G3 - Back to my Garrison roots?

There is something I like about G3. Got a load of them already but every now and then just feel I need to paint a few more.

Instead of the normal 24 figure unit I painted 28 - that way I can do another 24 man unit plus command unit giving 2 units - or miss one of the command units to give a 49 strong unit.

As usual I painted the armour as a linen corselet rather than as scale armour - mainly time, painting on the individual scales takes longer than plain white (or whatever) and doesn't really add anything to the figure.

Went for a more geometric pattern than usual. Originally thought about a horse head - next one?

One thing I think is worth putting in somewhere - costs of the figures I keep producing...

Commercial figures are expensive and cost a lot of money. If I was paying over £1 a figure and possibly £2-3 I certainly wouldn't be able to produce as many as I do.  So what does it cost me?

A commercial figure includes a number of costings: Getting the masters designed and made, paying for a mould/s, cost of metal, cost of electricity/power, paying the caster, admin costs, etc. For the figures here: Figures already there, any new ones I convert myself. Until very recently, no moulds bought for 5 years - so moulds already paid for whether I use them or not. Cost of metal - G3 weighs about 8g, at Tiranti metal costs, that's about 125 figures per kilo, buy metal in 5k lots represents about 18p per figure (but drops to about 13p per figure when I get the 25k ordered elsewhere). Hobby, so I don't need to pay myself. Total cost for a 24 figure unit is a bit over £3! - not bad as I can normally paint about this number in a week.

I normally allocate about 25p per figure as a nominal contribution to the cost of a mould, that would total 38p, but that assumes 'reasonable' sales - at £80 per mould it represents selling 320 for 25p to break even. Not going to happen on any of my new and projected moulds! If I allow a more likely 200 figures to break even, would be 40p per figure on the cost! Which would give a commercial cost per figure of 53p. No idea what the electricity costs. As far as commercial time costs, if I were to look at £15 an hour, can do 12 spins an hour and (based on most figures on mould not wanted plus not all come out properly) say 3 figures average per spin that would add about 42p to the cost! - so my 13p figure goes up to 80p-95p per figure as a commercial price.

Which means that, if I were 'buying' these figures, a 24 man unit would cost me £19- £23 - the difference representing what are virtually fixed/already paid costs - and the more figures I make, the cheaper they become in terms of unit cost.

Actually, in getting the figures on the table it costs as much for paint, bases and filler...

Some Bactrian cavalry

Based on PEC4, Cavalryman with spear and shield, bow in case. I did three conversions of this figure - one javelin/bow, one javelin only and one bow only.  Waiting for the new moulds to arrive from Pete Brown I cast a few of the figures from a Tiranti mould that I had them on - then quickly painted a mix of these for use with my early Achaemenids as Bactrian light cavalry.

Very Old School - basic paint job with the 70s dot-inside-a-dot pattern on the tunics. I don't bother putting fancy designs on the trousers - have done, but found it wasn't really worth the effort.

For some unknown reason (first Ancients unit painted for a while? Forgot?) I didn't give this lot an officer and standard bearer! Easily rectified at a later date.

Bright and cheerful, should fit in well with the rest of them.

The new mould only has two of these figure on it - the horse archer and the javelin cavalry figure. The intention is that these will supplement/replace some of the cavalry in my late Achaemenid army - initial intention is 1 unit of horse archers, 3 with javelins. If I do feel the need for double armed cavalry could simply just mix the two troop types in a unit.

New moulds arrived!

To be honest, wasn't expecting them for a couple more weeks or I wouldn't have had the Tiranti mould sessions.

So, lots of Napoleonic attack march infantry and heavy cavalry, a couple of French artillery figures and a couple of Persian cavalry.

So might get some test casting done today.

Old mould figures (quickly) painted

I think it's pretty obvious I didn't take a lot of care with these, cut off sprue, undercoated, painted, varnished and on blog in the same day...

The best of the batch and probably useable! I've put it on an mdf base - the original mould base is 'open' and was in plasticene to keep the molten lead in.

No attempts made to touch up the paintwork which I think is obvious from this - I did (badly) overpaint original brown reins with black reins.

A strangely half cast figure... head and leg here....

Arm here... 

Motorcycle model smaller than the other - 30-35mm-ish?

