The Carthaginian army at the battle of Cannae, 216 BC, in 20mm size for ...

This time something different. Most of the models are HAT, Revell and Italeri with plenty of Newline Designs to go along. The disposition of the figures is made for the understanding of the battle and not for a true DBM game. DBM rules are made with fast gaming in mind and each army proposed within its lists are far smaller than this one. So here you can see the entire Carthaginian army with 1 element to representing 200 real people.

A way to store and organize wargame models

Some of you have been asking how I store and organize the models you see on the videos. With this video there are some hints which I think can be useful even if nothing new or extraordinary. You can see a few types of cabinets:
1- Bought at stores but with extra shelves (you just need some 15 cm between them for your hand to reach the end of it).
2- Kitchen/living room/balcony furniture turned into cabinets with glass/acrylic doors.
3- Drawers in upward position also with extra shelves and glass/acrylic covered.
I avoid as much as possible to have models inside drawers I can´t see. Also all cabinets are piled up on top of each other as a space saving measure.

DBM - Battle of Cannae 216 BC in 20mm. Hannibal's Army

I made this army along several years and finished my last group of Gallic warriors some weeks ago. I tried to keep the same style of painting and basing but many subtle changes happened. In the end of more than 1000 figures it is one of my favorites adventures into this crazy idea of mine of building full historical wargaming armies to set them quietly in the shelves. 

The powerful Cartaginian army of Hannibal Barca arrives at the plain of Cannae and prepares to follow Hannibal's orders for forming a large convex bow in front of the Roman army to absorb its impact...

Hannibal mounted on his brave Belleus. Next to him is Maharbal, Hannibal's 2IC. The army's command stand is Newline Designs. 

Not at Cannae, of course, but needed elsewhere namely at Zama, follows a group of Hat elephants. 

Protecting the back of Hannibal itself , two Newline Designs stands of elephants in a not very favorable position for the spear men in front...

Here, Hannibal is surrounded by his faithful Liby-Phoenician phalanxes. Later in the battle, these two groups will be placed in both ends of the battle line, and they will be crucial to defeat the bottle necked Roman legions in a pincer movement. 

Hannibal and his Citizen Cavalry bodyguards.

The left wing phalanx. The phalanxes are made mainly of Newline Designs figures but the front ranks also have some Hat miniatures. Every single shield is a different design making these units slow painting groups. In the end I even went to the Lybian ministery of tourism site to find some extra designs!
All other ethnical groups are the same regarding shields: only the Numidians figures have more or less the same pattern, all other, Spanish, Gauls, Carthaginians have different shield designs. So some 900 different patterns. The good thing was that this army was made along several years, interchanging modelling with other periods of history, otherwise I would be in a loony house. 

The right wing phalanx. Both command stands are Hat miniatures.

The biggest group in the Carthaginian army were the Gauls, recruited when Hannibal made his journey from Hispania to Italy. 

Here you can see Revell, Italeri, Newline Designs and Airfix all mixed in. 

Having a large contingent of Gaul figures is very helpful as they were long lasting enemies of the Romans. 

This group was the last to be painted and includes some blue tattoed bodies. 

The full Gallic foot contingent.

Gallic Cavalry. Again many Italeri, Hat and Newline Designs. Whenever I can I have a metal figure at least per stand to make it heavier and more varied. 

Numidian skirmishers. Hat and Newline Designs figures with shields covered with oxhide.

Numidian cavalry made out from the usual Hat and Newline Designs. I placed two commanders in  different stands anticipating Zama when there were rival contingents of Numidians in the battlefield.

The Spanish Caetrati are all Hat miniatures.

Balearic slingers from Newline Designs and Hat miniatures. 

Spanish Scutarii. These came from the two boxes of Hat miniaturers that contemplates these long lasting enemies of Rome.  

"Round shield" and "Long shield" Spanish Cavalry. The command satnds are Newline Designs and the rest is Hat miniatures.

Celtiberian spear men. Mostly are Newline Designs with some three stands of Hat Miniatures.

The Newline Designs miniatures paint extremely well and the figures are detailed and very well proportioned.


Next: Houses for Normandy, made in China and repainted in Portugal.

DBM - Battle of Cannae 216 BC in 20mm. The Manipular Roman Legions made up to now

The Battle of Cannae in the year 216 BC is one of the biggest events of ancient times and the most terrible defeat of the Roman army ever. In the end of the 2nd  of August in the plain of Cannae, not far from nowadays Bari, only the Triarii were alive and virtually all other were dead - around 80.000 men! The genius of a certain Carthaginian called Hannibal worked once more and again with a much smaller army. 

I´m still far from the end as I need a total of 16 legions and all I have up to now are these 6 you can see. So a bit more than 1/3 of the way done with only the weak Roman cavalry complete. This mean 500 figures already painted but still close to 800 to be painted. Many will be the newer Zvezda which are true beauties.

