Tarentine Cavalry
Photograph used with permission
I've spent most of the morning beginning to lay out "AVGVSTVS to AVRELIAN" in Indesign. I was going to use the word processor file to send out to play-testers, but for some reason known only to itself, it decided to object to having the diagrams inserted (i.e. inserting one single, solitary, diagram screwed up the whole document), so Indesign it had to be - the play-testers will get a fairly tidy PDF instead of a grotty Word file!
It's always slow, starting a new style of publication, because there are so many settings to, er, set. And then you get started, and realise that you missed a couple of paragraph styles, and then you get a bit further and realise that you forgot to set the styles for 'box outs' and other anchored objects. But I've got half a dozen pages done now, so the rest should be much quicker.
But then the postman arrived...
He was carrying a load of Aventine Miniatures Tarentine Cavalry for the beginnings of their Pyrrhic range. There are four packs - one of command, and three assorted packs of troopers - twelve different figures in all, on six different horses. It would be very hard to find fault with them. The sculpting is exquisite: excellent poses; great detail; well researched. The casting is spot-on too - I can't see any blemishes anywhere needing attention, and they'll simply need a very light scrape with the edge of a scalpel to remove the merest hint of a mould line.
I think the only thing I could possibly have wished for which isn't included is for some of the shields to have javelins behind. Other than that, they're perfect.
I can't wait for the rest of the Pyrrhic range - if these are anything to go by, they're going to be really great. And, knowing Aventine, it really will be a complete range - if the Romans are anything to go by - they don't seem to go in for half measures.
Right, that's enough messing around with computers - I've got some cavalry to prep!