Aventine Thracians

Thracians for Willie from the Successors period, going by their shields:

I used various LBMS transfers left over from other projects to give them a motley look.

The command figures are especially nice, and would probably do for most armies in the period.  I've tried to give them the attention they deserve.

Originally, I was intending to use VVV decals for the tunic and cloak designs, but they didn't quite give the effect I was looking for, because of the high contrast folds in the clothing.  So I ended up painting rather simple but bold designs - they certainly are a colourful bunch.

I like to think of these as an especially successful mercenary band.  They do seem rather wealthy.

They came with as variety of weapons and heads, which just adds to the flavour; I took advantage of this and varied the colours on the headgear.  These are, believe it or not, the first Aventine figures I've painted (apart from Simon Miller's dead nellies).  They are probably 28mm, which makes them noticeably larger than the likes of my 1st Corps Romans.  They would probably fit in well with Companion Miniatures, Crusader or Gripping Beast.  A nice refreshing little unit for a change!

Quick addendum:  the command figures are actually taken from the thureophoroi.  Just in case someone looks for them on the Aventine homepage...

Gallic Cavalry

These are loopies by 1st Corp:

Or should that be loonies?  Anyway, I bought the men really cheaply at Carronade in Falkirk and then purchased the horses to go with them - overall, a quick way to put some cavalry together.

The bags the guys were in were labelled "Gallic/German cavalry".  I based them in the same style as my Romans and Seleucids.

They saw their first outing last week at Claymore as Galatian cavalry, and performed reasonably well.

Unlike the infantry, I tried stripes and checks on this lot.  I think they came out okay, even though it's my first attempt.

To finish off, here's a close-up of nutters in action.  I'm quite pleased with the final result.

Essex Phalangites

Four shots of a revamped Essex phalanx.  They are still a bit on the dirty side, but then they are 20 years old.

There are 72 figures here, finishing my pike contingent nicely.  I may in future buy some command figures to go with them, but that can wait.  I forgot that I originally painted the front rank guys with bronze cuirasses.  Reworking them has given me some ideas for a couple of Argyraspides units for Magnesia.  In the meantime, this lot will do for the main pike blocks.

Brazen Shields

These are more modernised figures, a phalanx of 32 Brazen Shields from my old Pontic army.  Figures by Essex.

Seleucid Cataphracts

These are the latest revamps from my old Essex Seleucid army.  I had a bit of spare time after finishing the plastic I used for Ligurians, so I put it to good use.  All that metal made them really quick to do.  There are 30 of them, with a couple of extras that I'll use as standard bearers.  I'm working towards my lists for Magnesia, so I'll need 72 of them in total.  This lot plus my Parthians will do nicely, but it would be good to have all of the Cataphracts by the same manufacturer.  The good thing is, they are easy to paint.

Hillmen Light Infantry types

These are more old Essex figures salvaged from a previous incarnation to serve in my Seleucid army.  They can be used as generic Light Infantry: Anatolians, Kappadokians, any near eastern hillmen really.  I wanted to finish these so as to have more than just peltasts available.  There are two different figures mixed in randomly; I have 36 of them in total.

Blue Shields

A few side and rear shots of another of the elite phalanxes. You will note the helmet decorations; I used figures with plain helmets for the standard phalanxes as another way to differentiate them.

Elite Phalanxes

I have six units painted with uniform shield colours, to stand in for any elite types that need to be differentiated on the table top from standard phalanxes. These are three of them; I'll do some extra shots of the blue shields. The last unit is an old batch of bronze shields that was originally part of the Pontic army, but they need serious reworking, so I haven't shown that one. Each unit has 32 figures.

Large Phalanx

A shot of the massed phalanx. Some of these need reworking, but that will come. Originally, I wanted a generic Successor phalanx that would stand in for Pontic ex-slaves freed to fight Romans, so I bought Essex Seleucids and gave them random shield colours. The only other thing I will need to do is sort out some command stands. From past experience, Old Glory command bags work in nicely with Essex, so I may well go with a couple of sets of those.

Imitation Legions

These are old Essex "Roman" Argyraspides that I managed to rework quite quickly. I must have done these at the tail end of the Pontic army I painted over twenty years ago. I know this because it turned out that they had been painted and varnished in acrylics, one of the first acrylic paint jobs I did. This meant that they had not worn so badly as the older figures on which I used enamel paints and varnish, so they were easily reworked. All I did was put an ink wash over the (very bright) helmets and faces to give them some definition without it being too much work. I repainted and varnished the shields, and then rebased the whole lot. They are now more like my current paint jobs, for relatively minimal effort. They could be used for any of the imitation legionary types that served in various armies, so I deliberately left the shields blank. I could always go back and give them some transfers at one point. I could also add some more plus a few Essex Roman command figures to turn them into a legion to represent hastily raised troops such as Pompey's Syrian legions from Pharsalus. I decided to go ahead and do these once I realised it wouldn't take too long because they can also stand in for the Carthaginian third line at Zama if we need them - all that looted Roman equipment.

Ancients Scenario: Magnesia

Another famous encounter, this time between the Republican Romans and the Seleucids of Antiochus. This is the battle I am using for my Seleucid army list, and since one can use the same Romans as for Zama, it seemed a sensible one to try to represent next. All the Romans need is their Pergamene allies. See the page link on the left of the blog's front page.

Seleucid Agema

These are revamped older figures I have managed to do in between batches of Roman heavy infantry. I've updated the paint job to bring it more into line with the way I paint nowadays, in the hope that they will look roughly the same as more recently painted units. They were then varnished and rebased. Figures by Essex.

Tarentine Light Cavalry

Twenty years ago I painted a Pontic army for a friend of mine for Tactica, and then bought them all back from him a few years later. These Tarentines (Essex figs) were part of the army. In between Romans I've been slowly revamping my classical period figures for use in our ongoing Empire campaign. I gave them a touch-up, added some shield transfers, then varnished and rebased them. I still have a soft spot for Essex figures, and I used their Seleucid figures for the Pontics. After adding to them subsequently, I have a huge phalanx army plus extras to use for pretty much any Successor state, and later. I've always liked the idea of using one manufacturer for an army as much as possible. If I ever get round to it, I'll do a 1st Corps army to fight them, but that's probably a long way off...