Assyrian army

Assyrian army

Sunday 17 March 2024

Amazons with pointy sticks


Starting work trying to find an alternative to bow armed Amazons. Mainly two or three spear/javelin armed figures. Firstattempt is the simple method of cutting the fan of the slave girl with fan to a spear point.

After doing a few I accidentally cut a spear point 'wrong' and it looks better! So a couple more of these made for a mould.

Meanwhile also working on a heavier spear woman and a light javelin woman.

Still working on the proof of concept models - I'm giving the spear woman a complete cloak rather than the scarf of the original, I need to close the hands up and I'll be a bit more careful with the angle of the shields on the arms. Overall, looking good.


Saturday 16 March 2024

Tigers and Amazons

Not sure if this is a Beastmistress or Enchanter with pets...

Haven't decided what to do with the unbased tigers - base some as beasts or leave them 'unattached'? Or paint a few more of course.

Couple more of these units would be a good spine for the army. They're a surprisingly pleasing unit.

Purely archery based infantry would be a bit fragile - I'm working on spear/javelin armed infantry at the moment.

Actually I'm also looking at these archers as the top half of some cavalry.

Enchantress and Slave Girl with Fan make a good officer/standard bearer combination. Fan bearer is being considered as a spearman - just convert the fan as a spear. An alternative is to use the Dancing Girl as a javelin armed figure. Not sure what shields to use though.


Friday 15 March 2024

Blacktree order has arrived!

 

Order arrived today. Ordered on 6th February  so 5-6 weeks. A bit of a wait, if they had answered emails or told me it would take this long it wouldn't have been a concern. Still, they've arrived so I'm quite happy to put in a second (small) order in - but not about to risk a large order.

Emperor Dalek against normal monster army Dalek. Perfectly acceptable scale wise though probably the worst actual model. The Cyberleader is a bit bigger than the cybermen I have but that is perfectly acceptable to me.

Next, squad of Movellans. Quite nice figures in useful poses.

Comparison with my simple attempt - they match size-wise, so perfectly compatible with my Retro range.

Likewise, they fit in well with other Garrison figures. Overall, useful range that matches other 25mm ranges. These are actual more useful to me than the Crooked Dice figures which are 28mm! Plus they cost a lot less!

So, worth going on with using Blacktree for now - though I'm sticking with small orders!

Wednesday 13 March 2024

Amazon Queen in chariot

 

Actually finished both the queen and a 'line' chariot.

For the Queen's chariot I used Persian chariot horses. 

The plume is more impressive and it has reins moulded with the horse...
Also finished the line chariot. I'll make at least one other using the SS64 Dancing girl girl instead of SS61 Amazon Enchantress as the charioteer.

For reins I used something from a previous hobby - fly tying. There is a very useful range of materials to be found in the fly tying hobby! There is a wide range of tinsels available, for example from Veniard.  Been using their stuff for 60 years...


Monday 11 March 2024

Reply/Update from Black Tree...

Follow up re my Black Tree order.

 'Hi Rob,

I understand your concerns.

Your order is in transit to Cornwall and will arrive soon. Unfortunately DHL have screwed up and shipment was delayed and was then missent to Germany. I have the confirmation that they are sending the shipment to the UK right away. We will have your order shipped to you immediately it arrives.

Sorry for the troubles.

Cheers, John'


First contact after three emails from me over the last few weeks... my last one being three days ago 'As you will appreciate, I am getting a bit concerned...' - original order was placed on 6th February. But at least I have had a reply.

As I recall, the following has been on their website from around the time I placed the order and it is still there:

' Recently our main shipping provider for international orders misplaced and failed to scan a large multi shipment, because of this several orders were delayed much longer then we’d ever like and for that we sincerely apologize, we were as much in the dark as you due to this and never want to disappoint with delayed orders.

Thankfully said package was located and tracking updated, all orders are en route! If you have any questions of concerns please reach out to us at the listed email below, we’re working over time to address all queries and thank you for your patience.'

Anyway, we'll see what happens.

Amazons - a work in progress

 

Very much in the unfinished experimental stage - the tiger, for instance, has been 'borrowed' from theTuranians! SS59, Amazon Queen with tiger on lead following Amazon Enchantress on riding tiger.

SS61 Amazon Enchantress and SS37 Amazon archer - blue bases because they are going to be chariot crew. The shading looks a lot heavier in the photos than on the figures!

Probable general or Queen in SSS1 Stygian chariot. The horses are from the Person chariot... they have reins attached. Probably my favourite current horse option but... standard Stygian chariot horses on same mould as the rest of the chariot. To use this variant I have to cast a separate Persian chariot for the horses - and the reins don't always come out well.

Enchantress as charioteer with archer in standard Stygian chariot. Certainly the more viable option and I may even add reins! Wish now I hadn't painted both chariot bodies the same!

So still a lot to do but in a week or two I could have the basis of a viable Amazon army. Might even see if I can have a go at converting some of the Amazons to make a few heavier infantry.

Friday 8 March 2024

Zangiran infantry, SS89 and 90


I decided to do these as Bw(X), rank of spears in front of rank of archers on the same base. That just seemed to be the right way of basing these. Strangely, on this frontal view the second rank is very well hidden!

One thing I hadn't considered is that are quite compact - fitting them on 60mm deep bases  leaves a big gap behind them! 

I don't feel I had any choice in the colour scheme for this unit - red and black just seemed obvious. The shield looked a bit bare so I felt it needed something else - they're supposed to be golden dragons...

One thing I did do was only have 3 figures in the second rank. This was done so that they could fire through the gaps in the front rank - could have done four with one not 'protected'  but decided against that idea!