| Assyrian armoured archers from the chariot set. I made a point of putting these on a production mould because I anticipated needing a few for myself. |
| Mounted them as LHI rather than HI because... well, just because. It's a figure I like and my guess is that I'll do more of them in the future, both as LHI and as HI.. |
| Back in 2017 I posted an Assyrian Review of my then Assyrian army. It has increased since then but the main change from then is my start on a 25mm Garrison army. The ones here are 20mm Garrison, Minifigs 'S' Range and Lamming. |
| This lot are the Minifigs 'S' Range, though some chariots are a Minifigs/Lamming mix. |
| These are the Garrison figures. Chariot with card bodies, heavy infantry with HaT shields. At this time I experimented with a wash over the paint - didn't work very well so that an army I like was, in my view, ruined :( |
| My Lamming force is slightly smaller but nice... |
| Then their are things like these chariots - tin plate chariots I got from Harry repainted and given Minifigs crews and horses and Garrison chariot wheels. Archers are 'S' Range Carthagians that I feel are a lot more at home with the Assyrians! |
| And then there's my 25mm Garrison army... still growing, long way to go, only 5 painted chariots so far, but lots in the pipeline. |
Thoughts on the current project? That Minifigs force includes 24 chariots. Some of these also appear in the Lamming army which also has 3 pure Lamming chariots.. Meanwhile, the 20mm Garrison army has 13 chariots. So these combined armies have 40 chariots. It's a target...
The army is still building but it's grown large enough to justify a Review...
| The King reviewing his forces. |
| Here passing in front of the Scythian mercenaries. |
| A quick look at the LMI unit acting as a flank guard. |
| Driving down between the chariots and the line infantry |
| Before finally passing in front of the line cavalry |
My definition of a force that warrants a review is that it is big enough for the king/general to need to pass between the ranks. Here, a light infantry front rank, chariot second rank and line infantry/cavalry rear rank.
| Decided on thisunit as a test unit to see how useful the paint pens could be in a 'real life' situation. |
| Personal opinion? Very useful. On the other hanhd my son Steven had a go and decided they didn't suit him... |
| Really should have taken the photo before the gloss varnish... Anyway, base, green clothing, flesh, inside of shield and hair/beard all painted, rest used paint pens. |
| Shield was painted bronze, everything else paint pens - lot quicker and more accurate - though, to be fair quite a low starting point. I was very happy with the way they coped with helmet crests. |
Final verdict? Very useful. Negatives include how long the nibs may last, limited useful colour range available for wargames purposes, can't cope with undercuts or tight spaces, not sure how available individual colours may be available - but sets are cheap so not really an issue.
| Well that one took a while to finish... |
| Some of the paintwork was done using my new pens, for example the light blue in the white triangles on the chariot cab. |
| Also some of the decorations on the rein dividers. These paints are going to prove very useful in the future! |
| Painting these seems to be very slow work! Anyway, 15 strong unit with 2 command groups... |
| The Shem HoTT army needs 5 cavalry elements so I painted an extra one. By making the extra one a command base I have the option to use them as 2 separate 2 element units in the Assyrian army. |
That means I now have a complete Shem HoTT army so everything else I do is pure Assyrian. I'm currently starting some 4 horse 3 man chariots simply by sicking an extra 2 horses on the figure base. Much as I would like to make them 4 man chariots, the cab is just too small!
| Don't think I could get away with more chariots in the Shem army! |
| Line chariots, so simplified paintwork compared to the generral. The etched pattern on the side barely shows in real life! |
| I've kept them as 3 man chariots - probably should have made them 2 man, just preferred 3. However, rather than use the spear figure I've gone for 2 archers. |
| Might (probably will) do a general and chariot unit as 4 horse 3 man chariots as well. 8 new Assyrian chariots should do for now. |
| Assyrian chariot acting as the Shem general. I've done it as a 2 horse 3 crew chariot as per the standard Garrison 25mm Assyrian chariot but have replaced the spear armed figure with a standard bearer. The archer figure represents the general himself. |
| I don't bother cluttering my chariots up with extra weapons/quivers etc but have at least put reins on. |
| OK, don't need them for the Shem HoTT army but could I ever resist doing more chariots? For me, an initial three is very restrained! Suppose really I should get the cavalry finished off first but... |
| Somewhere in my mind something is telling me that the Hyborian Campaign Shemite army was composed of Assyrians. HoTT says that Howard described them as 'swarthy, hook nosed and with curled black beards' - not going to check out the original reference but that, plus a vague memory, made me feel that the Assyrians would be the best option. |
| I always try to base figures with shields facing front. It does mean I sometimes think I've wasted my time on things like the armour! |
The army will be Rider General, 5 Riders and 6 shooter elements. So these are the shooters. For cavalry, 4 elements will come from a 12 figure unit of 10 AC4, Armoured cavalry with shield and spear and bow in case, plus officer and standard bearer.
