More Phalanx-At Last A Basefull!!

Finally!!! A basefull of finished Pikemen, now just have to do the other four figures for the rear section, and we have the first Impetus/Armati unit completed. Basework not done yet, as I am still deliberating whether to put the command at the front, or more historically, at the rear of the Phalanx.
All Aventine figures, with LBMS shield transfers, I've stuck with more  simple colours, rather than going mad with purples, yellows and all sorts of bonkers shades, as I can't find any reliable historical evidence to say that the units were outfitted in anything more flash than red tunics, and bronze,linen and leather armour. Not a flash paintjob by any means, but they look OK  all bunged together, and thats good enough for me.
Back to the desk for the rear rankers, a selection of less well armoured chaps, all Linothorax this time, so we shall see how they turn out later.

Renovation!!!

A while back, I picked up an ebay bargain, 28mm Macedonian Army, mostly Foundry Figures, and all painted to a basic standard. Here's one of the unarmoured Phalanx figures.

Well, the seller must have been annoyed with the price, because the whole lot was slung nto a box, with not a lot of protection, resulting in a chipped horrendous mess of tangled pikes and figures!!

After looking at this mess, I put the box away in disgust, and there it sat until. by chance I found it again, and decided to have a go at renovating one of the figures, nothing swish, just a good basic paint job to make the figures useable again. So on the left is the result, just a nice basic paintjob, and a shiny new replacement shield to replace the bottletop he had before, nice LBMS transfer, and away we go. These guys will work perfectly well for the rear ranks of the armoured Phalanx, or for the less well equipped phalanx unit.
Oe maybe I will just stick em back on ebay, and earn some more cash to buy more Aventine stuff!!

Aventine Miniatures-New Phalanx packs

Hurrah!!! Keith from Aventine has announced the first releases of the advancing Pike packs

"We had added the first two packs of the advancing phalangites, the PH21 pack are armoured in a breastplate and have crested helmets, they are suitable as file leaders or front rankers.
PH22 are in linothorax and uncrested helmets.
The pike as you can see is angled at approx 45 degrees, this will allow the units to be pushed together in mellee(at least most of the time)."
  Also coming soon are the Thureophoroi packs, so keep an eye open for these as well.
I suspect that I shall be ordering just a few packs of these!

Surprising What you Learn

When placing an order!!
Once again I find myself clicking on the Aventine Miniatures bookmark, and ordering a few more packs. A chance ebay sale, and I had some funds to spare, so I have re-invested the funds, with some more wargames figures! I am reworking some of my figures from Foundry, Crusader and Polemarch, and wanted to replace the shields with some Aventine ones, so I can get an nice overall effect. Being a cheeky sod, I ask Aventine if they could send me a spare vexillium,I finish off the order, and send it off into the interweb. A little bit later the phone rings, its Keith from Aventine, enquiring whether I wanted a vexillium transfer, or the actual metal standard! I tell him what I want, and we get talking. I did not realise that Keith does all the mould making , and casting. So now I know who is responsible for the amazing quality of the castings themselves. Keith also told me that some new advancing Pikemen packs, and the Thureophoroi packs will be out very soon, so something else to look forwards to.

Excellent service again, what more can I say!!

Painted Comparison Pics

I like to compare the available figures, just to see who would fit with who, and to see what models look the best. This time out, I have managed to assemble some painted examples, so you can get a better idea of what the models look like, after an average painter has been let loose on them!!

From Left to Right we have Crusader Models, Aventine Miniatures, Polemarch(Gripping Beast) and Wargames Foundry. The squares on my cutting mat are 1 inch, and I have made sure all the models are lined up touching the yellow line.

I dunno about you folks, but I think Aventine may have quite a distinct detail advantage on the other ranges!!

Linothorax and Phalanx Commands

Just a quick review of the latest aquisitions from Aventine Miniatures. This time round I ordered some of the more lighter armoured chaps in the shape of packs PH07,08 and 10. (top to bottom in the above pic)
These figures are clad in the Linen armour (Linothorax) and will be used to fill the rear ranks of the Epirote/Macedonian Phalanxes.
The figures themselves are cleanly cast, and will require the very minimum of clean up before painting. I have to say its very refreshing to have such well cast models, and have to wonder why other companies cannot produce their models to the same high standard.
The detail on these models is very good, nicely raised, but not too clunky, enabling you to do a reasonably good paintjob, with out too much effort. I expect they will work well for the "Dippers"amongst you!  Take a bit of time, and I'm sure a stunning paintjob will be the result. If you want to see just what folks have done, go to the Aventine site, and have a look at the Elephant on there!!
My one gripe, and its my fault for not reading the info on the site. Wire spears, you have to order these seperately, but hey its no big deal, just make sure you order enough to go with your Phalanx packs.

