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...

On the Painting Tray: February 2014

A dozen Aventine Thracian foot and 144 North African infantry.  I will be needing some generic massed infantry from North Africa for the next phase of our ongoing club campaign - basically, medium foot to bulk out the armies.  They will see service for Carthage in the 3rd Punic War, and can also be used for Numidians and various other North African contingents up to and including the revolt of Tacfarinas, although that is a while away.  I think I'll also be able to use them for the First Servile War in Sicily, which broke out not all that long after the final demise of Carthage - basically, I'm assuming that most of the slaves will North African in origin.

I'm using Companion Miniatures figures for the rank and file, Gripping Beast for the command, and Wargames Factory for casualties.  I know that the Numidians were in fact relatively lightly skinned, unlike the popular conception, but since these are going to be used for various nationalities I'm painting them a deep desert tan colour, a sort of light nut brown.  Definitely no deep chocolate browns for skin here.  Hair will be shades of medium to dark brown, with some black.  Clothing will be a range of greens and off-whites, with browns and some grey for animal skins.  The Companion Miniatures guys came with small round shields because they were meant to be light infantry, but since they will form a battle line of sorts I bought larger Gripping Beast scuta and LBMS transfers for them.  These are plain white with palm trees of various sorts on them.  The good thing is they will be relatively easy to paint!

Iberian command stands - cavalry and c-in-c

Finally 'finished' the army:

Three command bases, figures by Gripping Beast: two for the cavalry, and one overall commander-in-chief.

Each has four figures.  I've arranged the cavalry stands slightly differently from each other, just for the sake of it.

Shield transfers are by Little Big Men, for the Companion Miniatures that comprise most of the army.  Might as well use the left-overs.

I also gave the infantry base a shrub to shelter the all-important high priest.  He's the little guy in robes; I quite liked him.  He is a relatively fine figure, especially compared with the nutter with his sword and shield in the air; the priest reminds me of the old Julie Guthrie line of fantasy figures.  In fact, he'd make a good high priest for some nefarious cult or other.

How they look from above.  It took me over a year to make this army, pretty much from scratch:  192 Scutarii; 180 Celtiberians; 180 Caetrati; 40 slingers; 48 skirmish javelinmen; 72 cavalry; 16 foot command; and 8 cavalry command.  So that's 656 foot figures and 80 horse - not a bad little force.  No wonder I was getting knackered by the end of it...