A Sassanid elephant Corps

Not really Sassanid... Carthaginian elephant, Vanha mahout, Achaemenid Persian howdah crew... except for Sassanid command groups. With all these Sassanid elephants and only a small Lamming Sassanid army for them to join I suppose I'm going to have to start a 25mm Sassanid army!

Arranged in two squadrons which I will call - the Gold squadron and the Silver squadron.

The Gold squadron is my least favourite, mainly because of the poor covering qualities of the gold paint. Two coats and still not right!

I also prefer how well the motif on the side of the howdah came out!

The original idea was to produce models that would do as both Sassanid or 'fantasy' Achaemenids. The howdah crew look as much like 70s Sassanids figures as Persian. However, for the Persians I had cast an 'extra' elephant which will be given archers from the 25mm Persian chariot and possibly a Macedonian mahout. After that, I've got four elephants to join the Vanha army to complement the mammoths.

Some very nice fantasy figures painted by Steven

 While I've just doing chain saw - burn, chain saw - burn recently, Steven has been working on some fantasy figures - very nicely painted. They appear to have uploaded in reverse order but that doesn't make any difference! Comments appreciated.

'I have been painting some non-WW2 figures and finished the last one yesterday. Tried to do a decent job on them, but as always, the photos don't really show them as well as I would hope.

They are all 3D-printed 32mm figures from a company called We Print Miniatures. They do an offer of three random miniatures for a tenner https://weprintminiatures.com/products/3-miniatures-mystery-box-2021 . I decided to give it a whirl and see what I got. Pretty pleased with the figures - would consider doing it again.

One thing I have tried is a technique called non metallic metals (http://razzaminipainting.blogspot.com/2016/07/non-metallic-metals.html) . Not a single drop of metallic paint touched any of these figures. Just the cyberpunk warriors buzz-saw arm took about three hours to paint. Imagine that - three hours to paint one arm!

I will work on the Sengoku figures you got for my birthday next. I was going to do some Germans next, but I ordered some paints for them which should have arrived over a week ago, but they are experiencing supply chain issues, because of course they are.'

 

 

 

Xerxes army - Cavalry Corps/lists

 This list will be added to the Pages Marines post and heading changed;

Corps I Persians and Sagartians, II Meded, III Kashites

Simply the Persian cataphract mounted on unarmoured horses. I have lots of Persian heavy cavalry. As yet, I don't have any Garrison Sagartians. I have time.

Corps IV Indians

This figure is normally painted in medium flesh tones as Egyptian horse archers and are basically my universal archer body on cavalry legs. Except now I've found the Arab camel post...

Corps V Bactrians (and Sacae?)

Bactrian cavalry were armed with a bow and short spear - converted from the J/Bw/Sh light cavalry figure.

Corps VI Caspians, VII Paracanians

Similar to the Bactrians but without the short spear and wearing cloaks.

Corps VIII Arabs (Camel Corps) 

Same figure as I used for the Indian cavalry but mounted on camels. I considered using two riders per camel as per the book but decided against it - as stated ' more usual will have been one rider/one camel.

Xerxes army - Marine Corps/lists

 There are a few major differences between the infantry and marine forces. Firstly, sheer numbers. That will be obvious from the first picture. Secondly, equipment. Over half the marine units are equipped in  'Greek' costume. 

So, size. Let's start with a maximum. If Xerxes had 1,200 ships with 40 marines on each, the absolute maximum number of marines available would be 48,000 marines. In other words, about the equivalent of 5 elements in 'my' version of the army's organisation - 6 elements per Corps so that in a 'full strength' Corps each element represents 10,000 men, each figure a nominal 2,500 men. Where elements only have 2 figures, OK, it's an understrength Corps. Made life a lot easier when putting the army together! In the picture showing the whole army I've given them 4 elements. Shown by that little group on the front of the left flank...

Corps III Cyprus, V Pampylia, VII Caria, VIII Asian Greeks, IX Aeolia Greeks, X Pontus

I've started with the 'Greek' Corps because they represent over half the total, 6 out of the 10 Corps being equipped as Greeks. They probably wouldn't all be equipped as hoplites - Aeolians, for instance, I suspect would be more like psiloi or peltasts. The above units show my Carian hoplites on the right flank, then my original 1970 unit of Asiatic Greeks, then 2 units that came from Harry.

Corps I Phoenicians

Another one of Harry's units, Carthage being a colony of the Phoenicians I've used the Garrison Carthaginians to represent this Corps.

Corps II Egypt

Another of my original units from 1970. I admit I like this unit. The standard is by Minifigs.

Corps IV Cilicia

According to the book, the Cilicians wore the same costume as figure 20. Figure 20 is a shield design... but figure 41 is listed as Cilician dress. According to Herodotus they were armed with 2 short javelins, an Egyptian pattern sword and small shield.

Corps VI Lycia

One of my conversions, Greek armoured archer with Persian officer head and Greenstuff goatskin cloak. I also did a figure with a spear but it didn't cast well!

