My Macedonian/Successors project - (9/23 - Scythian Chieftain)

[Fremitus Borealis]

Well I plan on buying some elephants from Aventine, since right now Victrix only have African elephants. But the one Aventine cavalry figure I have is noticeably smaller than the guys I just painted, so we'll see how their elephants compare to Victrix cavalry 

[Westbury]

Bought some sample Aventine infantry and they match in quite well with the Victrix so I'll be interested how the elephants match

[Fremitus Borealis]

Bought some sample Aventine infantry and they match in quite well with the Victrix so I'll be interested how the elephants match

Me too!

As it turns out though, my Aventine elephant idea will have to wait a little longer, as I just picked up two Old Glory and one Warlord elephants. Hope those two are reasonably close 

[AdamPHayes]

Well I plan on buying some elephants from Aventine, since right now Victrix only have African elephants. But the one Aventine cavalry figure I have is noticeably smaller than the guys I just painted, so we'll see how their elephants compare to Victrix cavalry 

The Aventine elephants seem to be on the large side. I have their African ellie and it is the same height as “normal” 28mm Indian elephants, when they should be noticeably shorter. Presumably their Indian elephants are larger still.

https://wargamewarrior.webs.com/apps/blog/show/44681546-final-units

[Fremitus Borealis]

Just a quick little update today. I've been working on like fifteen different things at once, so I needed a "quick win" with this command figure.

This is one of Aventine's  "Successor mounted commanders". I'm imagining him as Demetrius I of Bactria. He's clearly full of himself, so he's gone for that retro hetairoi look with his purple and yellow cape. And if Megas Alexandros could have a leopard skin saddle cloth, why wouldn't a ruler from the foot of the Hindu Kush have a snow leopard skin? 

I also liked the touch of the elephant helmet, known only from coins as far as I know, but Aventine went for it! It makes sense, though; I mean Roman cavalry helmets/masks 100 years after this were works of art, so why not?

[mc_deli]

Where’s the like button?!

[AdamPHayes]

Nice job on that figure! I did, like you, think of that figure for one of my Bactrian Greek generals. However my gut instinct was, “ that looks f***ing ridiculous!” So I didn’t 🙂You might have changed my mind now though....

[Fremitus Borealis]

Yeah, I thought it was silly at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized it's exactly the kind of thing a full-of-themselves Hellenistic general might actually wear  And I mean, it led me to making a snow leopard saddle cloth, so it makes sense, right? 

[AdamPHayes]

Yeah, I thought it was silly at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized it's exactly the kind of thing a full-of-themselves Hellenistic general might actually wear  And I mean, it led me to making a snow leopard saddle cloth, so it makes sense, right? 

The saddlecloth is excellent, I’m definitely stealing that idea!

[Fremitus Borealis]

The saddlecloth is excellent, I’m definitely stealing that idea!

Feel free! I've stolen all my meager skills and ideas from other people, so it's only fair!

With that in mind, you probably already know this, but I started the snow leopard saddlecloth with solid light grey, then I did the black spots, then started adding tiny hashmarks of different cream and white colors to help give it a textured look.

[Easy E]

The age of the Diadochi did herald in a growing sense of individualism across the board in art, religion, and philosophy.  This was not just limited to the Kings, but also the intelligentsia and power brokers below them, and all the way down to the lower strata of society.  People started to think of themselves more as individuals and less as a citizen of City X, student of W, or follower of Z only. 

A classic example is the rise of Mystery religions which focus on salvation and the secret knowledge for an individual and less on the good of the community as previous religious rites often focused on.

All of this is to say, of course a "rising star" in the military world would want to show off and use a Snow Leopard saddle cloth and an elephant helmet!

[Fremitus Borealis]

The age of the Diadochi did herald in a growing sense of individualism across the board in art, religion, and philosophy.  This was not just limited to the Kings, but also the intelligentsia and power brokers below them, and all the way down to the lower strata of society.  People started to think of themselves more as individuals and less as a citizen of City X, student of W, or follower of Z only. 

A classic example is the rise of Mystery religions which focus on salvation and the secret knowledge for an individual and less on the good of the community as previous religious rites often focused on.

All of this is to say, of course a "rising star" in the military world would want to show off and use a Snow Leopard saddle cloth and an elephant helmet!

Great points! Funny that it's one of those eras that really does get "glossed over" in most history classes (sandwiched in between Alexander and the rise of Rome), when in reality it had huge ramifications for world history.

[Fremitus Borealis]

Oh also, no Successors update today, as my 3.5 year old decided he wanted to stay home with daddy instead of going to school  I did manage to "finish" up one of the 537 rando (non-Successor-related) figures I have started though, and it only cost me one bits-box Warlord phalangite. Guess which of us painted which figure? 

Btw, the rando is one of the character figures by Xyston miniatures (one of the few I've found in 28mm!). It's supposed to be Leonidas, though I was pretty sure Spartans weren't wearing linothorax back in the 5th century.... so I dunno, maybe it's Cleomenes or something. Or hey, maybe he actually *is* a Successor general, who just happens to be obsessed with the Spartans, but didn't want the sweaty confines of a bronze cuirass!    I'm mostly sharing here because I'm REALLY happy with how the eyes turned out. Not perfect, but I doubt I'll ever be able to replicate the result

Btw x2: Didn't notice till now that my son's figure looks like a Hellenistic Cyberman 

[Atheling]

"Aces" 

....it always feels good to use a Coen Brothers quote 

[Fremitus Borealis]

Haven't posted an update in a while... probably because I'm working on like 15 different things at once 

I'm not super happy with how these guys turned out (including the photography, haha), but to be honest I'm sick of looking at them, so I called it done for now

They're meant to be Silver Shields. I went with purple as one of the main colors (and tried to keep them fairly standard-looking), since I figured as a named unit they'd probably have the means to pay people to crush all those poor murex for the dye   I couldn't help myself with the shields themselves, though. They just looked too plain without any color

The figures are the Warlord Macedonian Phalangites, though I swapped out their shields with Foundry phalangites, since I have other plans for the Foundry lads. The command group are the SPQR resin pezhetairoi (I think?).

And, yes, I realize it looks like they're marching through someone's garden I wasn't super happy with how their feet turned out, so hopefully the vegetation distracts the eye enough from me needing to re-paint 32 sets of sandals!

Oh, and I suppose it's worth mentioning that the image on the standard is one I made on my computer and transferred onto the waterslide paper, as detailed in my thread on that subject. I can say now that I recommend getting both kinds of paper: both the white AND the clear. I wish I'd had some of the clear for this one... I may have to go back and re-do it at some point.