More test figures

A few more quick examples to see how they look painted - Hollywood Philistine, Late Achaemenid archer and 'Arab/Turkish' archer.

The shield motif on the Philistine shield is basically a Biblical reference - Canaanites worshipping golden calf/bull. The Persian figure is the same as the Caspian, etc, currently being made into a mould, the other two will hopefully go on the next batch of moulds. I might give the Philistine a thicker spear for ease of casting.

Some Arab archers and figures for moulds.

I'm reaching mould overload. Still getting on with converting figures for the Achaemenid Persians plus odd ones I hadn't originally considered. However, some of the figures are basically just adding cloaks - so, although making a mould for these, I'm also trying to do some of the initial units by simply adding cloaks to relevant figures... which reduces the number of figures on the mould as I don't need 'redundancy'.

The first unit were the Arabs. Long term I will be doing lots more - but the initial 12 figure unit for the Early Achaemenid army has been completed as individual conversions.

First Arab archer unit completed, complete with belted cloak.

It's almost a bit of mass production - do enough for the unit, plus the mould, plus allow for total failures!

This lot will be Milyae. The book says short spear with some armed with bows, army list gives 50:50 mix, I'll do mostly spears, few bows - as Ps, doesn't make a difference to factors. This will be the only unit needed but still going to put them on a mould. The conversion itself is a sanded down Greek peltast with a new arm - they are spear or bow depending which weapon I cut off! I'll admit my cloaks are a bit stiff and not really realistic as far as folds go, but they mostly look OK.

Getting on with the Lycians but still not totally happy with the spearman figure. However, the Greek archer figure looks good. I may or may not give the final Lycian unit an officer and standard bearer though these won't appear on moulds.

Getting together enough Holywood Philistines to sort a mould but... will also need figures to act as archers and as LMI/Sea People.... current thinking, not going to appear yet - enough cash being tied up for now, so will  be sorted later in the summer. The standard is from the Rose Egyptian standard bearer - in this case, pretending to be a golden bull. Again, if I do standards and archers they will be one-off conversions.

Syrian archers need to be sanded down and quiver added. For the Seleucids, the list includes LI, LMI and MI options with up to 50 each. If I cover the LI option with Arabs it leaves a 'requirement' ( :) ) for 100 or so Syrians.

Being silly, if I ever do an actual full Lybian army it needs up to 500 figures... I think the Libyans will also be on the late summer moulds to allow for an increased presence. This would really produce a unified Sea Peoples/Peleset/Philistine mould - will probably try for a head swap with the Rose Sherden figure to cover that side. The Achaemenids are already up to quota anyway. Most of the cloaks I'm putting on the left arm - the assumption is that heavy cloaks predated the use of shields for these figigues - hence my pose. However, the picture in Funken has the cloak on the right arm so...

So what about other options to work on? My Scythians/Saka  are already in the army, but only as Sparabara.  One thing I'll be doing is a unit of them as light infantry - the figures are already cast and have been for quite a while.  Meanwhile, as the bowcase is separate on this figure,  a head swap and quiver sets it up as a generic tunic/trousers archer for several armies - while adding a cloak would allow for Caspians... should be easy conversions.

DBA - Middle Assyrian v Philistine

Straight DBA game from the lists although the figures themselves are not 100% accurate. And of course I don't follow the rules exactly either.
 

Initial setup - the trees in one wooded area are temporary as I'm using them as move markers and the ox carts are not part of the army - I don't use camps in my games unless I've got a good reason but couldn't resist placing the carts on the table!

Philistine chariot force goes to outflank Assyrians around one wood as the Assyrians set up to hold them back.

Except the Philistine chariots suddenly cut inside... Meanwhile Assyrians carry out their own outflanking manoeuvre.

Centres hit as Assyrians continue outflanking Philistine left and Philistine right has forced the Assyrian flank guard to meet the Philistine chariots.

Main one here... Assyrian light chariot and Ax elements finish up being pushed back, the chariot into the Ax, and so the chariot is destroyed! I look on 3Ax as basically skirmishers and so can get out of the way, chariots are a bit less flexible and crash!

But the Philistine general has got himself tangled in the wood - I play it so that non-skirmishers automatically follow up. skirmishers don't..

