28mm Carthaginian Veteran Spearmen

These Carthaginian African veteran spearmen are Old Glory figures. I've painted them up based individually for Clash of Spears or Saga Age of Hannibal. I'm running a game of the former this upcoming Friday at our club's monthly game night as a way to drum up some excitement for the rules which I like a lot. Since our group also plays quite a bit of Saga, these are great for that faction in Age of Hannibal as well. 

Nobody makes Carthaginian transfers for Old Glory shields that I could find, so I created some myself using my laser printer and decal paper. The process is fairly simple, but it is laborious. To be completely honest, I'd rather buy transfers than make them. If they are available I typically just buy them. In this case, necessity was the mother of invention.

This group comprises 18 more figures for this year's painting totals. Next up on the painting table are a bunch of built-up areas for 15mm gaming, particularly WWII using "O" Group rules. Come to think of it, I owe the blog a post of the "O" Group game I hosted a couple of weekends ago!

28mm Gaul Archers

These are twelve Gaul 'Tribal Archers' figures from Warlord Games SPQR range of figures. They're resin figures. I tend to be a 'lead snob' but so far I've been quite happy with all of the SPQR range of resin figures. These are no exception. I've painted these up to be my 'levy archers' for my Carthaginian army for Saga Age of Hannibal. Once I get my wargaming room finished and my laser back on-line I'll cut up some bases for them. The basing will be 1" circular bases made from 3mm arctic birch plywood per my usual for Saga infantry figures.

Twelve figures added to the 2021 painting totals. Until I get my laser back on-line I'm counting figures as they are finished in ready-to-base condition. This is not my usual, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

28mm Ligurians for Saga Age of Hannibal

These are eight Old Glory Ligurians. I still have to base them up, but the painting is complete. Shield transfers are LBMS. 

I've painted these up as mercenaries for Saga age of Hannibal. I'm not entirely sure which army I'm going to paint up, so I decided to start with some decent mercenary units instead of picking core troops to work on.

Eight figures for the 2020 painting totals.

Next up on the painting table, some more Saga Age of Hannibal mercenaries: Baleric Slingers.

28mm Campanian Hoplites (2)

Nine more Campanian / Oscan hoplites. I painted these up to bring my previously painted unit up to a full four-stand phalanx. The existing figures have been through a re-basing to bring them up to Hanibal at the Gates 2.0 standards, but the 2.0 re-org required an additional stand in a two-point phalanx wing. These bring the unit up to full muster. Photos below include the full unit.

This adds nine figures for this year's painting totals. The figures are Old Glory and the shield transfers are homemade.

Carthaginian Generals (2)

Recently it became apparent to me that my Carthaginian army has reached a size that has out grown the number of command stands that I had previously painted for it. Rummaging through my unpainted ancients lead box I found the last unpainted Carthaginian figures that I own - a pack of Old Glory Carthaginian Generals - perfect!

I've painted these up as two army level commanders with two figures per stand, and two wing/division commanders mounted one figure per stand. Some of these figures are obviously from Old Glory's Carthaginian cavalry molds, so I painted them up as runners/assistants and attempted to match the Carthaginian citizen cavalry I previously painted. I wanted them to look like they were pulled from those ranks.

The brown horses are my first try at a new painting technique. They were white primed and then 'painted' with successive ink washes. This includes the base color, hooves tails and manes. Only the tack and one white blaze on one horse's face were applied with traditional acrylic paints. I have to admit, they painted up very quickly this way and I'm just as happy with them as other horses painted using the traditional method.

With half of a Roman army left to paint and a whole Pyrrhic army to paint, I'm happy to finally once and for all to call the Carthaginian army finished. At some point in the future I may array the entire army on my table and make a short video to review all the troops. It should make for an impressive sight. Next up on the painting table are some British WWII infantry. I needed a break from ancients and some British Tommies seemed like a good choice.

Carthaginian Medium Infantry

These are two units of Carthaginian medium infantry, made up of some left-over figures from my dead lead box. They are based up as peltasts or other such medium infantry. In Hanibal at the Gates, these will most likely be used as soldiers, but could also be pressed into service as rankers. These two units are meant to flank my red Carthaginian hoplite phalanx, one stand of which I recently posted in this post. It's the right unit in the blog post.

The figures are Old Glory. The rear figures from their medium Carthaginian infantry pack and the front skirmishing figures from their Italian medium infantry pack. The latter were selected based on their helmets, two of which were modified by removing the plumes. The shields are a mix of what comes with each bag of figures as well as some characteristic Carthaginian bronze shields from my bits box. Next up on the painting table are two stands of Roman principes to complete my white legion.

