Sons of Mars Wargames

Well, as it seems that the Oakenshield Ludus are on to their second arena, I thought that I'd better post mine. Unlike that Oakenshield lot, I haven't raided any skips for mine; instead I have mainly utilised crap lying around the garage. First off I needed to establish the size of the arena. From memory, the rules suggest something like 18 to 24 inches as a guideline. As it happens I had a piece of plywood of approximately those dimensions lying around. As I would be using 54 mm figures the arena could probably benefit from being a tad bigger but I was keen to stick with whatever was available. So after a quick prime with yellow ochre acrylic paint the board was ready for a layer of sand.  As it happens I already had a large bag of play sand which was perfect for the job; fine grains without any bits and a good colour. The board was covered with a layer of PVA glue and the sand sprinkled on top. After allowing the sand to dry, the next step was to fix it in ...

Having begun painting my 1/72 Orion Gladiators for the solo set up in Cyprus I realised that I had the perfect mini arena for them.   It's been a hot summer over here and I have just bought a water cooler from our version of a DIY store.  The packaging included a circular polystyrene ring for the top section.  Perfect. My 20mm Gladiators are based on 15mm diameter coins and washers. This small size, combined with using centimetres instead of inches means my arena is big enough for up to three simultaneous combats. The Kourion Arena along the coast from here in Paphos, like all of the Cypriot arenas, was originally a Greek theatre.  They are rather smaller than purpose built Gladiatorial arenas, but generally in a horseshoe configuration. The Arena pays homage to these. The Oakenshield Ludus has fled Ostia for an Autumn tour of Cyprus!  This will be our new home until we return to Rome in the Winter, Triumphant! The top of the water cooler pa...