From GrahamB - Loads more Ancients (555 points)

More IT problems have delayed me posting these. I can’t find the settings on my iPad to enable me to upload photos to blogger so I have resorted to uploading photos from my telephone.

Anyway, in the meantime I have still been painting more ancients for my classical army’s for the Mithradatic wars and other Successor army’s. Firstly here is a unit of Successor Agema heavy cavalry. They can also serve as Cataphracts.  I don’t know the manufacturer as they were bought 2nd hand and given long spears from Aventine Miniatures and a spare Victrix Greek standard.

Secondly I have completed a small unit of 4 Scythian horse archers who will see service with various armies. I think they are A &A miniatures. The riders have separate legs and torsos allowing multiple poses.

Next are two Caesarian Roman units from Wargames Factory so have been in the plastic pile for years. I have enough Caesarian Romans already mainly in Red, so these have yellow and white tunics as well as a variation in shields to represent either Pompeys troops or imitation Legionaries or even Italian allies of the Romans or Successors.

Next up are a unit of 16 Greek Hoplites from Victrix Miniatures. They paint up and rank up very easily.

I have added three units of 6 generic ancient skirmishers, a mix of spare metal figures and cobbled together plastics giving one unit of bows, one old slingers and one unit of javelin men. 

Finally I have completed a unit of 16 Theurokitai from Aventine Miniatures for service with my Successors. They could also double up as imitation Legionaries.

So 16 x 28mm cavalry @ 10 pts = 120 points and 79 foot 28mm figures @ 5 points each = 395 points giving a total of 555points.

***

That is...a lot of horses, a lot of riders, and a lot of guys...for a lot of points...

555 points it is!

GregB

From MattW: Italians and Greeks (115 points)

More Italians and Greeks additions 

First up some Italians for Infamy Infamy and Gangs of Rome skirmish rules, not sure of the brand Agema perhaps, hand painted shields.

Another unit of Greeks, again Immortal miniatures now sold by Warlord Games,  6 more units to go and the heavy infantry will be done. Again VVV decals on the shields. 

10 Italians @ 5 points = 50

12 Greeks @ 5 points = 60

Total points 110

Cheers

Matt

TeemuL: Good looking warriors, but more photos would show them even better. Nevertheless, nice additions to your forces. And naturally some bonus points for hand painted shields.

From NoelW: Romans and their enemies: (410 points)

Continuing the rapid completion of outstanding units for my Punic project, firstly we have some Republican Romans:

I believe these are Agema figures, a range which is perhaps no longer in production. I find them somewhat strange figures. They're quite delicately sculpted, with good natural proportions, meaning that they're slighter than the majority of wargames figures, and closer to 25mm than 28mm. They could be quite beautiful. Except that the design seems to lead to some very, very strange poses - I think because the positioning of the neck is not worked out well, so the heads generally sit at quite peculiar angles.

You might ask why I've built them like this. Answer: I bought them second-hand, as part of a miscellaneous Punic collection, ready assembled. I thought about breaking them up and reassembling them more aesthetically, but it seems a lot of trouble for relatively little benefit, so I decided instead I'd give them a very simple paint job to use them in my army until I've some more attractive replacements. They'll probably be used as Triarii, even though only about a quarter have the long spear typical of that rank. As the Triarii often did not make it into battle, they'll perhaps stand as placeholders rather than active figures much of the time.

Against the Romans, Carthage will pitch her many allies. Amongst these are the Spanish:

These nine figures came from the same purchase. I think most of them are Wargames Foundry, judging by the style, but a couple seem to come from a different manufacturer, as far as I can tell. I enjoyed painting these, especially trying to come up with nine different geometric shield designs using a combination of only three colours.

Fighting for either side could be the Numidians:

I've always liked the notion of the Numidian light cavalry, since my very first conversions of Airfix Indians, one of my favourite childhood sets. I've no idea who made these models, though.

Next, Celts. These are 26 Warlord models, plus one Wargames Foundry figure. The Warlord figures are very dynamic, but it's difficult to group them together into units because of the crouching poses and splayed arms. I've tried to cram them together for the photo, but will need to spread them differently in an actual game. Most of the shields are hand-painted, some more successfully than others. A few use the Warlord decals, which are all nice designs, but don't fit too exactly.

And finally, to lead the Celts:

I don't think Celtic chariots figured in the Punic Wars. As far as I know (though my knowledge is, as usual, pretty limited) the chariot was only used in Britain. As my Celts plan to resist the Roman invader of Albion, too, this will probably be Caractacus - but I may also decided to stretch history a little and give him a role in Hannibal's army.

Scoring: If I understand Tamsin's ruling correctly, a chariot scores 20 as a vehicle, plus crew (10) and horses (10), making 40 pts
4 cavalry: 40 pts
27 Celts + 30 Romans + 9 Iberians: 66 x 5 = 330 pts
TOTAL: 410 pts


from DaveD ... a kaboom for Noel that takes him through the 4000 points mark - - your in danger of making Martin the bridesmaid again... I do like the chariot i must say 

From EvanH - Veni, Vidi, Velites! (45 points)

Hi Challengers, back again, a week late and several figs short, but time is short and the weather is horrible - we got ourselves a heatwave here in Sydney, and undercoating is an act of the purest futility.

Thankfully, I had already undercoated these bad boys, nine 28mm Roman Velites from Agema. These are some of the best plastic figs I have ever laid eyes on; the detail is excellent, and the anatomy is spot on. Agema are definitely on my list for future acquisitions (space permitting!).

I've been fairly, well... restrained in my figure output so far, and a unit is a bit of a departure from my usual single-character submissions. It's a bit daunting when you try to ramp up the painting rate a notch. I had to keep telling myself, "paint the unit, not the man," though with figs this good, you want to do a proper job and lavish a bit of time on them.

Right, lads, off to annoy some elephants!

I've based them on Warbases 60 x 60 mm MDF bases, built up with white pumice to conceal the figures' moulded bases and give them a bit of texture. I've based the figures as light javelinmen for Simon Miller's excellent Ancients rule set, To the Strongest!, and the base sizes mean that I can use two bases per unit on a 15cm grid and three for a 20cm grid. 

I've opted for a vaguely North African basing scheme, as I've got some Carthaginians stashed away and I want to give myself some motivation to produce a Battle of Zama force. The bases were painted with a raw sienna acrylic from a craft shop, and highlighted up with progressively lighter blends of the base coat with Vallejo Desert Yellow.

The tufts and rocks are Diorama Elements from Tajima1 Tufts, in this case, the desert pack. They work every bit as well as the rest of the tufts in Tajima's range, and stick readily to textured surfaces.

So, nine figures at five points each makes a grand total of 45 points for this submission. And what's next on the painting table? A bit more focus would be nice...

Stay tuned!

You've been keeping these ones under wraps haven't you Mr Hughes? Here's me thinking you were working on something pulp and then out these pop! 

Very well put together in every way I must say from the brushwork to the basing. I suspect you will regret letting me see these because I am now going to hound you mercilessly to see more. 

That's 45 points for your total and well done mate. Cheers, Millsy.