Mammoths and Spears

The Vanha component.

The extra 4 spears are finished, as are 2 mammoths.

The spears haven't been mounted on bases yet - my filler has run out so I need more.

 I did find enough filler for the mammoths though. Haven't spent as much time on these as I would normally. That's because the mammoth is a pain - the tusks don't fit very well in their slots so I've had to try and fit them as flush fittings. As a result the joint isn't very strong and if I knock them the tusks fall off. Normally, at the very least there would be some kind of decorative picture on the side of the howdah and probably a yellow line separating the two shades of green.

So, at the moment the 'Near East' Tarun/Turan/etc army  looks like this:

All that is now needed to complete this phase of the army is a unit of Vanha archers. After that? Trouble, armies are like Topsy, there are at least 2 cavalry and 4 infantry units I want beyond this, plus assorted monsters and beasties - must do a unit of tigers...

Turan - Lamming reinforcements

There's nothing to say that all my S&S Hyboria figures should be Garrison. So this bunch of venerable Lamming Arabs have been invited to join the party. They even conform to the colour code, though I will have to rebase them.

They also fit in very well with the Garrison Tauran cavalry:

Turan and similar

The Garrison S&S Range is basically Hyborian, so it seems reasonable to build up a small group of Hyborian armies with them. My intention is to have about four basic armies. One will be Aquilonian, one Nimidian, one Stygian and one generic Near East Turanian/etc.

I've already got a few items that can be used as part of this generic army - and I'll use non-Hyborian troop types as well to expand them into other HoTT types as well.

So, what can I use?

Obviously SS68, the mounted Sultan/Vanha mounted swordsman is the figure to use as generals and officers. It's already appeared on this blog but might as well show him again instead of just a link:

I also want to use non-Hyborian figures, two obvious ones being SS17, the Eastern Giant, and the Admins geni, AD223. Just found I don't have a photo of the giant, but the geni looks like this:

I'll also find space for giant birds - well Rocs appear in Arab mythology so why not? Trouble is, I've already put mine on green bases whilst this army will be on sand bases. Also, not sure whether to use eagles - possibly better as Rocs - or the hawks as hawks seem to be a feature of Arab culture. Not big enough to carry an elephant, at least the models are bigger than elephants.

For elephants, I've got one Vanha elephant, but it's not really up to scratch and will need a bit of work doing to it:

The Vanha infantry themselves are liable to form the main component of any infantry force but I haven't done any yet.

The cavalry, on the other hand, are starting to look respectable.

Firstly, don't have a unit of these, but SS46 on a fully armoured horse may be a good unit to build - the horse is Byzantine.

I do, however, have a unit on the 'standard' horse.

These 'standard' heavy cavalry should set the  scene for the army. Shiny, bright block colours and units are element based - 4 elements per unit - rather than figures based. So this unit is looked on as 4 elements rather than 12 cavalrymen. I would probably normally use them as 'knights' under HoTT.

Likewise, the 'light' cavalry - Riders under HoTT though just as heavily armoured as the 'knights.' 2 to a base, 4 base unit rather than 8 figure unit. Again, nice and shiny - technically, the figure isn't as good but it looks good! The horse's face is definitely a bit crude. The horse is also a bit long for the base.

So that's where I am at the moment. cavalry probably enough for now, I need to get some infantry and an elephant or two sorted next.