A Gallic chariot

 

Well, of course I was going to look at making chariots for the Gauls...

I literally used things that were just lying around! The chariot sits a bit high off the ground, any future ones I'll probably use smaller wheels - possibly Rose 20mm artillery wheels. On this particular chariot body the axle is a bit further back than I like.

Size comparison with the Airfix chariot.

Construction... for the sides I just used a couple of pieces from an Airfix chariot. I'm not sure what the body of the chariot was from - either Khmer or possibly the 28mm AG/AB Range of  Celts. Could even finish up making future chariot bodies totally from scratch.

Refurbished line chariots

 

With paint pens, extra decorations are quite easy. Though I did have to take the wheels off first (only one side at a time!)

Must admit the eagle's head on the  Anzu looks more like a duck's head, but it'll do.

25mm Garrison Assyrian 4 horse chariots

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!

25mm Assyrian chariots

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.

 

At some stage I must do the dozen cavalry I need to finish off the HoTT Shem army!

25mm Shem/Assyrian chariot

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...

It wasn't my fault...

Minifigs 'S' Range or very early Persian chariots. How could I resist?

They came with some of the generic chariot horses. Should have a few more lying around to make up the numbers.

The buy included these horses. Don't recognise them - they had H7 on the base, no idea who the manufacturer was! Might use them for an Egyptian general's chariot.

There were a few other pieces in the box, little of use. A couple of the pieces may be from the same chariot as those two horses, not sure.

So anyway, the figures are now in Dettol, so it gives me some time to decide what I want to do with them!

Indian Army Review 2019

The logical end of the November mass painting spree...

Not as big as some of my other armies but quite reasonable.

Inspecting the first chariot unit...

Second...

And third...

Along the line of javelins.

The archery Corps

And finally the cavalry

The 2 horse chariots came with a 1 man crew - I've replaced them with a 2 man crew.

Medium cavalry units - in blue, so could possibly substitute for Kushites.

The EHC came part painted. 'Actual' EHC in an Indian army should be Kushans, basically a Parthian cataphract figure on a half armoured horse. Not something I'm going to quibble about!

These elephants show the flesh tones issue - figures all came ready painted though I painted the elephants.

Chariot of the Apocalypse

There are still a lot of individual or small groups of  figures in my collection I don't seem to have covered yet. One of these is a model in the RAFM Demons of Darkness range - number 3705, the Chariot of the Apocalypse. (Actually, thought I had but can't find it so....)

Painting style a bit different from my current block painting efforts. Could probably touch up the chariot wheels.

One thing I like is how the charioteer's head turned out

It's one of those figures I'm not sure about. Not convinced I like the horses for instance. Quite happy with the painting though - comes under the heading 'once upon a time I could paint'

Tin plate Assyrian chariot based.

Says it all really. I've also based the 'Carthaginian' Assyrian light archers.

Shown together with the first one I painted.

Being line chariots instead a 'general' I've used a much plainer style for the chariots.

The archers go to form two units of 12 and fill in quite a gap in my Minifigs Assyrian army.

Still quite a lot of figures to be based, including another 48 Indian archers.

Meanwhile I decided to to upgrade the early Greek hoplites with the white bird shield blazon to 48 (nearly finished), plus completed another 48 Indian archers, and have undercoated a unit of Saitic heavy cavalry (slightly modified PB Indians on Garrison horses) and another 24 Indian javelins.

Indian 4-horse 6-crew chariots.

So, at 6 days three chariots took twice as long as that load of infantry and cavalry - though to be fair I have based them.

Mainly because I took a bit more care and also added more detail to them.

Plus it does represent 18 people and 12 horses - takes a lot more than 2-horse 2-crew chariots.

View of the crew - shield designs total fantasy but look good. I may end up doing a javelin unit with a similar shield design.

Likewise the chariots - pure fantasy but I like them!

The natives are a bit hostile.

So the Roman cavalry are just going ballistic and the infantry marching along quite happily thinking of burgers... meanwhile, I'm going through the rules and had forgotten or not realised something - all those Germanic (OK, Gauls pretending to be Germans) warbands.... are also on a -2 in the forest... so, instead of Romans down to 3, Warband on 3 with lots of overlaps... suddenly it's 3 v 1... And my recollection of pushbacks being fatal... not as much...

Perhaps not going to be such a foregone conclusion after all.

Well, yeah, OK, probably still foregone, just slower.

So here are the Roman cavalry being reckless.

Those cavalry on the Roman left were having a great time - took out a cavalry element, then a psiloi element, then a warband. Got swamped eventually though. Meanwhile on the other side of the action look at the cavalry hitting those 3 warbands head on...

They died. I took the element off and realised.... they were Gauls. It had been a couple of days since I put them there and I sort of forgot they weren't Romans and didn't notice it? Could have just ignored the result but - well, if they want charge their own people and die as a result - let them.

So eventually the infantry catch up to the action - cavalry all dead by then.

Lots of fighting, but slow to kill as the Romans had quite a good factor advantage.

Gradually whittled down though until finally...

The last lot went. And not a burger in sight.

I enjoyed that. Fun encounter, easily set up, helped me re familiarise myself with some parts of the rules I'd forgotten and lots of dead Romans. That's a one that goes back to my days wargaming in Bradford back in 72-73 - it was Pete's fault.