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.

1st Corps Hetairoi - WIP +1

These guys paint up really fast - I started with a black undercoat and then dry brushed the armored areas. Minimal colors as I opted to go with a basic purple color scheme. I'm waiting on an order of 1st Corps Agema Cataphracts to join these guys. The Agema will have half-barded horses of a different style then the ones that come with the Hetairoi. The plan is to mix the horses between the two.

They'll be armed with North Star spears.

Hypaspists - Ready for Battle

Steve at LBMS was kind enough to send me two sets of Alexander the Great head transfers - each facing opposite directions - just to be sure I got the one I wanted. This unit will be used in skirmish mode with both thrusting spear and javelins. Even with them being rated as Guards, the unit probably needs to be doubled in size.

Brass rods are used for the spears - their heads being flattened on an anvil and then shaped with a file. The transfers are for Old Glory 15mm shields - at least in the catalog.

My 11th grader needed to pick up a book for class so we stopped into the local Half Price Bookstore. I found this on the shelf in the history section - "The Mercenaries of the Hellenistic World" by G.T. Griffith. Having never seen it before it was a must have; and it is in pristine condition.

1st Corps Hetairoi - WIP

Started a little work on a few 1st Corps Hetairoi. This is the command pack that I ordered through Scale Creep a few weeks ago. I wanted to see how they looked in-the-flesh (lead) before I ordered more. They're nicely sculpted, if not a bit stiffly posed. The sword from the leader was removed to accept a kontos. The guy on the far left had hand repositioned a little to better hold his kontos. A steel rod has replaced the lead staff of the banner.

The half-barded horses are nice, but all have the same type of chest armor. They look very similar to the Magister Militum/Navigator barded horse I have - maybe the same sculptor? Anyway, I plan to get a few Gripping Beast Seleucid horse, as they have a variety of barded armor. Hopefully the two makes are sized close enough so I can swap some riders and mounts between them.

For what it's worth - here is a comparison shot of some of the Greek/Macedonian shields that I have. Note the two on the far right are for phalangites.

Here's a side-view shot to show depth of the shields.

Foundry Hypaspists WIP

Painted up these Foundry Hypaspists to accompany the Silver Shields. Awaiting the arrival of some LBMS shield transfers. I ordered some transfers earlier, but the Alexander the Great head faced in the wrong direction - to the wearer's left. I want the head to face to their right; I did use one of the ones facing to the left on the standard for the Silver Shields.

The Foundry shields are a bit too convex for my tastes, and I had some left over Aventine shields that look perfect for them. Only problem is I only have six Aventine ones, so I modified two Foundry shields by filing down the face of the shield to make it less convex, and also added some Green Stuff to widen them a bit. The photo below shows how they compare.

I'd like to eventually double the size of this Hypaspists unit; maybe with some other makers.

Couple of "closer-ups":

Silver Shields "Argyraspides" Command

Being frugal, I opted to use the Foundry musician and standard bearer that came with the rest of the unit. However, I didn't want to use the officer as he's the same figure I have for another phalanx unit already. Luckily, Keith at Aventine had sent me a bunch of sample figures when I ordered some elephants from him. One of the guys for an elephant tower looked the part with his bearded face armor. The standard has an LBMS transfer. 

The only thing I had to do was add some Green Stuff to his lower legs, as well as the Foundry standard bearer's, to make it look like they have greaves on.

I just added stuff to make it appear they have top edging to their greaves, as well as the cloth straps that hold them on. I added a little bit to the rear to have it look like the openings of the greaves too.

Here is the finished Argyraspides unit with their North Star spears - ready to take on any vampire or werewolf with their silvered armor highly polished with garlic. At least that's what I'm told from this reenactment (@ 1:53).

The Foundry Hypaspists are being worked on now - their original shields have been replaced by larger Aventine ones that came with the tower crew for the elephants.

Foundry Silver Shields Painted

Need to add those lovely North Star spears and also a command. I'm using the command figures that came with these for a Hypaspist unit. I'll probably get a command packs from Gripping Beast's Polemarch range.

I was going to have them in a 28-man unit, but think I'll try them out as a 24-man unit to reflect their elite status.

This is actually the second Argyraspides unit I've painted. I had one composed of mainly Vendel figures, but sold them off as I was just too infatuated with these from Foundry. The Vendel were nice, but looked a bit stiff compared to the other Foundry units. This is a shot of them before I sold them off. As you might be able to tell, I used a similar color scheme. The Vendel shields were polished and given a wash before clear-coating.

The officer is an A&A figure that I added a helmet crest and feathers using Green Stuff. The standard is a Roman one from a spare figure. The musician is actually a regular pikeman with a rotated right arm and scratch-built trumpet.

After I flock the bases of the Foundry guys, I'll start on the Hypaspists. I also ordered a set of 1st Corps Hetairoi; I plan to use them with some Gripping Beast guys for a Cataphract unit that will be part of a Seleucid Successor army. The Silver Shields will also be in this army.

Foundry Silver Shields Test Figures

Tried a new (for me) technique on these Foundry Silver Shields. Hoping to save some time, I spray painted several figures with silver for a base coat. The idea is the shield, helmet and greaves are silver (or silvered), so these areas wouldn't need to be brush-painted. It seems to have worked out alright. Here's what the test figures look like. NOTE: I got the idea from James B's blog where he used the silver undercoat for some Romans - I'd forgotten where I'd seen it, but now realize it was on his blog.

