Sunday 30 September 2018

Late war Germans and a Boat

Been tidying up the collections and getting my mojo re-engaged. Painting the pontic army has been fun, really like painting 15mm, but been hard to float about between periods in my normal style.
I have done a bit though.
First up is some AT support for my planned FoW German Fusilier company

Marders - Plastic soldier Company



Pak 40 - more Plastic Soldier Co


I bought this Sarissa mdf "African Queen" at the Border Reiver show. It's a great model, easy to assemble and paint. The only problem was the mast, it's also mdf and very flimsy, I broke it getting it out of the bag,. so I replaced it with a bamboo skewer. The crates etc are out of my terrain box




It will go great with some African type games.




Sunday 23 September 2018

Even more Pontic Photographs

Even though I've "finished" I photographed them again, hate my lack of photographic skills but love the fact that I don't live my life without a camera stuck to my face. I really like these figures and proud of the job I did on them. I paint them at about the same rate as 28mm and with the same level of skill. So they look pretty good in 15mm - might have to change the name of the blog.
The figures are base don 40x40mm bases and can be used in pretty much any system.
So I've photographed them again using a different, and much better lamp, a Habitat bargain and very bright. Seems to work.
Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin

Armenian Javelinmen

The Armenians were allies of Pontus and acted as a buffer between Pontus and Parthian. Mithridates generally farmed his daughters out to his neighbours.

 Black Sea infantry

All the tribes around the Black Sea revered Mithridiates and formed a major part of all his armies and were there at the end as he planned an invasion of Rome through Romania and the Balkans. These will double as Gauls

Galatian Warband


The Galatians were a Celtic tribe who has occupied central Turkey. They were conquered by Mithridates, easy as they were constantly in a state of civil war. This could be more Gauls.

Basternae


The Basternae fought with Mithidates in his early campaigns and are bat crap crazy. More Gauls! I have the basis for a Gallic army.

Companion Cavalry


Being a Successor State and out of the way enough that they weren't constantly at war they had a Greek flavour, so these Companions were a classic heavy cavalry unit.

 Sarmatian Cataphract Cavalry

The Sarmatians were long standing allies and everybody loves cataphracts

 Sarmatian / Steppe Horse Cavalry






I have lots of these and the makings of a Sarmatian army

 Armenian skirmishers,bow armed




These can double as Sarmatians to complete the army

Armenian Slingers

A random small unit - can't think of anything useful to say

 Scythed Chariots

These were out of date when Mithridates used them in his early campaigns but they do look cool

Thueophoroi



The standard infantry. Couple of large units of these but a couple of bases of commanders to paint that I could add to give 4 smaller units

Pike Phalanx



Phalanxes formed the backbone of his early armies but when the Romans slaughtered them he changed them for imitation legionaries, didn't really help though

 An finally the generals


Thank you for reading, again

Saturday 22 September 2018

The Glorious Army of Mithridates VI

All summer I have been slowly, very slowly, painting my 15mm Pontic Army of Mithridites VI, scourge of Rome. Mithridates VI was spectacularly rich (his army dripped wit gold and jewels, ruled the Kingdom of Pontus in NE Turkey in 1st century BC and hated Rome, really hated Rome. With his exotic army of Successor style troops, Armenians, Sarmatians and Galatians he conquered Turkey, Greece and controlled the Black Sea.
He was terrified of being assassinated and took a dose of poison every day to build up his immunity. He was fortunate that Rome was in the middle of a civil war and unfortunate that when Rome got its act together he faced Pompey, Sulla and Marius, 3 of its greatest generals, who stomped all over him. Eventually he was betrayed by his son and killed himself. His legacy does live on in the flag of Turkey, symbol of Pontus was a crescent moon and a star.
The army is mainly forged in battle, fab figures, with some Xyston figs thrown in, also great but a little large and badly photographed.

It's a big army of 3 divisions 

Cavalry division of horse archers and heavy cavalry

The shock division of scythed chariots, Galatians, basternae and light infantry

Heavy infantry division of pikemen and thureophoroi with skirmishers

The generals

And now the units
Skythian horse archers - I have enough Steppe types for an army of their own

Companion cavalry

Sarmatian Cataphract cavalry

Scythed chariots 50:50 chance of being deadly or useless

Galatian Warband - deadly

Bastarnae - deadly and mental

Black Sea Light Infantry - space occupiers

Armenian Javelin men - more space occupiers

Light Archers

Slingers

Pike blocks - crammed these in with 8 figs per base

Thureophoroi - fairly good infantry

Overall it's big - 500pts in Hail Casear. it is my 2nd 15mm army but will lose against my 15mm WW2 paratroopers. Should get a battle in next month.