Meet Apollonides

This is another 1st Corps figure (who doesn't fit on his horse either!) who I've named Apollonides and he will act as one of the commanders for my Macedonian army. He looks like a tough old general and will be great fun to paint!

I named him Apollonides after a character on the computer game Europa Universalis: Rome who, following the break-up of Alexander's empire, brought the Macedonian empire back to something of its former strength. This empire included all of Greece (excluding Pyrrhus with whom Apollonides decided to ally), Macedonia and the barbarian states to the north. He then proceeded to annex Thrace, Bithynia, Pergamon and Pontus and reclaimed the rest of Asia Minor from the Seleucids and Armenians after a bloody war that ran for 30 years. Apollonides decided to cease his aggressive expansion policy and decided to consolidate his borders, concentrating on the internal affairs of his newly founded empire instead. This is something the Seleucids had failed to do and were now embroiled in a bitter civil war and facing incursions from the Parthians to the East.

It's always fun to give your characters a little background history although this character will probably be fighting alongside a young Alexander during his rise to power, and not following his death - so he's still able to achieve something similar!

Elephants (1)

I've just quickly put the elephant together using blu tack to give an idea of what it will look like when finished! There are some shields included to attach to the tower but I may not fix them on as I quite like the plain look. Please let me know if there is a reason why the shields could or should be attached.

I'm really impressed with this model and am sure it will be a real focal point on the battlefield and a highlight within the army!

I didn't want the pikes to be sticking out all directions or on different sides so I've chosen to mount the crew this way when they're painted, mainly for storage reasons. If they're all facing forward/roughly the same direction, I can easily fit them in the display cabinet or other storage drawer. Plus, the enemy will usually be infront of them!

An archer is also included in the pack of crew but as you can see from the photo above, there isn't room for a 3rd crew member in the tower - it's pretty cramped with two!

I've posted two posts in quick succession here. If you missed the last one, click here to view it.

Modeling Mahouts (1)

I'll do a series of posts detailing the process of modeling this 1st Corps mahout in the hope it offers some help and advice to others thinking of doing the same.

As you can see from the photo below, I've 'amputated' a large portion of the right leg and the left foot in order to get it to fit behind the ears.

It now fits a lot better but looking at the photos, I can see I could probably try and take a little more off here and there to make it an even better fit. It will still need substantial use of 'green stuff', though.

This next shot shows how the leg now fits behind the ear. The foot will need re-modeling with 'green stuff'.

Because I will have to use quite a lot of 'green stuff' around the connections of the mahout and the elephant I'm considering doing all this work and then undercoating and painting the mahout and elephant with them being glued together. Good idea/bad idea?

Next up: a look at what the assembled elephant will look like.

Elephants!

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.

Greek Command for DeanM

This is a photo of the Spartan commander post-dipping, as requested by DeanM. I wasn't going to post anymore photos of him until he was matte varnished and based properly but I guess it's interesting to see what he looks like in a step-by-step process. I'm amazed at just how white the white is! Even after dipping/brushing it on!

I really like the affect the AP has had on the hair. I was a little worried about dry-brushing and the AP as that's how my wolf-skinned Romans are painted (yet to be dipped) but it's reassuring to know that the AP really brings it all out!

All three figures on the command stand will look great in the middle of my Spartan army and I'm really excited to be cracking on with them over Easter. Just need to get a drill to drill out their spear hands!

Spartan Command WIP

This is a WIP shot of my Spartan mercenary general. He'll be based on a circular base with two other figures who I've already finished and are at home, waiting to be based. He's far from finished but I thought you'd like to see what I'm currently working on in the world of the Greeks. I also dry-brushed his hair to make him look a little older and a little more experienced. You have to be a good general if you want to impress potential employers!

Macedonian Phalanx

I found this picture of some Macedonian Phalanx, formed up and ready to receive the enemy. I thought it may be of use to those painting some at the minute. I'd guess they were early Macedonians because of the unusual mix of helmets - not seen that before!

Currently working on - Greek Commander

BTD Greek Command Stands

I made an order with Black Tree Design some time ago and after nearly 2 months of it not arriving, I decided to cancel. I also made an order for some of their Greek elders to go on my command stands on the day of asking for a refund. They made a mistake with the refund and offered me a free pack of figures for the trouble caused! So I chose one of the Athenian Command packs as they looked a lot like my other Spartans/Greeks and all credit to them, they did a very good job in sending out my second order incredibly quickly and were very apologetic over the previous delay/mess up. Below is a couple of pictures of the figures as i've arranged together with a brief description of each one.

The two figures at the back are BTD Greek elders and the figure at the front is from their Athenian Command pack. I intend to use him as a general and the two elders will act as his advisors. It should be an attractive game piece! Also, I need to cut off the shield nodule on his hand as I don't want him to have a shield as it would obscure his dramatic stance.

This will act as a more ornamental piece on the table top rather than a functional piece representing the oracle used in Warhammer Ancient Battles Alexander supplement. The two figures on the right are Wargames Foundry Spartan figures and the one of the left comes from BTD. I have a good idea for this piece, he looks a little like he's disgusted by the sacrifice of a goat and like he's wrenching! I have a great idea for his facial expression and might blood spatter the boy!

