From the Lead Archive: 28mm Foundry Ancient Greek Hoplites

Still drumming my fingers waiting for 'Hail Caesar' to make its appearance.  Thought I'd ease my impatience by unpacking some more 'sword and sandal' stuff from our move. Here are a few test models I did of some ancient Greek hoplites. I remember I had just finished reading Steven Pressfield's superb 'Gates of Fire' and was completely stoked to paint hoplites.

These are from the excellent Foundry range of models that were sculpted by Steve Saleh. I really like the animation of Saleh's work, even though the shields seem somewhat small to me. Hmm, that reminds me, I need to get some transfers on those shields...

Now that I'm looking at them again I think I'll do up a few more along with some helots for a skirmish game scenario I have knocking around in my head. More on that later if anything comes of it.

From the Lead Archive: The Harii - 28mm Ancient German Barbarians

I have to admit I'm getting a little keyed-up waiting for my copy of 'Hail Caesar' to arrive.  So , like a little kid, I decided to pull out and dust off some of what I have to start playing with (or needs to be built upon).

Here are some Germanic barbarians I painted up to represent Harii warriors. The Harii are a bit of a mysterious lot as they supposedly worshiped the night, or perhaps were a quasi death cult. There is also an interesting theory that based on their location, culture and genetics that they were precursors to the Vikings.

Tacitus writes in his work, 'Germania':

As for the Harii, quite apart from their strength, which exceeds that of the other tribes I have just listed, they pander to their innate savagery by skill and timing: with black shields and painted bodies, they choose dark nights to fight, and by means of terror and shadow of a ghostly army they cause panic, since no enemy can bear a sight so unexpected and hellish; in every battle the eyes are the first to be conquered.

Anyway, I liked how Kevin Dallimore originally painted them for Foundry and so I've shamelessly copied him here (I really liked how he did the Conan black-striped camo thing).

Um, gee, pretty much the same shot here - Ok, just imagine this is taken from a completely different angle which makes the figures look achingly beautiful. No? Well, just squint a bit then.

These are old 28mm Wargames Foundry models - Mark Copplestone sculpts I believe. I plan to do a Germanic barbarian army that will contain several tribes (Cimbri, Suebi, etc.) of which these will be the basis for one unit. I'll post up some other stuff over the next little while.

From the Lead Archive: Viking Beserkers 28mm Foundry

Here are some hirsute Scandinavian fellows who seem to have some axes to grind (literally).

These are older Foundry castings sculpted by Mark Sims. I've never been too crazy about the shields but I really like the animation of the figures - very characterful.