My Macedonian/Successors project

[Corso]

I like them!

It was a great idea the way you made the shields, instead of plain silver.

[Fremitus Borealis]

Thanks! Yeah, I don't know how historical it is, but it's close enough for my tastes

On a related matter, today I started a small unit of eastern light horsemen. Man it's so satisfying knowing I'll probably be done in like 2 or 3 days, instead of a freaking month like with the phalangites

[Fremitus Borealis]

Today I finished a small unit of eastern light cavalry. You know, the kind of interchangable, dirt-farming peasants who could hail from anywhere from Anatolia to the Indus 

The  figures are from Essex. Three are "Civic Militia" light cavalry, the other three are actually hippakontistai from the Greek range. I added Warlord phalangite shields to the latter just so they blended a little better together.

I tried to keep them from all wearing matching clothes, since these would be basically levies.

The shield designs are totally fanciful. I invented one of them to stand for "Bactra", i.e. Balkh. This was called something like "Bakhlo" in the Bactrian language, so I invented a shield design of the first three letters in Greek forming a symbol, based loosely on a similar design for hoplites from the Greek city of Acharnia I saw in AMPW (and I think an Angus McBride plate somewhere).

The ones that look kind of like the "pi" symbol are the letter "M" in the ancient Sogdian language, which I've here imagined as a symbol for troops from Marakanda (Samarkand). And the one that looks sort of like an "L" is the letter "S" in the same language. You know, for Sogdiana 

[Fremitus Borealis]

Oh, I should also mention, I made kind of a makeshift movement tray out of some scrap pieces of balsa wood, spackling, and sand. It's not precisely measured really, I just wanted something to stick them in that looked a bit "open-order-y", since I figure these type of cavalry would likely be open order most of the time, and I don't want them just sitting on my shelf individually

[bluewillow]

Great stuff, light cavalry are always handy

Cheers
Matt

[Jjonas]

Essex still has some nice figures to augment Eastern Persians. One of the few metal lines in 28mm that still have a robust selection that follow *AMPW guidance. They have their quirks, but I like how you presented them and mixed and matched figures.

(*Duncan Head Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars).

[Fremitus Borealis]

Thanks, Matt!

@Jeff: Thanks, some of their figures look a little dodgy, but they are indeed the only company I've found that actually have a variety of "Bactrian" type units. As you say, AMPW-friendly!

[Corso]

Nice work including basing! 

[Fremitus Borealis]

Thanks!

[Fremitus Borealis]

So, not finished obviously, but I decided to try out the green stuff on some Celts. I have had a box of Warlord Celts kicking around for a while, partially based, primed, etc. Decided to break them up into two units and still preserve that ragged, warband-y appearance. But it was bothering me how many identical twins there were, so... here we are 

I added capes, beards, and substantial manes to a bunch of the guys. Also, as I think was discussed in another thread, I swapped out a few heads with Victrix phalangites, since it stands to reason at least some of the guys would adopt some local gear eventually.

[Fremitus Borealis]

So, just a minor update, since I've been slowly working on like 18 different things 

I recently got a few minis from Relic, including one of their Hellenistic officers, and realized if I added a beard, we bore a striking similarity with one another, so he leapt to the head of the queue  I added a ridiculously large beard (art imitating life here... ) and tried adding some ram's horns to the helmet, with about a 50% success rate

Anyway, here he is:

[Captain Harlock]

Cool conversions! Thats a big beard there 
About the horns, if you use a wire armature and then build the detail in layers on top it will be easier.

[Fremitus Borealis]

Cool conversions! Thats a big beard there 
About the horns, if you use a wire armature and then build the detail in layers on top it will be easier.

Good call on the horns! The one closest to his body, I thought I'd be able to hide it under the cloak a bit but ran out of space.

[Easy E]

I would not worry too much about the horns.  They will pass the "Arm's Length" test that we play almost all of our games at anyway!

[Fremitus Borealis]

I would not worry too much about the horns.  They will pass the "Arm's Length" test that we play almost all of our games at anyway!

Cheers  I'm sure I'll get around to fixing it eventually, but for now, there's so much to paint!

And convert! I've decided that this fellow will represent a "Hellenized Galatian" in Seleukid service, so I'm greenstuff-ing a couple other lads to go with him on a circular command stand. Not sure how "historical" any of it is, but it's close enough, and anyway, is a nice distraction in between painting endless phalangites