Macedonian Gallery

I finished my first batch of 15mm Macedonian/Hellenistic Greek figures for my Hellenestic Morph collection.  The Morph collection, when completed, will allow me to field two Hellenistic DBA armies, ranging from the Alexandrian armies to all of the Successor States.  I will also be able to use elements from my Spartan army to field a few of the Hellenistic Greek armies.

All of the figures are Essex brand.

Let's look at the infantry.

 

I painted six Pike elements, if I recall these are called "Western Macedonian" pikes by Essex.  I used transfer decals for the Macedonian stars on the shields.  One element was painted as Foot Companions.  The others were painted with red tunics and white linothorax.  If I field an Army with a General Pike element, the foot companions will be a distinctive General element.

For Auxilia, I painted two elements of Peltasts (above) and two elements of Illyrian Javelin (below).

I bought a bunch of Greek slingers for Psiloi, painting up four elements in this first batch. A few Successor States and Hellenistic Greek armies field many Psiloi, I have more to paint, including Scythian slingers for variety.

Finally, Greek mercenaries played a role in many Successor State battles, so I have painted up two elements.  The shields are handpainted.

Tomorrow, I'll post photos of the mounted elements - Cavalry and Knights - and share a few lessons learned from this painting effort.





Painting Pikes

As noted in my last post, I am just finishing up a batch of Macedonians for a Hellenistic Morph army.  I have been painting miniatures off and on for three years now, and I try different techniques each time.

I decided to try using white primer this time and test a few other techniques.  I have used black primer for the majority of my figures.  For one group of American War of Independence figures, I tried white primer, but I found that white doesn't hide missed spots well like black does.  However, ancient figures use brighter colors, so I decided to give white primer a go.  This would set off my Macedonians from my other DBA armies.

Overall, I am pleased with the look, but I still missed spots at the seams of colors.  I need to be a bit more sloppy next time on the initial colors used.

I also decided to try my hand at an ink wash.  I haven't used washes much since black primer provides a dark undercoat.  I frankly hate the idea of brushing a wash on newly painted minis since I have had some bad luck with the technique in the past.  With white primer, I needed to add shading effectively, particulary for the white linen armor of the Phalangites.

Checking out several websites, I found examples of painters using Higgins brand black ink without dilution as well as several different dilution methods.  I experimented with four figures using different dilution levels:

Wash of undiluted Higgins Ink

This poor Pikemen was an undiluted and unmitigated disaster.  I am happy to report that I touched him up, and he looks okay now.  Undiluted ink is not a good choice....

I then tried three dilution approaches. From right to left, I used,

• 50% ink/50% water
• 50% ink/30% water/20% alcohol
• 30% ink/50% water/20% alcohol

Ink washes with progressive dilution

These pikemen, too, needed some clean-up work.  I'm glad that I tested out the dilution levels on single figures instead of rushing forward.

I decided to stick with the weakest solution and use a lighter touch on the brush.  I mainly aimed to improve the contrast of the pteruges on the linothorax.  A sample is shown below,

Phalangites painted with a 50% Water/30% Ink/20% Alcohol wash

I'll share photos of the based figures in future posts.

Alexander the Morph

As a newcomer to ancients wargaming using DBA rules, one encouraging aspect is the ability to use the same figures to form different armies, known as "morphing."  You cannot easily morph more modern figures from one army to the next, much less over a time period of a century or more.  Napoleonic figures don't serve well in a WW I game, for instance.  Morphing does requires some artistic license and a more liberal approach; however, I'm comfortable with the trade-off.

I started buying figures for DBA when a major website was running a 50% off sale of 15mm figures made by Essex.  I bought three DBA pre-assembled armies - Early Spartans, Galatians, and Kappadokians.

I decided to look for a Morph army as a next step.  Checking out the www.fanaticus.org website, I found several examples, noting that Hellenistic Armies, starting with the early Macedonian army and including Hellenistic Greeks and Successor States, offered a tremendous range of options with the same group of figures. Plus, the sale allowed me to procure many of the miniatures needed for the Hellenistic Morph Army at a great price.
 
Using the draft DBA 3.0 Army lists in the DBA Yahoo group, I developed a spreadsheet listing the figures needed to develop a morph army that would cover 38 different Armies at varying levels of accuracy.  The spreadsheet is available in the DBA Yahoog group files site.  I'm holding my breath in hopes that the final lists don't change much!

I purchased enough Phalangites, cavalry, slingers, and a variety of auxilia infantry to create the core of two Hellenistic Armies, so I can later battle two successor states against each other.

First Batch Complete

I'm finishing the first batch of figures up now, which includes the following elements:

6 Western Phalangites (Pk)
4 Thracian Slingers (Ps)
2 Illyrian Javelinmen (Ax)
2 Peltasts (Ax)
1 Thessalian Cavalry (Cv)
1 Alexander General Knight Element (3Kn) (pictured above)
1 Alexander General Cavalry (Cv)
1 Super Heavy Cavalry (4Kn)
2 Hippokontistai (LH)
2 Allied Greek Spear element (Sp)

With this group, I can field II/12 Alexandrian Macedonian, 16b Demetrios, 16c Alketas, 17a and17b/Lysamachid, 18c Kassandros, and several Hellenistic Greek armies, so my play options have increased significantly!  I still need to complete a few elements to allow me to field all options for some of these armies.

For Want of an Elephant

Battle of Gaugemela from a tapestry
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_of_Gaugamela_(Arbela).PNG

The critical path for fielding more Armies in the Morph list is a lack of Elephants.  I'll order some soon.  I need to decide on a number to paint.  Eighteen armies field one Elephant; three armies field two of the beasts.  I need to check the enemies listings to determine if I will want to purchase 2, 3, or 4 miniature behemoths.

I also plan on scratchbuilding bolt-shooter Artillery pieces (oxybeles).