New Newline Designs - Thorakitai

In June I received some lovely samples of some brand new Newline Designs 20mm Hellenistic Thorakitai. Filling in a much needed troop type in this scale, not only for Newline's comprehensive 20mm Ancients range but for 1/72 in general, those looking for Thorakitai to work along side their plastics will find these useful. Along with the African Veterans which can easily be used as imitation legionaries or more armoured Thorakitai with greaves these brand new Thorakitai represent the line art shown in Duncan Head's classic Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars - showing a thuroes bearing spearman with a mail shirt that lacks the reinforced shoulder yoke. 

When I received these in June they were a much needed tonic, with the way the last year and this year had been going. I immediately cleaned and prepped them. I used bristles to make the spears and the swords - I was aiming for a Kopis like sword. As ever they painted up remarkably easily, undercoated in black then dry brushed in an appropriate metallic, it didn't take too much effort to block in skin, tunic, straps and helmet. I've tried to show some versatility in the two poses offered spearmen, Javelin and sword armed warriors here. 

I was hoping this would prompt a break in the dry spell of painting but so far it has not been the case. The ongoing issues mentioned elsewhere have been very draining and I'd rather get back into painting when i have the time, energy and patients to enjoy it again. Even getting a chance to sort this blog out has been difficult. These are on my Newline shopping list again once I have the opportunity to stock up on these I will be doing so.

So here we have a impromptu diorama of possibly Ptolemaic soldiers moving through an oasis, or along the Nile. Of course are useful for any despotic Hellenistic Dynast. 

Thorakitai Advance

In the dark days before discovering Newline (a long time ago now) I was hunting for thureophoroi, I grabbed a few Hat Thracians that had suitable figures and to get them in strength would leave lots of spares, I needed to secure a source of dedicated thureophoroi. I got hold of some Xyston thureophoroi, sold as 15mm they seemed about 18mm, I contemplated using some creative basing to incorporate them or to simply change to a more common scale of ancients as I  really liked the Xyston miniatures. I then came across the Newline with their comprehensive selection and would be a closer match to the plastics I already had so the Xyston's ended up in a drawer.

What I loved about Xyston's figures was the helmets which were interesting and varied, I thought the size of their heads were roughly the same as Newlines so I thought while I was doing head swap conversions I could create a unique unit of Thorakitai using the Xyston heads and the Newline Designs 20mm African Veterans advancing. I missed the faces on the Newline figures but those heads were used on the Cretan Archers and now I have spares for future conversion ideas. The command figures remained unchanged.

I experimented a bit with the painting, I dry/over brushed the helmets with Vallejo Silver and used Agoras Dunes Contrast paint to give them a bronze tinge this was also applied to the greaves. Its an effective way todo metallics and something to consider for future projects. I also applied Contrasts to the shields again more of an experiment but I'm pleased with their turn out.

I got the railway background out to do some photos so I redid the last thorakitai conversions and attached below. I also got some pictures of  the Moria Goblins finally so that will be a post at some point. I've also had a bit of solo gaming in so once written up there will be some posts on Strength & Honour, Dominion of the Spear and Lost Battles. On the miniatures front I'm preparing some Celtiberians for now but time at the desk is very sporadic and progress slow. I could also pick up some plastic sets that are part built but I'm into ancients currently. I'm wanting to pursue Punic wars campaign so expanding armies for that is a goal as well as expanding armies for Hellenistic states namely Ptolemiac troops for Raphia.     

Thorakitai

 

I'm pleased to get this unit done representing Thorakitai, armoured Thureophoroi essentially, they were a labour love being a head swap conversions. Note if there were to be a dedicated set of 20mm Thorakitai made I would still certainly get them! The Command is the standard Macedonian command figures from Newline Designs 20mm Macedonian range, they just have shields from the Maccabean range. The rank and file troops are the African Veterans standing from the Carthaginian line. I snipped off the metal spears and drilled out the hands, filed the parts that the spear connected to on the tunics to add a replacement bristle spear. This allowed a small bit of variety as the spears can be held at slightly different angles and more bend resistant. The main conversion was the head swap. The heads were procured from the Greek range from mainly the old style Thureophoroi sculpts with clean shaven faces (I believe they have been re-sculpted with beards going off later purchases) also some heads from the newer Hellenistic infantry code. The heads were placed in various positions to give natural variation.

It was a tedious task but I was pleased with the conversion, they didn't have the smoothest joins but I tried to make out they were the sort of scarves ancient warriors might use to protect their necks from armour rubbing against it. Again the shields are the ones from the Maccabean line. I went for a blue theme with the unit and spent a bit more time highlighting the tunics.

