More Chariots, now with Dendra Panoply

       Having a shortage of time last week and next I decided against taking on another forty-plus figure painting binge and instead grabbed another batch of chariots. As much as I don't like the extra work in assembly and basing, the much lower figure count speeds the process and gives me a sense of accomplishment. This batch has two warriors equipped in the "Dendra Panoply", the full-length armor suit named after the nearly complete armor found in the tomb at Dendra Greece in 1960.  Although it looks clumsy tests conducted with replica suits of armor and volunteers from the Greek military showed that it really is quite functional .

 

the Dendra panoply on display at Archaeological Museum of Nafplion

Come, up with you now, climb aboard my chariot! 28mm Trojan Wars chariots

       Having grown tired of painting infantry I turned to the Bronze Ages equivalent of knights; chariots! In most game systems they are either wildly overpowered or just a poor substitute for light cavalry. Midgard they can function as hard-hitting, but fragile, fast-movers. Depending on how you arm the crew they are a missile base or can charge home (preferably against the flank or rear of an already occupied opponent). The historical record is unclear as to how they were employed in Bronze Age Greece. I prefer to think of them as skirmishing knights that also acted as transports for the heroes who engaged in individual combat.  Either way they need paint and basing.

       So often I have seen chariot models popping off of bases. I don't care to do things twice so I worked out a method of securing my models that has held up across decades. Most important is that you are gluing the metal, not the painted metal, the bare metal. Even with commercial grade primer things will fall apart if you try gluing to paint. I get this by using a sanding board to strip the bottom of the wheels to shiny metal.

 

 

if it's shiny you have gone far enough, a little extra texture also helps the glue hold 

"...so many long-haired Acheans swarmed across the plain..." The first full batch of Bronze-Age spearmen

        I was satisfied with my first small test sample of spearmen so I went ahead and spent hours cleaning up a larg(ish) batch of spearmen for a "mass-painting event". Unfortunately the prep work took a huge amount of time. I always loved the sculpting that the Perry brothers did for Foundry but the actual castings left a lot to be desired. Flash, mold-lines in hard to reach places, vent sprues, and short-shots meant that I spent many hours with these lads before they were ready for primer (which instantly revealed all the places that still needed work). I hope that the current production is better than these ancient castings. 

       That being said they were fun to paint. Lots of colorful clothing and those wild boar's-tusk helmets were a great change of pace from the uniforms of later ages.  

 

these might be "later Trojans" I might just use them as Myrmidons 

A dark-drawn wall of sheilds, festooned with spears.....the first of the Trojan heavy spearmen

        This is a small test-batch before I start mass-painting the rest of the foot. I wanted to get a feel for the minis before diving in. I honestly was surprised at the difference between these (admittedly OLD ) minis and modern plastics. It seems that the millimeter has undergone considerable expansion in the intervening years as these lads are significantly smaller that the last batch of plastics I painted. I also noticed that the detail, while present, is both finer and a bit foggy compared to plastic kits.

       That said they turned out OK. I haven't based them yet as I wish to get the whole lot painted before I commit to basing the models.

 

 

the long spears promise to be a bother for both storage and basing 

 

the cow-hide shields remind me of Zulu warriors 

 

the sculptor was kind enough to include a post on the arm of the mini

 and corresponding hole in the back of the shield to help ensure a solid joint 

thank-you from the bottom of my heart! 

 

Heroes of Ancient Troy, or....stop Hectoring me!

        I'm still plugging away at the Trojan War stuff. This time it is the Heroes (don't ask me to identify them, I'm a bit rusty on my Bronze-Age mythical heroes). There was a nice variety to these, they all came with tiny swords to glue into their hands but some just looked more natural holding a spear. They would have made a nice looking unit if I had based them up for Midgard but I decided that I might just as well use them as leader figures, so they landed on pennies instead of a multi-base.

 

the boars-tusk helmets were a bit of a pain to paint 

 

as with all  Perry Bothers sculpts the posing and proportions are excellent 

 

 

if a more erudite reader can give names to these lads I will happily update this entry 

 

 

I'm not sure if the greaves are cloth-covered metal, 

or just canvas gaiters to protect the wearer from local thorny shrubs 

either way I think they look cool 

Happy Birthday to the United States of America

   I hope everyone has a wonderful Fourth of July. 
Please avoid blowing off any fingers! 