Feel free to leave a comment and i'll get back to you. All pictures are clickable.

Peltasts Update

I've just finished my first base of mercenary Peltasts and I'm quite pleased with them! They're now glued on and just need sanding, dry brushing and flocking/tufting. They've taken much longer than expected to complete. Because of their different colours, I had to keep switching between different pots of paint which was very time consuming. I'm painting four at a time at the minute to ensure each base looks as "together" as possible.

You can see my new technique with the Army Painter Quickshade where i've dipped the figure and then removed the excess with a brush (before I just dipped and left it) which stops it pooling and leaving 'dirty-looking' patches. I was influenced by Saxon Dog's blog which you can find here. He paints his on direct from the tin which is something I will do after this unit (for continuity reasons) and his methods also saves wasting any AP!

The pictures below are clickable. Feel free to leave a comment with any thoughts or suggestions and i'll get back to you.

I got the inspiration for these brightly coloured Macedonian Peltasts from the illustrations in Nick Secunda's book "The Army of Alexander the Great" which is published by Osprey (see picture below).

Peltasts!

Not quite the finished article yet but they're on their way. I spent an hour or so gluing spears and shields in place this morning and I tried to split them into those I would give coloured tunics and those I would give white (7 coloured, 9 white). I've also roughly arranged them on their bases (don't worry! I haven't glued them on) to see which figures go well together and how the spread of colours would look. I was a little worried whether it would look a bit stupid with the colours being different and standing out (I have to admit, I prefer uniformity!) but I think it'll turn out fine, and once the coloured tunics are shaded down, it will look a little more blended and together as a unit.

By this time, Peltasts tended to form up into units, acting more like infantry than skirmishers which I why i've decided to base them this way. I plan to base my Psiloi on four separate bases (each base forms a square the size of two of the smaller bases shown in the photo) to represent their loose skirmish formation.

I hope to finish this unit by Sunday evening and will post a photo or two when they are!

Spartans!

This is the first of my Spartan allies/mercenaries and to the right of him is the leader of the mercenary peltasts (he's blu tak'd to a base as I plan to base him and his unit on rectangular bases, four to a base). I painted these figures individually to get a feel for the figures before painting the rest of their units. I've used the Army Painter again and as you can see, it's given a great effect on the Spartan's cloak and tunic.

Both figures are from Wargames Foundry and the spear is Gripping Beast.

On the painting table

I've just returned to University after a weekend at home and I've brought up some more figures to paint since the unit of Romans I've been working on is virtually finished! These are Wargames Foundry figures. I took advantage of their Christmas Discount offer and bought a couple of regiment deals. I bought one of their skirmisher packs (Athenian Army Deal) and two Spartan Hoplite packs (Spartan Army Deal) for use as mercenaries or allies. I also bought a pack of Peltast characters and a Spartan Command blister. This should take me up to about 2000 points in the way of a Macedonian army for WAB.

I'm hoping to get these painting fairly quickly and to a high standard. The three characters in the bottom left of the photo (clickable) will be based on a 50mm circle base for use as a General command stand. The figure above them will be the leader of one of my units of Hoplites but I'm painting him first as an experiment for colours etc.

Cavalry Command

I've just returned from the Partizan wargames show at Kelham Hall, Newark and I managed to pick up these two command figures fairly cheaply. I have some Companion cavalry which already have a command unit but I've recently received a unit of Greek and Theban cavalry which are currently leaderless so I thought these characters would make an attractive addition to the unit.

Horse Archers (2)

Here, I have applied the basic colours to the Horse. It's a little too ornate for the period i'm playing but it will certainly add some character and much needed colour to the battlefield!

This is a shot after the Army Painter dip has dried, some 24 hours later. As you can see it's given the cloth over the Horse a really nice shaded effect although it has given the whole model a shine but this can easily be remedied by using a matt varnish spray.

The rider now needs painting and then gluing to the Horse which will then be properly based.

Horse Archers

I'm going to be doing a couple of posts to demonstrate the painting of one of my Assyrian horse archers. I chose Assyrian horse archers because I preferred their look to other horse archers currently on the market. I can use these initially against my Macedonians and later on incorporate them much like Alexander did after being harassed by them throughout his journey across Asia. They also form part of an Assyrian army I got from Wargames Foundry at a discount (I know it's historically inaccurate to fight the two being several hundred years apart but they come from the same part of Asia geographically as many of Alexander's enemies and share very similar tactics and troop types).

This archer's legs and torso were separated by a thick piece of metal so you can position the body to your liking. I had to get my Dad to do it because it was so thick and he cut a big chunk of the torse out! So I had to use 'green stuff' for the first time which was a little tricky at first but I managed to successfully fill the gap.

I then sprayed both the horse and archer their basic colours as I will be using the 'Army Painter' available through Warlord Games. This method is often overlooked and laughed at by more experienced painters but novice painters such as myself can get a really satisfying effect and make it look almost as good as seasoned professional's work!

I received the Alexander WAB rules supplement through the post today. It makes for a very interesting read and gives some great ideas for future units and colour schemes.