From HarryV: 28mm WAR ELEPHANTS and commanders (295 Pts)

 

For my final submission we have the massed war elephants of Carthage!

Lighting was terrible when I took these pictures, so it was hard to really get good shots. Mounted commanders are from aventine miniatures, foot command from victrix hoplites

The elephants are from Victrix and aventine, with the crews from both manufacturers mixed together to try and blend them together and make a cohesive looking elephant brigade. 

I guess when I originally ordered these from aventine I forgot to order the Howdahs, so I did end up having to fabricate my own! I used the victrix Howdas as a pattern and constructed them out of a very heavy cardboard. 

I had previously painted two war elephants which I rebased and touched up to match this new set, this what the force will look like for gaming. Three units of three elephants strong. I painted the new elephants fairly generically on purpose, with the idea that they could be used for Carthaginians or Ptolemaic elephants. 

Thanks so much for putting on the challenge, and those so much to Peter for managing the Tuesday crew. I had great fun participating this year for my first time! 

Best, Harry

7 War Elephants - Scored as vehicles? at 20 pts each (140 pts)

21 Crew - 5 pts each (105)

4 Casualties -  5 pts each (15)

2 mounted officers (20 pts)

2 foot officers (10 pts)

Total: 290 pts

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Sylvain: What an awesome post to finish the Challenge! You did it BIG! The elephants gear is fabulous and their crew are exquisitely painted. I like how you put squished enemies (including a horse) in the path of the elephants. Bravissimo!

 

From GrahamB - Loads more Ancients (555 points)

More IT problems have delayed me posting these. I can’t find the settings on my iPad to enable me to upload photos to blogger so I have resorted to uploading photos from my telephone.

Anyway, in the meantime I have still been painting more ancients for my classical army’s for the Mithradatic wars and other Successor army’s. Firstly here is a unit of Successor Agema heavy cavalry. They can also serve as Cataphracts.  I don’t know the manufacturer as they were bought 2nd hand and given long spears from Aventine Miniatures and a spare Victrix Greek standard.

Secondly I have completed a small unit of 4 Scythian horse archers who will see service with various armies. I think they are A &A miniatures. The riders have separate legs and torsos allowing multiple poses.

Next are two Caesarian Roman units from Wargames Factory so have been in the plastic pile for years. I have enough Caesarian Romans already mainly in Red, so these have yellow and white tunics as well as a variation in shields to represent either Pompeys troops or imitation Legionaries or even Italian allies of the Romans or Successors.

Next up are a unit of 16 Greek Hoplites from Victrix Miniatures. They paint up and rank up very easily.

I have added three units of 6 generic ancient skirmishers, a mix of spare metal figures and cobbled together plastics giving one unit of bows, one old slingers and one unit of javelin men. 

Finally I have completed a unit of 16 Theurokitai from Aventine Miniatures for service with my Successors. They could also double up as imitation Legionaries.

So 16 x 28mm cavalry @ 10 pts = 120 points and 79 foot 28mm figures @ 5 points each = 395 points giving a total of 555points.

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That is...a lot of horses, a lot of riders, and a lot of guys...for a lot of points...

555 points it is!

GregB

From JP : Marian Romans and some early Saxon warriors. (70 points)

Before Aventine shut down for a sad but well deserved retirement, I bought a batch of their Marians and Late Republicans (those suitable for Marians). These are marvellous sculpts. They are based on the practical reality that troops weren't all equipped uniformly but raher regionally, through to the 1st civil war. The unit I painted up is recruited in Cisalpine Gaul and has a number of Gallic features.

Next up are half a dozen early Saxon Warriors for Pillage. Victrix does lovely work and though I don't need more than 50 figures, it is sorely tempting!

The tally is 14 28mm figures for 70 points.

Now I'm eyeing some of my Border Reivers...

Cheers!

Don't stop spoiling us with your excellent Ancient paint schemes JP, go on indulge yourself in more Saxons! No seriously; these Marians and Saxons are very very well painted yet again, I do not know how you keep the levell of painting so consistently high throughout the project. Avantine did make some really beautiful and useful troops and this rough and ready look really does it's job! The Saxons are really well done as well.  Can't wait to see what you will do with those Reivers you've mentioned! 

 Cheers Sander 

Harry V - 28mm Carthaginian Cavalry (130 pts)

Hi All, 

More progress on the Carthaginian front. For this post I have 12 Carthaginian cavalry from Aventine Miniatures in 28mm. These are a mix of packs, some sold as Carthaginian cavalry, others as successor cavalry. 

 

These figures will be my last unit of ethnic Carthaginian cavalry for the army. 

I am generally a pretty big fan of aventine miniatures but these cavalry will definitely look quite small next to their Victrix brothers I did for my first entry. Most of the rest of the cavalry for this project will be Victrix, so hopefully they don't look too out of scale when massed together. 

Some of these cavalry I have actually been holding onto since around 2018 when I first got back into miniatures and had originally wanted to do a Carthage project, so it was nice to finally get these completed and onto the table top. 

The basing on these figures is a little sparse, I actually was shocked to realize I was basically out of nice tufts! However I am reasonably happy with the basing, and think it gives a decent enough dry North African feel. 

First the foot and now the horse.  These aer wonderful Harry, love the bright colours on the cloaks.  I think that your bases look perfect for North African or Sicilian scrub.  I am bumping points a bit for the size and quality of your pots today.