The late and early hoplites both being on the same mould naturally means that producing one results in making more of the other - so now a full G3 unit.
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| Starting to get together a reasonably sized force of this figure. |
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| I thought 'might as well get the octopus thing over with' |
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| An extra command element means I can field them as two units instead of one. |
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| I've gone for a lot of blue for these - keep thinking green might have been better to match with the shields. |
That's what a lot of people were thinking.
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| It was a quiet day on the outskirts of a little town in Germany, the only sounds being from the guns of some hunters shooting away next to a small copse. |
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| The quiet was shattered as a large crack appeared in a field... the hunters and some of the townsfolk rushed to the gaping chasm to see what was happening... |
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| Suddenly a horde of giant, caterpillar-like creatures swarmed out of the pit and started to attack the assembled citizens... |
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| As the creatures swiftly overpowered and start devouring an unfortunate young lady the hunters manage to dispatch one. |
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| More of the creatures started to appear. |
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| The townsfolk flee in panic as another unfortunate succumbs to the monsters assault. |
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| As one of the hunters flees more of the monsters fall to the guns of the hunters |
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| Finally the monsters facing the hunters retreat back to the pit as others continue to feast on the two victims... |
And thus the first attack ended. Meanwhile news started to come in of more incidents throughout the world... the first skirmish was over but the war was just beginning...
Getting towards the end painting a 52 figure unit (1 x 48 plus extra command group so I can use it as 2 x 24) I thought it might be a good idea to post something about costings - especially as I plan on another two of this size units next.
OK, what are the separate elements that make up a figure's cost?
1) The cost of making the original master
2) The cost of making a mould
3) The cost of payment for time spent casting the figure
4) The cost of electricity, etc.
5) The cost of the metal used to produce the figure
Looking at these costs, the original master and mould are already made. As such, there is no further cost to me however many figures I make. As it's my hobby, I don't charge myself for my time. Again, I don't consider that there is a cost involved in this case.
That leaves two things that do cost money - and to be fair I have never really costed electricity. I suppose I could and should but...
Which leaves the cost of metal.
These figures weigh about 8g each. 1kg of metal therefore makes about 125 figures. Metal costs vary - I think my last lot cost a bit over £16 a kilo. If I allow an average of £20 though that would give a good allowance for other factors such as electricity and variable metal costs. That would make 16p per figure.
So that is what I finish up with - a 50 figure unit cost me about £8.
Which is pretty good compared to buying ready made figures!
(And yes, I fully accept the 'real' cost is a lot more - for example I reckon I need to make about 300 figure to 'recover' the cost of a mould - but those other costs have already been paid so they don't matter when looking at what I'm doing now!)
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.
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| Why not base them on Greek figures. |
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| Only issue is that none of the pictures have any of the Persian infantry wearing helmets - but why not? |
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| 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. |
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...
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| I've gone for a uniform look, all figures wearing the same red tunic and helmet crest and an octopus shield blazon. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
Two more buildings arrived to complete this tranche.
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| These are two separate buildings and add a couple of useful shops to the town. |
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| 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. |
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| One thing about these - the packages arrived with some of the best protection I've come across! |
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.
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| Ugly looking building this - not sure if this is the front or the back. Think I'll use it as the back. |
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| Which would make this the front... looks more 60s than 20s or 30s but it's fantasy so? |
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| A bit prettier and probably a lot more realistic for the period. |
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| Another block of flats - groups like these should be very useful in giving things a town look. |
