Figures for mould just about ready.

Just a bit of tidying up needed on some of them.

I'm hoping to send these and the Napoleonic cavalry away by the weekend. That will leave another two moulds to be made later, say end of July/beginning August. I hadn't intended getting 6 moulds made this year!

My 'requirement' is about 100 Syrian archers. I might try and put another master of these on the mould.

The Lycians would need a 24 strong unit - if I go for an extra Syrian one of these would have to go. Putting a new spear on is a risk - could easily break off when the mould is being made. Being Bw rather than Ps I'll probably do an officer and standard bearer for the unit as direct conversions. In fact, just the standard Persian officer would be OK for the oifficer.

Already have my Milyae unit so probably won't do any of these for my own use. The sensible option would be to not do these on this mould but leave them for the next set of moulds! It would leave more space for an extra Syrian and Caspian or Arab without dropping a Lycian...

Change of tack with the 'Sarangian' - simply took the horse archer conversion and made it into a generic archer - not worried about high boots! To be fair, I have about three other archers already that could do this job... Initial 12 figures wanted but the figure will fit in other units anyway - as Sparabara or 4th Century 3Bw for instance.

Caspians, etc, so might do two or three units - max 36 figures? Still not really happy with this figure, one reason why I changed my mind over the Sarangian. For this reason I'm also trying the same as with the Sarangian - remove the bowcase, add a cloak, put quiver on the belt and use that as the Caspian, etc, type. I'll see which one I prefer when I bag everything up!

Arabs already got 12 so another 36 planned. Figure works, nothing else to say.

So will probably cast about 200 figures from this mould. Good job I'm doing this as hobby, that's 100 figures short of the mould being 'economic'.

Corps XXV - the Milyae

Not based yet - ran out of bases, waiting for new ones.

Another lot of individual conversions. It's quite satisfying really.

I finally went for an 'army list' 50:50 mix of spears and bows.

As per my limited modelling skills, no folds or details on the cloaks.

A comparison between the two figures and the base figure - just a logical extension of the old Garrison axe/spear alternatives on a figure.

Starting sculpts for Sarangians, Caspians, Pactyans...

...Utians, Mycians and Paricanians...

Ititial attempts - don't think any of these particular ones will make the mould! The figure is based on the Gallic archer GA8 with all previous details filed off.

Slightly blurry! The cloaked figure does as a Sarangian, just with very short knee length boots... the uncloaked figure serves as everything else.

The intention is to do a unit of each of these as direct conversions as well as a couple of the best of each to go on a mould. Most of the figures have been cast but yet to have green stuff added. However, a Milyae unit is nearly fully painted - just needs spear tips, touched up and varnished - plus a Scythian unit undercoated.

Trouble is, getting close to the point where I have to try and do some East Ethiopians, with a headdress made from the scalp of a horse with mane and ears left on, plus a shield made from a crane skin...

Some Arab archers and figures for moulds.

I'm reaching mould overload. Still getting on with converting figures for the Achaemenid Persians plus odd ones I hadn't originally considered. However, some of the figures are basically just adding cloaks - so, although making a mould for these, I'm also trying to do some of the initial units by simply adding cloaks to relevant figures... which reduces the number of figures on the mould as I don't need 'redundancy'.

The first unit were the Arabs. Long term I will be doing lots more - but the initial 12 figure unit for the Early Achaemenid army has been completed as individual conversions.

First Arab archer unit completed, complete with belted cloak.

It's almost a bit of mass production - do enough for the unit, plus the mould, plus allow for total failures!

This lot will be Milyae. The book says short spear with some armed with bows, army list gives 50:50 mix, I'll do mostly spears, few bows - as Ps, doesn't make a difference to factors. This will be the only unit needed but still going to put them on a mould. The conversion itself is a sanded down Greek peltast with a new arm - they are spear or bow depending which weapon I cut off! I'll admit my cloaks are a bit stiff and not really realistic as far as folds go, but they mostly look OK.

Getting on with the Lycians but still not totally happy with the spearman figure. However, the Greek archer figure looks good. I may or may not give the final Lycian unit an officer and standard bearer though these won't appear on moulds.

Getting together enough Holywood Philistines to sort a mould but... will also need figures to act as archers and as LMI/Sea People.... current thinking, not going to appear yet - enough cash being tied up for now, so will  be sorted later in the summer. The standard is from the Rose Egyptian standard bearer - in this case, pretending to be a golden bull. Again, if I do standards and archers they will be one-off conversions.

