Sassanid size comparison

 Some time ago I was asked how compatible Garrison Sassanids were with Lamming and Hinchliffe. Well, finally got round to sorting it.

First, though, just to mention I've finished my second Garrison unit. At the moment I'm working on a load of 'S' Range one piece castings.

So this is the comparison. Garrison, then Lamming, then Hinchliffe. As their Konti are not integral I've chopped their tops off. As can be seen they are all compatible though the Lamming rider is a bit shorter.

As I've mentioned before Garrison did produce masters for a 20(ish)mm Sassanid clibinarius. The horse of this is more or less compatible with the final 25mm horse, but the rider is much smaller.

Hinchliffe Persian Guard cavalry.

This lot date from the days when I used to paint eyes on figures. They were the premier unit in my Persian army for a number of years.

Individually based and, sadly, only eight of them.

I think it's one of my better painted units.

Again, wire spears not my favourites. The spear points and butt pomegranates were represented by a blob of paint .

Although I've mentioned the fact that I painted eyes on the figures, strangely I didn't paint them on the horses!

Some Grant Byzantines

Not many of these, but beautifully painted...

A total of 21 archers including a standard bearer who's lost his standard.

Strangely these figures have nearly blue coloured bases like some of the Persians - no idea why.

5 more nicely painted figures.

The faces actually have character!

And finally a couple of Roman ballistae - 'normal' green bases.

One weird thing... list of followers seems to have gone from my blog again!

A few 'forgotten' Persians...

As in, they weren't in the display cabinet and I found them when I was sorting the Byzantines...

These are really well painted figures.

I didn't get a good shot of the standard - quite a nice bull's head.

The 'army' itself was still set up so I've rearranged things to get a decent shot - I'll also retrospectively include this picture in the original posting!

And then I'll start taking a few pictures of the Byzantines as originally intended!

Grant Hinchliffe Persian army Review

'My' Grant collection doesn't include all his figures, it just includes Hinchliffe Persians and some Byzantines plus Garrison Persians and Greeks - quite a  lot I don't have, mainly the Assyrians, obviously Byzatines and (I assume) Sassanids - but includes enough so that  over the next few days I should be able to include a few more Grant 'Reviews'.

In all, these are quite a substantial force in their own right.

This out-of-place shot is because a unit was left off the original photo shoot - so I've added this one to update things!

Right wing cavalry - the heavy cavalry in the middle of the back row are actually Sassanids rather than Achaemenids, so good job I just put the title as 'Persian'. And also, together with having some Byzantines, the reason I feel he must have had a full Sassanid army...

Chariots and infantry - nothing else to say that hasn't already been said about these.

And finally20 left wing light cavalry.

'Ancient Battles for Wargamers' figures.

Apart from a lot of the figures in The Ancient Wargame I also have some of the figures that 'inspired' some of the artwork in Ancient Battles for Wargamers. In this post I'm just going to concentrate on that aspect - I'll go over the bulk of the figures later.

This is the 'official' list I've got of the figures and what they represent - from a list provided by Harry.

This one seems to be a pretty close match to the illustrations.

Again, you can see the resemblance between the two.

Can't say that I'm as certain about the resemblances between any of the Immortal figures and illustrations, but these seem to be the closest!

I don't usually  post illustrations direct from books, and note that the book is copyright 1977 to Argus Books Ltd. Less than 5% of the book is published here under fair useage for purposes of Education/Research

'The Ancient War Game' cover figures.

Although most of the figures in the book are Garrison, the cover features a load of 'new' Hinchliffe figures. Happily, those figures have been part of my own collection for a number of years...

The cover includes 3 units: chariots, open order Immortal archers and close order Immortals.

There are 3 chariots on the cover - no idea which ones from the photo.

Well, apart from this one, which is pretty obvious...

Frontal view of 3 of the others...

Back view of the other 3.

There are 30 Immortal archers on open order bases - though these were based by Harry, not Grant.

30 close order Immortals - I'll do other units as this series continues.

(Posted before but probably still best to include a picture of the cover):

I've started more units of Xerxes army; that series will intersperse with these over the next ??? or so.

Cyrus repaired

Ages ago I posted about dropping my 'original' 1975 Hinchliffe/Lamming 'Cyrus in a chariot.'  Can't find find the post now, or the pictures of the damaged chariot - think they must have been lost back when all my pictures started randomly vanishing from the blog.

However... I have finally gotten round to fixing it...

This is a picture of Cyrus before he was broken. Old and even then showing some signs of wear - the whip held by the charioteer was already broken. Actually Cyrus is virtually out of view behind the charioteer - too busy reviewing troops to be bothered about photos.

Repaired version - new whip, new reins, though vestige of the old reins still there - just looks like extra harness.

