Showing posts with label raphia phalanx. Show all posts
Showing posts with label raphia phalanx. Show all posts

Thursday, 16 May 2013

Another day, another phalanx...


These are the based rear-rankers for my Machimoi phalanx, that I showed (unbased) a few days ago. 

Machimoi were recruited from amongst the native Egyptians, and I've given some of them a slightly darker skin tone, accordingly.  Most are un-armoured (the armoured minority were painted by Craig, thanks!), and I based the tunic colours on those shown in Stephane Thions's Soldat Lagide.  I really love the Foundry WotG pikemen, and the un-armoured ones are so very easy to paint.

Tuesday, 14 May 2013

Not my machomoi


These minis have been lent to me by Dr. Simon, and I'm using them, along with the 40 minis lent me by Wabby George, to close my "pike gap".   Totting up on my fingers, I reckon that, once I've finished painting a final half dozen minis,  I may even have more pike than I need!  

Sunday, 12 May 2013

Makin' basin'


...a quick WIP Shot of the last Machimoi for Raphia, in the early stages of basing.  These include the 40 I showed previously, 8 kindly donated by Craig, 12 more I just painted and the final scrapings of my eBay purchases.

Thursday, 9 May 2013

Painting furiously...


I've still not received the phalanx minis I was hoping to get from my painter, so I have been redoubling my painting efforts in order to close the gap.  Here are 40 more Ptolemaic peasants, ready to fill the rear ranks of the machimoi phalanx.  I'm desperately painting another batch, and am also going to borrow a phalanx off mate George, tonight.

Craig Davey has been busy, with the opposition...

Thursday, 2 May 2013

Yet more phalangites

I thought it might be fun to sum up where I've got to, with 30 days to go.

Here are the other elements of the phalanx, finished so far.  All are clickable...  The line:-


 and the libyans/peltastoi/agemata basilikoi.


Finally, below is a collage of the 6 finished units, so far; 2 machimoi, 2 line, the libyans and the peltastoi/agema.  You'll need to click this one...


Still 240 minis short!

Wednesday, 1 May 2013

Machimoi Phalangitae

Here are the first 2 (of 4) units for our Raphia game on 2nd June.



Machimoi was an Egyptian term for native soldiers, in this case raised as an emergency force and trained as phalangites, by Ptolemy IV, to resist the Seleucid invasion. 

The miniatures are a blend of Gripping Beast Polemarch and Foundry (the unarmoured ones).  The shield transfers are from LBMS, Steve there very kindly produced some additional sheets for me, with battle-damaged designs.  I'm preparing some rear-rank elements with more unarmoured, bare-headed troops.

And now... both together!


Monday, 29 April 2013

Rearguard


These are the last bunch of recruits for the Raphia project*.   They will be the rear rankers for the Machimoi phalanx.  Pikes have not yet been issued; in their absence, at the rear right, you may be able to make out a couple of miniatures practicing their karate moves.

*...but I'm currently chewing my nails over the 150 miniatures still out with a painter

Tuesday, 16 April 2013

30 more pikemen


These are the last of the Foundry Ptolemaics.  They need staining, highlights and varnishing.  Then I have a final 50-odd un-armoured pike to face (who will hopefully be quick to paint), and a scary amount of basing...

Sunday, 7 April 2013

Ghost phalanx...

...being the final 80-something phalangite minis I need to paint from scratch for the phalanx, by the end of April.  There are another 200 minis off with painters, too, that will need to be finished and based in May.

Friday, 5 April 2013

Agemata Basilikoi

I've not had a chance to photograph these until now, these are the Ptolemaic guard, with the Agemata on the right, and the Peltastoi on the left, they are clickable.  


The peltastoi are the junior unit.  There is some controversy about how they were equipped; whether with a full length or shortened sarissa, or even as light infantry.  I went for the full 100mm.

A lousy photo, I'm afraid, I'll take a proper one when they are finished (they aren't flocked yet).      The minis are a mix of Foundry (mostly) and Polemarch.  Flocking will have to wait, as I want to focus on painting all the remaining pike minis, first (6 down, 5 to go).  Then I'll have a week or two of flocking hell, to face.

Monday, 1 April 2013

A change of scale...

I've been painting 28mm pikemen for my Raphia project, continuously for the last four months, and have rather reached the end of my tether.  In fact the whole 28mm thing is starting to pee me off: I've at least 4000 unpainted, most of whom will never get painted, the whole house is full of lead, and I've been fighting a rearguard action for space with the family for the past decade.

I have plan "B" in mind; sell all my 28's and shift to 2mm, instead.   

