David Bickley's Wargames Blog

The occasional ramblings of an average gamer, journeyman painter, indifferent modeller, games designer, sometime writer for Wargames Illustrated and host of games in GHQ.



Tuesday 4 August 2020

Celtiberian Heavy Cavalry

While my Republican Romans for the Punic Wars project are almost exclusively recruited from Aventine Miniatures my growing Carthaginian army is much more cosmopolitan, as befits it's it's historical predecessor. The latest addition of which is some Gallic Heavy Cavalry which will proxy for Celtiberians in future games. They are from one of the several Foundry ranges, sculpted I think by Rob Baker. Their rather chunky style suits my eye and hand, so I hope you'll go along with me on these ~

As ever, their bases are 80x50mm MDF from Warbases. The texture is my mix of Woodlands Scenics Buff Ballast. The shields accompanying the figures were small and not to my taste, so I added a mix from A&A Miniatures with shield transfers from LBM. After painting twelve I needed a return to simpler clothing so currently I'm well on with some Greek Mercenary heavy infantry.
Over the weekend I was sorting out the Lead Pimple, mainly to ensure I had enough bases of the right dimensions to finish the project. I now know how many figures I have to paint, 212 as it happens. As I'm averaging about 55 figures a month I could finish by the end of November, but realistically I expect to be finished by the turn of the year all being well ~ which is a big IF given all that's going on around us. In the meantime, a game with Phil beckons, so I'd better be off into GHQ to deploy the armies! Keep Safe all of you!

24 comments:

  1. Another great looking addition to your Ancients collection - lovely figures well painted and based!

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  2. They look lovely. With your rules, will they be deployed as a 2 x 2 block?

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    1. Very kind Norm, thank you. To answer your question, well, yes and no. As we use our own hybrid of Neil Thomas's Ancient and Medieval Rules which Phil has developed one base can be a unit of 4 nominal bases, as can two bases. So the figures can represent 2 or 4 units, or game tokens if you think about it.

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    2. Thanks - that makes for better flexibility. I have used 2 bases to represent the usual block of 4 with the NT rules and just used two tiddlywinks at the rear of the unit to represent the full fresh fresh unit and then took the counters away as and when the two notional blocks were lost.

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  3. Very impressive and the shileds really make the whole unit 'pop':).

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    1. Thanks, but I take no credit for the shields beyond cutting them out neatly!😁

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  4. Hi David - You've done a spectacular job of these Ancients- so detailed and accurate painting. The only Ancients I've ever painted were 1/72nd plastic ESCI Romans and Gauls. Stay well there. Cheers. KEV.

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  5. Had the pleasure of viewing them in person earlier, are most splendid indeed. The Greek mercenaries you are working on are particularly fine.

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    1. Thanks for your kind words, if not the earlier thrashing...

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  6. These look delightful Mr.B.
    Another sound thrashing, it's like being at public school.

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    1. Thanks Jon! I'm sadly getting accustomed to being thrashed post lockdown...

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    2. SCW Monday, dead cert for a win you have only lost once before.πŸ™‚

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    3. You should not have told me that, it puts a hex on me now...

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  7. Lovely looking bunch of Celtiberian cavalry!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thank you for your encouragement Iain.

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  8. Lovely looking cavalry David...
    Not everyone likes Robs chunky style... but I find they paint up well...
    I don’t know if you have ever noticed... a lot of his figures look a lot like him.😱😁

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Very kind Aly, thank you. Having painted two large SYW armies by Rob I'm well acquainted with his style. While you may be right about the faces, I always think of Elves when I see them first.

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  9. Menacing looking cavalry, David. Super work!

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  10. Impressive David. You are turning into a real painting monster, well done.

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