Building better Greek Heavy Cavalry- A How To

As part of my goal of having a full Greek Hoplite army for Impetvs, I required some Heavy Cavalry!



Now Greek Heavy Cavalry is an interesting topic. They are a little bit forgotten in the Hoplite period, as it was really the Hoplites themselves who (according to sources) won the day. It was only the likes of Thessaly which was famed for it's cavalry that really gets talked about as being horsemen.

Of course, come the times of Alexander the Great, Cavalry was an essential part of his army. Both his Companion Cavalry, and his Thessalians anchored each flank of his battle line, with his sarissa armed Phalangites in the centre. This usage of Cavalry can not have existed without precedent, so it is known that there was Heavy Cavalry in the times before Alexander.

But, finding good quality 28mm miniatures for Heavy Greek Cavalry is darn hard! My usual go to company, Immortal Miniatures (sold now through Warlord Games) don't have any, and the others I did find, I didn't really like. Apparently I am picky about my Greek models!

So, I headed to 1st Corps where I found that they had some cavalry which would fit the bill as CM Greek Horsemen. But, being that I am picky about my Greeks, some changes had to be made.

This is the original, unmodified Greek Horseman.



As you can see, there are some things I didn't like about the model. So, naturally I have decided to change a few things!

First off, remove his head. In my opinion, the helmet is far, far too large for the model! The head will be replaced with a suitable armored Greek head from the Immortal miniatures plastics.



After removing the head, it is a relatively simple matter to reattach the new head (in true Frankenstein style). I use two part sculpting putty (grey stuff) to help the bond attach- between that and superglue I am yet to see any breakages! The sculpting putty is also important because the head and the body don't align perfectly, so I have sculpted some long hair for him to cover up the join.




Next issue to be remedied, is his spear. At the moment, it is scaled to be very short, and also very fat. This is the tragic result of having to make the spear out of soft metal. To replace it, it is a simple matter of using one of the North Star spears, cut down to a proper size.

On the left, the North Star spear, on the right the original 1st Corps spear.



Attaching the spear on the face of it is a simple process, get glue, put spear in hand. To make it a better fit, I used pliers to close the horseman's hands; which were meant for the much larger spear. I also again used a little sculpting putty, to help the join have strength.

The final result then, looks something like this...



So, that is the first of my 12 Heavy Cavalrymen! He has been undercoated, to be finished as a tester model for the remainder of the unit.

Hoping to have some painting to show off soon, I have spent far too long assembling recently....

CP

So, what next?

As of this morning, I finished the last of the Myrmidons. Now sadly, because the Analogue challenge is still on, you are just going to have to wait until tomorrow to see the whole lot up on here!

But along with my Hoplites, I managed to get a bit of painting done on some additihons to my Dystopian Wars Brittanian Fleet.

Red Squadron of Corvettes. Light, fast and sneaky!

Blue Squadron of Corvettes. Also, light, fast and sneaky!

A squadron of 3 Agincourt Gunships. Not so light, not so sneaky, not so fast. Big guns and torpedoes however!

 So, with the addition of those, again I have painted everything I want (so far) for my Dystopian Wars fleet! I just need to get them out sailing in our campaign, before that runs out of steam!

So, with my Greeks for SAGA finished, I have reached a bit of an impass. There is exactly one month remaining in the Analogue Hobbies painting competition, and I would like to get a bit more painting done before then! I think I will aim for an honourable 2nd place behind the painting cyborg (Kent).

So, with that in mind, I need some help to give me an idea of what to paint next...

Options are...
-More Greeks to make an army for Impetvs
-Thirty Years War Spanish- Because Tercios are awesome!
- 15mm Vietnam era Americans- for Force on Force
- More Flames of War- If I tried, in a month I could probably paint a fair bit- adding stuff to all of my armies, certainly to my Boat Company, and Early War Germans
-Some other historical 28mm army for Impetvs?
-SAGA Saxons?

Thats where I am at right now, in addition to one of those (or maybe more than one if it is in 15mm!) there will also be super secret project number #1 getting finished!

What do you mean "worst kept secret since Roswell?"

