[Chapter Eight] Some spearmen

Well, I´m back. Let´s hope someone is still paying attention :P

Here are 3 elements of spearmen for Carthage.
I think I finally have a full army. It also means I´m over half the way from completing both armies. Then I´ll just need an ally for BBDBA.









Next time some army pics and some special plastic models I´m playing around with.

[Chapter Seven] Some more Spanish

Here you have some Spanish troops. They are warband elements. Nothing too fancy, like last post, but colorful enough :)

Thanks for all your comments and links exchange!








Cheers!!!

[Chapter Six] Elephants!!!

As promised, I had some fun painting elephants. In the many armies I own (historical and others) I have never before painted these beasts. When I thought about it I just imagined "grey".
The thing was when I faced them with my brush in hand. They would look like statues of elephants if I did them the way I intended. I didn´t want a rocky finish, nor a clean "horse like" one.
So I developed my own technique. Keep in mind these are my first attempts. I have two more to paint so I still have time to experiment.
Take a look at the pics and then I´ll tell you how I painted them.

Here´s one of them:






And here´s the other. The light roman troops are from Hat´s Roman Catapults set. I knew those figures would come in handy.






And here you have both, side by side. Unless you play a DBA Big Battle you will not see them like this on the battlefield :)




So, onto the painting process.

For the basecoat I used a very dark grey color, it´s called Antracita here. Really dark, no "blueish" tone whatsoever. After that I went with drybrush. You know this plastic minis have a very smooth surface. Metal minis usually have some texture, no matter how hard they try to make the part smooth. I don´t know if I´m making myself clear here. The point is that I did a very very detailed drybrush. By that I mean I used a small brush and went from a dark grey to a very light one. I did like 5 or 6 steps of grey (from dark to light)

This gave me a clean picture of the texture of the model and easily defined the bright areas. But it was too clean!! I mean, this thing should be dirty. And not just "mud dirty". It´s skin should look old, even though we use quite bright colors due to the small size of the minis.

So I just splat brown ink all over the model. Just like when you weather a tank model. Brown ink with a little bit of water. I let this dry overnight.

Now I had a very dirty elephant. It´s skin however, was very real. This is when I grabbed the brush, made (I mix my colors) a grey that was almost as bright as the brightest highlight (after ink that is), and started doing some freehand work, just like when I paint horses. After that I did two highlights, the last one being almost pure white and just for very small details. The two elephants being different in pose was great because I did not repeat the designs on their skins.

After that a last wash with very dilluted brown ink (almost all water, mind you), painted the tusks and the rest of the accesories.

Hope you found this useful. I really enjoyed painting this models and am looking forward to the next two.

Cheers!!!

[Chapter Five] Some Celt cavalry

Here are two Celtic cavalry elements (3Cv)






Next time, an elephant!!! (or two)
And soon, a report on the completion status of the armies.

Cheers!

[Chapter Four] First General element

We´re back with the Carthaginians now. Here´s the first General element. I will do another one soon.
Here are the pics.








Next time, two elements of Celtic cavalry!

Cheers!

[Intermission] More EIR in 20mm plastics

Here you have the rest of the Early Imperial Roman army done to date.

This is the General element. They are Esci figures, except the one with the pilum. He´s Italeri, from their Roman Cavalry set.



This is the scorpio, the artillery element. The piece and three of the troops are from the excellent Hat Roman Catapults set which has four of these babies, some auxiliary troops for the republican era and standards and flags.
The other troop, the one looking far away is from the Esci set. The same figure is holding his shield over his head on one of the legionnaires bases. Here I put the shield on his right hand and moved his other hand a little bit over his forehead to make him look like he´s covering the sun from his eyes.

[Intermission] EIR in 20mm plastics

Here you can see the first pics of my Early Imperial Roman army for DBA.
The figures are Hat and Esci. They mix well in the same army but as far as these leggionaires go, I haven´t mix them in the same base. They have differences in style, that´s all.

These are the Hat elements:



These are the Esci ones:



And here they are all together:



Next time I´ll show you the General and an artillery element for this army, and after that it´s back to Carthage!

