Roman heavy cavalryman - 5th century AD

This is the Heavy Cavalryman - 5th Century AD that first appears in the Miniature Figurines 72/73 catalogue as PBC 142. I have added 'Roman' to the title - Minifigs taking it as read. 

As with all the 'PB' range it is derived from Phil Barker's pair of books Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars and Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome. PBC standing for Phil Barker Cavalry. This figure corresponds with illustration 42 in AEIR.

He is riding a horse coded HCH 2 - which I assume stands for Heavy Cavalry Horse 2. This looks like a later redesign of the contemporary |HCH 2. It's somewhat between the PBH and S series horses and the later H and A models and quite a handsome beast really. The code is stamped on the base in the usual way.

The model can also be seen on the 72 catalogue page for The Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome where it is mounted on what looks like an S range horse. 

Roman heavy cavalryman - later 2nd century AD

 

This is the Heavy Cavalryman - Later 2nd Century AD that first appears in the Miniature Figurines 72/73 catalogue as PBC 126. I have added 'Roman' to the title - Minifigs taking it as read. 

As with all the 'PB' range it is derived from Phil Barker's pair of books Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars and Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome. PBC standing for Phil Barker Cavalry. This figure corresponds with illustration 26 in AEIR.

He is riding the ubiquitous PBH 65-217 which is listed as two different horses in the 72/73 catalogue: PBH 65 Cavalry Horse and PBH 217 Roman Cavalry Horse 1st and 2nd Centuries AD. The code is stamped on the base in the usual way.

Note that we have both rider and mount with saddlecloth - the result of Minifigs' never quite knowing whether to put the cloth on the horse or on the rider.

The usual thick/thin spear variants turn up as we might expect.  

Skytrex Spaceships

Over the Christmas break I've been messing around with a very simple card-based spaceship game. This sent me rummaging around for spaceship models to use. I turned up some interesting pieces including the original Minifigs range, various models by QT, some Citadel, the odd Leviathan and even some of the models I designed for the original Rogue Trader game that were never released. The oldest models I have though are none of these - they are from the Skytrex range. 

These models are pretty rare and I couldn't find anything about them at all on the internet - although I imagine someone out there will put me right on that one. I managed to find an advert for these in the September 1974 Military Modelling. There may have been an earlier release because I have a vague recollection of there only being two 'types' and there are four in this advert. Also, they are mentioned in Dave Rotors Galactic Warfare rules first published in 1973, so I am guessing the range may go back as far as that. 

If I remember correctly - and it's been a while so I'll happily stand correction - this was the first range of spaceships available in the UK. The models were cast in a clear, brittle resin which broke easily and which had a fairly rough finish. I remember the distinctive smell too! I also recall that the pieces were often rather tacky - as if the resin wasn't properly cured. 

Richard Halliwell and I invested in a fleet each together with the Galactic Warfare rules by Dave Rotor that you see advertised here. I think the models must have been designed either specifically for the game or with the game in mind, because the rules made a thing of the smaller ships resupplying at depot ships and the models were designed such that they 'docked'. Or as one of our friends put it, 'they were made for each other'. 

When the models arrived I think they were the Rigelian and Vegan fleets. I took one and Richard the other. We painted up our respective fleets and had a go at the Galactic Warfare rules, but ultimately decided they were too simple for us - we were teenagers after all and craved complexity! That kicked us off writing our own rules for spaceships and then for other things, and ultimately to publish our own rules and hence a lifetime working in the games industry.  These Skytrex spaceships therefore have a lot to answer for.

Depot Ship - possibly Vegan

These are remnants of my fleet. It was once quite a good size but, alas, now reduced to a handful of which these are the most intact examples. 

I can't honestly remember whether my ships were the Vegan or Rigelian type. I have an inkling they are the Vegan range. As I say, happy to be corrected. 

I don't have a completely intact depot ship as the only example I have has lost its top 'fin'. You can see I've blu-tacked this piece in place. I think this is the right part. It certainly looks as I remember it. 

  

All the models came in two or more parts, which you had to glue together using whatever lay at hand in those pre-superglue days. 

Fighter

The fighter is the smallest of the models and it's about 2cm long. 

You can see what I mean by the models docking together if you look at the prong on the front of this model - which fits into the back of the depot ship. Sort of. 

Battlecruiser

The battlecruiser has a very 50s pulp sci-fi vibe going for it! I think that's what appealed to me about this particular set. 

Sadly I have none of the models that comprised Richard Halliwell's fleet - I suspect the Rigelians. As I recall the two smaller ships were torpedo shaped with a skirt arrangement to the front and sides. The Depot ship was horseshoe shaped and the skirts of the smaller ships fitted into the back. 

I do have an example of each of the other two ranges - the Darian and Electron. We never got any further with these that ordering samples and I couldn't tell you which was which. One range is pretty much flying saucers and the other is... flying dumbbells. Well you decide! 

These are quite large models compared to the Vegans I have. I guess these must be the depot ships for their respective types. 

Our Skytrex ships were replaced with metal Minifigs when they came out and would soon be eclipsed by far more detailed and sophisticated designs from other manufacturers. Battered and time-worn as they are they retain an aura of past battles fought over the floor and across the dining room table and I treasure them for that. 

 As far as I know this is not a range that is widely known even amongst old sci-fi buffs. If anyone has more information about this range I'd love to hear of it.

Dave's Persians

 

Dave's Persians... not quite all but enough for now! 