Syrian archers need to be sanded down and quiver added. For the Seleucids, the list includes LI, LMI and MI options with up to 50 each. If I cover the LI option with Arabs it leaves a 'requirement' ( :) ) for 100 or so Syrians.

Being silly, if I ever do an actual full Lybian army it needs up to 500 figures... I think the Libyans will also be on the late summer moulds to allow for an increased presence. This would really produce a unified Sea Peoples/Peleset/Philistine mould - will probably try for a head swap with the Rose Sherden figure to cover that side. The Achaemenids are already up to quota anyway. Most of the cloaks I'm putting on the left arm - the assumption is that heavy cloaks predated the use of shields for these figigues - hence my pose. However, the picture in Funken has the cloak on the right arm so...

So what about other options to work on? My Scythians/Saka  are already in the army, but only as Sparabara.  One thing I'll be doing is a unit of them as light infantry - the figures are already cast and have been for quite a while.  Meanwhile, as the bowcase is separate on this figure,  a head swap and quiver sets it up as a generic tunic/trousers archer for several armies - while adding a cloak would allow for Caspians... should be easy conversions.

What? - MORE 20mm Napoleonic cavalry?

Well... yes.

Problem with these is that the range was never a big issue originally when I was concentrating on the 25mm figures. Between that and the disruption caused when I moved sheds... looking for something else I found a few more figures...

At least three of them are original masters  and they also include both Prussian and Russian hussars... some duplicates of course but still enough for half a mould....

Original Garrison Suggestions

In the days before Paul Ashton decided to relinquish control of Garrison he had stated he was considering reissuing and possibly extending the 20mm range - mainly because Harry Pearson and I were, well, pressurising him a bit... So, anyway, at that point I started looking at possible  'new' figures and produced this... don't really know how I've got it, it was drawn up for Paul, but anyway...

Of course, once I got control of Garrison myself the floodgates opened - but that (2) is very similar to the final version of my universal archer...

Some Persian horse archers

OK, the cavalry mould is still proving a pain... but the horse archers are doing well. The first unit is now painted - and though I hadn't particularily intended more I might finish up basing more as cavalry for early armies... might even do a couple more as light cavalry units and designate them as Parthian...

I did a couple extra because I wanted to compare two different styles of tunic - the (earlier period) spotty version and the later one with the broad stripe down the centre of the tunic. However, a quick look at the Osprey 'The Persian Army 560-330BC' by Nick Sekunda and Simon Chew suggested plain tunics so... I left them plain!

So this is the horse archer with a plain tunic.

At this point it's perhaps worth doing a comparison. The two on the left are the original javelin/bow/shield armed figure. Next to that one with two javelins/short spears and the horse archer. These are the only figures that 'made the cut' onto production moulds though the double-armed javelin/bow figure is on a Tiranti mould.

Another view. A simple arm swap produces a very effective conversion!

 Whenever I do conversions of this type I keep thinking ' how much more could Greenwood and Ball have achieved with this range'. I've probably more than doubled the total number of Garrison 20mm Ancient figures with relatively little effort - don't know why Greenwood and Ball themselves didn't do some of these back in the 70s!

A Vollmer church

As the various Faller/Vollmer buildings seem to work well I'm continuing to look out for reasonably cheap second hand items. My main aim is to avoid have to spend lots of time building kits so I'm only looking at ready built models.

Shown here with three different nominal scales of figures - 20mm, 25mm and 28mm. 28mm won't fit all that well, others look good.

The model itself is quite a bit larger than the others and looks quite impressive.

These models will, I hope, have three uses: Napoleonic 20mm, WW2 and 20mm Pulp. Obviously some items will be of use with only one or two of these - modernish industrial items not a lot of use with Napoleonics for instance... but that church will fit all three nicely. Certainly for pulp I look for two main centrepieces for games - a decent church and a decent hall/mansion/castle/university building.

Somewhere in Germany 3

Bit of a difference with this game over the Greek/Persian one which lasted 3 moves!

In the infantry shoot out, both sides having problems. However, the French Chasseurs are learning.

On the French right, the guns have arrived and the Carabiniers have seen off (destroyed) the surviving Landwehr - left here as the route goes in every direction - I diced to see who the Carabiniers would 'follow'.

Infantry on the Prussian right are having reverses on both sides - but the French are coming worse off.

