My Big Fat Ancient Persian Army - Part 2 : Infantry and Mercenaries

Many of the infantry are relatively old and have had figures added to complete units as I've changed my mind over the years.

 

700 figures later.


Yes, it took me years to complete, on and off. After a bit of break from painting Persians, I'm able to appreciate looking at them with fresh eyes again...

 

You can see I'm not scared to use bright colours if I felt like it. Again, a variety of manufacturers are represented. Because I wanted to have a fair bit of flexibility with the army, there are lots of options for allies and earlier and later period units. But really, no one really seems to care if I'm out by a couple of hundred years at times.

 

They are split into 3 main categories. The elite corps; as the backbone of the infantry. They are only average, solid troops when compared to most of the Greek City State citizen-soldiers. The Sparabara; as the meat and potatoes units. Little more than a road bump against a phalanx but the archery can disrupt an attack. The Levy; the rabble and unreliable allies which mainly just to the bulk rather than utility.

 

I hope that people interested in this period can draw some inspiration from these photos and get some ideas for painting. My theory was to create a theme for each unit to create the variety and colour for the army as a whole. My assumption is that at the start of a campaign most contingents would have been dressed in a similar fashion.

 

Hope you enjoy the photos.

 

Cheers,

Mick

 

 The elites (in relative terms)

Later Immortals/imitation hoplites/Kardakes 

Imitation hoplites/Kardakes  

Greek mercenary Hoplites - Black Tree Design. Foundry Command

Got most of these second hand and tried to keep the shield designs and added a few highlights 

More Greek mercenary Hoplites - Foundry with LBM shield transfers 

Egyptian Marines - Eureka - one of the last units added. The shields hide most of figures but gives them a reasonably solid appearance.

Phrygian axemen by Old Glory - one of those 'must have' units 
Some leftover 1st Corps Greeks in there as well.

Detail photo 

Another angle 

And another 

 The "come and get me" wall of Sparabara

I can plonk these down in any open terrain and hopefully break up Greek attacks 

From the other side - nice colour variety without overdoing it (I think) 

One of the first Persian units I painted. Had some retouches to keep them looking good. I remember feeling pleased with the leopard skin on the commanders cloak

From the other side 

Another one of the 'originals' - 10 years later the rear rank of archers were added 

Newline (SHQ) Spara unit. I quite like them 

 Another original unit. Good old Foundry models

A newer unit. I like this colour scheme. 

Some Foundry Spara with 1st Corps archers 

Unit number 8 are the odd ones out. They can fill in as whatever I need them to be

 A large unit of archers skirmishing

A smaller unit 

1st Corps slingers. Nice figures. 

 A mish-mash unit of left over archers

 Mercenary staff slingers - not sure if they are exactly historically correct but they seem to fit

2nd unit of staff slingers 

Some detail from the rear 

More detail 

 A nice look at one of my favourite Spara units

The levy infantry  

 Some different angles

 

 Newline (SHQ) levy unit 1

Newline (SHQ) levy unit 2 

1st Corps levy 1 (13 years old) paint jobs are a bit tired but still ok

1st Corps levy 2 (13 years old)  

Some Foundry/Casting Room miniatures. Made them look a bit fancy. 

Some old figures. I painted 4 more last year to make a small unit 

Like the previous image. 4 figures added and leftover shield transfers to make another small unit 

 1st Corps Immortals. They get used as Medes for later period games.
Some Foundry Immortals making up the numbers.

Same as the unit above. Different paint scheme and all 1st Corps figures

Javelin-armed skirmishers. Forgot to add them in the Sparabara photo. Newline figures

Old Glory and Newline Injuns. Spearmen, a refurbished 2nd hand unit. 

Like above, but obviously longbowmen. A valuable allied unit. 

More angles 

 More angles 

Some detailed pictures 

 Some detailed pictures

 Some detailed pictures

 

I like this photo.