Tuesday 19 August 2014

Parthian Cataphracts by Aventine

Things are finally beginning to get back to normal, so here are some photos of newly completed Parthians for Willie.  Mind you, I'm not complaining about this summer: Commonwealth Games; Visitors from the USA and Australia; plus a week in sunny Stratford-upon-Avon, for work reasons, honest.  Not much gaming has been gamed, nor painting painted, but it has been a lot of fun.
These were a real joy to paint, as always with Aventines. 
I made the armour nice and shiny and used a limited number of colours to draw them together as a unit.
They had very little flashing, and only one guy needed a small amount of filling at the join between his torso and his legs.
They will see action this evening as the Parthian host finally descends upon an invading Ptolemaic army after much attrition has been inflicted.  Totals for this year so far are 376 foot, 130 mounted and 7 nellies.  I'm also part of the way through another of Caesar's elite legions, and then after that we'll see.  The Society of Ancients Battle Day game for 2015 is Hydaspes.  We already have Alexander's army, and Simon has most of the Indians in glorious techicolour.  We will need some more for the large, albeit ineffective, infantry contingent, and I could do with some of those for my halting progress with the Persians and their friends for Plataea.  So I reckon I'll be painting a couple of large units of, say, 48 figs each for that.

16 comments:

  1. These look very nice indeed. Can I ask what rules you'll be playing? Think these chaps may steal the show in terms of gorgeous figures!!

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    1. Thanks, Carlo, you must have been passing through - that was quick! Our ruleset of choice is the playtest version of Tactica II, although for flavour we have retained some of the rules from the original Tactica. In particular, horse archers may spread out into skirmish formation and then reform. This gives them loads of flexibility and makes them very dangerous indeed.

      Thanks again!

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  2. I love Aventine figures and you did a lovely job on these!

    Christopher

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  3. Fantastic brushwork on these cavalry!

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  4. Paul, great as usual!!!!!!!!!! Mike Adams

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  5. Fantastic finish on these, they look great.

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  6. Beautiful work, Paul. Very pretty indeed!

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  7. Thanking you all for the positive waves. We shall see how they fight tonight!

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  8. Great looking heavy cavalry!

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  9. Nice one mate, you have done a cracking job on these little beauties.

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    1. Ta much, Raglan, it's good to hear from you.

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  10. Well done indeed. Tactica 1.5 is the best.

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  11. Damn lovely painting, Paul! I hope they perform as well as they look tonight.

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    1. Thanks, Monty. In the event, the Parthians were defeated, but inflicted so much damage that the opposition will have to retire homewards. This particular unit led the left wing and went down fighting against a load of Greek cavalry. A creditable performance for their first outing.

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  12. Excellent Parthian cataphracts!

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