Phalanx- latest!

I'm back from a short break and trying to complete my latest phalanx in time for T'Other Partizan. These are all pretty Wargames Foundry phalangites, with their pikes at around 20 degrees form the vertical. I'm going to need some more of these and some with lowered pikes, to boot. I want some of my taxeis to have the full dramatic effect that one sees in Connolly, etc. These are six ranks deep - I mostly field pike this way, now.

All the minis were painted by Shaun McTague, I added the pikes, inked, highlighted some areas and varnished.  

Basing should be complete this week. I'll have pretty much all of my phalangites at Partizan, if you are coming...

Best wishes for a Very Batty New Year!

Mate Ian came around today and fired up his camera.

He knows about "F" numbers, and other magic camera stuff!  This one is really worth a click...

Can I take this opportunity to wish all my fellow bloggers a Very Happy 2014!

Raphia Phalanx begins...

A week since my last post; life has been interfering with art, again.  Just so that you don't think that I've gone away and left you, below are a couple of quick WIP shot of my next big project.

Above, 30 Foundry Egyptian-style phalangites, started in 2010 and finished, belatedly, this week.  Below 24 Polemarch Egyptian Machimoi, painted last week.  Both clickable.

My plan is to mix the Foundry and Polemarchs together, and paint an awful lot more to match, in order to re-fight of Raphia with mate Craig at Partizan in June.  More anon!

Jenga Phalanx

These are a continuation of a very old project, which is to build a Ptolemaic phalanx on a grand scale, for use in a grand re-fight of Raphia at Partizan in early June next year.

The plan is to combine these beautifully sculpted Polemarch Machimoi (Egyptian Phalangites) from Gripping Beast, with their Foundry equivalents.  I absolutely love the tall crested helmets, which I assume are based on the Sidon stelae.

When I started this project (over 2 years ago!), I made the mistake of using an Army Painter primer.  This provided a convenient base colour, but created a surface textured like fine grain sandpaper, which wasn’t at all good to paint over, and which put me off the project after I’d only managed to complete 30 miniatures (one shown in the link, at centre).  This time, I’m stripping the remaining primed miniatures and using my trusty can of Halford’s white.  The Jenga blocks are mounts for ease of painting.

I need an awful lot more of these miniatures to build a phalanx of the large size I covet.  If you happen to have a bag of these Polemarch phalangites, or the similar Foundry miniatures in the link, that you always meant to paint but never quite got around to, please drop me a line.  I’d be delighted to swap for them, or buy them off you!  

Megalopolis 331BC

This week Muswell Militia re fought the Battle of Megalopolis 331 BC, using the Hail Caesar rules.

I picked this battle because it gave me an opportunity to field both my Spartan and Macedonian armies for the first time.  I loosely based the OOB on Jeff Jonas' excellent Ancient Battles site.  With 4 players, I volunteered to umpire.

George as Agis, and Dr. Simon, commanded the Spartans, defending a pass near Megalopolis (below).  Their army consisted of hoplites, supported by light troops and a unit of heavy cavalry.  All pictures are clickable.

Grant and Ian player Antipater, Alexander's regent.  Their army (below) consisted largely of pikemen, supported by an allied phalanx of hoplites of rather doubtful enthusiasm, light troops and a unit of heavy cavalry (that in the event played little part in the game). Antipater was under time pressure as the superior Macedonian army needed to capture the ridge, by nightfall (turn 6 or a little after)

The Spartans, below, moved swiftly to occupy the crest of the ridge.

The Macedonian infantry advanced, in echelon (below), to meet them.  The phalanx in purple on the extreme right was elite, and was led from the front rank by the aged Antipater.  The Macedonian left (of less reliable allies) was refused.  Is that the hand of Zeus?

The battle for the ridge was hard-fought.  In the first round (below) the uphill Spartans seemed to have the better of it, but in the second the weight of the deeper (and slightly better supported) pike phalanx, with the inspirational Antipater fighting bravely from the front rank, told, and the Spartan formation disintegrated.

The Macedonian elite pikes turned and started to roll up the Spartan line.  There was considerable confusion with the rules at this point, which didn't seem clear as to whether the Macedonians could turn through the 90 degrees required to the flank of the next phalanx. 

With the battle turning against them, the Spartans advanced their cavalry (below), who were charged by the Macedonian's hoplites.  This was a learning point for us, as it transpired firstly that the infantry became disordered by the counter-charging cavalry, and also that I'd given the scruffy Spartan cavalry the same stats as Companions (well hard!).  It was Chaeronea all over again as the hoplites were forced back, shaken.

At this point it was getting late, and we called the game.  The Macedonians had taken part of the ridge, and looked ready to turn up the Spartan line, but the latter's late cavalry charge had to some extent restored the balance.  Perhaps a narrow Macedonian victory.

The game was very enjoyable.  The Hail Caesar rules do give a very good game, but we are still experiencing some frustration with the way that the rules are laid out, which makes it hard to look up points quickly, in the heat of battle.  We are gradually mastering them, though, and expect to play our third game next week.

Phalanx Done(ish)

Here's the refurbed/extended phalanx I've been working on recently, finally complete(ish).  I say complete(ish) because I've decided that it ideally needs another 32 figures to bring it to 128, which is a much more Macedonian number, but they will have to wait a while for reinforcements as I'm working on another phalanx, now.

On the battlefield they will doubtless be formed up 4 deep, but 8 looks great. 

The rear view (above) shows that only the front 3-4 ranks have linen armour. 

All but one of the minis are Foundry (there's a solitary Bronze Goat in there somewhere).

