What do I do with these?

This little lot were part of the mass of figures I bought off Harry. Harry gives a brief history of this interesting part of the trove - some archers were used 'as is', some I repainted, some Nubian archers were used in units mixed with a load I bought elsewhere and either used 'as is' or painted to match, leaving this lot.

Trouble is, these spearmen are too interesting to repaint plus don't fit in with any of my 4 Divisions.  Perhaps I'll put them on green bases and incorporate them into my Persian army. Another possibility would be to use them in the Ptah Division. after all.

 The shield patterns are interesting.

The archers I just can't think of a use for at all! One quirky feature of these figures is a white line running down the front of the nose. Another  quirky feature of the unit as far as I am concerned is that I use this figure as either a Pharaoh or as officers. So quite a strange unit.

Ptah Division - a work in progress.

Mirroring the Egyptians themselves I'm placing my Egyptian army in 4 Divisions. The Amun Division has already been covered. Ptah is actually the 4th Division and I've put it as the 'levy and Nubians' Division. Originally they were supposed to have just a standard chariot unit but that could have meant leaving the Pharaoh a bit light. On that basis, Pharaoh took the 1st Chariot unit, all the others got bumped up a Division and Ptah finished up with nothing. Seemed too good an opportunity to miss - so Kushite Pharaoh/subordinate King plus Kushite chariot unit painted up.

The Division is quite a bit bigger than this - these are just the recently based or painted units. Most of the rest are finished but not quite accessible at the moment - it's a decorating thing.

The newly painted bits are the Kushite subordinate King (well, at least until 745BC) and the Division's chariot force.

 

  

Every Division has a unit of cavalry 'scouts'. In the case of the Ptah Division  they are mounted on Garrison horses.

 

And the main infantry force consists of Nubian/Kushite archers. Being the last unit based, these are the 'poorer' painted/condition figures in the Division. Others include this lot.

 

Some for the future

Apart from figures bought for a specific purpose I'm also collecting some for future use. These are a couple of units bought off ebay that are not completely assigned to an army.

This lot are Palmyran cataphracts. I'm looking for Successor cataphracts but these do at a push. They will probably appear as Parthians, Late Romans and Byzantines in the future. I doubt that they will be repainted - they look OK as they stand.

Talking about Byzantines...  these will need repainting. In fact, another unit from the same source is in the Dettol already. A generic Byzantine/Late Roman force is on my 'to do ' list but will need more figures.

Mede General

Starting to sort out the mass of 'S' Range Persians it seems churlish not to use the Mede component as a Mede army in it's own right. And armies need generals so...

Running short on Minifigs chariots I decided to use a Garrison Successor scythed chariot (sans scythes) as the basis. Garrison Persian chariot wheels, Minifigs generic 'S' Range chariot horses and a couple of converted Medes as General and charioteer.

Please don't laugh at the rather strange face on the winged lion, I did my best :)

The Ahura Mazda doesn't look too bad though.

I like the enclosed back of the chariot cab. Wish I'd used this chariot cab more often.

Pages update

Says it all really - I've had a blitz and added a load of old catalogue pages to the Pages section of the blog.

Philistine DBA (Plus a few extras)

I've spent the last week or so painting up some of my stripped Philistine infantry to form a DBA army. As I prefer to make complete units it means I also have a few 'extra' figures completed.

Using DBA 2.2 lists, I/29(b), the army reads as 1 x LCh (Gen), 1 x LCh, 6 x 4Sp, 2 x 3Ax, 2 x 2Ps.

My chariots and ox cart have already appeared on the blog.

Spears are A.Ph. 1s Philistine spearmen with shields painted plain bronze. I used the same figure for the 3Ax but simply gave them mainly hide shields.

The archers are A.Ph 2s Philistine Archer. No A.Ph.3s Philistine Officer - not aware of it being produced though I have a couple of Spearmen  conversions still in the Dettol.

This is my current complete army with the exception of a 4 element unit of Cv I painted back in the 70s - army list Philistines and Sea Peoples don't have cavalry so they are currently being neglected.

I've still got a load of figures in Dettol - these will mostly be painted and based as 3Bd for armies I/28 Sea Peoples and I/29(a) earlier Philistines. For the Sea Peoples armies I'll need some Sherden as 4Bd. There isn't an 'S' Range figure though I have a few later EA Range ones. However, what I intend doing is use it as an excuse to paint up some of my Rose Sherden.

Philistine ox cart

Working on my usual practice of several projects at the same time, my Philistine army has a new addition.

At the moment I only have this one, though I do have another cart sans oxen. Could do with a couple more though.