Cheers!

[Chapter Three] Back, with Numidians!

Ok, ok. I´m back. Sorry for the delay. Won´t happen again, etc :)

Here you have four elements of Numidian Cavalry, the LH elements.

First two






The other two




Beautiful models overall and easy to paint. The position of the horses on the bases, specially with few models can be a lot more dynamic. Even more with plastic minis, where you get lots of poses. Make your elements unique!

As a side note, I´m building an Imperial Roman army too, using Hat and Italeri figures. I will upload some pics some time soon, so you don´t get bored with the Carthaginians :)

And thanks for the comments!! I really appreciate it!

Cheers!!!

[Chapter Two] First figures

I started with the psiloi elements, the skirmishing infantry.
I painted all the skirmishers for one of the armies. They are three elements of balearic slingers and one of caetratti. They are all from the Hannibal´s Spanish Infantry set which has a nice selection on models (including some scutarii that I´ll be using afterwards)






If you have seen my other two DBA 20mm armies you know I base them differently. I use a uniform basing for every army, but like to give different armies different "terrains." It does add variety and character to the armies. This two Carthaginian forces will be similarly based though, for obvious reasons.



Next week, four elements of Numidian cavalry.
Stay tuned!

[Chapter One] Information

Ancient armies are usually simple. The troop types are clear, the uniforms simple and some liberties can be taken. But you still need to grab the basics of your army. Specially a varied army like the Carthaginian forces.

Here you have some of the books I have used for information and inspiration.
Osprey books specially are aimed at the wargaming public. You´ll find them more than appropriate:

The Punic Wars 264-146 BC



Armies of the Carthaginian Wars 265-146BC



Rome´s Enemies 4: Spanish Armies



And of course you have the internet.
A good place to start is Hat´s uniforms guide. They have drawings for almost their complete line of models: http://www.hat.com/ColorsU.html

So here we go. Check next week for the first painted models.

Cheers!

[Chapter Zero] The figures

Let´s kick start this thing with the basic element of any wargames army. The figures. In this pic you can see all the figures needed.

I´m building a double Cartaginian army for DBA with all the options. That makes 17 bases per army for a total of 34 elements. Add an ally and you have a great Big DBA army to deal with those romans.
If you consider that each Hat boxed set has 4 sprues, you can see how cheap this ammount of figures actually is. That´s one of the best things about plastic. Cheap and well detailed figures.

In case you are wondering about the Hat sets I´m using, here they are:

War Elephants
Numidian Cavalry
Hannibal's Carthaginians - Spanish Infantry
Celtic Cavalry
Hannibal's Carthaginians - African Infantry
Carthaginian Command and Cavalry

The first thing I do is wash the sprues with soap water and, after they dried, pull the figures off of the sprues. I organize them in bases, choosing the best variety of poses and of course checking if I calculated the number of models correctly. If you need help with that you can visit the plastic miniatures bible, called Plastic Soldier Review. I use it as an actual catalog when ordering figures!

I will put them on small bags until the moment of painting so they don´t mix again.

Now is the time for research. I will have a week to get into cartaginian troops and their allies.
Don´t worry, I will describe the sources I find here before painting.

Stay tuned...

Cheers!

An introduction

Welcome to my new project.
I like 1/72 plastic minis and I´m not alone. Although many wargamers think this aren´t "real minis" I digress. I love the detail, enjoy painting them and use them to wargame many periods, including ancients and WW2.

This blog will be hosting projects I embark on concerning plastic miniatures. I will not be doing projects in plastic constantly, but they will usually be completed in a reasonable period of time. I have tried this format before, and the weekly updates help me complete armies I would otherwise leave unfinished.

I have done other armies in plastic, and you can see them on www.baminis.com.ar
But for now, enjoy the creation of a Carthaginian army in 20mm figures. They were made by Hat, maker of many of the figures I use and lots of other periods I will eventually try my hand at.

Next post will show you the starting figures for the army. Hope you find it interesting :)

Cheers!