Another Indian elephant

 

A second elephant has made it off the painting desk and into the battleline of my ancient Indian army. It feels good to add another base to the steadily growing collection. This one didn’t take that long to do.

I have two more elephants and crew in the prep stage, and one more in the lead pile somewhere. I’m thinking somewhere between 4 and 6 elephants will be enough to give me a good starting army for most rule sets.

Speaking of rules, I’m currently enjoying another read through Simon Miller’s To The Strongest! For my 20mm collections, a grid size of 120 or 130mm boxes should work quite well, which keeps the table size within about 5’ x 3’, if I use the recommended 12 x 8 boxes. I like the relative simplicity of the rules and the fact that the mechanics should work well for solo gaming. Not sure how I feel about having playing cards on the table, so I might go with the option of using dice or numbered tokens instead.

The two finished elephants together. I like the thought of a long line of these on the tabletop! It’s certainly a motivation to keep the project rolling forward.

Macedonian phalangites - first two bases done

 

Not including the Greek hoplites already done (which I’ll use as allies/mercenaries for several different armies), this is the first of me painting some figures for the Alexandrian Macedonians. Phalangites seemed like a good place to start, seeing as they form the core of the army and I have a pile of them to do.

For the sarissas I used wire spears from Col Bills, cut down to about 60mm or so. The shields are smaller than the hoplite ones, so I wasn’t sure about suitable transfers to fit them, and in the end I just hand painted the Macedonian star symbol on some of them.

 

They did take a bit longer to paint up than most of the other ancients I’ve painted so far, mainly because of the details on the linen armour. I like how they look, but for the sake of speeding the project up I might try a different approach next time.

From what I’ve read about the Macedonian army, it’s likely that not all the phalangites would have worn body armour, so it would be good to add in some unarmoured ones to the rear ranks if possible. I don’t think Newline does unarmoured pikemen for the Macedonians, but I might find something suitable from their other ranges.

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.

More Greek hoplites

 

Next to make it out of the lead pile were these two bases worth of Greek hoplites. I had been in the process of prepping a couple of elephants for my Indian army, but needed to wait for some filler to dry, so I grabbed these guys from the queue since they were all ready to go.

This now gives me four bases of hoplites, which I think will be a unit in most rules. There will be lots more hoplites to paint in future, but thankfully I like painting these guys.

As before, I used shield transfers from Little Big Men Studios which are meant for Foundry 28/25mm models, but their smaller size means they fit these Newline Designs shields perfectly. I’m hoping when I get round to starting on the Macedonians that I’ll be able to do the same with the shields for the phalangites and hypaspists. I’ll need to check if there are any LBMS transfers that would fit.

The Indian elephants will be the next for getting painted up. In fact, they’re already in progress. After that I might paint another chariot or two, and then move on to the first of the Macedonian units.

Some more progress with the ancient Indian army

I continued working on the classical Indian army this week and last, adding two more bases of swordsmen, two bases of skirmishers and the first of the chariots.

Again, I can’t say enough good things about these sculpts from Newline. I think they’re some of Sean’s best, and a real pleasure to paint. It should be a colourful army by the time it’s finished, especially once I add in more chariots and elephants.

Alongside the painting, I continue to read through various sets of ancients rules, which I seem to have quite a collection of now - even though I don’t (and have never had) enough ancients miniatures to game with! The only ancients gaming I’ve ever done has been with Commands & Colors, and converting that to miniatures is also a possibility.

Without going to my shelf to check, here’s what I can remember I have, in no particular order:

Ancient and Medieval Warfare (Neil Thomas)

Warhammer Ancient Battles

Clash of Empires

To the Strongest!

Pulse of Battle

DBA 3.0

L’art de la Guerre

Swordpoint 1st edition

Sword and Spear

Three Ages of Rome

Commands & Colors Ancients

I’m pretty sure I have the pdf version of Hail Caesar 1st edition as well, and an ebook version of Phil Sabin’s Lost Battles.

Too many rulesets by far, especially for an indecisive Libra like me, but it makes for interesting reading in the meantime. 

I’ll make a start on the Alexandrian Macedonians at some point soon, just for a change, but I do have the first two Indian elephants at the build/prep stage, so they’ll see they paint desk soon as well.

Here’s all the Indians that I’ve painted so far. Feels like a good start but still plenty to do.