Thorakitai Advance

In the dark days before discovering Newline (a long time ago now) I was hunting for thureophoroi, I grabbed a few Hat Thracians that had suitable figures and to get them in strength would leave lots of spares, I needed to secure a source of dedicated thureophoroi. I got hold of some Xyston thureophoroi, sold as 15mm they seemed about 18mm, I contemplated using some creative basing to incorporate them or to simply change to a more common scale of ancients as I  really liked the Xyston miniatures. I then came across the Newline with their comprehensive selection and would be a closer match to the plastics I already had so the Xyston's ended up in a drawer.

What I loved about Xyston's figures was the helmets which were interesting and varied, I thought the size of their heads were roughly the same as Newlines so I thought while I was doing head swap conversions I could create a unique unit of Thorakitai using the Xyston heads and the Newline Designs 20mm African Veterans advancing. I missed the faces on the Newline figures but those heads were used on the Cretan Archers and now I have spares for future conversion ideas. The command figures remained unchanged.

I experimented a bit with the painting, I dry/over brushed the helmets with Vallejo Silver and used Agoras Dunes Contrast paint to give them a bronze tinge this was also applied to the greaves. Its an effective way todo metallics and something to consider for future projects. I also applied Contrasts to the shields again more of an experiment but I'm pleased with their turn out.

I got the railway background out to do some photos so I redid the last thorakitai conversions and attached below. I also got some pictures of  the Moria Goblins finally so that will be a post at some point. I've also had a bit of solo gaming in so once written up there will be some posts on Strength & Honour, Dominion of the Spear and Lost Battles. On the miniatures front I'm preparing some Celtiberians for now but time at the desk is very sporadic and progress slow. I could also pick up some plastic sets that are part built but I'm into ancients currently. I'm wanting to pursue Punic wars campaign so expanding armies for that is a goal as well as expanding armies for Hellenistic states namely Ptolemiac troops for Raphia.     

Thorakitai

 

I'm pleased to get this unit done representing Thorakitai, armoured Thureophoroi essentially, they were a labour love being a head swap conversions. Note if there were to be a dedicated set of 20mm Thorakitai made I would still certainly get them! The Command is the standard Macedonian command figures from Newline Designs 20mm Macedonian range, they just have shields from the Maccabean range. The rank and file troops are the African Veterans standing from the Carthaginian line. I snipped off the metal spears and drilled out the hands, filed the parts that the spear connected to on the tunics to add a replacement bristle spear. This allowed a small bit of variety as the spears can be held at slightly different angles and more bend resistant. The main conversion was the head swap. The heads were procured from the Greek range from mainly the old style Thureophoroi sculpts with clean shaven faces (I believe they have been re-sculpted with beards going off later purchases) also some heads from the newer Hellenistic infantry code. The heads were placed in various positions to give natural variation.

It was a tedious task but I was pleased with the conversion, they didn't have the smoothest joins but I tried to make out they were the sort of scarves ancient warriors might use to protect their necks from armour rubbing against it. Again the shields are the ones from the Maccabean line. I went for a blue theme with the unit and spent a bit more time highlighting the tunics.

I'll post up the African veterans soon, I've been distracted this week working again on a campaign setting for the 2nd Punic War. As with other campaign rules and rules is general they begin to get more complex so I'm trying to keep them as simple as possible with some flavour. I've settled on Strength & Honour for tactical settings and I have a map made so I'm working on getting it functioning but there's still lots of decisions to make with army lists and victory points.    

Death of Ptolemy VI

The unit of Hellenistic Mercenaries from the previous post was inspired by a illustration by Seán Ó’ Brógáin featured in Ancient Warfare Magazine X. 2. Since I was snapping the mercenaries I thought I would grab some elephants and cavalry to emulate the illustration further. I was quite pleased with the Geek Villian rocky grass fleece cloth and it worked well with the sky sections. 

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Hellenistic Mercenaries

I'm very pleased to get a unit done for my main project, it's not a rebase either all freshly done! Also they are the 20mm Hellenistic infantry I kept pestering Sean at Newline Designs about so its good to get some done again. I stocked up on quite a lot being both very useful and from my favorite armies of the era. As usual I used my stock of plastic bristles for spears and swapped their shields for the shields from the Ancient Jewish range.

I also took the fresh miniatures to attempt a new approach to basing the heavy infantry as its difficult to apply filler in between the ranks. I initially tried using hot glue to fix the figures down but I was having problems doing that, I think mainly due to the Work's brand hot glue gun not being hot enough it cools too fast. After a bit of trial and error I realised I could make individual stands for the figures meaning I could easily adjust the particular angle the figure stands and still make him free standing quickly, the low temperature and quick cooling turned to my advantage!

Now with that sorted I decided to attempt a tactic reminiscent of my old style of basing, namely lots of PVA,   figures placed basing material poured on! I mixed some PVA with some of my basing paint emulsion in the hope it would start to dye the fine modelling sand at least which was poured on to level the basing between the figures eliminating the need to apply filler in between. Once dried I just painted with the sandy earth emulsion and let that dry which it did and cracked a bit but it was quite a cool effect and once the static grass was applied looked fine. I may do a step by step post on it down the line.

Work also slowly rumbles on on the Heroquest mission eventually I will do a post on the various miniatures painted. Still there are a few more posts to write up for stuff rebased ages ago and I have a  post to sort showing new Newline stuff which has just arrived in the form of additional Skythian sculpts! Now I just need a chance to get caught up blogging! 

Thureophoroi Again, Rebased

The latest rebased units and the brown tunic wearing Thureophoroi's hat trick post. I used a ready mixed pot of filler to do the ground work which is simply painted and then dry brushed when dried. Then a few applications of static grass to finish. Ready mixed filler made the process was a lot more straight forward although its awkward with the figures being close together which just comes with the territory. 

The pictures show the the painted filler as an almost totally different colour however the base colour is well matched to the sandy areas on the cloth. I think its just the angles and materials bouncing the light off. These photo shoots are always haphazard and done on the fly and the photos have been edited to attempt to compensate for the poor lighting conditions. I forgot to crop the top picture but it looks like a dusty day from a storm or marching armies!

Next on the bench are more rebases that are ready for the ground work. Currently I have 5 bases of Seleucid legionaries and 4 bases of Carthaginian African Spearmen its going to be a bit of a grueller but that will be the part rebased units done for now. Debasing will start after the hopeful move and I have 2 part painted cavalry units that need finished, I'm sure these will be more than enough to keep me busy till then.

These rebases have had some 32 man units reduce down to 24 man units in some cases which is leaving me with spare painted figures. I'm still working out what to do with them but I'm sure I'll reform most of them into a full base one day, some might need a command set or combine with other spares or possibly become an elite or light unit with less figures per base needed. I'm just rambling now because I can't face faffing with the filler! ;-)

Ancient Generals: rebase

Rebasing continues with Newline personalities and command figures from around the ancient Mediterranean. Being the generals they are based on circular bases this makes them standout more and more pleasing to my eye.

With lots of base not covered by closed ranks it gave me a bit of space to practice and experiment. On top of the painted filler I used various coloured tufts and my new mix of static grass.

There will be more generals to add to the collection eventually including a few head swaps but next I have a bit of a change with Warhammer 40000 Tallarn Desert Raiders.