Tuesday, 21 May 2013

Assyrian cavalry


Here are the cavalry from my small Assyrian force.  The miniatures above were professionally painted by Phil Riley of NyrOld, and the below are partly and eBay purchase, and partly by me.  Phil's are excellent, and the others aren't too shabby, either.  When time permits, I'll slap some decorative bands on the helmets, and some more tuftage and dust on the bases, so that they match my current standard.


The small army of which these form a part, is potentially for sale, please drop me a line at the address on the front page, if interested.

Monday, 20 May 2013

Ptolemaic Elephant Corp


Last night I completed basing the Ptolemaic Elephant Corp, for Raphia.  Ptolemy deployed 73 of these African elephants in an attempt to counter the rather larger number of rather larger Seleucid Indians.  Unfortunately he failed to put them through the elephant equivalent of assertiveness training, and most of them subsequently routed back, through his own forces.  As usual, all photos are clickable.


The magnificent beasts and crews are from Aventine's range.  I painted the elephants, and my good friend Nick Speller, the crews (beautifully).


Nick also painted the escorting Cretan and NeoCretan archers, who are a mixture of Foundry and Gorgon miniatures.  You may be able to see that they are in several different shades of red.  In the game these will form 5 units, each of one elephant and two stands of escorts.

Friday, 17 May 2013

Dress rehearsal for Raphia


On Tuesday a couple of friends helped me rehearse the Raphia game, and test my rules.  The rehearsal went well (although I've subsequently tweaked the elephant rules, as the nellies needed more "oomph").  The above picture is clickable, so hopefully you can see the forest of pikes  is starting to come together, even though I have less than half of the minis we'll deploy on the day, on a table just half as long.  I'm getting near to the end of my preparations and Craig has been painting and posting furiously on his blog, too.

The game itself will be held at Partizan in Kelham Hall, near Newark on 2nd June 2012.  If you'd like to play, we can accommodate several players... just leave a message in comments, below.

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.

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.