10 June 2014

Langton news

Well, it is new to me, but at the Langton Notice page, it has been announced that there has been a price increase on many items, effective today.  This is the first price change for more than three years, so it is not too surprising.  I am not entirely sure what items are affected - it appears that the ancient naval line has yet to see the increase.

31 May 2014

Egyptian ship books...

Hmmm, long time no post!  Hopefully, these will help me get back on track:


I was looking for information on the colors of ancient Egyptian ships, and came across these on Amazon.  The book by Sintich is more about making models, and might not have much information on the colors of actual ships, but is very handy as it has plans for making scale ship models.  Besides, it was only $2.28 with free shipping, so I could not pass on it!  The Vinson books just arrived and I have yet to peruse it in depth.

The plan for my Bronze age ships is still as follows:  paint them up as historically plausible as possible, and use them for both historical battles and in my fantasy Tékumel battles.  No one, except the fine readers of this humble blog, will know the difference...

18 January 2014

Langton ancient ships, part 2

Here are some closer looks at the recent purchase:


Egyptian Warship of Queen Hatshepsut



Egyptian Warship of Ramses III



Warship of the Sea Peoples


I am still digging into some research on the fleets, but the fleet lists from Naumachiae list several types of ships for both the Egyptians and Sea Peoples.  It would be interesting to get a mix of ships, especially for the Sea Peoples, as they were a loose confederation of tribes their ships should be different also.  It is interesting to note that this Sea Peoples vessel was modeled without oar banks.  How hard might it be to add some?

16 January 2014

A slightly different direction?

I recently became the proud owner of some new ship miniatures:



More Langton ships, all the way from Down Under courtesy of Ian (who has a fine blog at Thomo's Hole!)  The package included ten Bronze Age Egyptian and ten Sea Peoples ships along with bases.  Of course, what to do with them...  The first course will be to integrate them into my Tékumel fantasy naval project, where, due to their older appearance and small size, they will be representing minor powers (the Tsoléi Islands among others) or perhaps pirates.

But, it occurred to me that they could be used for historical purposes also.  I could paint them up in historical schemes, and they would still fit in with the fantasy scheme.  Some sea battles circa 1200 BC might be fun, and it would not be hard to expand the collection, especially if some of the other Langton ships fit in time-wise, maybe the 20-oar galley or pentecontors to represent Mycenaean or Trojan ships  :)

03 January 2014

Books to start off 2014

A good way to start off a new year is always with a new book, or maybe even two:



We found these at the local used book store.  The ACW book is a new copy, and the Salamis book is used but in great shape.  For US$20 total, this is not a bad way to get into the upcoming year.

I have read that there is some controversy about this ACW book by Dougherty; I have the similar work by Tony Gibbons and I will try to set up a compare and contrast post in the near future.