Front view shows deliberate armour differences. I've given Cyrus larger, flashy Nouveau-rich armour plates while the Mede charioteer has a more sophisticated armour using smaller plates.

And another view. In deference to the original the base has simply been flocked.

It's one of those times when I've got lots of stuff to post. Just bought some more unpainted figures from Harry, plus some interesting painted chariots - so 2 posts there - plus finished the second Athenian hoplite unit, plus more Garrison Persian cavalry... so hopefully I'll be putting out a post a day for several days! The future is also a bit crowded. I think I'll do a Thermopylae scenario, and I've got 2 firm and 2 ideas for Newhaven. Should be a crowded Spring, especially as I also hope to do more Army Review type pieces.

PB8s Greek Mercenary Hoplite

Never liked this figure - difficult to put them in two ranks.

These are the original PB range, back whgen they were still considered to by part of the 'S' Range. I had 2 units of these, the first unit is... somewhere... these belong to the second lot I painted up. Doubt whether these will ever see action again but might 'copy' some of the shield patterns. Officer and standard bearer are Hinchliffe.

Meanwhile, as far as current painting goes - about 50 later hoplites being painted, about the number cast and ready. My second melting pot has now been repaired and returned so I decided to use up the metal in it - now, should be the same composition metal as I'm using now, but casts much easier - so I'm going through some of my harder to cast figures. Sorted loads of early Achaemenids for painting.

So, should be done with casting in next couple of days.

Continuing with Macedonians

A few posts ago I mentioned that some of 'my' Macedonians and Egyptians were getting a bit neglected. Well, the Egyptians still are, but at least I'm doing something about the Macedonians...

Firstly, quick photos/poor lighting, sorry about the quality.

This shot shows the non-Harry phalanx units. The front row includes the main Garrison converted units. The back row includes rehashed Hinchliffe (1974ish?), early Minifigs from about 1970, the initial batch of Garrison conversions, then a couple of small units of (presumed) Warrior phalangites.

Until the madness of buying all Harry's figures, the three Garrison phalanx units were intended to be the main component of my 'modern' Macedonian/Successor force, and it was planned to have another 'line' unit. Back in the 70s I tended to cut down the length  of my pikes for easier use. That pike length has been retained for these figures. Thus the front figure, acting as a Successor/elite phalangite, is simply the G16 Boeotian hoplite with a slightly longer pike. Chances are I would have made more of these as Successors. The blue helmeted lot are the line phalangites, bringing up the rear the newly painted Asian Pantodapoi. I'll also probably use them as Egyptian phalangite though! This figure is quite basic but does the job - it's a conversion of G3, the hoplite wearing the Corinthian helmet.

The Elites have naturally been given a more ornate shield design than the rest.

One thing I'm trialling with the phalagites. Due to the sheer numbers of the things I have - about 300 here and probably about the same useable number from Harry - I'm trying out putting some figures 3 deep on 60mm deep bases. Should leave movement and setting up easier, meanwhile I still have more than enough on single depth bases for other small scale uses.

The Hinchliffe figures previously mentioned have been 'standardised' to a degree. Basically, the white pike unit has been slightly repainted to fit in with the others and put together as a 48 strong phalanx. As these originated the 'short' pike, probably should have appeared earlier.

Some old Greeks

And Macedonians, Thracians and Successors...

These are some of my (mainly) 1970s figures that have yet to be updated to the element-based system. In fact, although many have been repainted since then, some are still in mid-70s paint schemes.

These figures are Minifigs PB Range late Republican Romans serving as Seleucid 'Imitation Legionaries'. At this moment in time I could do with a load more of them to build up an army to plug a gap in that period...

Over the years I've had a lot of Companion cavalry; these are not the earliest, probably late 70s, the General being earlier. Element based by the simple expedient of gluing 3 individually based figures  to a larger base. No, I can't remember why some have red crests, some black - could be that I simply didn't get round to overpainting the black ones red?

In the late 70s most of my figures were being bought from Bill Lamming. I got an army of Sassanids, liked the cataphract figure, and bought a few extra to replace my Successor EHC figures.

I now have quite a substantial force of Thracians acquired from several sources - and all this Minifigs PB Range figure. These are my original mid-70s from my original Macedonian/Seleucid force. Yes, they are looking a bit the worse for wear, but then they've been campaigning for 40 years.

PB Cretan archers and Greek slingers, again in mid 70s livery. In those days I used to flock bases - the flock has faded quite a bit over the years. I should say, the remaining flock has faded.

The staff slingers are a later addition to the army but I have no idea when I bought them.

Another part of the early army - I didn't like the PB Successor light cavalry so bought these Hinchliffe versions to replace them.