| The final element could then be an Hykranian mercenary, either from this unit or a yet-to-do unit of SS67, Hykran cavalryman with spear (figures already cast!) |
The Rider general to complete the line up is currently on the paint desk - a 2 horse 3 crew Assyrian chariot with a crew of charioteer, standard bearer and general firing bow. Technically, probably a heavy chariot, but I'm happy using it as a Rider element.
Whether this army will get any bigger, don't know, see what happens.
Can't remember the last some Minifigs 1 piece 'S' Range cavalry came up on Ebay, but I'm always on the lookout for them.
| The lot included some Assyrian cataphracts - my cataphract unit is full, but these will be able to fill in the spaces of the heavy cavalry giving me 2 12 figure units. |
| Next, couple of Persian spear armed cavalry. Only ever seen these on Ebay once before... missed them because I forgot about the auction... Still, few more years and enough more might come up to make up a unit. Think of the long game. |
| Finally, the lot included these. Might find a use for the Hinchliffe Clibanarii some day. |
Thing about these is that they were listed as Byzantines and there was no mention of including Minifigs - so I'm quite pleased with myself for spotting them.
The second squadron of Minifigs 'S' Range Assyrian one piece cavalry.
| They're generally in good condition though two horses have lost their crests. |
| Armour is basically dry brushed. I did make the mistake of painting the bases green instead of sand but the filler hides most of it. |
| Originally I had intended to leave the centre of the shield plain bronze. However, it didn't really look right because the centre has an embossed pattern on it - so I had to paint a centrepiece. |
So things like that pond are still taking up all my time...
Put it this way, the original was about 6' by 4' and a bit under 2' deep. The present version is currently about 22/24' by 10/12' and up to 3' deep. It's taking a while to dig the thing out and stopping everything else. Had hoped to have had a casting session by now, it keeps getting put back..
That being the case, already did the Egyptians, so this time I set up the Assyrians. They have been covered before and not much added, just gave me an excuse to get them out! (To be fair, have been quietly painting a (very) few Japanese, but again figures that would normally have taken a couple of days are taking a couple of weeks.)
| Unlike the Egyptians these are not sorted into Divisions - just one glorious mixed up whole. |
| Also unlike the Egyptians this lot haven't been designated as 'finished' - still a few units patiently waiting their turn. |
| It's also an army that is not purely Minifigs 'S' Range. This lot are from about 1975-1978 and have Minifigs chariot bodies that I had 'updated' with Lamming horses, crews and wheels. At the time I was building a Lamming Assyrian army and used the chariot bodies to make 4 horse rather than Lamming 2 horse chariots - Bill was always happy to sell 'bits'. Really must paint the bases to match the current army. |
| Same basic style, but these are ones I did just a few years ago - all Minifigs 'S' Range apart from Garrison chariot wheels. The armoured horses are 'S' Range cataphract horses. The general was inspired by the next lot. |
| The next lot are ones I got from Harry. The design looked good so I took it as a template for my 2 horse chariot force! |
| The spearman in this acts as the general for the 2 horse chariots - and is one of my figures painted back in about 1970. He would originally have crewed one of the 4 horse chariots from the first chariot picture. |
| Chariots painted by me from unpainted ex-Harry chariots. Some of these are crewed by Garrison 20mm I cast. |
| Finally some ex-Harry charioys credited to Ray McGarry but given Assyrian crews to replace their original Persian crews - this is, after all, the 'right' chariot for Assyrians! |