Again virtually no detail. Just a quick paint job to see what it could look like.

There are a few other possible with the other moulds but they'll need more work to get anything out - might have a go sometime, meanwhile this was a nice, quick and interesting short project for the current situation.

Some (very) old moulds

Probably about 40 years ago my father-in-law gave me some old iron moulds. The soldiers look to be in pre-1916 uniforms (ie peaked caps rather than helmets) so I would assume the moulds themselves to be 1930s at the latest. Haven't done anything with them until now because - well, didn't expect to get anything from them!

Mostly very rusty and, frankly, I've never thought it likely I would be able to get anything out of them.

However, three of the moulds showed promise so...

So tried casting figures from them. Very, very crude possibly going to be paintable...

And the last part... the Egyptians

This one is more a case of the Egyptians that are considered 'right'. This means the chariots, archers and light cavalry. What I haven't included here are the later 'Saitic' infantry and cavalry conversions. The Egyptians I'm looking at here are earlier - New Kingdom or so - that 'ended' in 2014 rather than coming to the fore in 2017!

This lot were doing quite nicely apart from my unfortunate experiments with the dip. I spent ages trying to get the Rose chariot to work... still takes a while to get them but finally succeeded. Everything stopped while I was still building up the chariot force - I have another 3 finished but without crews. So that needs doing - the number I've got crewed at the moment won't be enough for a decent army.

Having said that Harry's purchase stopped everything - not completely true. This lot are conversions made by me, sold to Harry, then returned painted when I bought his collection.

The figure was a follow up/production version of the one in my last post and designed as a generic horse archer - there are actually two versions. I also wanted to use ones without the plume as Parthians - I've got a unit I'm trying to paint now - but so far I haven't got that aspect sorted yet.

This is the universal archer that likewise replaced the archers in my last post. It gives an indication of how useful and versatile this figure is. I honestly haven't the faintest idea how many of them I have spread over several armies.

These are the original Nubians... not a single conversion in the picture...

Which ends the day's linked trilogy - useful to get my thoughts in order like this and see what needs doing even if, a real possibility knowing me, I don't get to do it!

Revisiting some past conversions

This is going of be one of my '2 posts a day' times. May even be 3.

It certainly seems that my attention has been drawn back to the Garrison Egyptian and Assyrian armies, especially the Egyptians. Here I'm looking at a load of those 2014-curtailed conversions, including some of my earliest 'limited production' conversion attempts.

Originally Garrison only did 2 spear armed Egyptian figures. My original target was therefore to try and add archers, Libyans... well, everything else really. So this eclectic mix showes some of my earliest efforts.

Libyan chariot, scratch built with Airfix horses and wheels from ?. The infantry were conversions based on the Nubian spearman. No features on the faces because they were converted and cast   from masters made from  poorish Tiranti moulds - and the conversions also made from poorish Tiranti moulds. So the details have been lost. Cloaks are basically plasticene.

So my first figures, including archers, were all based on the Nubian spearmen. The Libyan spearmen designs I liked!

More archers - this style was not pursued further as I developed my 'universal' archer. The light cavalry were likewise 'replaced' by another figure. Leaving those spear armed figures...

Not my favourite figures. They tend to make me cringe when I look at them. Using the heads of the Rose Peleset and converted Garrison 'Medes' I should be able to do a lot better today.

So that's one set of conversions for me to look at. We're talking half a dozen new figures to redo from scratch...

Looking at Garrison Assyrians

Not a review, more a quick case of wondering what (if any) my next steps are with these. Most of my early efforts -  between buying Garrison then buying Harry's collection - were aimed at Egyptian and Assyrian conversions to allow me to extend these armies. My original impetus was to get Paul Ashton of Amazon Miniatures to do them, later...

Anyway, I was in full flow between about 2006 (bought Garrison)  and 2014 (it's that long since Harry left the hobby?) doing things like building up Garrison... then suddenly had an influx of several thousand figures... so virtually stopped everything to concentrate on these. Six years seems a decent amount of time to revisit them.

The Assyrian and Egyptian, I think, still had a lot more promise and perhaps it's time to revisit. However, could be a big job - especially if I tried to sort out the damage I did to the figures by trying the dip method of painting.