A while back... well it must have been twenty years ago or more... I was given this Persian army by Dave Gallagher. Dave worked with me at Games Workshop and he drew a lot of the artwork for Warhammer Ancient Battles including the cover. Like me, Dave was an ancient wargamer who could trace his collecting days back to the 1970's: unlike me, Dave's artistic talents were in evidence from an early age!

Not quite so long ago... about two months ago in fact... I found the army sitting unused and abandoned in a couple of large really 'useful' boxes. It struck me that it would make a nice side-project, a quick re-base and a little tidying up and bingo. 

Minifigs 78'ers and Garrison Immortals

Once I got started I quickly realized this was going to take a bit more work than I'd bargained for. Spears to replace as usual and quite a bit of worn paint that would need to be touched in or over-painted. So, it's taken me a bit longer than I expected, which is why I've not posted for a while.

The army is a mix of Minfigs, Garrison, the odd Hinchliffe and a few I can't identify. Quite an eclectic bunch in fact. The Minifigs are the more recent ranges as shown in the 1978 and subsequent catalogues - not the models I'm more familiar with. 

Hoplites - nicely painted shields on these.

As well as the Pesians themselves the army includes Hoplites, which I assume have been enrolled as mercenaries or come from Ionian allies. I've tried to preserve as much of Dave's original paint as possible on all the army, and with the Hoplite shields I just tidied up where I felt it was needed. 

It was interesting working with these later Minifigs. They are much more detailed than their predecessors, but I do feel that they lack some of the charm of the earlier models. Still, they don't look at all bad, and it's a decent sized unit too.

Chariots! Four of these. 

The chariots are a mix of Minifigs, Garrison and Hinchliffe, with some converted crewmen and all the reins nicely represented with wire or thread. These took the most work to rebuild because most of the glue attaching the reins, wheels and crews had long-since given out. 

I also ended up repainting the horses on three out of four of the chariots. I think they'd been painted with a wash technique that had worn through to the metal in places and which was impossibly to patch up.

Cavalry - the later PB range I think. 

In fact, most of the mounts for the cavalry needed to be repainted, except for the rather nice dappled horses, which benefitted from their more substantial paint job and yielded to a light tarting up.

The main cavalry unit looks like its from the updated 'PB' Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars range. These all have saddlecloths added from paper, which is a nice touch, and I've carefully preserved these and recoloured where it was required. All on individual bases for some reason!

Cardaces back left and archer back right,

Also from the same range as the cavalry is a largish unit of Cardaces, which had been based as 'Light Medium' types on the intermediate 20mm frontage rather than the close fighting 15mm. Some of these look to have been painted by a different hand, and I undertook a bit of repainting to bring them together.

Except for a few otherwise unbased figures, I retained the original basing, which is either Tetrion type filler over card or what looks like Milliput over card. The base sizes are all consistent with the contemporary Wargames Research Group Ancients rules. I've repainted the bases and applied flock to bring the whole lot together.

A lone Garrison Cameleer.

There's still a good few models to go, but I'm calling it a day so I can get on with my other restoration projects. There's a nice-sized unit of Garrison Phrygians that I might have a go at, but they are in a fairly poor state compared to the whole and might need a complete repaint. 

Interestingly, although what we have is definitely a Persian army it's not entirely clear whether its early Achaemenid - i.e. invasion of Greece - or later i.e. Alexander the Great - and plainly it includes models unique to both! 

Almost forgot - I repainted all the metallics and revarnished selectively in gloss, then varnished or the not metallic elements in the original matt. I think these Minifigs look right in matt - the old school gloss doesn't really look correct with the more modern figures. I followed suit with the Garrison figures just to be consistent. Hopefully this will preserve them for many years to come. 

There you go - thanks to Dave Gallagher for his generosity all those years ago - now to get on with something else! 

 

Arab Seleucid Camel Rider

This is the Arab Seleucid Camel Rider that first appears in the Miniature Figurines 72/73 catalogue as PBC 35s, and subsequently in the 75 catalogue as PBC 35. 

As with all the 'PB' range it is derived from Phil Barker's pair of books Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars and Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome. PBC standing for Phil Barker Cavalry. This figure corresponds with illustration 35 in AMPW.

He is riding Camel 1, marked CAMEL on the upper surface of the base. 

This is a fairly common find that must have made its way into many contemporary Seleucid Successor armies. The rider is armed with the most unlikely sword that must be as tall as he is! I think the idea is that the sword was long enough to reach enemies on the ground in a similar way to... a spear. I've straightened this one out as much as I can, but they are invariably twisted, bent or - if unlucky - broken. 

Persian Armoured Cavalryman

 

This is the Persian Armoured Cavalryman that first appears in the Miniature Figurines 72/73 catalogue as PBC 25s, and subsequently in the 75 catalogue as PBC 25. 

As with all the 'PB' range it is derived from Phil Barker's pair of books Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars and Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome. PBC standing for Phil Barker Cavalry. This figure corresponds with illustration 25 in AMPW.

He is riding the Persian Cavalry Horse PBH 60, the code '60' being stamped on the upper surface of the base in the usual fashion . For some reason this particular horse has been painted on one side before further efforts were abandoned. Perhaps exhaustion set in. 

Darius

This is the figure of Darius that appeared as part of the Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars range as PBP 3  - for 'Phil Barker Personalities'. 

The model is not taken from the book despite the code designation, but forms part of a small range of 'general' figures.

The figure appears in the Miniature Figurines 72/73 catalogue and the 75 catalogue under the same code. 

There is no code number on the base, instead - in common with all the personality foot figures - the base is marked with a name: in this case Darius.