Corps VII Carians

OK, I covered these earlier but I like the Hollywood look. Carians had a cockerel standard - they had red helmet crests so that was their nickname!

Again, I'll put this lot on Pages for permanent display and add the cavalry list to it when I get round to them.

Xerxes army - infantry Corps/lists

During a discussion with my son Steven I found out that there wasn't really a list of the Greek Wars Persian army list. My own Xerxes army series didn't really help - the army reviews and unit posts I did didn't really do the job so I've decided to put the whole lot together. This one deals with the infantry, I'll do a marines and cavalry one later. I'm also putting them all on Pages so they'll be more readily available in the future.

So this is the infantry set up. Individual Corps may not match exactly... Some of these Corps are from figures that I have a number of different units for! Starting bottom right are Corps I -X, second row Corps XI - XX, back row XXI to XXX.

I've taken my list from Armies of the Greek and Persian Wars. Note that in one of the other posts I mention that the arithmetic went a bit wrong in this book!

I have also used this - for example, I've got lots of Garrison spear/bow/shield figures, Herodotus doesn't give units like the Bactrians shields, Hignett suggests some units may have had so I've used that option! Note that a lot of other units may have different costumes - Garrison Phrygians are used, for example, as well as Garrison versions of Assyrians.

 

Corps I, the Immortals

I have quite a few Immortal units. Rather than using Spara I have given most of these units the violin shaped shield - looks a lot more 'Old School'. Actual Corps in the army Review were fixed by me as 6 element units rather than more 'accurate' Herodotus figures. But as I said, these pictures represent the Corps rather than the army shown in the heading! I didn't do separate pictures of each Corp when I did the original Review photo.

Corps II Persians

OK, when Minifigs did their S Range this style of headgear was given to the Medes rather than the Persians. However, the book and various reliefs, etc, say that this was the Persian headdress. Apart from the Immortals each Corp was supposed to be 60,000 strong - unlikely for most of them!

Corps III Medes

Another Corps of robed figures - these are all conversions, base figure being the Persian officer figure or Assyrian sp/b/sh figure I've used for Corps VI.

 Corps IV Kashites (Cissians)

These figures are almost a rarity in this army - unconverted original Garrison! Well, the shields stuck in the ground are conversions...

Corps V Hyrkanians

For the Hyrkanians I went for my 'universal archer' conversion... which is actually a lash up of 5 different figures!

Corps VI Assyrians and Chaldeans.

Another unconverted figure. Not exactly equipped as per Herodotus.

Corps VII Bactrians and Sacae

There are quite a few Corps wearing Bactrian type outfits so I've used Sakae to represent this Corps. I converted these from the Ancient British archer but then often just used the original figure with a more Scythian looking paint job.

Corps VIII Indians and East Ethiopians

Another conversion, represented by Indians. The original mould was made to form the basis of an Indian army - then I acquired a Minifigs Indian army and this project was quietly dropped. As a result this is my only Garrison Indian unit.

Corps IX Arians, X Parthians and Chorasmians, XI Sogdians, XII Gandarians and Dadicae

These are the same as the Bactrians. Mostly represented by Garrison Sp/B/Sh Persians but including some shieldless conversions, including some bow armed.

Corps XIII Caspians

Let's see. This is a conversion of a conversion of a conversion... J/B/Sh light cavalry figure, this converted to a horse archer, horse archer put on a base (foot twisted to point forward), then cloak added...

Corps XIV Sarangae

One conversion earlier than the Caspians!

CorpsXV Pactyans, XVI Utians and Mycians, XVII Paracanians

If this looks familiar.... lots of Corps with basically the same costume - I just did slight costume variations and varied the number of figures per element...

 

Corps XVIII Arabians and Ethiopians

This lot are the Ethiopians - all conversions. I also use this figure for East Ethiopians.

And these are the Arabians - simply a cloak added to the universal archer conversion.

Corps XIX Libyans

My Libyans are based on earlier period Egyptian reliefs rather than Herodotus. My eventual intention is to cast and paint an army of Libyans. Eventually.

Corps XX Paphlagonians and Matieni

An original Garrison figure.

Corps XXI Ligyes, Mariandeni, Cappadocians

Same figure as Corps XX, just given a different paint job.

Corps XXII Arminians and Phrygians

According to Herodotus these should be the same as Corps XX and XXI but I've used the standard Garrison Phrygian. I've got quite a few of these figures lying around...

Corps XXIII Lydians and Mysians

So I've used some of them as Lydians.

Corps XXIV Thracians

Conversion of the Greek peltast complete with black tunic, tartan cloak and fox skin hat.

Corps XXV Pisidians, Cabalees,  Milyae

This lot represent the Milyae.

Corps XXVI Moschi and Tibareni, Corps XXVII Macrones and Mosnoeci

Simply the Sp/Bw/Sh Persian with bowcase removed and new shield.

Corps XXVIII Mares and Colchians

More shield variations!

Corps XXIX Alaodes and Saspires

And a slightly different size shield.

Corps XXX the Exiles

And finally a Corps that included some figures with 'proper' Spara!

Next job to do the marines and cavalry!