South Gaulish Cavalryman

This is the South Gaulish Cavalryman that first appears in the Miniature Figurines 72/73 catalogue as PBC 55s, and subsequently in the 75 catalogue as PBC 55. 

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 55 in AMPW.

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. 

The pose is typical of the range, the figure is nicely executed with a rather dashing cloak. He is also carrying a sensibly-sized shield... take note Spanish Cavalryman PBC 53! 

Spanish Light Cavalryman

This is the Spanish Light Cavalryman that first appears in the Miniature Figurines 72/73 catalogue as PBC 54s, and subsequently in the 75 catalogue as PBC 54. 

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 54 in AMPW.

He is riding the Spanish Cavalry Horse PBH 64, the code '64' being stamped on the upper surface of the base in the usual fashion .

Spanish Medium Cavalryman

This is the Spanish Medium Cavalryman that first appears in the Miniature Figurines 72/73 catalogue as PBC 53s, and subsequently in the 75 catalogue as PBC 53. 

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 53 in AMPW.

The mount shown here is the Spanish cavalry Horse listed PBH 64s  The code 64 is stamped on the top of the base in the usual way.

This is a surprisingly rare second-hand find, probably because the concept of 'medium' cavalry isn't the most exciting thing in the world. Nor is it very effective in terms of the WRG Ancient rules that governed the actions of these fellows in their prime. 

I managed to get hold of a small batch of these untouched and never painted or even cleaned up. You might notice I've removed some serious clag from around the helmet plume and mould lines from the shield. 

Speaking of the shield - gosh it's enormous! I'm not sure quite why it's so big and feel sorry for the rider, what with trying to ride a horse, carry a spear and balance that thing all at the same time. 

More Carthaginians

It's been a while since I posted about my on-going efforts to recreate the 1970's wargames armies I once possessed, admired or coveted. This is not due to any sudden outbreak of common sense on my part, but merely reflects the fact I've been working away at 'more of the same' rather than anything new. More of the same isn't a bad thing though, and I've decided to take a few pics of some of my latest additions just to show I have not been entirely idle. 

Carthaginian Light Corps

The 'lights' are coming along nicely and as you can see are spearheaded by a batch of Spanish and backed up by a growing horde of Numidians.

All of these are over- painted rather than stripped - although I manually stripped the shields and spears to make the job easier. Some of the models needed old flash and clag removing, and some of the Spanish infantry needed facial details re-carving. Similarly the cavalry were all separated from their mounts and refixed, and the horses cleaned up and over-painted. I'm reasonably happy with the result, and I've stuck to my vow to 'paint more than I strip' this year, so overall a win.

Numidians advance over the ford - Heavy Cavalry approaching

I still have a few Numidians in bare metal but these three small units finishes the repaints. Six figures is a good size for a light cavalry unit. Of course it could be two larger units or one enormous horde, depending on the game system. I've based these individually to the old WRG standard (30mm frontage and 40mm depth) and this gives a decent footprint on the table. 

Spanish cross the ford as the Numidians prepare to join them

The Spanish have been doing service in their old paint jobs for some time, but since I bought them I've refined my thinking about what I wanted to do with these old armies, and so I decided to give them a make-over in the the same style as the rest of the army. The trickiest bit of this renovation was scraping all the glue and flock off the bases to get back to a reasonably clean finish. Not perfect... but it will pass muster. There's a few more cavalry still to do and another unit of infantry on the workbench, as well as a couple more units of Scutari waiting to join the two I've already finished.

What I'd really like for this army is a unit of Spanish 'medium' cavalry and at least one Gallic warband. I've never even seen the heavier Spanish cavalry figure. The light cavalryman is a fairly common find and I can only assume that his close-order cousin wasn't a great option in terms of the WRG rules. The Gauls don't appear for sale all that often either, although dribs and drabs have come my way, and I'm not above mixing in Gauls and Britons from the Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome range. Needs must.