Carthaginian Generals

Glenn's army gets four stands of generals: three stands of subordinate commanders and one stand for the army's leader.

The three subordinate commanders are all from Aventine.  After painting all those enormous Renegade horses, I thought the Aventine horses looked a little puny, but they look nice once painted.

The overall commanders are from Relic, and these are some stunning figures.  I especially likes the peturges and the horse barding.

And that completes the Carthaginian army.  390 foot, 69 mounted, and 4 elephants.  It took me seven months, but it is done!

Yesterday I primed all the Romans, and today I have started painting them.  I figure the Romans should paint up much more quickly than the Carthaginians, whose various contingents forced me to break the army up into eight different sub-projects.  I can complete the Romans in one batch, or maybe two (one of cavalry and one of foot).  Glenn will be driving to my home to pick up the armies this summer, and I plan on making the deadline!

Carthaginian Elephants

The first thing everyone knows about the Second Punic War is Hannibal and his elephants.  Glenn decided on four elephants for his army, and these were impressive models.  They required a lot of assembly and some finesse with the five minute epoxy, but I think the results are worth it.

In addition to the elephant crew, each beast gets two runners on a separate base in front.  The runners can be removed to show casualties.

This leaves only the generals left to paint, then on to the Romans!

Eureka WFR French Foot Artillery

I have been building and painting Glenn's elephants, and I forgot how much time they take.  Every step seems to require some fiddly work followed by an hour or two of waiting for things to dry enough to move on to the next step.

In those little forced pauses, I got some work in on some figures of my own.  These are French foot artillery for my Italy 1798 project.  The figures and guns are from Eureka's outstanding range.

Eureka has four poses for "French Foot Artilery, Firing," and the figures are beauties.  All the detail one could wish is there, and the poses are natural and attractive.

I usually use Sash and Saber's guns for my 28mm Napoleonics, as they are the best looking guns I have found.  These Eureka guns are their equal, and that is high praise.

This was a nice little diversion from ancients, but now it's back to elephants!  I should have some pictures of them soon.

Carthaginian Cavalry

Here are the latest figures for Glenn's army, four units of Carthaginian heavy cavalry.  Figures are Renegade, spears are Northstar, shield transfers are Little Big Men, and bases are Litko.

Officers and Soldiers of the Cuirassiers, 1800-1815

Histoire & Collections of France publishes a series of big hardcover books on various battles of the Napoleonic Wars, and I own nearly all of them. They are beautiful works, done in full color on glossy paper, with numerous maps, historical paintings, and uniform plates. The text is so badly translated from the French as to be almost unintelligible, but I've found them very useful over the years as I paint my Napoleonic miniatures.

One of my great frustrations with Osprey's Men at Arms series is that the books usually have a broad theme (French infantry of the Napoleonic Wars), but a limited set of color plate subjects (farrier of the 9th Line, or pastry chef of the Corsican rangers, rather than fusilier 1800, fusilier, 1805, fusilier, 1809, fusilier 1812, fusilier 1815.

Well, here comes Histoire & Collections to the rescue. A few weeks ago I picked up their new softcover book on French Chasseurs a Cheval 1792-1800, and I liked it so well that I bought their books on cuirassiers, aides de camp, and both volumes on hussars.

The cuirassiers volume is 80 pages of goodness. The book begins with an overview of the development and history of the cuirassier arm, and H&C have apparently hired a real translator, as the text is clear and informative. The book details squadron drill, showing where the officers, NCOs, and troopers were located in several formations, then moves on to the deployment of squadrons within the regiment. This is good stuff, very useful to the modeler and wargamer.

But the heart of the book is the color plates. The volume details the uniforms of every single regiment of cuirassiers, including the changes that took place over the years. The various musicians's uniforms, rank distinctions, horse tackle, service, field, and full dress, even regimental flags: it's all here. All told, there are 61 color plates in this book.


Here are two of the three plates on the 9th Cuirassiers, and you can see the level of detail this book provides. I liked the 9th's uniform well enough to spend a few hours on some AB figures. All of the cuirassier regiments in my army had been outfitted with red collar and tunrbacks and red teeth on the sheepskin. My musicians were all in red with blue distinctions.

Now that I have a proper resource, I can start depicting the various regiments of cuirassiers. You can find these books on Amazon (tell Hippolyta that Scott sent you; she'll either give you a deep discount or castrate you--I'm not sure which).

Etruscan Spearmen

Lars Porsena of Clusium

By the Nine Gods he swore

That the great house of Tarquin

Should suffer wrong no more.

Here are the latest figures for Glenn's army, 32 Etruscan spearmen from Aventine Miniatures. Spears are from Northstar, shield transfers are from Little Big Men Studios, and bases are from Litko.

The Aventine figures are beautiful. I haven't had much interest in the early wars of Rome, but now I feel like painting a few hundred of these for myself.

Next up will be some Carthaginian cavalry. I am very close to finishing all the Carthaginians.