I'll post up the African veterans soon, I've been distracted this week working again on a campaign setting for the 2nd Punic War. As with other campaign rules and rules is general they begin to get more complex so I'm trying to keep them as simple as possible with some flavour. I've settled on Strength & Honour for tactical settings and I have a map made so I'm working on getting it functioning but there's still lots of decisions to make with army lists and victory points.    

Cretan Archers

Since finishing the Iberian Scutarii I've been busy chipping away at the next large batch of troops. I've been doing mass clean up of the projects I'll be working on, roughly 8 unit packs, including head swap conversions so it's been slow going. Once all the metal was filed, drilled and washed, the conversions finished and the light troops sprayed, I gathered this lot to paint up first.

The main thing that's new here are the Cretan Archer conversions, I wanted to create the type that carried and shield and helmets. They are based on Newline Designs 20mm Cretan Archers bodies and all have heads from the Newline African Veterans, who have great Hellenistic type helmets. Having new heads attached allowed me to have some poses to have their heads at different angles adding a little more variety. Finally I got hold of Macedonian shields from Xyston to complete the skirmishing archers not afraid to get close to the enemy. These shields may be useful for other Newline Hellenistic pikemen if I wanted to use LBMS transfers as they seem to produce some that are made to fit these shields.

They were painted alongside the Greek Archers and Slingers. The Greek Archers had a couple of head swaps just to give a slight variant in the form of adding a bandanna wearing Greek head to the pose that lacked one originally. All three unit types were broken down into tunic colours so I could batch paint the various units in this way I slowly chipped away at this substantial chunk of the prepared figures. 

One of the things I have done to cut a corner is to selectively highlight some parts of the figure. With these it was the tunics, faces and helmets, everything else received a base coat and wash. The shields have water-slide transfers from Veni Vidi Vici but I had some trouble getting them to lie flat without creasing. In the end I used many layers of varnish to mitigate this best I could.

Some are based as usual on 80mm frontage and quite a few based individually to represent skirmisher markers for Strength & Honour. I have quite a few Iberian Caetratii and Numidians to paint up that are entirely for this purpose, furthermore if they are needed for another system since I tend to use grids the different format won't impinge on the game. There's also an option to make a movement tray for them. 

I managed to squeeze a game of Strength & Honour in with my friend and concentrating on getting the rules right to teach them. The game went as well as it could and was a testament to the play-ability and beginner friendly nature of the rules. We were both able to focus on our tactics with only minor rules checking for certain situations.   

Cretan Archers:

Cretan Archer Skirmish Markers:

Head Swap Conversions:

Greek Archers:

Greek Archer Skirmish Markers:

Greek Slingers: 

Mithridates VI

I had never heard of the Kingdom of Pontus until I had played Rome Total War again I was fascinated, they were a faction that had both Hellenistic and Eastern style units and Roman imitation Legions. I soon learned of Mithridates VI who was a constant thorn in Rome's side. I read Philip Matyszak's Mithridates the Great: Rome's Indomitable Enemy over a decade ago and there are not many characters of the Ancient world much like the Poison King. Mithridates would take a very small amount of fatal poisons, making himself very ill of course, in turn building up a tolerance against poisons. Another favourite anecdote was how the paranoid king hid under a couch to eavesdrop and uncover a plot against him. His Kingdom gave Rome some trouble across three wars also so I felt that I had to create a 20mm version of him.

There is a bust believed to be Mithridates showing him as Herakles with the lion pelt cap, along with presenting himself as an Alexander type character and as a grandson of Antiochus IV Epiphanes I tried to combine aspects of these heritages. I used Newline Designs 20mm Kappadochian Cavalry Commander with Alexander the Great's Lion helmeted head and horse with Leopard pelt to create the King.

I haven't yet made any specific Pontic forces yet or their late Republican Roman enemies, but many of the Seleucid units and mid Republican Romans can do the job just as well. I do have plans to make some Pontic units basically in the form of pikemen and legions in a different paint scheme. Like wise I have Late Republican Romans in stock for down the line. However my goal currently is to finish the stuff for Lost Battles Magnesia (just archers left to rebase) and then move onto working towards Raphia, with Strength & Honour Skirmisher markers to knock up as well. With mainly having Punic wars stuff done I was fancying fighting a solo Punic wars campaign, possibly with Strength & Honour as I feel like that is a set of rules that will lend itself brilliantly to resolving campaign battles (once I have practiced more and I am competent with it).