A Brush with Macedonians

In the past week or so I have been able to devote a little  time to painting figures, in particular my 1/72 scale Macedonians. These will make up a DBA 'army'  as a try-out for the Alexandrian period. I'm quite cheered by my progress, though I won't win any prizes for either speed or quality! 

I started with the cavalry, and have completed these :

Alexander's strike force ( if he played DBA )

 

In DBA terms, one stand each of Companions ( Kn) , Thessalian (Cv ) and Greek Allied (Cv) Cavalry. My first attempt at painting ancients since Airfix Ancient  Britains and Romans in  the 1970s  ( I think I still have the Brits, based for WRG 6th Edition, lurking in the loft somewhere), it's been an interesting experience. I thought the small numbers of each type would make things easy and quick  - but I have  realised that of course, most of the time is taken up with researching and thinking about how to paint them, and then while actually painting,  it's quite annoying mixing some paint and then only applying it to three figures!   Once you've set up and got a brush loaded, you might as well be doing  a dozen or more.. 

On the upside, I like the colour schemes, though I admit my version of  Macedonian purple may be a little stronger and brighter than Ancient dye-makers could have come up with!  The 'research' side is interesting too, in that there is really quite scarce  information to work with when it comes to 'uniform' details - where would we be without the Alexander Sarcophagus and the Pompeii mosiac? I relied mainly on  Osprey's The Army of Alexander the Great ( MAA 148 ) by Nick Sekunda and Angus McBride, which takes a quite rigourous evidence-based approach, and Peter Connolly's Greece and Rome at War  - but of course everyone is working from pretty limited evidence.  It's not like the 18th Century/Napoleonic period, where detailed descriptions and illustrations are available for any and every uniform, and I rather like that, it means everyone can make their own interpretation and use their own style.  No-one can really tell you how you got a detail wrong - they can't prove it! It reminds me of  ECW/30YW armies, which have a similar feel of non-uniformity and freedom to interpret. So these are my interpretation - let's hope Alexander isn't rotating too fast in his grave, wherever that may be. I've kept it very simple and within my limited skillset - block painting, with  a touch of Army Painter 'Light Tone' ( probably could have been stronger ) and a coat of matt acrylic varnish for protection.  Beginner level I know, but they will be fine on the DBA battlefield, I'm sure.  I did even manage to give a couple of them leopard-skin saddle-cloths, and was quite pleased with the (strictly impressionistic) results.  

Making a start on Phalangites

 

Encouraged by those results,  I've moved on to the Alexandrian 'signature dish' (!) - the Pike Phalanx. In DBA terms this is 4 bases each of 4 Phalangites ( Pk), so at least this time I have a decent batch of 16 figures to work with! On a rare sunny outdoor afternoon I made a start by giving them scarlet tunics - I really like the colour,  not sure why I have been avoiding the British in my Seven Years War armies.. Inspiration for this is a splendid picture in Peter Connolly's book, which highlights the many possible  variations in armour ( both metal and cloth spolas ), helmets etc. The HaT Phalangites are very nicely modelled and easy to paint - and maybe I'm gettimg my eye in a bit.

The Companions and the Thessalians are sporting the rather impressive 12-foot long xyston cavalry spear, and the Phalangites will of course brandish their even longer ( up to 18 feet ) sarissa pikes - HaT quite wisely don't try to model these, so how to proceed?   I remembered an idea which I think came from Graham Evans aka 'Trebian'  on his excellent Wargaming for Grown-Ups blog : so I went to a local hardware store, and equipped myself with this: 

Bristling with ideas..

 

Yep, a good ol' household brush,  with tough plastic bristles - I had to measure it carefully before buying, though, to make sure they were at least 3 inches (  18 feet in 1:72 scale ) long! They have worked admirably, they even fitted perfectly in the pre-moulded holes in the HaT figures' hands. Of course they may suffer from paint-shedding if handled too roughly, but I'm going to try a final coat of  clear PVA glue just on the spears and pikes to stiffen them up a bit. Fingers crossed!

Now I just have to keep up the routine of 'painting hour' to push on with these - after the Phalangites there are bases of Prodromoi Light Cavalry, Thracian Peltasts / Hypaspists , Greek Hoplites, Javelin men and Archers. Maybe I can put them into larger batches when it comes to applying common colours, to speed things up.  And then there's the Persians, which should be really interesting, madly colourful, and are probably even less well-documented! 

More figures next time, I think - I have made an interesting 'old school' purchase, but I've rambled on long enough for now. And I feel a 7YW Portable Wargame battle coming on.. So until then; keep well, everyone.