More flattery (pt 2)

 

(ancients flats from the 1960s and more recent acquisitions based for the Tony Bath wargame) 

I was tempted to title this blog 'flattery is the sincerest form of imitation' but I think that should stay in reserve for an article about the merits of various forms of toy soldier and illustration for historical and museum purposes.

So I opted for the more prosaic 'pt 2'.  Flattery, nevertheless, will get you everywhere, and the last week has seen a number of projects move on (so this will be an everywhere sort of an update) ...

First, those second-hand Romans have been based up and boxed with the Bath collection.

(classic 30mm Roman legionaries from Kieler Zinnfiguren of Germany)

... and the surplus figures have entered the ranks of the Phil Barker legionaries or become a new command group ...

 

 

(30mm flat tin figures: Roman Commanders) 

Meanwhile, the (originally) Deryck Guyler figures now form a separate part of the collection, organised for the battle of Platea and the expedition of Xerxes.  The rules are a variant of Neil Thomas's ancient rules and although the last game was a while back (CoW and the sand table) I continue to collect, refine and model the contingents of the Persian army.

4-horse Libyan chariots

It is very much a 'back burner' project that takes occasional steps forward.  I have long been mulling the chariots Herodotus decribes for the Libyan contribution.  We have very little to go on and I did want them to look different from the basic 2 horse chariots of the New Kingdom period (although Stillman and Tallis seem to suggest the main differences would have been a boxier car and the extra horses) ... this is the sort of evidence we have to go on ...

 

(Garamantine rock art showing a multi-horsed chariot)

Well, I can see at least 3 heads, there, even if I can only see 2 tails and 8 legs.

What I did have was a lot of these ... more than I could possibly need ...

 

(2 horse later Egyptian chariotry)

I felt comfortable experimenting with these as I suspect they are pirate copies (and not particularly good ones) and the collection already had a useful number of original and better models for the New Kingdom armies.  

So I tried separating the car from the horses in order to double up the horses: 2-horse becomes 4-horse (it works as an idea, anyway ...) ...

 

(sharp knife surgery)

In fact it was quite an easy operation and the results exceeded my expectations.  Whether it's the right way to model the 4-horse chariots of  North Africa in the Achaemenid period, I don't know - but I think the resulting model looks good and it will make use of a few of those surplus and suspicious vehicles.

I think I will proceed with this.  Egyptian tradition was to team up differnt coloured horses (and making that adjustment will only help the illusion, I think)

 

(proposed Later Libyan 4-horse chariot)

Staying with flats, I have nearly finished tidying up the battle of Yarmuk figures into DBA galleries for Maurikian Byzantine and Arab Conquest.  When I did that project for The Great Battles of History, I didn't have a dedicated page for DBA armies on Ancients on the Move.  Now I do, and I am gradually loading it up.  It is a good excuse to refurbish older projects and catalogue them.

 

(30mm flats: Byzantines and Arabs at Yarmuk - galleries coming soon)

I will post links when they are done.

And finally, Munchhausen's Lace Project

Yes, just a quick sneaky peek.  I tidied up some cavalry .. again, test basing.  Experimental colour and configuration.

 

(30mm flats: Seven Years War Prussian cavalry for Munchhausen's campaigns)

 

These came in quite nice condition, so I haven't had to do much (just sharpen up the paintwork and recover some damage and flaking.  Again, I'm inclined to like this test.  But feel free to comment.