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.
Great looking figures as always. I'm a bit of a WRG fanboy and always feel they give a good game...and the army lists were excellent,
ReplyDeleteThank you - it's coming along and I hope to get a game in one day! Well we all played WRG back in the day, and the reference books were and remain a gold mine of information. The army lists are interesting because there's very little by way of explanation as to why certain things are included or represented the way they are - leading to some assumptions and 'facts' that have made it into video games and other game systems. When it comes to 'research' for army lists though, most rules writers reference other army lists, and it does make sense to do that because the market will have expectations that fit existing lists. It's just a bit frustrating when you read the sources for yourself, look at the monumental evidence, and draw your own conclusions only to be told your list is not 'historical' because it doesn't conform to an old WRG army list!
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain. Back in the 80s I was reenacting the English Civil War and the drummers of our brigade were short of a few 17c command beats. Some were recorded, but they had to improvise others, making them sound realistic. Fast forward 30 years and I was sagely told by drummers in another ECW group that their drum beats were all from the 17c... including the ones I knew were composed in 1984. I suppose when you get long in the tooth, these anomalies happen more frequently.
ReplyDeleteThat's funny! The older I get the more I come to realize how unreliable a thing memory is and how common it is to remember things that didn't happen with the utmost conviction!
ReplyDeleteThese are beautiful units. I like the way you painted the miniatures.
ReplyDeleteDid Minifigs also make Numidian elephants?
Cheers, Karl
Thank you Karl - glad you like them. As far as I can tell Minifigs didn't make a Numidian or even a specifically Carthaginian elephant to go with this range. They did a generic elephant with howda, an Indian elephant - of which I have a few - and a Sassanid elephant. I have quite a lot of the Hinchliffe Successor Elephant which I would press into service for Hellenistic, Carthaginian and Roman elephants if needed - though it is an enormous beast and quite terrifying!
DeleteThanks for your reply. I found the elephants you mentioned in an online catalogue. They seem to be still available. You prefer to buy the miniatures second hand though?
DeleteThe HInchliffe range is still available I believe - although it has changed hands recently and I'm not sure whether the new owner has the entire range ready yet. The reason I have quite a lot of the Seleucid elephant is because I've had them for forty-odd years! I have picked up a few more on ebay because they came along with something else or because they were a bargain. But for the most part - I've always had them.
Delete