From Harry V 28mm Carthaginian Citizens/Spearmen (720 pts)

 Hi all, 

Sorry to kind of drop a points bomb with this post, but I have also know completed 144 28mm Carthaginian citizen spearmen. My process for troops like these is to do a massive production line with each step of the modeling process, so they were finally completed all at once. 

The vast majority of the figures are from various victrix sets (and some wargames Atlantic bitz), with 6 figures drawn from the Foundry/Casting room miniatures Carthage range to add a little character and a few other figures from the plastic Carthaginians from Agema miniatures. 

Each unit has 36 figures, these are for To the Strongest, where they would likely be classified as raw spearmen. I have gone with deep units to give them a little more staying power. Raw spearmen tend to be speed bumps at the best of times in the rules, so the extra depth should hopefully allow them to survive a little longer and let the elephants and cavalry win the day.

 I also think it is the historical deployment. 

For the shields I mainly went with the thureos style shields as I was aiming for a punic wars look, however there are a variety of shield types mixed in to represent a more ad hoc nature to the units. Thureos was recorded as being used in third punic war in the literary accounts, and there are North African monuments with the shield as well. According to Spanish historian Quesada Sanz the Carthaginians likely introduced large, oval shields to the Iberians, so I think Thureos is reasonable, especially as that shield type seemed to majorly come into fashion across the Med In this time. 

If I was purely going for a Sicilian Wars style army I would have used all aspis shields, and in fact I kind of wish I did as the citizen infantry played a major role in those wars against Syracuse. 

I think these troops could do equally well as less well equipped Libyan foot. I think that armor tends to be over represented by wargamers in the ancient period, I think the vast majority of troops would have lacked significant armor in any army from the period. 

One source of inspiration for these was the Truceless or Mercenary War were Libyan subjects along with mercenaries revolted against the Carthaginians due to a lack of pay after the first punic war. At times during this conflict every able-bodied Carthaginain who could shake a spear was drafted into the ranks, so I included a number of very poorly equipped fellows in the ranks. At the same time, the levy would be a cross-section of society, so included some well armored officers and troops to represent the wealthier classes. 

 

I used figures from a lot of different victrix sets for these units - some purpose bought, other figures were sprue left overs that could be reasonably pressed into service. 

For helmets, the montefortino style is the one that I used most, but there are a range of hellenistic types as well as the conical helm often associated with Carthage. The montefortino seemed to be manufactured in scale and widely used by Carthage and distributed to her mercenaries, so this made the most sense to me as head gear. 

Duncan Head in the book "Armies of the Punic and Macedonian Wars" has a recreation of a Carthaginian citizen in that book - it seems like every figure manufacturer has basically copied that look for every single figure sold as a Carthaginian citizen. I personally think that the citizen body would look a little more varied and diverse. 

This project was absolutely a speed paint for better or for worse. The qualities of the figures varies pretty dramatically in some cases, depending on the mood I was feeling when painting. 

A lot of the back rank figures required some conversion work to get the upright spears - the Victrix citizen set only has attacking poses, so some surgery was required for the back ranks. 

I usually organize the figures on popsicle sticks, with 4 figures to a stick, and paint in batches of 16 or 4 sticks. For these simple ancient figures with only a few different colors I find I can comfortably due 16 in around an hour, not counting drying times for washes. I focus on one tunic color per day and then mixed all the figures together to get random blends of tunics for the final units. I also undercoat with a skeleton bone color primer as I find that gives and excellent base for off-white tunics and the spear shafts. 

For basing these deep units, I stuck the first two ranks on the bases, then applied the ground cover, and then did the following ranks, to make applying the basing material a little less messy on the figures.

Yowza that's a big Phalanx Harry!   It just looks amazing.  love hear the kit bashing and mixing of figure ranges, that IMHO is the only way to go.  I got a chuckle about the Duncan head illustration.  The WRG Armies and Enemies series is a wonderful resource, but yeah it did tend to focus designers on one look.  Luckily, the mix and match approach can get around most of that.  I also enjoyed reading about your batch painting approach.

From SteveG: Metal Ancients 28mm (165 points)

Some nice Aventine Carthaginians.  28mm metal 

Aventine Etruscans. 

Now for some of the famous Argyaspides ( Silver Shields) of the army of Alexander The Great 

WiP Games and Miniatures 

WiP Games and Miniatures

kitbashed Silver Shields. 

and finally the terrifying Seleucid Scythed Chariot 

1st Corps. Metal  

so 18x 5  and 8x 5    and  ?  20 points for chariot  =   150 points.