Command Packs

Ok, onto the two Phalanx command packs, PH13 and 14 ( top to bottom in the above picture). Well what can you say, thats not already been said!! Two really rather fine command groups, with plenty of scope for including them in your Phalanx, or as stand alone vignettes.One again they are beautifully cast models, and they are cramned with lots of great detailing. The open handed figures can be used as standard bearers, or if you add a pike, they would make great Taxiarch or Syntagmatarch figures.

Overall, there are too many trumpeters, I will probably find myself filing away a couple of the trumpets, and adding another weapon,or have them holding a horse's reins, so they get used anyway.

So, overall, 5 more packs of fantastic figures to add to my lead pile, only this time I can see them all getting painted.

Would I recommend them? Yes, without question, I think these are the best Successor Range Phalanx models around at the moment, with enough scope to produce some very interesting looking units for whatever your choice of Successor army may be.

Nice one Adam and Keith, now forget about those Imperial Romans, and get cracking on some more figures for this range ;-]]

More Packs Of Loveliness!!

Ordered Sunday, delivered this morning, hows that for great service!!
Five more Phalanx packs, and some more LBMS transfers, this time for the standards.
Review to follow

Tarantine Cavalry

The first of the mounted contingent, and its a mercenary Tarantine Cavalryman from the Aventine Miniatures range. Now I confess, I'm not the world's greatest horse painter, thid one has turned out OK, and if I can get the rest up to the same level, I shall be a happy bunny.

Lovely figure to paint, can't wait to see what Aventine turn out for the heavier cavalry!!

Base Work

Having got a few painted figures done, my thoughts turn to basing the little beggars. I began with a couple of slingers, these are from Crusader Miniatures, they are Balleric Slingers from their Ancient Spanish range, but will pass muster quite nicely as generic slingers. I carefully selected some nice stones from my gravel box, and applied them. along with my special sandy mix, to the base. Once dry I gave the base a wash of Vallejo GameColor Beasty Brown, followed by drybrushes of Vallejo Tan Yellow and Pale Sand. The stones got a drybrush of GW Deneb Stone, with a little Vallejo Pale Sand mixed in.
A few judicious patches of my own static grass mix, and some nice tufts from Antenoctii's range, and hey presto!!!  I think I may swap the Beasty Brown wash for something a bit more subtle, but overall I quite like how they turned out.

Ohhhhh, Painted Stuff

Ok, be gentle with me folks, I have actually finished a few figures!
First of all, some Phalangites, as I will need a fair few of these. Figures are from Aventine Miniatures, with those fantastic shield transfers from Littlebigmen Studios.

I have gone for a more subdued palette of colours, sticking to simple natural colours, and just plain metals. I have seen some mad colour schemes on other people's versions, purples and pinks etc!! I have been unable to locate any evidence for these, so I have stuck to what I know. Later on, some of the file leaders and commands will get a bit more extravagent!!

Some Really Neat Pictures

Found these whilst searching, a bunch of great comic book style pictures of Rome v Pyrrhus, drawn by an Italian chap called Angelo Todaro. Here's a link to the site itself  http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=682417&GSub=104283

I love the one with the Elephants being attacked by the Romans in their Anti-Elephant wagon!!

The Scene of the Crime!!

The place where poor innocent metal castings, get covered in layers of paint. There are a few figures undergoing this process, the front rank of my first Phalanx, a unit of Tarantine cavalry, Mercenary Thureophoroi, and some dodgy Spanish slingers masquerading as something else!!! Lurking over to the rear of the desk, is the first of the elephants. I'll post up some finished pics, when i finally get something finished!!

Back Again

I really must concentrate my efforts!!
Having veered off into the world of plasticard butchery, mainly to try and raise some funds!! I find myself back at the painting desk, ready once again to crack on with some more of the Phalanx figures.
Tip tapping away I've ordered some more packs from Aventine, and once they arrive, I shall post a review.