Athenian Warband 2: Completed Heroes!

Finally some completed Greeks! The three Heroes/Champions, the sacred band and the peltasts are complete (aside from the coat of matt varnish). I'm reasonably happy with how they turned out, not my best but decent enough. I'm not a very competent photographer (or really competent anything for that matter!) so the colours seem a little washed out. I think better lighting is needed overall and to invest in some daylight bulbs. About the transfers, they're ok and are far better than what I could achieve free hand but I think my printer and the quality thereof let them down. It might be time to look at a new one if I intend to make more transfers.

Without further ado the completed figures!

The three Heroes!

The Hero Himself

Champion Number 1

Champion Number 2

I could really do with a few names for these chaps. The Hero I was thinking could be called Elpenor as the tale of his misfortune of falling off a roof always amused me. The champions however I am at a loss, any suggestions would be much appreciated.

The Sacred Band

Peltasts

All that remains for the warband is the ten remaining hoplites to be finished. They are currently about half way tthrough the first lot of highlights. I hopeto have them (and therefore the whole gang) done over the weekend. In Spartan news they have been undercoated and will also hopefully be basecoated/washed if I can find the time.

Aristeia and Athenian Update

Just a quick update to the general state of things. No pictures today I'm afraid but lots to come soon.

The Athenian Heroes and Sacred Band have been finished and based. The first batch of shield transfers have also been applied to these figures, once dry and varnished (tomorrow) final pcitures shall be taken. The skirmishers for the Athenian band are also almost complete with just a final batch of highlights needed. That leaves just the 10 regular hoplites and then the warband is done.

The Spartans have been fillered and sanded, after a final tidy up and green stuffing they will be ready for undercoating. They shall be having the classic red of Sparta (as well as any martial Greek). This gives them a nice contrast to the blue and cream of the 'Athenians'.

Finally an update on the temple. Things have stalled a little bit while waiting/deciding upon materials for the stylobate, hopefully come the weekend this will be rectified.

Overall quite a productive few days. Work continues on Aristeia and a play test version of the rules should be available within the next few weeks with any luck.

Spartan Warband

Now that the Athenian warband is approaching completion, it thought it best to start on their Spartan adversaries.

The Spartan Warband

 The figures are made from the Victrix Spartan box with the skirmishers from the unarmoured hoplite set. Aside from the three heroes there are 10 sacred band and 4 skirmishers. The idea behind this warband is rather more elite in nature.The basic hoplites/warriors have had no conversions and are plain as you like, befitting the Spartan aesthetic.

The Spartan heroes.

The three Spartan heroes are bit more involved with a few parts kit bashed and joints cut and reposed. Still nothing over the top, just enough to give some flavour. All the figures still need to be cleaned up and based with a little greenstuff for gaps (and the leaders cloak) here and there. Hopefully this will all be done relatively soon! 

Painting is still continuing with the Athenians. Hopefully they'll be sorted in the next night or two and the transfered applied.

Athenian Warband

A small update with a few pictures to my Athenian warband.

A view of the entire warband.

 
The three heroes as a whole I'm reasonably happy with how they've turned out. They're ALMOST complete. A few touch ups here and there and they'll be ready for basing. I'm happy with the figures but I feel I could have done a better job on the painting, it feels rushed and sloppy in places. The bronze armour and the colours used, worked very well, not so much my brushwork. Oh well. These three heroes will also be the test subjects for the first batch of shield transfers. There was some issue with the paper feeding in the printer but overall it worked ok. The images could be better (I'm unsure whether it's due to my printer or the actual image itself) but is it far more competent than I could do freehand.

Heroes, with sacred band to the rear.

The elite hoplites/sacred band are reaching 75% completion, which I'm quite happy with. A few highlights (skin, armour and hair) along with the shield and basing and they'll be done.

The sacred band.

