First of the Indian elephants

 

Another addition to my ancient Indian army, this time in the shape of an elephant, complete with general and parasol-bearer. It’s the first time I’ve painted an elephant in any miniature scale, and I wasn’t entirely sure how to tackle the skin colour, but I think it turned out ok. I went with a neutral gray, followed by a dark grey wash, then two light grey drybrush highights and a final stain of a very watered down yellowish colour just to warm everything up a bit.

I was initially unsure about what base width to choose for this, and in the end I opted for 40mm - the same as my infantry bases. I had thought about going for something wider and adding some skirmish figures to the base. This would have looked quite good, I think, but it would have meant a few more figures to paint, and I can always put skirmish bases beside it in future, if a game calls for it. On 40mm wide bases, two elephants together will look more impressive and will give the same unit width as the infantry.

It’s hard not to think about the suffering that these poor animals must have endured as war elephants. I’m sure they found the whole experience just as terrifying as their enemies did.