rules for schiltrons developed - and also to allow for that that pesky business of why making some formations 8 to 16 ranks deep is a plus (having been squashed into combat impotence in shieldwalls only four ranks deep I DON'T buy into the "they're all pushing" myth.....).
I have also been writing some scenarios - and "Tax Collecting" ("Get the cash - but please try not to kill anyone this time") rules; of which more later...
And so it goes.....
