My Big Fat Ancient Persian Army - Part 1 : Command, Chariots and Cavalry

 

Hello again.

 

I've put dribs and drabs of my Ancient Persian army on this blog before but I really wanted some photos of the whole collection to give better impression of the size and scope. They are used as both earlier and later Achaemenid Persians.

 

There is a mix of manufacturers as I used as many figures as I could gather over about 13 years. The basing was hugely time consuming but it was important in order to make sure everything looked reasonably compatible.

 

Starting with the various command elements, 7 chariots and 200 cavalry. 

 

I hope you enjoy this part. Next is the infantry.

 

Cheers,

Mick



 

Great King in Chariot and in camp, commander stands and individual commanders or heroes

 Closer look at the camp base - Foundry, 1st Corps and Old Glory

 Another angle - the standard bearer in the foreground is a Minifig!

Heavy Chariots - these are elsewhere on the blog. 1st Corps models

Heavy and Medium Cavalry - the rich kids of the army 

 Heavies - Ex Newline (now SHQ) probably one of few photos of these painted on the web

Foundry Heavies - featured elsewhere here. Largish figures.

My favourite cavalry unit. Some of my first cavalry figures I painted for the army. All Foundry. I usually class these as medium cavalry

 1st Corps medium cavalry

Old Hinchliffe light chariots - only good for using as mobile archery platforms. Fragile in most games  

 Another view - quite retro looking but I still like them

 A couple of smaller Scythian heavy cavalry units

 First unit. Seen elsewhere on the blog

 2nd unit - rewarding to paint but time consuming

 The light cavalry

 Another view

 And another

 Not cavalry but skirmishers used as part of the 'African' levy

2 units of light troops - Old Glory

 Arab levy camel archers - Newline and Castaway Arts models

 African light cavalry- Foundry and Hinchliffe

 6 units of horse archers - Foundry, 1st Corps and a few Newline

 Another view -I can make 4 large units if the need arises.

 Close up- some dated paint jobs but look ok en-masse

 These are Foundry Scythian models

 One of the last units put together. Light cavalry, Foundry and Warlord

 Some of the earliest figures. Hinchliffe and/or Garrison plus Foundry and 1st Corps mashed into a unit

 Another view

 A bit of detail

A bit more detail

Croc waiting for lunch

Waiting for lunch! A very nice big Croc I have had for some time now and have finally painted up and put onto an appropriate base.

28mm Sikh Cavalry

28mm Sikh Cavalry

35mm Croat

I thought I would make something a bit different for my 35mm minis so I made this Croat soldier ca.1700. I only have one of them at the moment but I plan to make some variations.

Old School Citadel Goblin Army for Kings of War - The Blood Dippers...

Here is a fantasy army for Kings of War. We needed an opponent to the Wood Elves from a previous post. Goblins are fun to paint and collect so were a good choice. My youngest son suggested the name "Blood Dippers" for reasons mentioned below.

There were two specifications, the first was to make them have rusty weapons, the second to use a bit of red where possible. The red to represent the blood of your slain enemies. That's a 10 year old mind for you.

This group features some conversions and a few repair jobs on some beaten up old figures to help the army come together nicely. Mostly 80s and early 90s figures. A few were bought new but are old Grenadier Miniature sculpts that are still in production with Mirliton SG in Italy.

Most of them were second hand and given a new life.

Cheers,
Mick

The Gobbo Army so far...

 Some Hell Hounds used as Flea Bags

 Fimir acting as Trolls

 

 Another unit of Trolls

Ghouls with hand weapons as Undead Revenant Allies - hard to find in metal so got these new from Mirliton SG (red shields!)  Nice rusty weapons

Citadel Wolf Riders - as Flea bag riders

Marauder Wolf Riders 

Marauder Goblin General on wolf (more red bits)

Another view - more cute than scary

 

Goblin Phalanx Horde 1

I gave the hordes more of a grittier look than the bright, cartoonish originals.

I take out the commander and wizard figures from this horde when we need extra hero characters for games. I think he's King Skarsnik (or something).

Goblin Phalanx Horde 2

Kev Adams Heartbreaker command and character figures

Goblin Phalanx Horde 3 

Gotta love those crazeee teef

 Goblin Spitter (archer) Horde

These are made up from the first wave of Citadel plastics. I really like that style.

A troop of Fanatics - 1980s and 1990s models

Citadel, Marauder and Iron Claw

Regiment of spitters

Spider Riders - only because they look pretty cool.

Feathers have been dipped in the blood of their enemies!

Used as Flea Bag riders.

This Giant is from Mirliton SG. He only had 2 fists as weapons which wasn't scary enough.

I replaced a fist with a blade and put in a trident to make him nastier.

I gave him happy pants though to help the red strips of cloth stand out more.

Another look. 

He inflicts a great amount of damage in his games so far and is worth the points outlay.

Goblin Rabble regiment - made up of Heroquest figures

A pair of spear throwers - War machine crews are given orange uniforms.

These are handy and great to annoy your opponent. 

Stone thrower. A nice model but might only get one or two hits in during a game. When it scores a hit it can do some decent damage though.

The other side. It's a nice little diorama and gaming piece in one. I added a little coil of rope for some reason. This was in rough shape when I picked it up and now you would never know...