The recent rainy weather has forced me indoors a bit so I have applied an active paint brush to the Sumerians. They are coming along nicely. The paint scheme is of necessity fairly simple, so units don't take long to finish.
This is the sum total so far, - two units of javelin men, one of skirmishers, three of chariots, three heavy infantry with shields, two without shields and one unit of heavy archers. This is 75% of the minimum number I need to complete, and three more infantry units are cleaned and undercoated on the desk.
The figures are made of a very soft, flexible plastic different from the plastic of my Alexandrians which came from the same company. I've experimented a bit with the chariots, shortening the axles on a few but in the end the original configuration works best. In order to make the yoke fit I glue the wagon in place firmly first. Then the yoke has enough play to be bent up and the "equids" glued underneath. I increased the number of shield carriers by converting some of the figures with horizontal spears to hold them. I scratchbuilt the shields and the results can be seen top right of this picture. Okay but not brilliant.
The slinger unit is appropriately hairy. Whilst I'm not normally bothered by these things, some different poses would have been nice.
Close up of the shield-bearer unit. Quite fearsome.
The archers. By the way it took TWO BOXES (184 figures) to get this unit.
Apart from the few niggles remarked upon here I'm pleased with the army and the figures. I'll end up with 12 chariots and about 160 usable infantry for about £30. Plus they weigh next to nothing when you store them. Tempted to buy another couple of boxes of infantry to beef the armies up a bit more.
And finally, on a separate note, I put up a new shelf in Shedquarters. It's for small things. But mostly it's for hats.
The figures are made of a very soft, flexible plastic different from the plastic of my Alexandrians which came from the same company. I've experimented a bit with the chariots, shortening the axles on a few but in the end the original configuration works best. In order to make the yoke fit I glue the wagon in place firmly first. Then the yoke has enough play to be bent up and the "equids" glued underneath. I increased the number of shield carriers by converting some of the figures with horizontal spears to hold them. I scratchbuilt the shields and the results can be seen top right of this picture. Okay but not brilliant.
The slinger unit is appropriately hairy. Whilst I'm not normally bothered by these things, some different poses would have been nice.
Close up of the shield-bearer unit. Quite fearsome.
The archers. By the way it took TWO BOXES (184 figures) to get this unit.
Apart from the few niggles remarked upon here I'm pleased with the army and the figures. I'll end up with 12 chariots and about 160 usable infantry for about £30. Plus they weigh next to nothing when you store them. Tempted to buy another couple of boxes of infantry to beef the armies up a bit more.
And finally, on a separate note, I put up a new shelf in Shedquarters. It's for small things. But mostly it's for hats.
Following a discussion on the yokes with Phil the Modeller he suggested two solutions to the problem:
ReplyDelete1) Buy smaller draft animals. This would be more authentic.
2) Put the wagon on a base before putting it on the main base. After all, the animals already come on a base.
Obvious really.