Monday 2 January 2017

MONDAY From LeeH - Greek Pike Phalanxes (120 Points)

During last years Analogue Painting Challenge I was able to complete most of a Carthaginian army for my 6mm To The Strongest collection. I wanted to replicate that painting output again over the course of this years event and settled on painting a Pyrrhic Army. The allure of painting a Macedonian pike phalanx first attracted me and of course I can use them against my existing Republican Roman army. 


The pike or Sarissa was in affect a long spear about 4–6.2 meters (13–20 ft) in length with an iron head and a heavy weight at the other end which counterbalanced the length of the weapon. This meant that several rows of troops could overlap their weapons easily and present an impenetrable wall of spear tips to the enemy.


I have painted five units of these Pike units as the core of a Pyrrhic army that I will build around them. Two units are Macedonians and three are Epirot. I originally planned to paint Macadonian star designs on the shields but I made such a mess of them that in the end I opted for plain shields. If I had more time I would have ordered some decals instead but I wanted to get these done and move on to the next batch of figures. 


I elected to buy the 'open handed' version of these troops from Baccus meaning I could add my own pikes. I used 20mm dressmakers pins as the pikes and superglue them into position. However I wouldn't recommend this method to anyone considering modelling pikes. For a start fixing the pins in position was extremely fiddly, especially when you have fat fingers like I do. Worse still, I have more self inflicted stab wounds from these pins than anything I have done in the past and I can't see that changing when the finished units come out on the games table. These soldiers draw blood!


Five units each containing 48 Phalangites adds up to a grand total of 240 infantry figures, by far the largest single contingent I will be painting for the challenge. I wanted to get this big batch done and dusted early so that I could focus on cavalry and some of the smaller peripheral units over subsequent weeks. I had hoped to have them done earlier but illness stole at least four days from my planned schedule over the holiday period. Such are the plans of mice and wargamers.  

MilesR: Wow those are some great looking Phalangites - really impressive work.  I can see how the pins might be problematic unless your into to pain but perhaps the less said about that the better.  I'm very much looking forward to seeing the rest of your Pyrrhic army as it progresses during the Challenge.  At .5 points per figure that nets you 120 points - well done!

21 comments:

  1. That my friend is as impressive as hell.

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  2. I concur - it's one of my favorite submissions this year

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  3. Really cool - they look so great at this scale, well done.

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  4. An Awesome and colorful force of pike men

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  5. Nice pike blocks Lee! :)

    As for the blood, count it as a sacrifice to the dice gods :)

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  6. Well done Lee, lets hope they draw as much blood on the battlefield as they did on your fingers!

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  7. Just frigging awesome Lee. We want more! Hopefully with less bloodshed next time.

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  8. I love the look of the massed troops. Well done! I could see myself getting stuck every time I stuck my clumsy hands near one though!

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  9. Great looking units. Your pikes may draw blood but they are nice and straight. Overall effect is great

    Ian

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  10. Lee these are just terrific but you were BONKERS to use pins as pikes. I'm looking forward to the After Action Report on their first blood, er, use!

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    1. He's not BONKERS ... that's just normal to me... it's you lot that BONKERS not using sharp stuff!

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  11. Epic, do the wounds make the completion a Pyrrhic victory - sorry

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  12. Great stuff Lee very impressive looking entry

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  13. Super looking array of pikes Lee!

    Christopher

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  14. Amazing work. I never knew that pikes were counterbalanced, but that makes all sorts of sense. More sense than using pins for pikes - ouch!
    Bravo.

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  15. I love these massed phalanxes. (Phalanges?)

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  16. Beautiful masses of pikes, Lee! Maybe a touch sadist with stick pins for the pole arms though! They do look the business and are even more impressive for the scale!

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  17. The way you are knocking these out the result will be anything BUT Pyrrhic sir. Keep em coming!

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  18. What a fantastic looking set of units. Great at this scale to show how many of them there were.

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