The skrimishers/peltasts have been fully basecoated whereas the lesser hoplites still need the bronze work finishing. These should hopefully be done tonight and some more complete pictures can be posted tomorrow.

Psiloi/Peltasts.

Hoplites.

Aristeia Greek Update

This is just a small update on the state of my Greek forces.

All of the Athenian band are at least base coated and washed. The elite hoplites/sacred band having received a number of highlights/detailing. Hopefully I can get some more work done on them tonight ready for some pictures tomorrow. I'm not entirely sure how to base them but I'm thinking a relatively pale/arid static grass with similar tufts and olive green clumps. This gives a nice variation in colour but without taking too much away from the figure.

The first test on the transfer paper shall also happen this evening.. Hopefully this combined with the painting means that the first real experiment i.e. the application of the transfer, can take place tomorrow!

In regards to the temple the plans have been sized out and the base has been cut. I may need some more material for the stylobate/stereobate' I'll know when the final measurements are taken and I can check my stocks.

Sorry for the lack of pictures nothing I've done is photogenic or good enough at moment. Check back tomorrow!

Archaic Temple and Books!

I had two great arrivals in the post yesterday. A set of 8 'Grecian' pillars, used for cake decoration, and a copy of 'Men of Bronze' edited by Keegan and Viggiano.

The eight plastic pillars, some mould lines but a lot better than I was expecting.

 The pillars are intended for an Archaic temple as a terrain and scenario piece for Aristeia. The columns are of the Ionic order, which depending on period, would put any scenarios that take place in the east areas of the Greek world although the style was later scene all over the mainland. The temple will be of the amphiprostyle type. This due to a number of considerations;

• It's relatively small (good for storage and general gaming)
• Uses a limited number of columns (expensive)  while still giving the feel of larger temples

Differing Greek temple types. Amphiprostyle can be seen in the top right corner.

In the coming days sketches and plans shall be created, along with the base sized and cut.

The front cover of the paper back edition.

Next is the edited volume 'Men of Bronze'. I've only had the chance to read the introduction so far but it gave a rather good outline of Greek military history and the so called 'hoplite revolution' up to the present day. The purpose of the volume is to examine the so called 'orthodox' position of the Hoplite revolution and to test the revisionist methods. I shall give a in depth review when I have finished the book.

And finally I purchased this while out for a little bit of fun. I'm a huge fan of the Strugatskys and look forward to reading it.

Athenian Warband Shield Design

After all that Cold War Imagi-Nations it’s time to get back to Ancient Greece.

Arriving in the post in the next few days I should be receiving an amount of ‘transfer paper’ (also known as decal paper). This is for the construction of the images that shall grace my Athenian warband’s shields. This is due to the fact that, while there are many commercial available (and rather good) transfers, none of them fit my needs. All the examples available contain far too many variations. This is great if you’re creating an actual 6/5/4^th century Greek Hoplite force, not so great if you want a small unified mythological band or omilos. So I intend to design/create my own.

Now, the classical imagery for Athene would be the owl. I also happen to like the stylised Greek owls as well so no matter how cliché, it is my intended shield design. I have, however, never used transfer paper so this shall be an experiment in both methods of printing and seeing which design best works with said paper. My thinking is for something relatively simple and plain without some of the ornamentation seen with other designs. This allows for the shield to be instantly recognisable and means that if the printer isn’t of the best quality there’s less to detail to be produced.

Below there shall be a number of example that I am considering for said design. Any feedback is appreciated!

Tetradrachm showing the Owl of Athene.

1. A simple line drawing of the Owl of Athene

2. A more complex form, closer to that seen on the coin.

3. A more modern interpretation. I liked the curving line work.

Out of the the three images I think those most similar to number one shall be used for simplicity's sake. I do like the 'filled nature' nature of two however and feel that may work better as a shield design. If I have sufficient transfer paper I may attempt a test rune with one of each and apply it to some spare shields to get a real 'feel'. Some simple editing can be done depending on my findings.