Only four basic colors are used, aside from silver; red, blue, white and purple. I actually mixed the same blue and red with white for the purple. So, I guess you could say I only used three colors. The silvered areas were given a wash to bring out the details. I did have to go over some of the silver areas with a dry brush to lighten up some areas. Otherwise I think this method will work. I painted these three fairly quickly. The rest should go quicker now that I the steps down. This unit will have uniform armor; although their shields will have three slightly different designs. Maybe the order for shields went out to different armorers and they interpreted the design differently. I also have some Foundry Hypaspists - these will have their linothorax in different colors, but same shield design - the Alexander the Great head transfer from LBMS.

North Star Spears Have Arrived

Well worth the wait; and the wait was really no fault to North Star. Nick shipped my order about a day or two after I placed it. It just so happened that it was made during the Christmas mail season, coupled with bad weather (more than normal winter conditions) and also stiffened USPS mail handling thanks to some not-so nice domestic mail incidents. Anyway, I managed to paint up some of the spears for the Early-HRE knights.

The spears are about 70mm long, after I cut them down from the 100mm length I ordered. I needed 100mm to arm the Foundry Silver Shields I hope to start on next. These spears, or more specifically the spear points, are very nice; No need to hammer and file the tips. All of the spears are painted with spirals matching the knights' arms. They probably look more like going to a tournament than war, but it will do.

I also added a unit standard to the Szekler Light Cavalry unit too. I downloaded the design off of the Wiki page on Szeklers (aka Szekley). Yeah, I know - I'm quite the historical researcher!

Here's a photo of the entire Early-Holy Roman Empire Clerical Army - less oxen to pull the Carroccio.

Carroccio of the Archbishop of Cologne

Or at least my interpretation of it from what some sources say was in the form of a wooden castle.

This is a converted model of an Old Glory Hussite war wagon. I widened the wagon and also added crenelations to the sides. The cross at the top of the flag pole is made from styrene plastic - scoured to make it appear to be wooden. The tower is from an Academy Roman Warship kit.

The tower and standard are removable.

This will be the Army Standard Carroccio for an Early-HRE Clerical Army. I'm still waiting on some spears from North Star to add to the knights of this army. Otherwise, the army is basically finished. My next project will likely be a unit of Foundry Silvershields - also needing the North Star spears/pikes. Oh, I guess I will add a team of oxen to pull the wagon; at some later date.

How to Convert an OG Hussitte War Wagon into a Carroccio

A few months ago I traded something (which I can't even remember now) with a fellow TMP member for an Old Glory Hussitte War Wagon. A few flailmen and crossbowmen were even included. I wanted to see if I could convert the wagon into the Army Standard carroccio for the Clerical HRE army. I did some quick research and realized that there aren't very many images of carroccios - at least on the internet. I did read an account of the Battle of Worringen which mentioned the Archibishop of Cologne's carroccio resembled a wooden castle.

Here are the components of the Old Glory kit - or at least what I received in the trade. I believe it comes with two sets of wagons. I think the piece at the bottom of the photo is for a raised protective shield on one side of the wagon. It also appears one sidewall of the wagon has stuff (straw?) sandwiched between it.

The Armies of Chivalry WAB supplement allows for up to ten defenders for the Army Standard carroccio. Of course, these all won't fit inside, but I did want to be able to fit at least a few in there. I ended up sawing the wagon in half, down the center.

The piece for the raised sidewall was used to fill the widened gap for the base of the wagon. It just so happens that it made the bottom of the wagon about 40mm wide - just enough to allow to four figures on 20X20mm bases to fit (as in the first photo). The base for the Army Standard takes up the center - if not six figures could actually fit inside. Plasticard was used to fill the gaps in the walls.

I used part of the original axle frame to support new wire axles. A piece of plasticard was also glue to the bottom center of the wagon to add support.

Although the account I read mentioned the Archbishop of Cologne's carroccio looking like a castle, there was no detailed information, nor images of it. I decided to add plasticard to form crenelations along the walls to make it appear like a castle. These pieces were scoured with an engraver to simulate wood grain. The plasticard walls were covered with modelling putty and then sanded and grooved to simulate the planking and wood grain.

I then remembered I had an old Academy Roman Warship model kit that included a fighting tower. I added a piece of plasticard to the top of the tower and drilled a hole to allow the Army Standard to fit through it.

Now I need to get two pairs of oxen to pull the carroccio. I think I'll base the carroccio and oxen separately - the carroccio doesn't move once placed on the battlefield anyway. I'll post more photos after the model is painted - and with its standard.

So far, I've only been able to find these two period illustrations of carroccios. The first one depicts the Carroccio of Cremona at the Battle of Cortenuova in 1237. Both paintings probably date from the early 14th Cent.

This is a modern day recreation of a carroccio in Italy. The oxen appear extremely large; like 28mm animals with 20mm human figures.

Happy New Year! From All of Us

All of us...Medieval infantry types, that is. Finished the first group of figures for 2011. These are the Curteys spearmen and Old Glory crossbowmen. Here they are ranked up in three units along with some earlier completed Old Glory spearmen and crossbowmen. They're formed up for close combat with the crossbowmen in the last rank of their mixed units.

These are pictures of the figures just completed. Curteys spearmen up first. Since these guys have generic shield patterns, they can also be used in my HYW French army as Voulgiers. 

Next, the Old Glory crossbowmen from their Mongols in Europe range (thanks for the correction, Scott). For the three mixed units, I've also used Old Glory crossbowmen from their Crusaders and Saracen range.

Best wishes to all in 2011. May your gaming be safe, sound and productive!