Three and a half thousand years old, and a little over an inch and a half in length, the Pylos Combat Agate has stunned historians. In an age without microscopes and precision tools, it shows a detailed understanding of the human body and movement that was thought to be far beyond the ability of Bronze Age artisans….

 I must admit to turning his back on the wargaming hobby a few years ago now. For me at least the hobby had lost its lustre and to be frank I felt unsure as to whether it was morally justifiable. It didn’t last long! It’s the artwork and histories that keep renewing my interest. The quality of modern sculpting is just so good, even with my painting skills, they are miniature works of art. 

One tip I have learnt over the years is, when one encounters a “painting block”, leave the larger projects for a while and work on something small scale and achievable in a few evenings or sessions. Devises L’art de la Guerre competition is on the horizon and I needed two units of proxy elephants. Those fanatical followers of the Prophet mocked up camels to look like elephants in 636 A.D.. My initial thoughts were something like the image below…

Hardly inspirational but then I thought “what if the Arab schemers were so successful in their deception, that the camels actually looked like elephants?” Two toy elephants from Fleabay and two Muslim standards as saddlecloths and voila….

An hour of pottering at the desk and they were done. I don’t think that they will win any modelling prizes but I like them and the dearth of painting has been bypassed.  So now it is onto a Goth chieftain in Russian colours, the World Cup has a lot to answer for.