This is the first in a series of posts detailing the assembly of this elephant from 1st Corps. It's a great model, wonderfully proportioned and fits in with other scale models.
There is one problem however, and that is that the mahout doesn't fit on the elephants neck. The ears and feet get in the way as you can see in the picture below. I've emailed 1st Corps to ask what they recommend to do. It's a bit of a shame they can't make figures that fit onto their mounts. The only option I can see is to remove the feet and hide the stumps behind the ears. The only problem is if I go a little over board with the chopping!
The elephant model comes with two trunks, the one pictured and one extended. I thought as this model will be in the heat of battle he'll want to keep his trunk out of the way!
This is a comparison shot between these two Foundry figures, my army and cavalry commanders, and the 1st Corps elephant. It should fit in perfectly with my Foundry Macedonians.
5 comments:
I sometimes cut the feet off mahouts, when they would be hidden behind the ear. Looks like a nice model!
I think that's probably the best way to go. Might have a go at it later on this evening. I might do an update later to show progress.
Would you recommend painting the mahout before glueing him to the ellie?
Before you tell me Alexander didn't have elephants, I have evidence to the contrary ;) plus, WAB allows me to play a 'what if?' scenario where Alexander lives long into old age and there is perhaps a more peaceful passage of power to a successor, allowing me to just have one army instead of several!
Consul.
Alexander had hundreds of elephants (400 IIRC). They aren't mentioned in any battle accounts, because his big battles were fought before he picked them up in India, but are in the texts. A lot of the Successor elephants had previously belonged to him.
The elephant you have has a tower and a pikeman, though. Towers didn't come along until rather later on; Pyrrhus may have used them first. I don't think you'll get much gyp on this, though.
I think I'd trim and file the mahout, and ensure that he fits, and them mount on a pin to paint.
That is fine looking model. Odd about the nicely sculpted mahout not fitting. If the elie were metal, I'd say try to squeeze the guy on, but the resin would surely be damaged. I hope 1st Corps can give you advice on this. Worse case, you would use Green Stuff to putty up any over-cutting of the mahout's legs. Dean
It is thought that some of the elephants Pyrrhus used were actually his as well, veterans of his later campaigns (or at least his successors).
I'm just about to do another post on the work I've done on the mahout..may have to be attached to the ellie to be painted!
I've gone ahead and trimmed the legs/feet rather than wait for the advice from 1st Corps - they probably would say the same anyway! Some of the Macedonian command figures on horse back done fit either - that may have to be a green stuff jobby too. I've got another 24 horse archers from 1st Corps I still haven't seen yet (they're at home) eek!
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