The Roman legion of the period is the pre-Marian one still with four lines you can see here: Velites ahead, followed by two lines both of Hastati and Princeps and finally one line of Triarii. 

Most of the figures are Hat from all their sets, but you can also find some NewLine Designs, Odemars and Italeri and even some Esci manipulus and officers from Empire days which suits this period too. 

Now the full Roman cavalry for the battle: one of the reasons why they lost as the Gaul and Numidian cavalry were much more and will brush them aside with ease. In this picture you can see the Allied cavalry, an Hat unit with a few Italeri mixed in. 

The Roman Citizen cavalry itself. All Hat miniatures again.

Now a quick review of the six Legions done up to now. The last row of this Legion has Triarii from Italeri with broom sticks spears replacing the original Pila.

Again a foot Esci imperial officer (on foot) enters this Legion as he still carries the bronze cuirass.

Here you can still see a number of different standards. Only the Eagle will survive with the later Marian reforms. 

The basing of this Legion was made with Basetex. Half of the command group is NewLine Designs.

                            

Again the command group has a few NewLine designs namely an officer and the Tubicem. 

I chose to paint each Legion with one pattern of both tunic and shield. Still there are many debates on the issue but at least  this method speeds painting.

Approaching their terrible fate...

Next: probably British for Early Desert 1940.

DBM Gaugamela in 20mm - Alexander's army.

This post replace the old one from 2011 with the same models. Hundreds of my faithfull followers (well, one at least...) complained about its poor quality pictures and hopefully these can make more justice to the models. I mentioned that old post on the one about Darius army and put it to rest. 

Still a few units like Hypaspists to be done but the majority of the army is here.

Alexander's figure and its beautiful Bucephalus are Zvezda and its Companions are both Zvezda and Hat.

The Thessalian cavalry is also Hat and its leader, Parmenion, had some Milliput applied on the horse's tiger skin to make him distinguishable.

The Hat Prodromoi. Only one figure can be used from the several available sets so some arm twisting was used in order to create more variety.

Alexander's lights.  In the first line there are the Hat Cretan archers and Zvezda Macedonian archers; second line has the Hat Agrianians and the third line has Hat Illyrian javelinmen.

Irregular auxilia from several of Hat sets. Some shields are scratchbuilt and other are Newline Designs.

 Three of the Taxeis of Alexander Pezhetairoi are Hat industries...

... the other three are a mix of Zvezda and Atlantic conversions. 

The Atlantic conversions are based on the Greek Classic Hoplites. I chose the positions in which they are standing, cut ou the big classical Hoplon and sword they have, glued a roundel of plastic card and drilled the long sarissa on the right hand. like this they make some reasonable back ranks of Pezhetairoi. 

The front ranks are glued in double ranks as the Zvezda figures work better this way. 

Some middle rank figures didn't carry the small shield and some had to be made in plastic card. The Sarissas are made of plastic broom bristles with the tip heated with a lighter and squashed with pliers and finally shaped with an X-Acto.

Here it is Alexander's army ready to perform the famous tactic used in Gaugamela headed to strike at Darius himself.

Next: more Samurai or the armies of the Punic wars.

DBM Gaugamela in 20mm - The beggining of the Achaemenid Persian army

I started this army many years ago with a few touches here and there in recent days. The idea is to be able to refight Gaugamela 331 BC and by consequence all other battles of the campaign.  Darius army is the obvious oposition against Alexander's army that will  be showned soon.

The figures used here are Hat, Zvezda and Newline Design.

Here is what is done up to the moment, around 220 figures. What is necessary is something like four or five times this lot for the full Persian army of the battle even if definitive numbers vary a lot. I'll try the 1000 mark figure that will represent aproximately the 100.000 men of Darius army that modern historians say it had. 

Heavy Persian cavalry. Figures are mostly Zvezda with one Newline Design cavalry figure for stand. 

Light Persian cavalry. The figures are again Newline Design and Zvezda with some Italeri Mongol conversions with Zvezda heads. 

Apple Bearer infantry. A full Hat unit.

Albanian archers. Hat and Zvezda figures.

Sparabara infantry. A bit anachronistic but a must and helpful to beef up the ranks. Newline Design and Zvezda figures. 

Mardian archers. Hat and Zvezda.

Atropates Takabara. A full Zvezda unit.

Persian Levy infantry. All are Hat with a converted standard bearer. 

Babylonian Levy archers. Hat figures. 

Persian irregular cavalry. Everything is Zvezda.

Atropates psiloi archers. Hat and Zvezda again.

Saka psiloi. Zvezda  and Zvezda with different heads. 

Albanian javelinmen. Hat figures. 

War chariot. Newline Design.

Darius chariot with the man itself. Another nice model from Newline Design. 

Next: most probably Koboyakawa Hideaki's clan for Sekigahara 1600.