Philistine left and centre is getting interesting as their right is outflanking and left being outflanked!

The result of all this - Philistine general ends up running away while their left flank guard units die.

With a Philistine spear element being forced to face an attack by outflanking Assyrian Ax things don't look too good.

Assyrians lose their second light chariot but that's easily matched by the last Philistine chariot going and two Sp elements going - Sp pushed into Sp facing different way, both destroyed.

Taking off the casualties and there's not much left of the Philistines - a win for Assyria.

'New' Egyptians and Philistines

OK, got the new Egyptians and Philistines. First looks, very much a mixed bag.

Start with the horror story - the Egyptian chariots...

For a start, they didn't travel well. I think the main reason for this is that the box was packed, wrapped in paper, and the label put on the bottom... so it's spent several days upside down...

 Resulting in quite a few breakages...

 But to make things worse... some are obvious home casts. Look at the wheels and javelin cases - lots of missing spokes and miscast javelins. Haven't looked closely at the  chariots yet.

 Not very well done. The wheel is more obvious from the photo than the javelins. Happily, chariot wheels are not something I'm short of -  a lot of my other chariots were given Garrison wheels so lots of spares lying around.

 But the infantry are OK.

 I also got some archers but the photos didn't come out. Actually, the archers look OK but the bases have been cut down - possibly more homecasts?

 No issues with the Philistines - happy with them.

So very much a mixed bag. I would have sent the chariots back normally but they actually sold quite cheaply and many seem to be recoverable.

Philistine DBA (Plus a few extras)

I've spent the last week or so painting up some of my stripped Philistine infantry to form a DBA army. As I prefer to make complete units it means I also have a few 'extra' figures completed.

Using DBA 2.2 lists, I/29(b), the army reads as 1 x LCh (Gen), 1 x LCh, 6 x 4Sp, 2 x 3Ax, 2 x 2Ps.

My chariots and ox cart have already appeared on the blog.

Spears are A.Ph. 1s Philistine spearmen with shields painted plain bronze. I used the same figure for the 3Ax but simply gave them mainly hide shields.

The archers are A.Ph 2s Philistine Archer. No A.Ph.3s Philistine Officer - not aware of it being produced though I have a couple of Spearmen  conversions still in the Dettol.

This is my current complete army with the exception of a 4 element unit of Cv I painted back in the 70s - army list Philistines and Sea Peoples don't have cavalry so they are currently being neglected.

I've still got a load of figures in Dettol - these will mostly be painted and based as 3Bd for armies I/28 Sea Peoples and I/29(a) earlier Philistines. For the Sea Peoples armies I'll need some Sherden as 4Bd. There isn't an 'S' Range figure though I have a few later EA Range ones. However, what I intend doing is use it as an excuse to paint up some of my Rose Sherden.

Philistine ox cart

Working on my usual practice of several projects at the same time, my Philistine army has a new addition.

At the moment I only have this one, though I do have another cart sans oxen. Could do with a couple more though.

Philistine chariots

The Philistines are one army I've long wanted. Over the years I've acquired enough infantry and cavalry to put one together, what I've always been short of are the ox carts - somehow, these seem to be an essential component for any Sea People or Philistine force I put together. At the moment I have 2 ox carts in Dettol, though only 4 oxen, as well as most of the infantry force,  but finally decided it was time paint up the 'conventional' chariot force.

I didn't really feel that I needed many and settled for 1 chariot for the general plus 2 others. The intention was to find chariots that looked as though they were based on Egyptian models but with a distinctive 'Philistine' look.

 

I had a few Pharaoh's chariot horses plus a late 'S' Range Egyptian 'Heavy' chariot. These looked perfect for the job of providing the General with transportation. Rather than Egyptian style artwork I've gone for a 'leopard' look

 For the 'line' chariots I also wanted an Egyptian look without using Egyptian chariots. Stuck amongst a job lot of chariots I just bought were some that seem to be old Minifigs Bactrian chariots. However, they did have a sort of 'Egyptiany' look about them, so...

 

I still have a couple more Pharaoh's chariot horses so they are down to be used on an 'S' Range Kushite Pharaoh's chariot. I intend using the leopard pattern for that as well.