Gallic Trumpeter - 60mm Expeditionary Forces

 

Here is a picture of a Celtic or Gallic warrior playing a war tune on this strange looking trumpet-like device. I do not know what the instrument is called, but it seems like every Celtic war band not of the musical variety (The Chieftans perhaps?) has one of these in its ranks.

The figure is a 1/30 scale or 60mm in size figure made by a company called Expeditionary Forces. The US stockist is Toy Soldiers of San Diego (TSSD). (UPDATE: the EF box lists the figures as 1/32 scale, but I believe that the figures are actually 1/30 scale).

The picture below illustrates the size difference between the 1/30 scale and the 1/32 scale figures. As you can see, there is a significant size difference in the two figures. The horn figure will be used in some fashion as a "command stand" figure

HaT 54mm figure on the left and the Expeditionary Forces 60mm on the right.

The large EF figure was a lot of fun to paint and while it has some nice detail to the figure, it is not difficult to paint. The figure is made from a hard plastic and the arms/trumpet need to be attached to the torso. Luckily, the joins are crisply cut and so the figure parts join together quite easily. I used normal "super glue" with a dab of green epoxy putty in the cavity to create a strong join. The I primed the figure just like I would for a metal figure: grey primer, and finished it with acrylic paint from the Reaper Master Series of paints. The helmet used Vallejo "Old Gold" color. There are several more figures in the EF command pack that I might assemble and add to the Punic Wars Celts in Hannibal's army. The set includes a mounted war band Chief that looks spectacular and so I might have to paint him and use him as the commander of all of my Celtic forces.

Packaging for the EF figures.

Comparison of HaT Carthaginians (on command stand) with the EF horseman.

These are the various pieces available for the assembly of the mounted Gallic
chieftain. You can choose different arms, heads and shields for your model.

At Cannae, approximately half of Hannibal's army consisted of Gallic infantry and cavalry. As of today, I have four Celtic war bands of 32 figures each and two 12-figure Gallic cavalry in my Hannibalic army.

Next Up On The Table: I am assembling a legion of Italian allies to join my Roman army. I am using the HaT Italians and will use the same Roman organization of three groups of 32 figures and maybe some light infantry.

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They Certainly Have A Lot of Gaul

 

Yesterday I finished the painting of 8 more HaT Gallic Cavalry figures, adding to the 4 figures that I painted about a month ago, thus bringing the  unit up to its designed 12 figure unit of cavalry.

I have 36 more Gauls to paint in order to complete the unit at 48 figures. They will become part of Hannibal's Carthaginian army in Italy. My Carthaginian cavalry contingent will be comprised of Numidian light horsemen and heavier Gallic cavalry. I also have a small contingent of 12 Carthaginian heavy cavalry that will fill out the overall Carthaginian and Allies combat arm.

In many of Hannibal's battles in Italia he had a numerical cavalry advantage over the Roman armies whilst the Romans usually had more foot soldiers. That should create some interesting differences in the armies of the two mortal foes.

The cavalry figures will be based two per stand (90mm frontage and a depth of 90-110mm). I don't want to mess around with having individual figures romping around the table top on movement trays.

As is the case with most 54mm (1/32 scale) HaT Industrie figures, they are easy to paint and are fun to paint. The Gauls (or Celts) should have an irregular unformed appearance so I try to plan things out so that each figure has its own unique uniform, representing the individualistic nature of the Gallic warriors. Uniform inspiration is found on Pinterest and there seems to be an unending variety of images for Gallic infantry and cavalry. In a future blog post I will elaborate on how I tackle all of the different plaid patterns that go on each figure.

Next Up: another 32-figure Celtic war band .

Celts/Gauls for Hannibal's Army

Celtic Allies of Hannibal
HaT 54mm Plastic figures.

I finished a unit of 32 Celtic/Gaulic warriors to add to Hannibal's army in Italy. These were a little bit daunting to paint, at first, what with all of the plaids and strange shield designs of the Celts. I went to my "go to" uniform source, Pinterest, entered Celtic shields, and found lots of pictures to help me paint the figures. I also looked at painted 28mm figures, found on the internet, which I used as a sort of "how to paid them" tutorial. Usually I can look at a painted figure that I like and figure out how the painter painted this or that.

I also finished a 32-figure unit of Carthaginian Africans (painting an additional 14 figures to top the unit up to 32 figures). You can see both the Africans and the Celts in the picture below.

African Infantry in front, Celts in the second group and Carthaginian cavalry bringing up the rear.

So at this stage of the Punic Wars Project I have painted 4and one-half units for the Carthaginian army. These include the afore-mentioned Celts, two Iberian units, one African unit, one light infantry unit, a half unit of Balearic Slingers, and a half unit (16 figures) of Carthaginian Veterans. Oh, and I also have three painted elephants and eight Carthaginian cavalry that I picked up on eBay at a decent price.

Currently on the painting table are 16 Roman Hastati figures that will top up my Hastati to 32 figures (which is the size of one unit) These should be completed within the next day or two (I'm retired and the wife is out of town this weekend, so I have the whole house to myself, which equates to more painting time for me).

I'm not keen to start on any of the cavalry (I have 8 Romans and 8 Numidians to paint) because I have to do a lot of filing on the horse so that the rider will seat snuggly onto the horse. The HaT riders are not bow legged enough to fit on their horses. I also have to do a bit of drilling and pinning of figures onto the horses, which is time consuming. I have more elephants than I actual need now, having found the painted ones on eBay. For this project I don't mind using figures painted by other people because I seek "mass" in these armies.

So it looks like I had better prime more of my HaT Romans so that I have something to paint later in this week.

But wait! There is more. Here is a little preview of things to come:

Go ahead, talk amongst yourselves (as Linda Richmand would say) and feel free to leave some comments in the comment section below.