Unusually for me, I did paint most of the figures in this unit, except for the first 2 dozen that were beautifully painted by Andy Bryant, whose style I have tried to imitate.  The last 30 minis were painted using the fast method I described in a recent post, using sprays and dips as much as possible.

Pimp my Phalanx

Here's a quick update (clickable) photo of my first phalanx, which is now around 80% complete.  Newly painted minis are joining the 50-odd minis I already had painted; there's a lot of rebasing going on, too.   You can see a lot of shields part-painted at the front, and the final 24 part-painted minis at the rear.  I hope to have the unit finished by the end of next week.

Experimental Phalangites

Whilst I'm painting what seems like an endless number of phalangites for my first Macedonian phalanx (33 from scratch, and retouching 11 others), I thought I'd also paint a few test figures for later units.

The first mini on the left is a Crusader phalangite, with a Polemarch shield.  This was an annoying mini to prep (I hate the tiny sharp bits of metal that you often find on Crusader minis, left over from vents), and I find it a little dumpy, with rather fat legs.  Details like fingers and toes are less well defined than on Foundry minis.  I think I'll paint all my Foundry's first...

The middle figure is an Aventine elephant crewman, with a Foundry shield.  I love the helmet on this figure and want to fit some into a mixed unit along with some Foundrys and Polemarchs.  I presume Aventine will sculpt some, later, with greaves (which one obviously doesn't need in a howdah!).  I did this one in expensive purple clothing and a silver shield, as an Agyraspid.  It looks OK, but I think it would look better still with iron or silvered armour to go with the silver shield, and perhaps paler clothing colours.

Figure on the right is a Foundry peltast who has been consripted into the rear ranks of the phalanx.

Painting a Phalanx in 21 Easy, Easy Stages

I'm using the below method to paint pikemen in groups of 12 or 16 for my big pike project.  Although there are a lot of steps, each one is pretty quick and I can finish a batch in around a week.  I've tried to rationalise the process and include lots of shortcuts such as Army Painter and the use of spray primers and varnishes.

Stages in the Mass Phalangite Paintjob
1. Spray prime minis brown (I’m using Montana Gold “Palish Brown”)
2. Paint linothorax and sword hilt white
3. Block in tunic and plumes in various colours; highlight
4. Paint coloured trims on some linothorax
5. Block in flesh tone, then highlight
6. Paint leather straps brown, and retouch brown around tops of boots, base and back of shield
7. Highlight leather straps
8. Paint hair black or brown, highlight
9. Paint helmet cheek guards black
10. Drybrush base in earth brown.
11. Apply army painter “soft tone” dip (except over shields)
12. 1 coat gloss spray varnish
13. 1 coat matt spray varnish
14. Paint shield facing, helmet, greaves, cheekguards Vallejo brass
15. Highlight with brass mixed with a hint of silver
16. Apply army painter “strong tone” to shield and helmet
17. Spray paint pikes “Desert Yellow”
18. 1 coat gloss spray varnish on pikes
19. 1 coat matt spray varnish on pikes
20. Paint pike heads black, then dark silver and highlight.
21. Attach pike; retouch

The sample figures at the top are at different stages; the first is at stage 3, the second is at stage 16 (I just need to paint the cheekguards on his helmet).  The third is finished, except that I need to matt varnish him as I skipped the spray matt stage.  Bronze-faced shields are the easiest thing in the world to paint!

Pikes, Pikes, Pikes

My main theme for this year is going to be pikemen.

Here's the painting tray.  I'm actually painting 2 different phalanx simultaneously, each of which will eventually be 99 minis strong.  Each finished phalanx will be 24 figures wide and 4 deep, with most figures based in 8's, and a 3 figure command stand.  During games, I'll subdivide them into units of 32 or 48 depending on which rules I am using.

The first phalanx is a refurb of my Macedonian phalanx, from which I'm removing the dust clouds prior to more or less doubling it in size.  Some of these are at the bottom right, with newly primed reinforcements top left, and some recently finished troops bottom left.  I've developed a relatively speedy way of painting pikemen, making extensive use of spray paints, spray varnishes and dips, that should enable me to finish at least a dozen minis a week.  I'll write this up later on.  This unit will be the first to be finished, hopefully in around 4 weeks time. 

The second is an entirely new Egyptian successor phalanx.   Some of these are top right, almost finished (sans pike), and I already have 14 completely  finished and stored away.  This unit will mix Foundry and Polemarch minis, and have longer 100mm pikes; should look great!

Perdicas' Purple Phalanx Completed

This is the phalanx I bought on eBay and started to expand and repaint a couple of weeks back.

Above is the"before" shot. 

I did a lot of work on them in the end, but they were still a lot quicker than starting a unit from scratch.

So that is my first Successor phalanx complete; I ultimately want at least 8 such units, each identically structured, with 3 elements of 8 and 2 of 4 figures, with 100mm pikes and with the same shade of bronze shields.  I've started the second....

Perdiccas' Purple Phalanx

Here's another eBay purchase; perhaps a less wise one than yesterday's auxilia.  Each phalangite is clad in a magnificent purple linothorax, and someone has written "Perdiccas" underneath each element.  They are only an average paintjob but look good en-masse.

The reason that my joy is not entirely unconfined, is that I hadn't realised form the ebay photo that the bronze on them is not my usual brass shade, but instead a much redder (and wronger) Dwarf Bronze that is going to look very odd indeed next to my other minis.  I might try a brass drybrush over the top.  Anyhow, plan is to paint 8 more minis to match, replace the guardsman with the hoplon in the front row with a 9th phalangite, and see if I can't get them looking half decent.  I think I'm going to need a lot of pikemen, this year...

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.