Saturday, February 19, 2011

Rebasing, Refinishing and Landscaping

Haven't received my second order of 1st Corps stuff yet, so I ended up rebasing some Crusader Thureophoroi. They were originally on metal squares, but since I plan to use them exclusively as skirmishers, I rebased them on fender washers. I also needed a Hipparch to lead the Tarentine cavalry, as well as an Army Battle Standard. I had a couple of older figures that I never used so gave them a little bit of TLC and voila.
I'm not sure of the maker of both the mounted guy and the standard bearer. I bought these figures about 15 years ago from a shop (long since closed) while I was in Hawaii. The shop had all of their lead figures in large cabinets - as singles, and they'd roll around when you opened the drawers. You could mix and match the figures with whatever shields and weapons were in the drawers. The mounted guy was a Roman officer holding a sword - which I cut off and drilled his hand to take a javelin. I also added a spare Foundry shield with LBMS transfer. The standard itself is from the 1st Corps Hetairoi set - which I felt was too large for a cavalry unit. I replaced their standard with the one from the Crusader Thureophoroi set. As the Thureophoroi will be skirmishers, they won't need a standard.

Since I didn't have any major painting projects to do - we did some minor landscaping around our house. My wife, two sons and I managed to get four yards of pea gravel around our house. It was imperative we complete the project as the gravel was delivered on our front driveway (with our vehicles in the garage).

The next big project is getting our grass back to a decent condition - with the dogs trampling it underfoot it'll be a tough one.

As far a painting - in addition to the 1st Corps Scythed Chariot and Agema cavalry, I'm also waiting on some Old Glory Gauls - both infantry and cavalry. Since I committed to running a Battle of Magnesia game  at Enfilade! in May, I figured you have to have Galatians running amok. I also broke down and ordered an Antiochus figure from Relic. I was hesitant to get him as he is listed as 29mm and the unit he'll be attached to will be closer to 25mm. Guess that'll make him easily identifiable as the Army General.

11 comments:

  1. They look good Dean and that's one king sized standard.

    Good luck with the grass.

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  2. Thanks, Gents.

    Paul: That's what I thought too - when I first saw it with the Hetairoi cavalry. Couldn't see a rider holding that huge thing aloft while galloping towards the enemy. Better it a center piece for the army to see.

    Regards, Dean

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  3. Just love the thureophoroi shields. IIRC they are VVV transfers?

    Might thte army standard be Essex?

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  4. A bit of TLC works wonders on old figures - it certainly has on yours!

    Cheers,
    Doc

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  5. Simon:

    I just took a look at the Essex online catalog (fine one at that with all of their minis photographed) - and you correctly ID'd the std bearer. I think the mounted guy is another Essex model - by the way they do the horse tails.

    Doc:

    Bringing older figures back to use is also economical :)!

    Thanks again, Dean

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  6. Hello Dean,
    your Thureophoroi unit looks very great and so looks your work around your house too!
    Today the new Aventine African
    arrived and he is absolutly excellent as ever. The numidian mahout is also great but I am not so happy with the Roman Crew.
    Hope they will make a Phrrhic-crew soon.
    Best wishes to you and your family
    and also a friendly Wuff from our Janosch to Pungsani and Changun!

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  7. Wolfgang:

    Did you check out ELHC001 - that's a pretty nice Pyrrhic crew.

    Best wishes, Dean

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  8. Nice figures, great paintjob and good work including the garden.

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  9. Thank you very much for this tip.

    Cheers,
    Wolfgang

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