More Ancients Re-Basing

I'm continuing to re-base my 28mm ancients from DBA/FOG to the dedicated basing of Hanibal at the Gates. These are five more stands re-based.








The first unit is my Campanian hoplites. These were originally painted in January, 2014. Now re-based they represent three hoplite stands in HATG. The right-most base includes three figures painted last month to make the number of figures per stand work.

The final two stands of Numidian infantry include a musician, painted back in January but never photographed. Re-basing from three to five figures per stand allows these two stands to be used as peltasts or medium infantry - soldiers or rankers in HATG terms.

The Last of the Veteran Carthaginian Hoplites

I've been saying I'm finished with my Carthaginian army for about six months now. I guess this is one of those armies that will never be completely finished. In this case I can say with reasonable certainty  that these are the last veteran hoplites that I'll be painting for the army. These figures, are converted from Roman triarii figures from the Old Glory Republican Roman line. I've snipped off the plumes and of course painted the shields appropriately. The white unit has a combination of homemade decals I had left over and hand-painted shields. The red shields are left plain to match the rest of the units in the red wing. This brings each of my veteran hoplite wings up to the full strength of four stands.

The painting on the chain mail is dry brushing over black primer. The rest of the figures are block painted and washed with my homemade magic wash. 

Next up on the painting table some late war WWII British infantry a.k.a. 'Tommies'. I'm going to mix in some WWII here and there to add some variety and keep me motivated to paint. These two units lingered on the table quite a while. Partially this was due to ancients burn-out and partially due to personal/household reasons. Either way I'm back at the table!

28mm Roman Hastati and Carthaginian Medium Hoplites

This post combines the last two units that I've painted up but were waiting on my workbench for about a month to be based up. The first unit is two elements of Roman hastati. These are legionary stands in Marathon to Marius and will be added to the previously painted triarii and velites for my white legion.

All of the figures are Old Glory figures. I currently have a membership in their discount club and just cannot believe the value of being able to purchase already reasonable figures at a 40% discount. I highly recommend their discount club to anyone who's planning on painting any significant volume of their figures. It pays for itself on your first order.

The last stand is a unit of Carthaginian medium hoplites. I originally purchased this bag of figures in hopes that I could paint them in a manner that would allow them to make up the fourth stand in my Carthaginian citizen hoplite phalanx. Unfortunately these figures, with their linen curiass, just don't match up well enough to make it all work that well. My new thinking is that I'll need to paint up a second unit of these to act as a smaller separate phalanx.

These figures look very Macedonian to me. I will probably save a few of the left over figures to mix into my Macedonian units.

Ancients Re-Basing (2)

This is the second batch of figures for my recently started re-basing project. The hopes is for me to get all of my 28mm figures re-based for our local home brew rules, Hanibal at the gates. This is the start of work on my Carthaginian army. The photos below include all of the stands re-based in this batch, including twelve newly painted figures to make the old units fit the new basing scheme. Every unit has at least one new figure, most have at least two and some three. I'm fairly happy that looking at the units you cannot spot any of the new figures. This was particularly tricky since some units used a black wash and some used a dark brown wash. As shown below, I've continued to put magnetic label holders on the rear portion of each stand.

This is a close up of my re-based second Scutarii unit.









Hmmm. Time to fire the photographer. Somehow I intermixed the stands of the red shield veteran spear unit and the white shield veteran spear unit in the photos below.

Carthaginian citizen hoplite unit.

My first Spanish scutarii unit. I was happy that I was able to organize both of the scutarii units into cohorts with similar colored helmet plumes. This helps tie each stand's figures together into a more cohesive looking unit.

28mm Spanish Caetrati Skirmishers

These are five units of 28mm Spanish Caetrati skirmishers for my Carthaginian army. I know a few posts back I said I was finished with the army, but then I started to play games with it and realized that Numidian skirmishers just don't look right in a Spanish wing so I decided I HAD to have some Caetrati. I split a bag of Old Glory figures with my friend Bob. I'm not sure if he's started his 15 figures yet, but mine are done...take that Bob!

The shields are hand painted and I've varied the colors of the tunics, shields and leather helmet decorations. I've included one shield on each stand with a geometric pattern typical of the Spanish to give the units the right look. Basing is for Ralph's home brew rules, Hanibal at the Gates, soon to be re-named Marathon to Marius. The black portion on the rear of each stand is a magnetic strip which will hold an appropriate label describing the unit's characteristics.

These are again indoor photos, although there was a touch of sunlight in the room from outside. I've also started to figure out how to use my fancy new camera to much better effect. I hope to keep improving the photo quality, but I'm closer to happy with these than before.