From IanW 6mm Hoplites To Peninsular Brits 71 Points

I have leapt back into 6mm for this weeks post and will probably continue as I have received 700 more 6mm figures from Baccus, mostly Persians.

These are to go against my Macedonian army and originally the Hoplites below were for them but I will have them defect over to the Persians, well they are mercenaries. 

I painted the one base in last years Challenge so I finally finish off the pack. These are Baccus and needed little work to get them ready for painting,  The rear shields are a sod to get at as they are on strips four deep. The pack I received for the Persians are the more traditional four wide making the shields easy to get at.

As with my ancients it's a basic paint job with the mass effect being the main effect. What detail painting there is I did as simple as possible so it would not become a time sucker.

I went with brown leather armour and this makes them look quite a bit darker than I originally had in mind but the end result works for me so no complaints.

Three Battalions of Peninsular British for my sons army, again these came out darker as I was aiming for faded uniforms, I will have to go a few shades lighter next time. This gives him five British line infantry battalions and two rifle battalions. He gets to pick what's painted next for these guys.

We have the 9th East Norfolk, the 10th North Lincolnshire and 11th North Devonshire the first battalion of each regiment. Next time I do some of his infantry I will go deeper into the list to spread them out a bit. The flags should have been Baccus but I have used up two flag sheets worth of the light yellow ones so have had to use some of a bunch I got off e-bay way back. They are very nice but a little bit bigger than the Baccus ones.

I like to have my flags look like they have a bit of wind in them so tweezers in hand they get a bit of a wave thing going on. It's a bit fiddly but once you have done a few it gets a lot easier. I am no fan of the bed sheet look that others favour. Last thing to do is to paint the edges of the flags to cover up the white edges, oh I am so glad I have the Union flag to edge, what fun.

So 48 hoplites and 84 scum of the earth earns me a respectable 66 points, with 44 going to the Ancients side challenge and the lot to our 6mm challenge, I bet Tamsin responds double quick ;-)

Wow Ian, you've done it again.  My first army was that of the Spartan King Agesilaus and I'm a sucker for rows of bronze hoplons and crested Corinthian helmets.    And these lads look like they are all set to loot the cities of Ionia!  I agree that the brown armour might be a little dark but the end effect works well. next time why not try the brilliant white linothorax to see how that works.  

I am afraid that I am going to be the annoying War-games Fashion Police and point out a problem with your planned use of these figures.  The Lambda shield   blazon (which you've aced) was the state symbol for Sparta and thus wouldn't be worn by a unit of mercenaries unless serving in a Spartan army.  So I suggest that you build a Spartan army that can fight either your Persians or your Macedonians, and then build units of Hoplites with varied shield designs who can serve under any of the three armies.  Honest it's a win-win situation, at least for those of us fortunate to watch it unfold!

And those Redcoats are wonderful I do hope that your son appreciates them.  The way you turn the bases into battalion sized vignettes really sells me on 6mm as a scale.  I've added 5 points to your score for the hand painted shields on the hoplites and the basing on the whole bunch

Ian mentions the 6mm Side Duel, and it's a three way battle between Ian, Tamsin and MarkO with 34 points between them at start of play today.