Showing posts with label Hellenistic Army. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hellenistic Army. Show all posts

Thursday, 12 July 2018

Elephant brigade



Today I've commissioned three more elephants into my Hellenistic army. These are beautiful Aventines (the old metal ones- the new resins are even better), painted by Shaun McTague with some detailing and basing by me. The elephant guards are Wargames Foundry peltasts; photo is clickable.


Above and below are the seven Hellenistics. I was pleased that I was able to successfully match the basing of the four earlier elements. I like to depict the skin pigmentation failure that one sees on older Indian elephants.


I now have the seven Hellenistic Indians, four Indian Indians, five Ptolemaic Africans and eight Numidian Africans, for a total herd of twenty four pachyderms. I plan to add at least a dozen more by Christmas. To fight all of the Hellenistic battles, one needs a surprising variety of elephants of different species, with/without howdahs and with different crews and heraldry. So rather more will be needed; I might well end up with 50-ish. Luckily for the joists, the new Aventines are resin!

In other news, I have put my To the Strongest! Ancient and Medieval rules on sale for a few days, you can find them here! https://bigredbatshop.co.uk/collections/all/on-sale

Tuesday, 2 March 2010

Hellenistic Bodyguard Cavalry

 

This is a unit of  cavalry that I've just refurbed (it is clickable).  They were originally painted as Thessalians for an Alexandrian Imperial army (see photo below).  I bought them, mostly completed, from Andy Bryant; finished the painting, then based them in rhomboids.  But I was never happy with the basing, and also realised that Alexander released most of his Thessalians when he issued purple cloaks to his cavalry, so they would be rather limited in their use.

 

Sooo, I've issued them with shields and crests for their helmets, and now they will be the bodyguard for various later successor generals.  They will see a lot more action, that way, as I'll be doing Hellenistic armies after Salute!  They will also substitute for Carthaginian cavalry at Zama (I have no shame!).  Later I shall paint 6 more to make two full units.  The LBMS transfers worked very nicely...

Friday, 26 February 2010

On the Painting Table

In the brief intervials between slapping gunk on boards, I've been trying to base some of the last units I'm contributing  to the game.  Below are some Spanish cavalry painted by Nick Speller, that need matt varnishing and basing.

 

And below here are some Foundry Thessalians painted by myself and Andy Bryant, that I'm in the process of converting to shielded Hellenistic cavalry.   They will stand in, on the day, as Carthaginian heavies.

 

Monday, 5 October 2009

Hellenistic Army Progress

Nick Speller has painted another 32 Thureoporoi for me, which has enabled me to expand my units of Thureophoroi to 24 each. I also show the Galatians here, as they are likely to serve in the same army:-


The Boars (Foundry conversions)


The Bulls (Foundry and Polemarch conversions)


The Macedonians (Crusader)


The Victors (Crusader)


The Ravens (Galatians) (BTD, Foundry, A&A conversions)

What I could do with, now, are a couple of units of Tarentines, some Companions with xyston or maybe javelins and shields, and a whopping great phalanx!

Monday, 29 June 2009

Empire Models Armoured Elephants... completed!

I love these models, and it was fun painting them but they were a lot of work and am delighted to have finished them!
The detail on the models is terrific, and I'd commend these weapons of Mass Destruction to any aspiring Eastern potentate!
I've named these two after the titans Oceanus and Kronos. I plan to add a third, when Empire's new armoured elephant comes out. And then there are rumours of Pyrrhic elephants from Aventine... and I also need some elephant guards.

But these will have to wait; I've got a handful of Tegeans to finish, and then it's Operation Zama!

Friday, 20 March 2009

Many Completed Thureophoroi...

I do love a mini with a Thureos! Here are two new units of 16 Crusader Thureophoroi painted by my very able mate Nick Speller, and based by me.



Here are my original two units of converted Foundry peltasts; I must say I somewhat prefer these minis to the Crusaders. The figures are slightly taller and very well formed.



And finally... all together! These are the nucleus of my early-Mithridatic Pontic army. I hope that, after Salute, Nick will go on to paint enough minis to complete all 4 units at 24-man strength...

Saturday, 14 March 2009

Thessalian Cavalry



I'm in between big projects, so I thought I'd stick up a photo of a unit I part-painted earlier (mostly painted by Andy Bryant). I experimentally based them in tetrahedrons on long, narrow bases; I was trying to catch the feel of Alexander's cavalry formations. Alas I've not taken to the feel of this approach, and I'm thinking of rebasing them, perhaps at the same time taking the opportunity of giving them shields and calling them Successor or Macedonian guard cavalry.

This week I shall mostly be painting 7 EIR legionaries, and prepping a unit of 24 Auxilia.

Wednesday, 11 March 2009

Completed Galatian Mercenaries!


Galatian mercenaries, hired from the Celtic tribes on the central plateau of Asia Minor, were not uncommon in Successor armies. These depict mercenaries serving the Ptolemies, and are loosely based on the reconstruction in the Ptolemaic Montvert; I'm very pleased with them. The images are clickeable, and previous posts show the various stages of painting.


Is it my imagination, or is the woman in the background, below, smiling as they approach her? ;-)

Wednesday, 25 February 2009

Getting ahead in the Thracian Army


Teres, King of Odrysia is waiting for his army of Thracian tribesment to muster... his mate Acarnas says he should have a couple of bevvies and chill out a bit.

Teres marks a new low for me. I suffer from a terrible lack of focus, and often will buy or paint a unit from an army that is no use whatsoever on its own. This, however, is the first time that I've painted a general who has no troops to command. I do want to raise a small Thracian army, but it is quite a way down my list.

I painted Teres on the left, but bought the extremely nicely painted Acarnas on the right, on eBay- I can't recall who from, if you painted him, please drop me a line!

Thursday, 19 February 2009

Ruddy Galatians

I need units to round out half a dozen different armies, so I've chosen to paint a unit for an army I've not even started yet!


These will be a unit of Galatian mercenaries, serving in a Ptolemaic army. Apart from the fact I've always fancied a unit of these, I have accumulated a lot of nekkid figures I couldn't think of any other way of using. These are a mix of Celts and Greeks from A&A, BTD and Foundry, with Crusader, A&A and Essex shields, a lot of headswaps and some dodgy greenstuff cloaks. Apart from the bare heads, there are half a dozen each celtic and attic greek helmets; I'm assuming that some of the troops have re-equipped themselves in the markets of Alexandria.

I've decided to try to paint these quickly, and as a unit. My version of "speed painting" will probably take around a month... :-( so not that speedy. Here they are again primed rust red (part of my cunning plan):-


I'll try to snap a few pics of them during the process...

On other fronts, I finished basing Greg's gladiators and some large desert hills I've made, and hope to have time to take some nice photos in the next few days. Unfortunately I'm writing a big essay against a tight deadline, which is most tiresome and is cutting into my painting and modelling time...

Thursday, 4 December 2008

My First Phalanx!


This is a photo I took of my first phalanx. I painted about 2/3 of the figures, but 24 of the nicest minis at the front were painted by Andy Bryant.

The beauty of the dust cloud is that it makes the unit look bigger than it is; there are around 60 minis in the units, but they look like around 80 (most of the pikes protruding from the clouds don't have figures attached).

I'm part way towards a second phalanx but they are in a queue behind a whole lot of Romans.