"28mm Gladiator Arena?" Topic

Anyone know of a nice gladitorial arena for 28mm figs? I seem to remember one being manufactured by someone, but now I can't find it….

Steve Barber does an arena. It goes for 110 pounds or so.

sbarber-models.clara.net

Look under 25/28mm Figures >> Gladiators.

I did a quick Google search and found this:

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mrnizz.tripod.com/minis.htm
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Have fun.

CC

If you are into card modeling, worldworks games has arena works which gives you several options for arenas. It can also produce a chariot racing facility, if you are so inclined.

A possibility for scratch building:
Go to the shipping department where you work, and see if they band pallets with plastic webbing or straps. This comes on ~24" diameter hard cardboard tubes that are about 1/4" thick, and 12" wide. Ask for the empty.

Archimedes, your memory is correct. Beside the Steve Barber on there is another one in 25mm that is not that costly. If I could only remember the manufacturer…

That palymobil arena looks excellent. Looks like it would work well for 28mm actually.

A round hatbox covered with stone effect paper?

The arena I thought of must have been from Gladiator Games but I cannot find it on the Black Hat webpage. It was fairly inexpensive (some £25) in the basic setup and had hexagonal floor. You could then buy additional buildings to boost it a bit. Anyone knows if it is still available?

The Gladiator Games terrain is now produced by Terrain Warehouse

terrainwarehouse.co.uk

They do have the Gladiatorial arena.

Mike

Has anyone seen the Playmobil one in person? I think with some slight aleration it would work amazingly well…some roughing up a bit, paint, maybe add some 28mm statues..

Black Hat, can you send the link directly to the Gladiator Arena URL? I could not find it on their webpage

I don't believe it is on their webpage but Steve definitely has the moulds for it as we talked about it at the last show I saw him at.

Drop him an email and I'm sure he can let you know the cost.

Mike

Thanks Mike!

Wow.

Thanks everyone for the ideas and options.

I *really* like the Steve Barber arena…but the price is a little intimidating. Take into account the current exchange rate and 40% shipping to the U.S…ouch.

Anyone know of a U.S. importer of Steve Barber models?

I'd love to see what someone does with the Playmobil arena. I'm tempted to get one and do a bit of conversion work with it. I have a pair of converted Playmobil pirate ships that hold up quite well to wargames-table abuse. Now if only someone else will take the plunge first and post some photos of a fully converted arena to put the fire in my belly to tackle a similar project….

I too seem to be having trouble finding the Gladiator Arena on the TW website. It may be a great option as well if I can find it….

I remember seeing it at the RLBPS booth at Historicon 1 or 2 years ago. He may have it.

The Playmobile Roman Arena is $98.99. OUCH!

I made mine out of packing foam. Here's a Yahoo group that is a Gladiator group. ----Munera--- I think you may have to join to see the pictures but its a good group. link

As ever,

Hairy

We have the moulds to the arena set that was produced by Gladitor Games. We have had plans to re-release it with a rule set and using figures produced by Black Hat but the rule set was put on hold so we have been unsure of which way to go.
This week we have had two inquiries, so i will get them listed on the site with photographs.
The arena pit sells at £18.00 GBP plus P+P and the full Arena has eight modular units around it adding stone and wood terracing costs £80.00 GBP plus P+P.
It will be on our website shortly.Thanks for the interest.
terrainwarehouse.co.uk

Has anyone used/played the set Ludus Gladiatorius? Pre-painted figures as well. Interesting. Anyone have comments on this set?

It's a fun little game kalgaloth. Nothing in-depth to be sure, but nice. I suggest you check out board game geek to read up on it a bit more though.

boardgamegeek.com/game/18701

There is an LG II set available now, which adds 5 more miniatures (including a lion!).

boardgamegeek.com/game/30111

Strictly beer & pretzels, as I said (the rules fit on a single standard double-sided sheet of paper). No rules for developing your own gladiator school, and playing out vast campaigns. But the minis are quite nice, and reasonably priced, so think of it as a free game with your minis.

It also makes for a nice "core" set of rules, which can be easily modified if you wish to make them more gritty, or add more tactical consideration.

I'm still waiting for the second set to become available here in the US so I can pick that up as well.

Steve

Even on Ebay, the Playmobil seems to be a hot item (meaning not cheap):

auction

Still, it should be easy to duplicate using thin cork sheets as walls.

The results could be very similar to this:

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CC

The Steve Barber arena (in case you're still looking at this post) is going to cost you over $200 USD if I remember correctly I picked mine up from RLBPS several years ago and only got one section (out of four) painted and completed.

Wound up packing the whole thing up as we moved house shortly after I purchased it.

It's a very nice piece. Very heavy as it's solid resin. The sections match up nicely and the detail is fantastic.

-Dante

I'm a little late to the party here, but…

I have been wanting to do a Gladiator project for years. Unfortunately, the Steve Barber Arena (nice though it is) has only been available to me when I haven't really had the cash to spend on it.

I managed to snag the Playmobile Arena this weekend at a local toy store. Very nice set, with some great pieces. It's about 33 inches across, with cages, a trapdoor, and a gate designed for grand entrances. Very cool. Got it for just over 100 bucks, which I'm told is a steal.

I think it would work fine for 28mm figs. 40mm gladiators would work too, I suspect, as they're roughly the size of the Playmobile figures. Everything seems to look fine using a few of my 28mm Romans as "test figs" for scale purposes.

I believe the thing is big enough for plenty of events. Among other things, I'd like to try to get a couple ships and put on some of the famous "naval events" that were held from time to time. Could be a lot of fun, and this is just the piece to do it with.

It may be too small for Chariot racing, though the Arena can be broken down into smaller pieces, so I suppose the main gateway could be used as an impressive piece at the head of the track. At any rate, Gladiators mounted in Chariots for combat, rather than racing, would be more appropriate for the games – and in that vein, I think, again, that the size will work well.

I do plan to re-paint it. I'm going to keep the playmobile statues for now – they are a bit oversized, but they do look the part – like oversized heroic statues of Roman statesmen or gods.

I'll try to get some photos up once it's painted, if anyone's interested. I can also get some pics of the basic product, with a fig or two thrown in for scale comparison, if anyone would like.

-A.