Spartans!

 This lovely collection of figures is produced by Gorgon Miniatures as their Spartan line.  The figures are very well done and in my mind slightly superior to the Foundry Greek line in that the sculpting quality seems as good, but the Hoplons are sligtly larger, thus more appropriately sized.  Above is a group of psiloi.

 Here we have the javelinmen or Auxilia.  I found these to be extremely nice sculpts and am somewhat conflicted as these are for a commission so I don't get to keep them.  Oh well!

 I based five light infantry on a stand to be a horde element for DBA armies.  Only the Early Spartans get a horde element, but these could really be from this period.  I have decorated the shields of the Hoplites with the lambda, which would probably be more appropriate for the later period, but had enough figures for a horde so I thought what the heck.

These are the heavier Auxilia and based as 4 to a stand.

The army will have two command elements for future expansion which are shown here and below.  You just have to love the transverse crests!

 Some fun detail work on the shield.

 A small sampling of the hopllites - there will be 48 in all, half of which are painted, but I won't base them until they are all painted so I can mix them in and base the army at one time.  The shields have Little Big Men decals which are pretty easy to work with.  The spears were a problem, as I was not happy with the ones I purchased, so have used some plastic spears, and a lot of my own wire spears with custom sculpted butt spikes.  This was a pain to do but I was quite pleased with the end result.

The hoplite on the right above has a plastic spear, the rest are armed with my custom made ones.  The two hoplites below have custom made spears as well.  As you can see from those below I have given them a variety of linen and leather armor.

That's it for now.  I'm off to paint more Hoplites!

Persian Immortals

Just finished up some Persian Immortals, or possibly Persian Kardaces depending on how you read the sources. Herodotus describes them as having hoplons with no blazon and polished to a mirror like brightness. In any event they will give my Persian army some much needed strength.

25mm Clan Wars figures for HotT

I was fortunate enough recently to get a large lot of Clan Wars figures. I had never seen these figures before, but once I did, I knew I had to possess them. I ended up selling most of them, but kept enough to make a nice sized HotT army in 28/30mm. I recently painted a couple of hero figures to use as Behemoths in my 15mm samurai DBA / HotT army and as a test for the army to follow. Above and below are pictures of a Crab Clan hero with the head of some unfortunate beastie.

The sculpting and animation on these figures is wonderful, but they are intricately detailed which meant I had to get over my fear of painting them and just do it. I'm still working out how to paint these in an efficient manner, but it will be slow going I am afraid.

I like playing Behemoths in Hordes of the Things so I painted a couple of them.

Here's the backside of the Lion Clan Hero. I tried to use color on him that is mostly reminiscent of a lion - except the pants of course.

No Clan Wars army would be complete without a dragon so here is the Fire Dragon. This is an early production run of this monstrous beast and is all metal. The current production of them by Valiant enterprises is resin, but this guy is a massive hunk of pewter.

A side view for scale. He truly is massive!

Here are the rest of the figures waiting to be painted. I added sashimono to most of the spear and swordsmen. There is also a nice collection of magicians, monks, heroes, beasts, retainers for the stronghold and even some cavalry.

Love the lion mask on this guy!

Han Dynasty and Warring States Chinese

The impetus for building this army came from a purchase of a fantasy Chinese army which I realized could serve as the core of a historical force as well. Some of these are the only painted miniatures I have ever purchased, and the painter had a style similar to my own, but really lavished attention on them so I just couldn't resist.

This camp was made utilizing one of the two dragons that came with the painted army. The trees are a model railroading product called sea moss, and the lions are part of an aquarium decoration.

Here are two other fantasy elements, a magician and a hero. The magician stand came with the fantasy army, but the hero was my own addition. There is also another dragon like the one in the camp scene, only painted primarily red.

The camp scene above is for the historic DBA warring States or Han Dynasty army. The rice paddy was made by using long grass and another railroad product called scenic water. I had several water products to choose from, but I think my favorite turned out to be one made by Vallejo paints.

I had intended to create more rice shoots, but the process was so tedious I decided to pretend the field had not been completely planted yet.

Han Dynasty General by Essex. I was very pleased with how this element came out, and particularly liked the gold silk robe of the general.

Here's a better view of the riders in the chariot.

The light horse. Most of these were my additions, but two in the back row came with the original army. The Han Dynasty army has two options, one that is a mixed force and one that is primarily mounted, hence all the additional light horse and cavalry elements.

A Total of five cavalry elements were needed as an addition to make all of the necessary cavalry.

These marvelously painted chariots came with the original army. Bless the gentleman who did all the work on the diamond pattern horse blankets!

The Dagger axe men will play as spears.

A few of the warring States period armies call for warband. These are supposed to be fanatic swordsmen for the most part with the job of collecting trophy heads.

Crossbowmen formed the backbone of a lot of chinese armies. Two of these came with the painted army, but I had to add a couple more to cover all of the historic DBA options.

Last of all are a 3 blade stand and some psiloi. I never could figure out the code for the Essex halbard men. I believe large Halbards like these were used, but most heavy infantry relied on the dagger axe.

More Romans arrive

I recently sold an army of Romans and Pyhric Macedonians but had enough left over that I wanted to finish up an army for myself, so here they are. Above are the Velites which are by Crusader Miniatures I believe. The one in the wolf's head may be a Navigator miniature but I am far from sure on that one.

Here we have the Italian ally spear and Auxillia, probably Samnites. The miniatures are by Old Glory.

The Roman cavalry general on the right and the Itallian ally cavalry on the left, all by Old Glory.

These are the Triari, the grisseled veterans of the Roman army and are painted after an illustration in the John Warry book on classical warfare that caught my eye back when I first started this hobby some thirty years ago. The shields are hand painted and then splattered by using a toothbrush rubbed with paint.

They are a frightening looking lot!

In contrast to the Triari, here are the Hastati, the young men, armed with pila and sword which were just making their appearance at this time.

Once again the shields are all hand painted and modeled after a design in the John Warry book.

Finally we have the Principes, still armed with spear at this point, but still tough as nails.

Early Roman and Italian Allies

SOLD!
The core of this army has sold but I may be able to offer one more Camillan army as well as a Gallic army in the near future so keep you eyes open for them.

Italian javelin men take the lead with spear and Tarentine light cavalry in support. These figures were originally intended to be part of a Pyrhic DBA army, but could work just as well as Campainian or Brutian allies for the early Romans as they began to expand their empire.

The Italians were lots of fun because of the variety of shield shapes and designs that they used. Their tunics were also nice and colorful with lots of geometric patterns.

A view of the entire army from the Snoopy blimp. All in all 3 elements of Italian javelinmen, 4 elements of Italian spear, 2 heavy Italian cavalry with some funky counterweighted spears, 3 elements of Tarentine light cavalry, 6 elements of Roman Leves or Velites, 3 elements of Hastati, 9 elements of Principes or triari, and 3 elements of heavy Roman cavalry.

A view of the Roman heavy Cavalry

The main Roman body; to the front, the Hastati, in the middle and rear, the Principes and Triari, all mud splattered veterans ready for battle. They really are a grim looking lot!

A better view of the Principes.

The light infantry support. I believe these are crusader miniatures, which are quite excellent.

A close-up of the grim Roman cavalry veterans with their shields stained with the blood of their enemies and the mud of the territory they have conquered.

My original intent was to sell these as two DBA armies, but after seeing them all together like this I am having second thoughts. Nevertheless if interested in acquiring these please contact David.l.Crenshaw@gmail.com