Breed's Hill and it's earthwork

        I finished up painting the earthwork for R.U.P.'s Battle of Bunker Hill game and then cut the green board for placing under the gaming mat. The little earthwork turned out OK. I had to resist painting grass onto it as it was dug in the hours preceding the battle there would have been little time for grass to grow over it.

 

I only learned after the fact that there was no timber in the  earthwork

A great chance to lend a helping hand; 45th National Veterans Wheelchair Games, July 9-14

       Anybody in the Detroit Metro area feel like lending a hand to wheelchair bound vets? Here is your chance, this coming weekend the National Veterans Wheelchair Games will be taking place at several venues around Detroit. There is a need for volunteers to lend a helping hand to our injured veterans, they gave so much, they deserve a little payback from "we he people" that they were serving. No experience necessary! Just a willingness to give up a little of your time for those who lost the ability to walk protecting us. 

       You can follow this link to the volunteer page 

To far-off Ilium we shall travel

        Another batch of Foundry Trojan Wars light troops, this time javelinmen. These were a bit of as bother to paint as they were mostly, or completely, naked. Skin tones are a pain and I tried to hurry things along by using a wash, this which settled rather unevenly. After a quick touch-up I pressed on and got them completed and based.

 

aside from the skin tone issue painting the boars tooth helmet was a bit tiresome

This is a hill I am willing to die on !

 

 

 

       Some time ago Rich Uncle Pat decided to dive into the American Revolutionary War via the Warlord Epic Scale minis. He has spent the last many months laboriously painting the forces for the Battle of Bunker Hill (what better way to start a new period than with the very first real battle of the conflict). As he is approaching completion of that job I offered to build the terrain that he might need. I am currently painting the buildings that came with the minis but, if we are to refight the Battle of Bunker hill, it seemed incumbent upon us to have a hill (I was actually warming up to build the whole peninsular but that idea got shot down). To my dismay I found out that R.U.P. intended to place the hills underneath the game mat. That left only the redoubt thrown up by the Patriot forces on Breed's Hill. This I was allowed to build.

       For a small battle that was so well documented there is a bewildering assortment of maps of the fight. Precious few agree on the size, shape or exact placement of the significant terrain features, Happily they do agree on shape and approximate size of the simple earthwork that crowned Breed's Hill on the fateful day.

       Some fiddling had to be dome to accommodate the Warlord bases but in the end R.U.P. was able to provide a plan of the work. I rubbed my hands with glee and dusted off my trusted friend, Proxxie. The earthworks could be easily made with blueboard, but where am I to find a supply of logs for the inner face of the fort? Spaghetti noodles are thin round and straight!

Troy, at last

 

       It seems many centuries ago that Foundry began issuing their Trojan Wars range. They were delightful figures; well proportioned, active and accurately detailed. I bought them as they arrived in dribs and drabs at my local brick and mortar, fully intending to field an army for the (then current) WRG Ancients rules. Things being what they are my gnat-like attention span meant that something new and shiny came along and I was distracted. The Trojans were shuffled off into a box and packed into the Mountain of Shame under the "Someday" heading. Soon they were forgotten and dust covered. That is until recently; finding my box of soldiers still patiently waiting after all these decades rekindled my interest and I resolved that this would be their summer to get painted and be committed to battle!

 

scarcely a host of warriors, but it's a start!

two bases of Light Infantry with bows, 12 points each under Midgard rules 

 

Biblical Diversions

 

 

looks like a used war-cart lot, somewhere in the Tigris valley 2300BC 

 

       The Housemartin has been acquiring minis through Ebay for some time now. Recently he got some Early Bronze Age minis that included a single example of a war-cart and some strange saddle-wagon. He was unable to find sources to supply additional figures so he turned to me.  He has known me for far too long and knows that I am susceptible to a scratch-building challenge so he asked if I could knock together some additional vehicles for him. Of course I fell victim to the idea. Through the magic of 3-d printing I was saved the tedium of making over a dozen wheels and I was able to find some STLs of donkeys and zebras to provide a method of locomotion for the needed carts. That being done the carts were a simple thing to make and I got them squared away in an afternoon.

 

horse too small to ride?

asses to mean to try riding?

put a saddle on a log and make the contentious beasts drag you around! 

 

the fresh coat of Modge-Podge makes it a bit difficult to see

sorry about that 

 

 

then there is the fleet of war-carts 

I would never have managed to get a dozen wheels the same size without a printer

those wheels in the back of two of them are just to balance the model,

without them the wire harness tips the model nose-down 

 

angry, mean and barely domesticated,

 the asses were probably the most dangerous part of the ensemble!