But more on that later, and come back tomorrow for my entire Myrmidon army on display!

CP

Mother Nature is no excuse- Painting Challenge Update 2

So, for those who don't live in Christchurch (affectionatly known as Quakechurch); we experienced more rocking and rolling yesterday. I myself was safe and sound with my family slightly out of town on Banks Peninsula, but recieved the very odd sensation of watching large rockfalls across the harbour. Unnerving. Sadly, this is common place here at the moment- although we have had no large rumbles in 6 months according to the TV. After a brief time stuck over there (roads were closed to be checked for slip damage), we were able to come home to a house with no further damage or nothing too much fallen over.

But still, an earthquake is no excuse for such poor discipline from my South Lincolnshire Regiment! I came home to find them like this..

All bar the two bearers of the colours were no longer in ranks- two of the troopers had the audacity to attempt to go AWOL; they were picked up as they attempted to escape (to the pub I assume).

Who could redress the ranks, instill an air of courage? Well, the Duke of Wellington of course!

Here is my WIP Duke- there is only a little bit to finish on the Duke- some highlights on his hat, the gold and maybe a touch up on the flesh. His horse has not even got base colours, but I will have to find the right brown! He will hopefully get done today.

So the way the Analogue Hobbies competition works is that I will send them pictures of my finished models, they will be posted on their website then I can put them up on mine too after a day or so. So, without any further ado- here is my painted first (and only) model up on Analogue Hobbies... A Spartan!!

No need for pictures up on here for just that one test model- I am pretty happy with the bronze and the red. Not so much the flesh- something to work on when I paint some more.

Right, off to start painting the Duke's horse, and sending some photos of British Artillery to Analogue. 

CP

Painting Challenge update One!

Well, here it is, my first update for the painting challenge.

So, what I have I completed?

Well... no full stands of Napoleonics... but I did paint these six chaps!

Six artillery crew; which marks exactly where I left off last time I painted Napoleonics! I had just finished their 3 guns, then got caught by a serious bout of "can't-be-bothered-itis". I just don't actually enjoy painting these guys, not sure if it is the Victrix faces (which I hate) or the combination of colours (I really hate yellow) but they just are not enjoyable to paint. What is enjoyable however, is that I only have 6 more to go!

What's the plan then? Well, I am off on holiday on the 26th. Until the new year. Which means no painting (at all) will be done in that week! Which will keep putting me behind (darn it). So my goal before Christmas is to get this artillery battery done fully. I then plan to make up for the no painting week by a whole week where I am at home, and I don't have to work. It will be my goal to get as much painted in that week as possible! So look out for some frantic updates from the 2nd of january until the 9th of January!

Oh, in other news I finished a secret test figure (pics tomorrow), and my Thirty Years War army is winging it's way towards me from the UK.

Back to painting!

CP

Step One, Complete! Napoleonic British Based!

Well, after a week of PVA glue and big paintbrushes, my British Napoleonic Army is based!

There is what I have got! In Lasalle terms: 2 Large Guards Infantry Units, 5 Infantry Units, 1 Hussar Unit, 1 Unit of Artillery, extra skirmisher and sapper stands, 4 commanders and some casualty markers.

A close up of the Artillery base. The bases themselves need a little bit of colour, which I am sorting as we speak. It is hopefully winging it's way to me from England....

So what is left to paint for my Napoleonic British?

• 2 Units of Infantry (69th South Lincolnshire and some more Landwehr)
• The artillery crew for another base of artillery
• The Duke Himself- because it ain't Waterloo without the Duke!

With that in mind, here is the 69th Regiment ready for some paint

Although I have just noticed one of the front ranks has a particularly... exaggerated pose of his head. I will fix that before I apply some paint!

Because it aint Waterloo without him; here is the Duke of Wellington himself, ready to get some paint applied also.

But no paint (other than undercoat) can be applied until 11:01 am on the 20th of December (00:01 Canadian Time) so these chaps will have to wait! I still need to assemble the regiment of Landwehr, so that will likely happen in the next day or two as well.

But in other news, there has been some trouble brewing in Bangkok; which concerns the economic interests of the Kingdom of Brittania in that little slice of the globe....

CP