Hail Caesar Epic Battles first pass

[Kelly_]

I have been steadily working my way through Warlord’s Hail Caesar Epic Battles sprues and continually have had the same issue… after I take each rank out of the painting clip and set it onto the table it looks less impressive than it did in progress.  Allies, Carthaginians, Celts, Romans all had the same issue regardless of palette or troop type, and it was not until I tried putting different ranks next to each other that I discovered what was happening.  As shown on these Principes and Hastati, almost every shield in the range is inclined downwards, with some having an angle over 10 degrees.  For these ancients, the shield is the most distinctive visual piece of equipment, and while the entirety is visible in the paint clip, less of the shield can be seen when in a base on the table.


I do not care whether tilting shields forward is historically accurate, if I am taking the time to paint them, I want them to be as visible as possible, and to that end put together a set of 3D printed bases.  Each of my bases has a 20 mm space inclined back at 13 degrees to account for the model design, and luckily that angle is enough to allow both the 2x and 3x sizes to fit within the footprints of regular bases if placed flat…


…and here is a picture of angle based Romans next to regular loose Romans from about a 30 degree viewing angle which I think is the average for most models being seen on the table.  More of their shields are visible on the angled ones, and once the individual 60 x 20 bases are flocked I doubt that much of the base below will show up.  Overall, I think this turned out pretty well, and the multiple bases will make it easier to maneuver them around.

[Kelly_]

One of these is the 1000th man so far in my Epic Battles project...


...these large models are a welcome break from the rank and file painting of all of the regular troops and I need to set a schedule to reward myself.  Another 4 regular frames done, and then I get to paint another sprue of Carthaginian elephants.  Their details take paint well, and these elephants are one of the main reasons I got into Epic Battles, they are more realistic than any others I have had in hand, and I never committed to 1/72 ancients largely because of the elephant options available were not half as good as these.

[Pattus Magnus]

Wow, great job! They do look quite good painted.

[Mallo]

One of these is the 1000th man so far in my Epic Battles project...


...these large models are a welcome break from the rank and file painting of all of the regular troops and I need to set a schedule to reward myself.  Another 4 regular frames done, and then I get to paint another sprue of Carthaginian elephants.  Their details take paint well, and these elephants are one of the main reasons I got into Epic Battles, they are more realistic than any others I have had in hand, and I never committed to 1/72 ancients largely because of the elephant options available were not half as good as these.

This could be a 28mm scale paint job! Superb!

Same models that first caught my eye for Epic HC. I've painted some of the Victrix ones but not enough games include war elephants!

If I start Epic HC, I don't think I'll have same the willpower you have though- I don't think I'll last 1000 models before starting on my own elephants!

[Kelly_]

Wow, great job! They do look quite good painted.

This could be a 28mm scale paint job! Superb!

Thank you for the comments Pattus Magnus and Mallo, but the credit really has to go to the sculptor as the detailing on these is far better than I would have expected before starting in this scale... really it is leaps and bounds past the ACW Epic Battles that I started out with years ago.

Here are some camels from their Baggage set...


...the picture does not really do the detail on these justice, and I when I base them alongside other draft animals and their drivers I will need to work on the color palette of those so the base stands out more.

[Kelly_]

Since Wargames Illustrated's May issue will be including a new Epic Battles Celt frame, I thought I would put up my thoughts on the most imposing model from that sprue, the chariot...



...the detail on the body of the chariot is very well defined, individual woven texture is shown not only on the sides, but on the floor of the platform as well.  There are also individual pegs (?) on the wheels of the chariot in addition to the reinforcing bands, and the wheels are very well machined; they freely rotate on the axle, and anyone with enough time could leave them unbased and unglued to have a functional vehicle.

The fine tolerances on the design also carry over to the reins of both horses that are just the right length to meet the hands of the driver but with enough leeway to have the horses at a slightly higher or lower angle depending on the base.

But for the negatives, the connection points between the platform and sides of the chariot are very small and difficult to align, and also the connection between the horses' yoke and the base is very thin and can be bent far too easily.  I painted each of the pieces separately and sealed them before assembly, as I did not think that there would be enough brush clearance to paint the interior sides.

Another slight negative is that there is only a single driver option, who does have a socket in the platform, but the spearman is only a standard base to be placed anywhere in the chariot.  I have not decided what my passengers will be yet, but since there is no set place, you can put some of the more actively posed Celts with bows or javelins on the platform.

Overall, I would say this is a good addition to the range, not great, but then I am comparing them to the elephants which is probably not fair, as the Carthaginian Elephants are the most fun I have had assembling in years.

[Waffles_vs_Tacos]

Thank you for the review! The new Celt sprue looks really good, in my opinion. It seems the celt army is already sold out in many places. I love chariots and so I am pretty excited to pick some up for myself!

