A Fresh Start!!

I've rebooted this project, as I badly need to get something finished this year, and this army is just about my only hope of doing that.

So, on the desk we have, from left to right

Thureophoroi, and one of the elephants, with its crew

Thesssalian Greek Medium Cavalry, and in the centre, the leader of the Oscan unit.

Cretan Archers

Oscan Infantry unit, some of these are already done.















and completed so far, I have

Again, going from left to right

Macedonian Phalanx















Epirote Phalanx   

Tarantine Phalanx

Tarantine Light Cavalry

Slingers, with a couple of the Oscan Infantry in front of them.

My mate Doug has the other Elephant, and the Agema Cavalry to paint, so hopefully between the pair of us, we can crack out this army, and I get a game of Basic Impetus with it.

Oscans on the way

Got the first two finished, only another, ohhh ten or so, for the first Impetus base.
Tried out the new Doug bronze on these two, and its worked out quite nicely. Figures are from Crusader, with Gripping Beast shields ( LBMS don't have any transfers for the Crusader ones).

Also got some A & A Samnites in the post today, decided on a couple of packs, just to see how they fit with the Crusader figures

They need a bit of cleaning up, but nothing I've not seen before. I think they fit in perfectly well, and are actually nicer figures then the Crusader ones!!! I shall be investing in a few more of these I think.

Finally, I was pointed in the direction of a decent matt varnish, by my mate Paul Cotton

It goes on really easily, brushes can be cleaned with water, and it dries to a pretty good matt finish too. Well worth a look I would say

More Italians!!!

Started work on the next unit, this time its more Italian allies. Using figures from Crusader, A&A, and SHQ, as Aventine have not released any suitable figures yet :-[

These figures are hard work, need a bit of cleaning up, and the detail is nowhere near as good as the Aventine models. Crusader have different shields to all the other models, and no LBMS transfers available, so I have ditched them for replacements from Gripping Beast, and A&A. I think they will all look OK once I've done them.

I'm using the Doug Bronze method mentioned before, and so far the results are looking pretty good, I may have to do another Phalanx now, to replace my Epirote one!!

Hope Aventine return to the Pyrrhus range, and finish it off, with some decent Oscan types.

Bronze - A Receipe

The problem with painting Bronze Armour, well no two alloys will look alike, its all dependant on the mix in the metal itself. I have seen various differing takes on what painters feel the most accurate depiction would look like. My own efforts look a bit too orange for my liking, and I think its down to the fact that I use Vallejo Brass as a base colour, with a GWs Griffon Sepia inkwash.

I'm going to have a crack at painting bronze like my mate Doug does, as I think his results look pretty damn good.

Paints etc required, Vallejo Bronze, Vallejo Old Gold, Miniature Paints Bronze, W&N Peat Brown Ink, Liquitex Glaze Medium and Retarder.

Doug undercoats in white, then gives the figures a wash of dark brown, to help show the detail, and provide a first level of shading. 

First off, base coat of Vallejo Bronze, thinned with the retarder, try to use a few thin coats of paint, rather than one big thick coat. mix 50-50 Vallejo Bronze, and Old Gold, and use this to add highlights, it is an arse about face way of doing things, but it works!! Now shading, Miniature Paints Bronze, Glaze medium and retarder, in a 25% paint 75% mediums mix, work this over the armour, making sure the recessed areas get a good covering, follow up with a very thin wash of the Peat Brown ink. Once its all dry, go back and add a highlight of Vallejo Old Gold to the edges, and the very tops of raised areas. When you varnish the finished figure, make sure you go back, and recoat the armour areas with gloss, to make them shine. 

Simples, as a certain annoying furry thing would say!!

To Answer Some Questions

The paints used on the armour were Vallejo Bronze and Vallejo Old Gold, W&N Peat Brown Ink, and Miniature Paints Bronze. Doug has a certain method to paint the armour involving various Liquitex mediums, and the aforementioned paints.
The shields are all transfers, mostly from LBMS.
I would love to say its all my own work, but these models were painted for me.
I am changing the way I paint armour, to the same method Doug uses, as the effect is quite realistic..

Tarantine Phalanx

Yes its been a while, but i have the attention span of a goldfish, and various other shiny projects have caught my eye!!

Back again though, and raring to go.
This is the Tarantine Phalanx , painted by my good mate, Doug Powell. Just needs the groundwork sorting.
On the desk I have one of the elephants, some Greek cavalry, and some Italian allies.

Back to the Phalanx

Just picked up another box of beautifully painted figures from my mate, Doug Powell.  This tome its the Tarantine Phalanx, pics a bit later on.

Epirote Phalanx

Phalanx units, just like buses, wait ages for one, then two turn up at once!!!

Epirotes ths time, and this lot are all my own work!!

They do like good when combined with the Macedonians.

Really pleased with how these two units have turned out. 