One of my smaller armies. Only the cavalry and one infantry unit are 'originals' the rest are all conversions. Of interest is the fact that I used a lot of HaT shields for the Assyrian infantry conversions - buying sets just for the shields proved quite cost effective.

These two give a good indication of my early chariot forces - I had loads of Airfix Roman and Ancient British boxes  from the time a model shop was destocking - actually, thinking about it I think the Airfix ones came from a coin and stamp shop in Newcastle. The model shop in Chester was where I bought masses of Atlantic figures. A couple of the chariots need a little bit of remedial work.

This unit needs the bases repainting - or the unit transferred to the Persian army. I think this is my original 70s Assyrian cavalry unit. That half painted cavalry unit in the link? Still half painted...

So the Assyrians don't need a lot of work - there are some other unfinished cavalry figures lying around, plus would like some Guard infantry with large dished shields, but overall don't think I need to do much with them.

Egyptians, Assyrians and Indians...

Doing the Persian Review I mentioned that I didn't have any Garrison Nubian Auxiliaries in the army because they had all been allocated to the Egyptian army. Egyptians and Assyrians were two of the armies I was working on when I acquired Harry Pearson's collection. At that point work stopped on 'my' armies and they've been in a kind of stasis since. It does mean that some units weren't finished or based and when I came across some of them I thought...

Anyway, quickly painted green over the sand figure bases on these Nubians and now have either 2 24 man Nubian units or 1 48 figure unit... which are now officially part of the Persian army. Should have painted the bases a lighter green.

The standard bearer is Rose and I used the axe version of the basic Nubian figure as the officer (the figure was designed with an axe head on one end, spear point the other so you could use it as either). There is an extra command element to allow for the 1 or 2 unit options.

Of all my conversions this is the most versatile.

As a basic archer it appears in lots of my Ancient armies - for example, Egyptian light archers, sparabara archers, Elamites... here being used as Assyrian unarmoured archers.

Some bought-in already painted Minifigs Indians from a long forgotten source... don't think these are ex Harry, could be.

Nothing to add really - probable reason it's avoided being based in the past is because it's only a 4 element unit rather than my usual 6.

So that's a few units based. Plenty more figures lying around in various states of readyness, especially for the Greeks.

Tidying up?

Figures, that is.

It's a mix of things. Waiting for the moulds to arrive it seemed to be a good idea to start looking at outstanding items - unbased figures, figures needing a paint touch up, etc.

First off, started on doing some of the Prussian lancers. I haven't tried to add any other details, for example reins or buttons, etc, just kept them 'as was' and painted over areas of paint loss.

Bugler's a bit of a weird pose. Likewise, officer's sword a bit iffy. Other than that, they'll do.

And I haven't tried to look up if they are meant to be specific units. If I did, it would probably tempt me to add more detail!

Meanwhile, working on basing some more Egyptians, Assyrians and Indians...

Garrison 2020 Persian army Review

At first I was just thinking about putting posts for individual groups of figures -Chariots/Guard, Sparabara, Irregular archers, etc. Then I thought: OK, I've cleared 8' of the table, most of the Persian infantry and some of the cavalry are already out, why not do a Review?

The last Persian Review I did was on a 6'x4' table in my original shed. That was 5 years ago! Further, it included Minifigs as well Garrison and also quite a few Greek and Indian auxilkiaries/subjects. This one includes some subject peoples - Lydian/Phrygian, Assyrian and Egyptian - but only ones that were 'officially' assigned to this Persian army.

The first thing, of course, was to start seeing how things fit. I put all my Sparbara units in a line and they basically covered the whole 8' frontage - about 300 figures! So I split them into two lines. I have done a count - 984 infantry, 314 cavalry, 18 camels and 14 chariots/war wagons (it's worth noting that chariots are more a feature of my Minifigs Persian army!)

I did try to get a frontal photo but even though I set the army back as much as I could it still didn't work!

Looking down the line of battle is a bit better. The army is smaller than the one reviewed last time, but that one included Greek allies and all my Minifigs. The shelving to the side is about 2' from the side of the table.

I thought that grouping all the heavy cavalry together would look more impressive than splitting them over both flanks. They consist of 17 12 figure squadrons plus the 12 figures at the front - a total of 216 cavalry. Also in the picture are the 6 light cavalry atached to the Egyptian contingent.

I finished up using three photos of the infantry.This is the right flank.

