Wednesday, 15 May 2013

...the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea


I bought elements of a small Eureka/Irregular Assyrian army some years ago, and have recently revisited them, with a view to either completing the army and using it, or selling it on.  I'll post a few shots over the next week , in between the pikemen.

These are the guards.  I've replaced the standard with one from Foundry, and given them iron helmets with the characteristic bronze band.  Oh, and I re-did the spearheads!

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.

Friday, 10 May 2013

German Invasion!


The most illustrious Ironmitten, has very kindly (and unexpectedly) sent me this wonderful cartoon this morning.  Many thanks, Simon!

I suspect that he picked a German, because he knows that I have been on the scrounge, recently, for Germans for my next project.  Post Partizan, I want to assemble a small German army of 250 or so  miniatures.   I've been able to pick up some painted minis from eBay, some from friends (watch this space) and hopefully some from painter mate Nick Speller, who painted my sole German infantry unit, so far (below).  


They will be a nice change, from pikes!

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!