From Millsy:

Super brushwork on these ancient fellows as always Steve!

When the Challenge is over it'd be great to see everything you have painted together, it's a sizable collection of beautifully painted stuff already and there's still a month to go.

The chariot is my pick of the crop it was a very hard decision. I've scored it as a vehicle but awarded 10 extra points for the additional horses and the reins, plus added the 5 points you missed for the driver. That brings your total up to 165 points this week.

Cracking work mate. Can't wait for the next installment of ancient goodness!

Cheers,
Millsy

From HarryV Libyan Skirmishers (180 Points)

 Hey everybody, 

This week's submission is 36 28mm Libyan Skirmishers for my Carthaginian Project for a total of 180 points. These Libyans were recruited from the nomadic, tribal peoples of the vast region of Libya. 

 

These guys are made from the Warriors of Carthage box from Victrix, along with fellows from the victrix peltast set and other random sets to make up the numbers. You only get 12 in the warriors of Carthage box, so numbers needed to be found elsewhere. Fortunately you get extra Libyan heads so conversions are easy. 

Hannibal had around 2,000 of these warriors in his army from my research, so at a 1:50 scale that gives 40 models, so I am about 4 figures short, but oh well. 

I couldn't find my stash of surplus round shields and did not have enough in the packs to give them all round shields. Therefore some of these fellows have picked up thureos shields from Carthage's substantial armories. Of course, after priming them I found my extra round shields. 

Some of these Libyans also have acquired/looted helmets as well. This was mainly to make up for the lack of Libyan heads I had available. 

Our limited sources of these gentlemen describe them wearing exclusively red tunics, along with wild and shaved hairstyles. I believe the hairstyles would have been unique to each tribe, however the victrix set only has one expression/face per hairstyle, so the different tribes are mixed together for modeling purposes. 

The victrix warriors of Carthage box is a little frustrating as it combines three very distinct troop types in one box. I would really prefer separate kits for the different troop types, like a dedicated box just for Libyan skirmishers. now that I am out of Libyan heads I can't really make any more of this troop type. Also you only get one head per hairstyle, where you would think the skirmishers recruited from a tribe would be grouped together all with the same hairstyle. 

These are all for the "To The Strongest" Ruleset. 

Next up are many more infantry along with more heavy cavalry which will be ready towards the end of February. Following that I have some really cool stuff (I think) for the Carthage project which will remain a secret for now. 

Every time I see HarryV in the title I expect to see HYW English, but I am more than satisfied with these Libyans!  Excellent work on kit bashing, painting and basing these skirmishers.  As Phil Barker would say, do not discount the humble light infantry skirmisher with javelins.  These troops are. both cheap and effective.  In one of our TtS games, Irish beardless youth managed to get round the flank of the Roman legions and win the day.  I got a chuckle out of your shield drama (been there) and the issues with the heads.  FYI, I know some gamers have used Perry Mahdist plastics as greek javelin men, so maybe's there's another source for you.  I am hoping that the promised "really cool stuff" includes Heffalumps.

 

From RossM - 15mm Late Medieval Cavalry & 2mm Punic Wars: (76 points)

So it begins...

First post here, and it's a small entry to ensure continuation in this year's Challenge. 

Two bases of Scurrours for my growing ADLG Lancastrian force. The figures are from Museum Miniatures and fit in well enough with the bulk of the army that are from Gladiator Miniatures. 

The red in the pictures isn't that far away from the red on the miniatures and now realising that it is a step too far and into the realms of garishly bright. It will help me remember that they are on the gaming table in ADLG and other games. 

The red and dark grey (Black) are to represent the colours of the Percy's; although in the Wars of the Roses fiction that I am currently reading, the Percy's are described as wearing blue and yellow, not red and black. I am not a scholar of this period so any thoughts or info on this would be appreciated. 

These are entered into the Challenge as a Historical entry (941.2) and will gain points as 

 

15mm cavalry x 4: 16 points

Historical Entry: 20 bonus points

Next is an entirely new scale for me;  2mm something that at one stage I wouldn't have even entertained painting. Well painting isn't entirely the correct phrase, its more like dabbing with colour.

The miniatures are from Irregular Miniatures and were an idea my friend and fellow gamer. His idea was that I paint a Carthaginian and Republic Roman army and pick one, he would supply the figures. 

