Minifigs Gallic army Review June 2026

 

With both my Garrison and Minifigs armies being sorted, I thought I'd do a Review for each then another one for the combined armies. I'll spread them out over a few days though...

Still got 8 chariots but now 3 45 strong warbands...

Close up of one of the warbands.

Side view of the army. The army has 20 cavalry and 54 light infantry. This army is pretty much surplus to requirements these days so is on my 'downscaling' list - the Garrison army is bigger and growing, this army was always an afterthought and won't be enlarged by me.

Gallic chariot force

I seem to have taken a long time to paint this lot. Still, there are six of them, usually do chariots in batches of three.

They have been done as line chariots/lower class nobility. Plainer horse furniture, side panels of chariots  painted to represent whitewash. The charioteer is the Gallic archer minus his bow.

This means I now have a total of nine chariots - three higher class, six slightly lower class warriors. Might do another six in the near future - that would give a goodly force of fifteen, should be enough for most purposes...

 

Starting Gallic chariots

 

First three cast using the SKT Celtic chariot ABS1. Horse is the classic GA1 general's horse - I'll probably use a plainer horse for future chariots. I'm anticipating another six after these.

I'd always thought ABS1 looked huge and originally intended to scratch build. Then I cast an ABS1 to get ideas about the sides, put my half built chariot next to it, and realised that, if I simply slightly modified the chariot pole and moved the yoke closer to the cab body, ABS1 would be better! So scrubbed the scratch build.

GAC1 Cavalryman with spear and shield and cloak unarmoured

 

GAC1 Cavalry figure with a GA1 Mounted general/officer/noble in command and converted standard bearer.

At some stage I'll do another of these units, possibly including some figures converted to swordsmen.

Not often that I go for a back view, but the use of paint pens makes a big difference on how I do cloaks (and shields!)

I would expect to do at least one other unit based on this figure, possibly including some sword wielding conversions. This figure also makes a good infantry conversion, again probably including swordsmen conversions.

Gallic (Hykranian?) cavalry

Based on GAC4, Cavalry standard bearer, this lot would make nice fantasy cavalry! 

 

The cavalry are simple conversions - officer is the standard bearer with the standard cut down and hammered into a sword, the other ranks just had the top of the standard cut away and the end hammered and cut into a spear point.

The standard bearer can also be simply converted into infantry giving useful variations for the infantry with 'horned head dress'

Gallic light javelins

 First, quick reminder of what day it is. We owe a lot of servicemen and it's only right to make a big thing of it. Thank you.

Simple conversion of GAC2 - Cavalryman with javelin and shield, unarmoured. Left foot bent forwards and stuck on a base... I can live with the thin legs.

I'll probably 'need' a couple more of these units as well as a couple of units of them as light cavalry. Paint pens are a major boon when it comes to doing the cloaks and shields!

Slings and Arrows...

GA8, Infantry with bow unarmoured (plus GA3 officer!). A few of these were mixed in with the warband units so I've painted up some extras and made a unit of them.

I did convert this figure into Scythians, then decided it was just as good using them as is and letting paint mask the differences!. Seems to work OK.

Next lot are an unintended conversion. GA4, Infantry spear and shield. Except on a lot of them the tops of the spears kept breaking...

As the result reminded me of a sling, and as there wasn't a slinger in the range, bit of green stuff to bulk out the bottom of the spear shaft... I now have two 12 strong units of slingers...

Comparison between the original and the conversion. It works well and, if used for Ancient Brits, one I'll probably finish up making more of...

Minifigs 'S' Range Barbarians

 Having a quick look though Rick's blog Notitia Metallicum I realised that I don't really do justice in the area of figure identification/listings. One set I could include the Barbarian side of the 'S' Range - I've done a lot on Greeks, Persians, Egyptians and Assyrians, nothing on the Barbarians. Mainly because they're not painted.

One reason for this is that I have PB Range (though S chariots!), Garrison and Airfix armies already. Most of these are ex-Harry, some were originally mine as part of my 70s Successor armies, passed on to Harry, then came home when I acquired Harry's collection!

However, I do have a load of S Range infantry lying around, even a few I undercoated grey a long time ago!

Now, it's worth noting these are Minifigs. Most of my ids could be wrong... Minifigs would produce several figures with the same code (sometimes at the same time) and some S Range figures transitioned without change into the PBs Range!

AF1s Frank Axemen Advancing - I'm publishing these in the order they sorted themselves on my hard drive rather than catalogue order.

AG1s Gaul heavy Spearman Advancing. The first figure I take to be an early version, the second figure is S Range 'cos it's shown in the picture in the catalogue...

AG2s Gaul Standard Bearer. This is an early version. You will see a different standard bearer in the chariot - that could be later S Range, could be PB...

AG10s Hun Archer... It's Minifigs, don't ask!

AG11s Gaul Heavy Spearman, early version. Later version could well be the back figure listed as AG1s of course - there's no number on the base.

AG12s. The one on the right has the code on the base (as AG12), the other one is assumed to be a variant.

AG13s Gaul Spearman (Ancient Briton) - id assumed but there is a worrying spike on the shield rather than just a boss.

AGC1s Gaul Lancer - assumed it's the lancer, not the javelinman! Early one piece casting. My two piece casting of Minifigs Gauls all seem to be PB Range figures.

AGC4s Gallic Chariot. Ex Harry, chariot painted by me, no idea who painted the PB Range crew.

APt1s and 2s, Pict Spearman Advancing and Pict Archer, Kneeling Firing.

Makes sense to include a catalogue page with this!