Roman stone Watchtower

When I first visited the Grand Manor web site many years ago I saw this building and knew I had to have it! This is my first of what will be many resin Grand Manor buildings I plan on doing. Personally I consider Grand Manor terrain to be the Rolls Royce of terrain pieces in terms of superb quality but...... also I must say in price as well! It's worth the price for sure, but it's what has kept me from buying very much. However since the pound has come down some and if you buy several pieces in one order you can justify the postage and packing(which is excellent btw). It actually works out better if you buy more and not less to an extent as it seems like he charges per box or something like that with each box being the same size and able to hold several buildings. That's guess work of course, but I do know I was able to put several items on my order without my postage and packing changing up to a point until I had quite a few items and then it changed. Anyhow, I happily purchased several pieces and will continue to buy more on a regular basis in the future as long as the pound remains reasonable to do so otherwise it will be back to special occasions only.

Roman watchtowers were often built on the edge of the roman frontiers to act as a guard post and communications checkpoint. They used torches to signal to other watchtowers if they saw something, were under attack or to send a message. Also riders could be used if available to the garrison as they sometimes kept small stables for couriers and some even had an extra perimeter wall and moat defenses becoming mini-forts perhaps a front runner to the Norman moat and bailey .  

While the tower wasn't built to withstand a siege it could delay the enemy long enough for help to arrive. To access the tower one would need a ladder which could be withdrawn into the tower when under attack. The tower could be defended from various openings and the wooden platform.

I mostly used craft paints for the tower as I'm still not confident with an airbrush yet and well....just feel more comfortable using a brush. The stone was done using a umber brown and adding more and more white to the mix and the wood was a brown ocher base followed by a ink wash and then more brown ocher with white continually being added to the mix. Then everything was given a mix of different MIG pigments for the weathering.

The model is of course resin and comes with a roof ,wooden platform and upper stone section that can all be removed which is nice for skirmish gaming if you wish to place models inside. I also really like resin kits as I feel they have far more character, detail and depth then say MDF and plastic although some plastic is getting quite good, but still not at the level of resin imho.

I'm very happy how the model turned out and may even build a wooden palisade and barn for it at some point, but for now it's ready for gaming. I'm quite chuffed at finishing my first piece of Grand Manor terrain and I recommend to stay tuned more in the coming new year as I plan to make 2017 one of my most productive years in terms of terrain. Merry Christmas everyone!

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Miniature Company- Grand Manor

Lee's Legion foot

I felt the urge to return to one of my very long standing projects that being AWI. For me there was never a question if I would tackle Lee's Legion foot, but rather how I would go about doing it. The question was the uniform and from what I've read of information available so far it's a bit vague so I felt that I had some liberty to do as I please.... well to be honest I often take liberties to do as I feel in regards to this period.

I've seen folks do a green coated uniform version which looks quite nice, but is a bit to close to Tarleton's foot and so I don't want any mix ups in the future. Another version is the purple uniform(likely a fade in the uniform) that Don Troiani depicted which also has seen many gamers choose and while I find it very interesting it really just stands out a bit too much for my collection. Since I really do enjoy the cavalry in cream/buff version I decided I would do the foot in exactly the same uniform.

When painting American infantry I typically mix the uniforms for two reasons in that I feel supply was more difficult and the second it adds to the impression of  the citizen soldier. However, with Lee's Legion Foot I decided they would be uniformly equipped to emphasize their elite status and give them symmetry with the Legion horse.

They were trained as light infantry and were capable of fighting in ranks, loose order or in full skirmish. Most depict the unit in loose order or skirmish, but I decided for closed ranks as it fits my collection better. When fighting in skirmish I'll simply space the bases apart.

As always I have plans to do more AWI as there is still plenty I need to do!

Miniature Company- Perry Miniatures
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