Aventine Elie Project

Thanks to a quick discussion on the NHMGS Yahoo Group this week, the Metro Seattle Gamers offered to host a game next month at their club house. I haven't been there before, and am looking forward to co-hosting a re-match of Adrian's Republican Romans versus the 1-0 Pyrrhic Army. This commitment has caused me to start on one of the Aventine war elephants recently received. It is an Hellenistic elephant with crested head armor. The head armor is probably a little later than Pyrrhus' time, but I like the look, and it can be used in a later-Successor army alongside a fully-armored elephant I also ordered.

Initially, Keith at Aventine forgot to include the two-man fighting tower (likely due to my last minute head swap request and also all the free samples he included), but he quickly sent me out not only the missing one, but also another variant. The crew pictured above are from two different sets - I had ordered two sets, but Keith actually sent me three different sets! Thanks again Keith! The mahout and one of the guys going in the tower are in bronze muscled cuirass and one guy in linothorax. I used some Tamiya Putty to fill some of the gaps between the two halves of the elephant, and also the trunk piece.

To align the head better, some of the inside area on the body was carved away. Drilled the head and body to accept a round toothpick; not sure if this really is helpful or not, but it only took another minute or so to do

Test-fitting with tower and mahout. The tusks are the reinforced optional type (a plain type is also provided). Next, black primer will used as the undercoat.