Now back to work, and its Cavalry,Elephants and Cretan Archers next.

Macedonian Phalanx

Doug came over on Saturday, and presented me with a box of beautifully painted Phalanx. I got to work basing them up, and, hey presto, the first of the Phalanx Units for my Impetus army.

I reckon he did a fantastic job on them, and I'm dead chufed with the way they turned out.

Oh Dear!!

Wanted to use this Vexillia for one of my Phalanx units

Until somebody said it looked a bit like this

Back to the Drawing Board!!!!

Aventine Miniatures- New Cavalry Packs, (a short review)

Aventine have released some new cavalry packs for their Pyrrhic range. There are 5 new packs in total.
 I had a little cash to spare, so decided to order up enough packs to make up two Impetus size units.
Here's a short review of the packs I got.

Pack PYR11
Greek style heavy cavalry

This pack contains three figures, three horses, and three spears/ xyston. The models are well cast, and virtually free from flash, only requiring a small clean up of some very minimal mould lines.

They are perfect for use as Greek style heavy cavalry supplied by the likes of Thesally. The riders are wearing Linothrax syle armour, which is well defined, a good selection of different helmet types, and as seems to be the standard with Aventine, all the detail is crisp, and clear, making the models a joy to paint.

I will be arming my chaps with javelins, rather than the Xyston, so the supplied weaponry will get replaced with some home-made brass rod weaponry. The supplied weapons are OK, I tend to replace them with brass rod ones, as they don't get bent so easily.

I'm combining this pack with the Italian cavalry command pack (PYR01a) to make up a Thessalian cavalry unit for the Impetus army.

Pack  PYR14

Agema, or Cloaked Heavy Cavalry

This pack will be used to make up the Guard cavalry unit in my army. As before the pack contains three figures, three horses, and three lance/xystons. The models are cast to the usual high standard, two of them wear the short cavalry muscle cuirass, the other has a Linothorax. All three have cloaks. two models have a long sleeved tunic, the other wears a short sleeved variant. These lads will get a more lurid paintjob, to reflect their higher status!!!

I will be making my own Xystons to arm them with, nothing wrong with the supplied weapons, I prefer to use brass rod ones.

Pack PYR10

Cavalry Command

Once again, the pack contains three figures,  & three horses, you also get two Vexilla type standards. Cast to the "Aventine Standard" ( you know the score gents!!) Two figures are cloaked, and the trumpeter has no cloak. Two models have lammelar armour, the other has the muscle cuirass. The trumpeter has a seperate arm. I will be adding these to the previous pack (PYR14) to make up the Agema unit in my army.

The Horses

These packs contain some new horse sculpts, the new sculpts are very nice, and have a good selection of poses, and tack. I hope they are made available as seperate items to buy.

All in all, yet another cracking release from Aventine,ordered and delivered within 3 days, and useful for other Sucessor type armies as well. I will reccomend them without any hesitation at all.

Another Box Of Pike!!!

Doug handed these over to me last night, he has done a fantastic job on them, they put my own feeble efforts to shame!! Will get them based up, and some decent pics taken

Box of Pike!!!

Only another three figures to add, and its basing time!!! Hurrah.

Also waiting another another Phalanx from my good painting mate Doug Powell. Full pics once both Phalanxes are based up.

Back To This Blog!!

Been away for a while, having a short break from the Pyrrhic stuff. Now back to painting them again, hope to have a few more pics posted on here shortly.

Disorder Disorder

Not wanting to use a selection of dodgy cardboard counters, I set about thinking what I could use to mark Disordered units. The main Impetus rules suggest using a sword waving officer type, but being a cheapskate of the highest order, I elected to use some left over shields, and a 1p piece for the base. Some of the other bases will feature discarded helmets, and other weaponry. I think the markers look quite nice, and much more pleasing to the eye than a random selection of cardboard bits n bobs.

Slingers-Sorted

Another unit added, so thats 2 down and another 8 to go. Some very useful generic slingers this time, figures are Crusader Spanish/Balleric slingers, but they are perfectly useable as generic Hellenistic slingers. The great thing about these random Psiloi type units, is that they can be used with quite a few armies. So I think I will get another unit painted up with the rest of the pack, as I'm sure they will get used at some stage.

Ohhhhhhh-I wonder?

Saw these a little while back. OK so they are tagged as Seleucid Companion Cavalry, but I wonder if they could serve purpose, as Pyrrhic Guard Cavalry? So now I have a dilemma, do I go ahead and order these rather lovely figures, or do I hang on until Aventine release their version?  Decisions, decisions!!

Moving Forwards

Been somewhat delayed just lately, having taken on some vehicle master work for a couple of mates. So, I have decided to recruit some help to get  the army on its way. Getting paid for my modelling skills means I can employ my mate Doug to paint some figures for me!! That should get me well on the way to having a Basic Impetus army finished to take down to New Buckenham Historical Gamers.