Here's my Alexandrian 2mm army, all from Irregular Miniatures.  


On the left (below) are the Companions, in 8 squadrons, including the larger Royal squadron with the man himself, screened by Agrianes.


In the centre of the army, the Pezhetairoi (below).  Each of the 12 blocks has 240 pikemen in it, giving a much better impression of mass, than 28mm do.


On the right, the Thessalians, and Prodromoi.


Here are some pike blocks I've modeled as deeper formations of less well drilled Machimoi, for Raphia.


Fianlly, below, the elephant and Cretan skirmisher screen.


The entire 2mm army fits into a large matchbox, unlike my 28mm collection, which would fit into a shipping container, (just about!).   

So there we have it, plan "B"...

Monday, 25 March 2013

Final Agemata WIP


A titanic effort this weekend, has seen the Agemata Basilikoi (Royal vanguard) completed and stuck to their bases, ready for gunking.  They will be brigaded with the Peltastoi (in red, on the left), to form a single unit, on the left of the Ptolemaic phalanx.  Figures are mostly Foundry, but there are a dozen converted Polemarchs amongst the Agemata.

I can happily report that I now have more than half of the phalanx units painted and on bases  (1.2m out of the required 2.2m); it's all downhill from here!

Thursday, 21 March 2013

More Agemata, and Bathroom WIP


I've been plugging away with the Agemata; the whole unit is now on the painting table.  These Foundry minis are such a delight to paint, and are coming on very quickly!  The current batch (front) need another 3 or 4 sessions, so I should be able to start basing in around a week's time.  I really want to paint their plumes red, right now, but am saving them to last because there is a danger that the red will come off in handling, leaving white windows.  

I've also been working on the rules and Raphia army lists in the background... 

On the domestic front we have been getting our bathroom rebuilt.  Unfortunately this has revealed problems with our old house, and the entire interior wall of the room has been demolished (below), so we now have a unique and interesting open-plan bathroom.  The disruption means no gaming for a week or so.  A plus, though, is that I will have additional wargaming storage built in when it is all put back together, and there should be space for some 5' terrain boards, which I've long coveted.


Friday, 15 March 2013

Polemarch Agema


... a quick WIP shot of the Polemarch Agema, that I converted earlier, by adding huge crests.  They now waiting for inking, Klear, matt varnish and highlights on the metallics.  And for me to paint another 21 mates, to join them...

Tuesday, 12 March 2013

Peltastoi WIP


I finished painting the above peltastoi.  They are now in a holding pattern, waiting for their agemata colleagues, with whom they will be brigaded, to be painted.

Saturday, 9 March 2013

Primed guards

A brief footnote to yesterday's post; the weather is finally good enough, for priming!  Here are the agema, showing how well the Polemarchs, with their enlarged crests (left) match the equivalent Foundry figures (right, with shields).


Friday, 8 March 2013

Starting the guards


Above, I've mostly the figures that will be the peltasts for my guard phalanx, and below are some Polemarch figures who I've lightly converted, and who will join some similar-looking Foundry Successors to form the agemata.  Chap on the front right, is a Foundry Perseus; note the winged sandals!

Saturday, 23 February 2013

Forming up



The 96 miniatures required for my first two (of four) "white shield" units now have their shields, and are all "piked-up".  This stage of the process of building a unit is always the worst, as the figures look awful viewed from the side, rather than the front, and un-based.  The night is darkest just before the dawn, they say...

Monday, 18 February 2013

New Jenga phalanx WIP


A quick WIP shot, of most of the phalangites for the 4th and 5th pike blocks for Raphia, mustering on their Jenga painting blocks.  Most of these were painted (very nicely) by Raglan, but I needed to replace his pikes with my blunt pins, re-base and repaint most of his crests from black to the red I'm using for my phalanx.  I spent a very long evening yesterday, painting the 60-odd required pikes.  Yawn...

In other news I've been plugging away with my draft set of Ancient rules, which are now 9,300 words long.  I reckon that they will be more than twice that, when finished.  I managed to work out how to upload them onto my iPad as a pdf, and they are now stuffed to the gunnels with hyper-links, so it should now be possible to navigate around them easily.  I'm going to try running tomorrow's game from the iPad... 

Out of curiosity, does anyone use iPads or laptops at the wargames table?

Monday, 11 February 2013

More white shields



Another 21 finished (bar varnishing).  For some reason, I find the Polemarch rather less interesting to paint, than their Foundry equivalents; I'm really not sure why.  However, I've now got enough minis finished, to be able to start thinking about basing up another 2 phalanx blocks.