An overview shows that the French, having two cavalry squadrons across the river and guns in position, are starting to gain the upper hand.

At this point the Prussian left is looking very shaky.

The centre is definitely going Prussia's way...

With the cavalry threat on the Prussian right the infantry are forced to form square...

Despite being shot at by two guns and charged by the Carabiniers the Prussian left flank gun survives!

At this point the game had finished 17 moves! As most standard 'days' are around 12 moves, and as this battle was far from finished, I decided that the best option was to say that night had fallen. During the night the Prussians quietly slipped away... on balance, probably just a French win - they had a foothold on the Prussian side of the river - but the Prussians had held them up and left with most of the army intact.

Lots learnt from it. Obvious ones  - the French needed an extra infantry battalion, I should possibly increase movement rate of limbered artillery, plus it might be an idea to sort some formal rules regarding squares. I made no use of the buildings in this game - again, perhaps I should sort out some rules for that. The river made a big impact but the rules there worked pretty well - those lancers were going back and forth like a yo yo as they 'broke' and routed under fire, but kept coming back as there were no negative factors around to stop them rallying - perhaps I need to limit the number of rallies?

Somewhere in Germany 2

This game is taking a bit longer than the Persian one.... and is far more about positional warfare rather than straight up-and-at-em. Completely different type of game.

Starting with French cavalry attacks across the river.

The Carabiniers succeeded...

Chasseurs not so...

So as the artillery slowly wends it's way forward, the Carabiniers break through and it looks like the Lancers are up for another go...

So now it's time for the Prussians to try a cavalry atack across the river...

Which didn't work either. However, the day's gaming ended with the Prussian Landwehr in square because of the greater threat by the cavalry - the French have a foothold on the Prussian bank of the river...

Somewhere in Germany.

This game is the result of three things. Firstly, most of the battlefield is still set up. Secondly, I wanted to see how my latest building aquisitions looked in a battlefield situation. Finally, I wanted to give the Napoleonics an outing (and see how well my modified DBX rules work. Actually I use the factors and elements of DBX but it's pretty much my own set apart from that!) . Two things with that - the building are pretty much obviously German, so French facing Prussians was the only real choice - the Austrian force at the moment consists of 1 gun - and also the French are going to regret being an infantry battalion or two short...

At the start the Prussians are defending a shallow river line while a unit of Hussars keeps watch from a nearby hill. The ford can be crossed at half speed without need of a dice roll, the rest of the river is based on half speed but need of a dice roll. The buildings look good so pleased with that.

French cavalry approaching, Hussars head back to their own lines via the ford. To be honest, don't really know why I bothered having them on the hill to start with.

Ford reached. Note the Prussian battalion straddles the road leaving a gap for the gun to fire down the road - I use a flexible 'yes, they are units but elements can be used independently' system - allows individual companies to be given a separate task.

French cavalry reach a point where they turn off to start forming a battle line.

At this point the French Grenadiers had a slight mishap. Easily solved with a touch of glue but... is it an evil portent for the French?

Here the French right wing cavalry are heading to face the Prussian Landwehr taking fire from the Prussian artillery - no effect. Meanwhile, the French artillery are moving up very slowly - it will take a while for them to get in place and I'm currently wondering about how this will affect the final outcome.

While the French Chasseurs and line infantry start taking up their positions for an assault across the river. I keep thinking about a Prussian Hussar spoiling attack on those line infantry... Also, note only 2 trees suggesting this is move 2 - after move 5 I started again on the grounds I was unlikely to get confused between photos of move 1 or move 6! That use of tree markers to help photo identification works really well.

And that is where I'm up to at the moment.

Later Persian heavy cavalry

Basically just a standard Greek cavalryman with painted trousers and sleeves... suppose a head swap conversion would be practical but helmet works, even if it is technically an obsolete form.

Current intention is to do one unit on half armoured horses and a further three on unarmoured horses. Add this to a few light cavalry units would be a good basis for a late army - already got plenty of Greek infantry and up to 100 javelin/bow/shield infantry will   give a good 1981 WRG force!

Apart from the HC unit I also painted a general's element on half armoured horses.

These figures had already been primed ages ago - seemed like a good idea to paint them with the others. For the body armour I painted on scales using natural steel - which doesn't seem to show up on photos!

The unit is just a line cavalry unit and I painted it in a very plain colour scheme with no frills.