And the Centre...

And the left flank including some Scythian cavalry attached to the Scythian contingent. There are six 'ranks' - 1st, Generals/guards/some light infantry, 2nd, chariots and assorted infantry and light cavalry, 3rd and 4th various Sparabara units, 5th the Egyptians, Assyrians, Carians and other Asiatic Greeks (as in Garrison PEA8, Ionian Auxiliary Hoplite). I don't have any of PEA5, the Nubian auxiliary, here - they are all in the Egyptian army. Dedicated to Persian army, green base, dedicated to Egyptian army, sand base.

Some light cavalry. At the back, standard PEC4, others are conversions made several years ago. I had them on a Tiranti mould but recently stripped some figures of these two units and they are on one of the new moulds I'm having made - expect a lot of these two conversions to appear in future armies!

OK, the front rank are mainly 70s cataphracts with a couple of conversions. The light cavalry behind are ex-Harry, camels include my Funcken-inspired conversions plus some standard Garrison camels.

This photo shows some standard PE4, PEA3 and PEA4 -the interest in this photo is that the two outer units are ex-Harry that I still haven't got round to rebasing!

 

 

 

This is just a photo to show some of my storage plus a bit of a view of the mess known as my work bench - the cardboard box in the corner is my spray booth!I think it also gives an idea of how limited space is around the table - 2' is not really a lot.

A couple of big bangs...

It was suggested that the homecast bushes would also  serve as explosions if given an appropriate paintjob...

So why not?

OK, not exactly perfect, but apart from the paint job they seem to work quite well...

Thanks Mark.

Thermopylae 3 - The Battle

This battle gave me a number of alternatives. One was to try for an accurate portrayal of a three battle. As my Persian army is hardly the most accurate and neither is the terain I thought.. well, better to get the feel and the look of the battle right...

OK, first thing to change - Hollywood has a Spartan as the traitor who told Xerxes about the mountain path, the Greeks said he came from Trachinian... and Xerxes was on a throne, not in his chariot. So I used a spare Spartean figure as the traitor. The Immortal escort is one of the original type of Garrison Immortal - I don't really like this figure because the spear is very fragile and rarely lasts long.

This is the Phocian contingent guarding the Greek end of the mountain path. Never happy with this idea - if it was just a goat track then it should have been as guardable  as the original pass. So perhaps they simply had too many passes to cover. Or it was simply too late to stop the Persians because they were too far away from the exit when the Persians surprised them.

This is the Persian outflanking force heading for the path. They were in position by dawn of day 3 and would surprise the Phocians.

And here the Phocians finally see the Persians.

 

Told by a runner that the Persians were coming most of the Greek army retreated leaving behind a rearguard consisting of the Spartans, Thespians and a few others, including some Thebans.

Here the Spartans are holding off fresh Persians attacks while in the left rear you can see more Persians heading for the path.

The Greeks/Spartans retreated to a hill as the Persian outflanking force approached - here, Persians are starting to stream through the pass to continue attacks on the Spartans.

The main Greek army makes good it's escape.

While Persians from the pass start to encircle the Greek rearguard...

And the Greek army makes good it's escape...

And the Phocians retreat to a hill of their own expecting to be attacked...

But the Persians just fire a few arrows at them and continue towards the Spartans...

I have made a natural assumption that the Persians from the pass would start their encirclement before the Immortals arrived. So here the Spartans and other Greeks can be seen on their hill, while Persians coming through the pass gradually surround the hill. Meanwhile the Immortals can be seen in the background as can the Phocians on their hill!

Xerxes finally comes off his hill to watch the end.

The Immortals and a load of others from the outflanking force have now joined the encirclement while the Phocians have decided it might be a good idea to leave.

The Spartans and their friends are now completely surrounded. The Geeks had defended a wall in the pass and this hill is described as being behind the wall.

As Xerxes arrives.

Some Thebans were supposed to have stayed with the Spartans and then surrendered to the Persians. Xerxes ordered archers to shoot the rest of the Greeks down with arrows. Suppose I could have taken another picture with lots of Hoplite bases lying flat; decided against it.

There is something very satisfying about setting something like this up and then just moving figures - frankly, if I had tried to do it as an actual wargame it would have taken far too long and I doubt whether it would have been as enjoyable!