Benassi Hoplite

Willie gave me this guy.  He already had a basic paint job, so I stuck with it and went for the bright and bold look.  Except for the shield, for which I acquired a template (I can't remember the company's name), and then I worked from that.  He is 95mm from toe to the top of his crest, and on the base is written "Benassi 1980".  I don't usually do large figures like this one, so he is a bit of a one-off.  We'll use him to show who has the initiative at Plataea.

He isn't overly muscled as can be the case with more recent models, and the detailing is smooth rather than complex.  I enjoyed this as a bit of change from the usual, though.

Welcoming Prince Repnin

Thanks for looking in on us!  The Prince has chosen to "blog" via thumbnails, and the quality of his work has to be seen to be believed: http://ageofreasonwargaming.blogspot.co.uk/

He produces lovely Impetus bases, and those Hospitallers are great.  I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of those in battle...

Immortals Completed

Finished my unit of Immortals for Plataea.  These are the unarmoured rear rankers:

The stripes look slightly off centre down their backs, but that's because the cloth billows out, and I made sure the line followed that correctly.  The only criticism I have of these figures is that they lean forwards a bit, which is a very minor point.  I did try to correct this, but I was wary of pushing too hard in case I damaged them.  Two shots of the full unit:

At one point I will buy archers and make this into two units.  One will be the armoured spearmen with rear ranking bowmen, and the other will be composed of the unarmoured spearmen plus archers.  That will effectively give me some Immortals and some sparabara types.  But they'll do just now for Plataea.  Figures are by Foundry.

On the Painting Tray: April 2012

I have a few unarmoured Persian spearmen to finish basing, and that will give me a unit of 36 Immortals for Plataea.  In March I managed (rather unexpectedly) to do quite a lot of work on an old 75mm Hoplite figure that Willie gave me, to use as an initiative marker in the Plataea game; I should be able to finish him too.  However, the main business is the battlefield itself.  It's going to be 12' by 6', with two muddy watercourses, a hill for the Spartans, and a chunk to represent Mount Cithaeron.  More anon, as and when bits are being constructed...