[Kelly_]

I took another pass at models from the new Epic Battles Celt frame, the Gaesatae...



...these are a brand new unit type with high level of detail, in fact so much detail that I decided to try out adding pants to these as my Epic Battles pieces are going to eventually be used at a table with children, and "where are their clothes" is not a question I want to address.



The conversion was not too difficult, a band of greenstuff to build up a belt, some smoothing along the seat of the pants, and then cuffs around the ankles to form uppers of boots.  At this size, just a quick coat of paint for the grey wool pants was needed to match the rest of the Celts, and these Gaesatae are now notable for just being shirtless instead of everything-less.

From the front, I have a different color blocking for their shields to keep them easily distinguishable from other Celts, and from the back, the fact that none of them have the cloaks or tunics that most of the rest of their army has molded on also keeps them distinct.

[Norm]

Thank you, I am enjoying your journey …… opened my set last night, superb.

[Kelly_]

Thank you for the comments Norm and Waffles vs Tacos,

The one downside of the new Epic Battles Celt frame is the skirmishing infantry... not the poses which are both detailed and varied, but their bases.  Almost all of the individual skirmisher models from the Punic Wars so far have a standard post to allow them to fit into one of the 10 holes in Warlord's regular base, but the archers, command, and javelinmen from this sprue have flat bases.  I thought I would try leaving the gate at the base's bottom to see if it would work as a substitute post...



...and it did not.  The gates onto the sprue are all rectangular instead of round, and are .5 mm too small on the diagonal to fit tightly (see right).  I will be cutting off the rest of the gates I left as tests, lesson learned.

[Norm]

As mentioned above, The latest edition of the Wargames Illustrated mag has just hit UK high street and it has a freebie Celt sprue from the new Celt army box. This is what it looks like.  WI said the sprue is worth £10.50 so a useful thing if you are into Epic.

[Kelly_]

The new Celt frame includes a new line of infantry, which brings them up to 4 poses after the A, B, and C options from the original Celt sprue.  I was glad to see more variety, but these had even more of the presumably looted Roman scutum shields from the originals.  I started out painting these as intended, but with every tenth one being a different design from the originals, and every fifth one from the new sprue, it was becoming distracting and I decided to try some changes.  Luckily, the vertical boss and brace are easy to remove with some light cutting back to get a smooth surface…  (see positions 3 and 9)



…after that, a single boss would be needed to bring them in line with the remainder of the shields, so I made a green stuff press mold from one of the others, and then added those on.  Those oval shields are still a different shape from the other three the Celts are equipped with but I think it is still a much smaller variance than the original sculpt.

Overall, I like how these are turning out and have also started cutting down the verticals on some of the Celt cavalry that had looted shields, to convert them as well.

[Kelly_]

Here is another small conversion with shields, this time around the edges.  These Libyan heavy cavalry have plain convex round shields with no detailing, perfect for decals, but since I am not applying any, I wanted them to match the rest of my Carthaginian infantry.  I carefully traced a circle 1 mm from the outer rim with a brand new Xacto, and then drew the blade perpendicularly along that circle.  Two times around, clockwise then counter-clockwise, and I had a triangular groove in the face of the shield which perfectly took a brown wash to match the other Libyan shields…



…after the first couple, it was only a minute or two for scoring each of the shields, about the same time as removing the cavalry’s mold lines, and I am pretty happy with how close to the other Libyans’ shields they turned out.

[Kelly_]

The largest unit model out so far for Hail Caesar Epic Battles is the Roman Ballista, and I thought I would put up what I learned from its assembly…

First off, the ballista is made out of a soft, dense resin and this one needed very little trimming to fit, actually I really only had to deepen the sockets at the winches.  Given the nature of this model, painting subassemblies is a must; I glued the two A-frames onto the launch track and painted them before attaching the lever and spring assembly at the front of the track.  The lever and springs are one piece, and need to be slightly flexed to fit into the track, which made the softness of the resin a plus… in fact the tension from that join is strong enough to hold it in place without glue.



The detailing on the ropes is excellent, and while there is not a lot of detail on the lower beams of the frames they were not going to be a focal point of the model.  The two crew that are cranking back the winch are a nice feature and can be placed either in clockwise or counter-clockwise position if you need variety for a ballista battery.  Also, their tunics are simple enough to be used as Carthaginian crew as well if you want the engine to be used for the other side.  I have not decided yet how these will be based yet, but there is also a third crew member and pile of stones in the kit that will probably be switched out for something else.



Overall, I am pretty pleased with the ballista, and for a 6 / 8 piece kit it was surprisingly easy to put together, much easier than the chariots, it just requires much more care in painting due to its size.  I hope in a year or two we see an onager.

[SteveBurt]

Why is that ballista so ridiculously huge? The sort of ballistas used in field battles are no more than man high. That thing looks way out of scale even for a siege. Nice painting, though.