Gladiator FE020 Spearmen - Formerly Blackhat

Gladiator/Blackhat FE020 Spearmen Addition

I had a load of these codes that I painted up a while ago but I wasn't happy with the figure mix on each element. Luckily purchased at a huge batch of Blackhat castings at a huge discount as Vexillia are no longer selling them and were having a clearance sale. Blackhat have sold this range on to Fighting15's who are now selling them under their original name Gladiator Miniatures see  https://www.fighting15sshop.co.uk/gladiator-miniatures-1128-c.asp

They are lovely castings and its great news that they have found a secure future.

The original castings were painted a few years ago, luckily I managed to match paint the castings, see if you can spot the new castings? [Hint they are the eight in the centre] All the shields are hand painted. This will allow me to have a think about what figures I want to keep and probably result in my selling off some other figures.

Gladiator FE020 13th C Unarmoured Foot Spearmen 

Legio Heroica Turcopole Commission

Another Commission For A Clubmate - Turcopoles

Bob at the club is building a Later Crusader Army in 15 mm and last month he approached me to ask if I would paint up some figures for him. He handed me a bag of 17 mounted castings consisting of either Legio Heroica Turcopoles CRU11 and nine English knights, which were to model the element for King Richard the Lionheart and two generic generals elements for his Anglo-Norman army. He wants them ready by Christmas which is a good thing as I had Paul's Greeks in the painting table before him and I am also part way through painting up a load more Blackhat/Gladiator European FE020 spearmen and other bits for myself that I luckily purchased at a huge discount as Vexillia are no longer selling them and were having a clearance sale.

I finished off Paul's Greeks last weekend and managed to complete the outstanding items I wanted 5 days ago so I made a start on the Turcopoles. The Legio Heroica castings are nicely sculpted although having separate riders, shields and spears is of course a right pain to assemble.

I had already painted up some of these castings for my own Crusaders army a while ago so had the painting references already. Bob doesn't want them based as he will be adding them to his own collection.

Legio Heroica Turcopoles CRU11

Teutonic Order Commander from Oddziat Osmy

Teutonic Order Commander

As I posted on the 17th August I still had some unpainted Teutonic's from Oddziat Osmy in Poland. They are the original sculpts and to be honest I was quite disappointed with them as their horses were cast in two halfs along the body. These sculpts were never popular horses and have now been discontinued by the new British owners but they were an EBay bargain. The horses are now supplied by Fighting15's and have been turned into traditional one piece castings. Of the nine outstanding knights I have managed to create a single generals elements. I found a flag sheet of various standards for the 15th century online which allowed be to create the right look. It does mean I can now deploy an ally contingent if necessary.

Later Swiss - Part 3

Another Swiss Canton Contingent Completed

Due to some more down time I have completed the contingent from Solothurn which is number 12 of 14. I added a Psiloi general to this contingent to ensure I field optional commanders. All the castings are Naismith/Roundway and the general had his pike removed and replaced with a short spear. 

15mm Athenian Greek Command Commission

15mm Greek Command Commission

Paul surprised me at Iceni earlier this month with another bag of figures to paint. He said "I want two Generals elements out of this lot and you can keep the rest." Since I was unsure which figures he wanted to use I painted up all fourteen castings. I have never painted AB Ancients before, they were cleanly cast but the Hoplites had a separate shield arm that needed to be glued onto the castings. They were fairly easy to paint up once I had settled on a colour scheme, helmet crests and sourced some suitable shield designs to copy by hand onto the plain bronze shield faces. The figures are on plain sand bases because Paul will be basing them himself to match his other elements in the Athenian Army he is building.

I think he will like them and once he decided what he wants to keep I may get some figures out of it for my own collection.

Later Swiss - Part 2

More Later Swiss Now Added to My Collection

After what seemed like a short time but turned out to be three years I have now completed Canton contingent 11 of my Swiss army. The Canton of Appenzell whose flag is a black bear on a white field. As with all my Swiss contingents I based their clothes on their flag colours to create pseudo uniforms for them. They are more of the Naismith/Roundway range which has sat in my to paint pile for far too long. Only three more contingents left to paint along with some more elements to enable me to use some of these troops for the Early Swiss army if I ever feel the need.