Cardace test painting

 Going back to my attempt to build up a late Achaemenid National Army, the main infantry figure should be the Cardace/Kardaka infantry. Recently I've been trialling a number of infantry types based on Persian figures - then I had an idea.

Why not base them on Greek figures.

Only issue is that none of  the pictures have any of the Persian infantry wearing helmets - but why not?

I still have the option to do a head swap of course - but my present thoughts are that a straight paint job seems to be enough to produce a reasonable Cardace infantry figure.

Wot? More hoplites?

 Well, yes. I did start doing a load of Persians, didn't like the colour scheme, did a few other things then got to doing hoplites. I suppose I must just like having a load of hoplites...

I've gone for a uniform look, all figures wearing the same red tunic and helmet crest and an octopus shield blazon.

It is known that soldiers in Persian armies were at least partially given clothes by the state - for the Cunaxa campaign Cyrus' forces were given red clothing, his brother Artaxerxes troops were dressed in white. I don't know how this worked - may just have been a cloak or a tunic.

I haven't painted these wearing a spolas - instead I've left them in plain tunics as per the mercenary Greek hoplites in Armies of the Macedonian Wars.

And bigger

Two more buildings arrived to complete this tranche.

These are two separate buildings and add a couple of useful shops to the town.

Though if I were to put them at the back of the table with the backs facing the front they could just as easily act as more flats.

One thing about these - the packages arrived with some of the best protection I've come across!

 

Making the town bigger

 Although I've now got quite a few 1/87th-1/76th buildings, most of them are more suitable for country use rather than towns. So at the moment I'm quietly building up the 'town' side of things.

Ugly looking building this - not sure if this is the front or the back. Think I'll use it as the back.

Which would make this the front... looks more 60s than 20s or 30s but it's fantasy so?

A bit prettier and probably a lot more realistic for the period.

Another block of flats - groups like these should be very useful in giving things a town look.

Ethereal jellyfish and a monolith

Continuing the Admins thread.

Probably going to do a load more jellyfish, might even do a couple more monoliths

 

Not sure what you call the body of a jellyfish - umbrella sounds right. Anyway, needs to be a chaotic colour scheme - not sure how well it achieves that.

Plain black monolith. Bit smaller than I would like but should do the job. Might do some of these in a more standard grey.

 

Nessie

Some of the ranges I acquired with Garrison were the various Admins ranges. Very quirky I know virtually nothing of their origins. They seem to be the result of more than one designer with different styles and abilities, some (many) are pretty useless, others I admit I really like. The AD range has two sea serpent types in it, I think this one is supposed to be the Loch Ness Monster - haven't checked to be sure.

A very simple 3 piece (or more, just add more sections) model.

Takes about 10 minutes to paint... though I suppose it would also suit a more careful and picturesque attempt.

I can see a few uses for this model!

A little town in Germay.

 The title is based on the John Le Carre novel A Small Town in Germany - it's just that I prefer my version!

It isn't meant to be any particular town and it wasn't set up for any particular reason - I just wanted to set up some of the things I've acquired recently and see what I could 'need' to improve things in future.

A view down the length of the table. I've still got a load more buildings but need quite a few others to make anything in the way of a substantial town - like, shops, industrial buildings and apartment blocks.

The current village showing elements of a British column complete with standard!

With a nice open area to the side.

A couple of scenarios do spring to mind with this setup, plus it's a long time since my last game, so...

Vickers Medium MkII

 As part of my latest Frontline order I included 3 Vickers Medium Mk11s. These are now part of my not-really Interwar Lovecraftian style army - most of the 20mm buildings I'm collected are from Germany, so the obvious thing is to 'base' things in an Interwar Germany partially occupied by the Alllied Powers.

I've followed my previous tactic of giving them fictitious markings that are nominally for a Guards Armoured Division.

The idea being that all the pictures of these things I can find seem to have no markings at all which is pretty boring.

This is an interesting picture. A Vickers Medium next to an Independent of the same Division. The impression you get is that these tanks are not to the same scale, that in fact the Idependent should be a lot bigger. It's just not tall enough. Until you look up the specification and find that, in reality, the Independent is a couple of inches lower that the Vickers!

Roads and Rivers

 Have also arrived from S&A Scenics.

This should be enough as far as large rivers go - gives me a total of 10'

Likewise roads - though I'll get some of the black road option later for towns.

Orders starting to arrive

Firstly, the Whippets and Medium Mk IIs from Tim Wade at Frontline - so happily he seems to be over his bout of Covid. These should be unpacked, assembled and been initially sprayed by the end of tomorrow.

 

Next, a load of 20mm MDF buildings from BanksJohnEdward on ebay - basic, but lots of them, cheap and suitable for the job.

Finally, not new arrivals, it's just that the Xmas decorations are now down so I'm getting back to painting Persians.

Happy New Year everyone!

Well, there's just two of us here today!

Meanwhile, a suckling pig earlier...

Not saying it was tender, but trying to transfer it to the carving tray!

Presentation may not be gourmet but it tasted good.

And it will provide a couple more meals.

 

All the best everyone.