28mm Ancient Athenian Greek Army - The Peloponnesian Wars.

I've spent a couple of weeks painting the remaining  lower class hoplites for my Athenian Army, I usually paint all the details before adding the spears and then launching into the final basing stage. I don't hold back on colours but use a varied colour palate. I tend to paint enmasse after I have painted a few samples to set the benchmark. The trick is not to rush ANY stage. I just plod along listening to the BBC radio iplayer or listen to the free audio book 'The history of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides' at: http://www.booksshouldbefree.com/book/the-history-of-the-peloponnesian-war-by-thucydides

All the spears are supaglued on. These figures are manufactured by 'Wargames Foundry', the hoplite spears are from 'Aventine miniatures'. 

Here I've supaglued the figures to plasticard bases, each figure has a 20mm frontage and 20mm depth, the bases are now ready for rendering with polyfilla.

Then I've levelled out the base with 'sand less filler' purchased from B&Q, lightly brushed thinned out PVA and sprinkled with various grades of rock, finally adding sawdust to create texture. This is allowed to dry for 24 hours before the next stage....

The final basing stage is achieved with grass and scrub added.

Medium Amoured hoplites just need their shields.

 Athenian general Perikles and chums; The Athenian command base - finished some time ago, maybe I'll add some long grass. Mostly 'Wargames Foundry' figures except the figure pointing which is from 'Black Tree'.

 Athenian command side view

Athenian command with a runner/messenger leaning on a marble column.

The Initial Idea was to create two factions armies to fight the Peloponnesian War campaign; The Lacedaemonian Alliance and the Athenian Empire, but I'm thinking of expanding the forces to represent other cities in the war, namely Corinth and Thebes, maybe Syracuse etc. Thracian mercenaries and Perdikkas II Macedonian Army I'm painting over these weeks can make an appearance in the campaign.

This project is one of many I have developing at the same time.

Other pictures to follow as units are finished e.g. Spartan hoplites, Athenian Armoured Hoplites, etc...

Greek Peltasts for my Athenians. Scrub and grass to be added later.

Peltasts in the front line

Peltast shields based on designs found on Greek pottery.

Peltasts supported by light cavalry.

Heavy Cavalry forms part of a small Athenian cavalry contingent.

Heavy cavalry ride past heavily armoured hoplites

Light Cavalry forms the remainder of the Athenian Cavalry.

28mm Ancient Macedonian Army

I took advantage of Wargames Foundry's 50% off offer for regiments on ebay a few days ago and bought a bunch of Macedonians. Properly nice figures sculpted by Steve Saleh and Nick Collier with Mark Copplestone, they paint up a treat, pics below are armoured phalanx prior to adding the shields and basing effects.

 These guys will form the rear ranks of my phalanx.The front rank will have their sarissa (pikes) lowered together with commanders and a standard. These will have to be painted in the next few days.

Next stage is to add Polyfilla to create a groundlevel, then PVA glue thinned out with water is brushed over the polyfilla sparingly leaving bare areas, stones and rocks are added first, then sawdust for the ground texture. This will take a day to dry. 

Here I've painted on the earth effects, dry brushing from dark to lighter tones. Each dry brushing stage is left to fully dry before lighter tones are added. 

The Phalanx consisting of 36 Phalangites is near completion, just grass tufts, bushes etc. to add.

Here is the main man himself, Alexander the Great 'Conqueror of all Greece except Sparta'. I have 3x different versions of this man so at least one figure will form a vignette, just trying to find a bit of achaemenid Persian architecture to complete the composition. If it's any good a copy will appear on ebay. I'll also paint a Macedonian General representing Perdikkas II for my Peloponnesian War campaign, I have appropriate minis already, I just need some time to paint him.

Some companion cavalry with xyston (lances). I have to admit I use 6th edition Wargames Research Group rules and my army lists follow that format, when complete I'll publish the entire army list with pics so War & Conquest players can see what they're missing :)

Alexander the Great and his Companion Cavalry. I've only painted 8 out of 15 companions at the moment, hope to start the rest soon.

Armies and Enemies of Louis the XIV and the The French-Dutch War of 1672-1678

Here you will find a few bits 'n' bobs of my stuff from my new collection plus items I have painted for customer's commissions and stuff for sale on Ebay under the seller ID of peterw3169. I hope to fill this space over the next few weeks, this is day one, so I hope you enjoy it.

28mm painted battalion of the French Garde Suisses Maison du

                  Roi 1672

 Getting stuck into the 17th century

                  North Star market a fantastic range of 28mm miniatures for the

                  French-Dutch War of 1672-1678. A colourful period in history

                  made famous by such novels as Alexandre Dumas': 'The Three

                  Musketeers' etc. I have painted a number of different periods

                  in my time but this one piqued my interest, the French-Dutch

                  War was a very bloody war fought by people dressed in somewhat

                  outlandish clothes seemed to be a contradiction. Interesting

                  events included; The death of the real D'Artagnan whilst

                  leading an assault on the walls of Maastricht. The Dutch

                  opening the dykes holding back the sea and flooding the Dutch

                  landscape to deny the French army a foothold and the somewhat

                  arbitrary contribution the English gave to the War by fighting

                  on both sides (firstly the French then the Dutch). 

Dutch Field Gun 1672. Note the sash is orange blue and white, the colours of the United Provinces.

                                                               Dutch field gun 1672

French Garde Suisse 1672 note the officers sash are white to indicate French  service.

Garde Suisse 'in the Field'

Garde Suisse pikemen still wear their old fashioned armour.

French field gun prepares to fire behind gabion gun embrasure 1672. Note gun crew are grey coated with blue cuffs and blue sash Fusiliers du Roi, the master gunner is a Commissaire ordinaire d'artillerie in blue coat with white sash.

I'm hoping to have time to add the Dutch Regiments and other French regiments in the near future.