Welcome to Galpy

I was working in London for a few days and when I got back I saw that Galpy had joined us to follow, so I'm going to reciprocate.  You really should see some of the work on his blog; lovely stuff there.

Several Salvaged Spartiates

More than several, in fact 32:

Figures by Foundry

I've had them lying around for a while.  I originally got them from Eric at the club, and with the Society of Ancients battle being Platea in 2012, I thought it was time to sort them out a bit.

They already had a basic paint job, including the shields.  All I did was add new spears, ink wash and then touch up as usual.  A quick way to get some troops on the table.



I already have another 32 of the same figure.  The plan is to add a couple of command bases, and that will give me the two units of 36 Spartiates I need for Platea.  I'm thinking of Scarab Miniatures figs for the commands.



My by now traditional close-up, trying to make them look as mean and nasty as possible.

For the perioikoi at Platea I will use my unarmoured Spartans.  I need to use Testor's Dullcote on them and add some front rankers.  I already have some leftover figures from the Old Glory command pack, so if I purchase some Scarab Miniatures armoured hoplites I'll have two full units of 36 of these as well.  That takes care of the Lacedaemonian contingent for the exposed right flank command.  I already have the Athenians and Corinthians.  I could do some work on my Garrison Miniatures hoplites to round out all of the Greeks for both armies, but Simon and Willie should be able to provide those anyway.  That will leave me more time to paint up some Immortals and other Persians, and also produce the battlefield.  I have a particularly cunning plan for the terrain...

Igwarg

Even after three hundred posts, I'm still getting the hang of netiquette or whatever it's called.  So it's about time that I started to mention other blogs when I join them.  Sometimes I do this in return for someone joining mine; this time, it has come about as result of short conversation on The Miniatures Page here.  So, check out Igwarg's blog and website because there's lots to see!

More Claymore photos

Shots of the Magnesia game and others, courtesy of Phil Steele:

http://soawargamesteam.blogspot.com/2011/08/6th-august-edinburgh.html

This is something of a record for me - three posts in one day!

Parthians for Willie

These guys have just been finished.  They are mostly Navigator Miniatures with some extras thrown in.  I found the two-part riders difficult at first, especially the placing of the legs.  Many of the horses' heads are thrown quite far back, and I found with practice that the legs of the men need to be glued on quite far behind so that enough space is left for their torsos.  Hence the use of a couple of other horses and a Warrior Miniatures rider - I did quite a lot of damage before I got it right!

The good thing about the two-part riders is that it gives some variation in the poses without being as fiddly as fully multi-part figures.  Once you get it right, of course!

I went for bright colours but not quite so much decoration as for the aristocracy.  After all, these are meant to be the main basic troops of the army.

I also used my usual basing mix, with some heavier extra bits and stuff.

I posed the figures in different ways, so as to represent the look of swirling light horse.

The final one is my attempt at an action shot. 

On the painting tray: September 2011

Last month I finished a dozen Parthian horse archers plus their obligatory baggage camel for Willie; photos will follow at one point.  At the moment, I have a bunch of rather battered Foundry Spartans to renovate.  I got these from Eric years ago, and with Platea coming up next year I decided to revisit them.  They have a basic paintjob and I have replaced the spears.  The biggest problem is that the old spears they had (most of which have vanished) were quite heavily glued on.  Even with careful work, some of it is still noticeable, but if I do any more scraping or whatever the figures will be damaged.  So I'm going to repaint them with the intention of covering up most of the offending gunk.  I reckon that if you pick them up you'll be able to see the remnants of the stuff, but on the table top it shouldn't be noticeable.  There are 32 of them, some with shield aprons.