There are six stands of figures here, four skirmishers and two cavalry, with the furthest away cavalry being started the week before the Challenge so they are not included. All are based on 60mm front and the depths will vary as below: 

Skirmishers: 60 x 15mm

Light and Medium Infantry: 60 x 25mm

Heavy Infantry: 60 x 20mm

Cavalry: 60 x 30mm

Elephants: 60 x 40mm

Above the cavalry from the rear and then below from the front. 

These are entered into the Challenge as a Front Desk and New Acquisitions entry (902.2) and will gain points as 

 

2mm bases x 5: 3 points (0.5 per skirmisher stand and 1 for the cavalry) 

Historical Entry: 20 bonus points

My Challenge Library Card is below;

This takes the points for this entry to

15mm cavalry x 4: 16 points

Historical Entry: 20 bonus points

2mm bases x 5: 20 points (2.5 per skirmisher stand and 5 per cavalry stand) 

Historical Entry: 20 bonus points

Totaling: 76 points (15.2 percent of my Challenge total of 500)

Looking forward to posting more entries soon. 

Cheers for now

A true day of firsts here then... as we have another first entry from the Sunday Crew! Welcome aboard Ross!

Great entry as well with the WotR entry to kick things off. Like you, I am also not well versed in the history of it, but I do like the models and timescale! Great period to paint up!

For the Punic wars.. 2mm... wow... am struggling with 8mm marines, I can only just think how difficult painting 2mm models would be.. and to make them be recognized on such a base! Massive achievement there for sure!

Though for points, I have to adjust it a bit. As the judge's mighty calculator is a bit different for 2mm bases. They scoring 5 pts per 60x30 base. So taking the bases as half that, and you having 4 half bases ( skirmishers ) and 2 full bases ( calvary ), you will have a few more points.. So I have updated your calculations above to reflect that!

Great job and thanks for contributing today!

Kyle

From NoelW: Is this the finishing line? (680 Points)

So my target with this last post is 669 points, which, if achieved will scrape me a bare 5000 points for the whole Challenge. Let's see:

Firstly, 27 Carthaginians to oppose the Romans I've previously posted (Victrix figures, Little Big Man shield decals):

And then, the remains of my 15mm Austrians, who've been waiting since this time last year. There's infantry (jagers, line and grenadiers), a total of 75 figures:

And "Hungarian", or light, cavalry - one large regiment of hussars and two smaller ones, plus a regiment of uhlans, 55 figures:

Then there's the remainder of the orcs I began somewhere on Challenge Island (17 GW figures):

When I buy artillery set, I've a bad habit of painting up the gun crew but leaving the guns alone - they need assembly, and are boring to paint. (I give the crew the nearest possible substitute gun from a different army). So I've a backlog of guns. Here's 8 of them:

These are all 28mm Perrys British Napoleonic guns. The 4 on the left are from the British forces in Egypt. To prevent the wheels sinking in sand, they were protected by wood tied to the rims. The other 4 are from the Waterloo period.

Finally, a little bit of point grubbing. The following three pictures are are "finished", as far as it goes. The first is a single velite who failed to attend the muster in a previous post.

These are four of the sepoys I finished along with a previous post, but, as you can see, they're Ensigns without their standards. I was hoping I'd figure out what they should be carrying, and make the flags, but have not found relevant info, so the figures stand alone.

And finally, a xebec. I'd painted this by week 2 of the challenge but, as you can see, it still lacks rigging and sails. So, technically, it's not finished so maybe not pointworthy. It's smaller than a Black Sails brig.

Whether the sepoys without standards and the xebec without sails are legal for points, I'm not sure. The velite is merely a figure missed from a previous post.

So, what's the scores on the doors?

8 guns at 10 points: 80 pts
75 15mm infantry: 150 pts
55 15mm cavalry: 220 pts
27 28mm Carthaginians: 135 pts
17 28mm orcs: 85 pts
1 28mm velite: 5 pts
Sepoys and xebec Any bonus points??? I leave this to my trusty minion.

TOTAL:  675 points

Huzzah!!

_____________________________________

Good Gravy Noel, do you ever sleep?! You know, I really can't process all this right now, it's all so bewildering and... numerous! I'll simply say, wow, 5000 points, this is tremendous output Noel. If you went pro you've put a few Far Eastern sweatshops out of business.  

Let's round this mob to an even 680 and call it a cease fire? :)

Amazing. 

-Curt