Hannibal Command Stand

 

I finished the basing on my command stand for the Carthaginian army commander, Hannibal. The figures are from HaT and are 1/32 scale (54mm). I used figures from the Carthaginian cavalry box set. I bought the figures already painted from another collector, but I basically did a total repaint of all three figures. I left the armor untouched, but everything else was repainted by me. The original shields were a brass color with no shield design on them. I decided that a black shield with a design and a red border would look better.

My lower level commanders that command the "wings" of the army will have a stand of two mounted figures, preferably one carrying a standard of some kind and a figure that looks the part of a commander.

My army commanders have a stand with two mounted figures and one figure on foot. The extra foot figure distinguishes the army command stand from the wing command stand. Both Romans and Carthaginians will use the same basing system.

Carthaginian Mounted Generals

 

Click on the pictures to enlarge the view

This week I have been working on adding a couple of command stands for my 54mm Carthaginian army. I found a few Carthaginian cavalry figures on eBay and I will use the officer and standard bearer for my command stand. The army commander, Hannibal, will get a third figure (on foot) on the stand. So three figures denotes army commander and two figures denote battalion/wing commander.

I have posted the Before and After pictures of the figures, above and below. The figures with the gold colored shields are the Before figures and obviously the black shields with designs on them are the After pictures. One of the members on the Virtual Wargamers Club (Zoom forum) suggested painting over the gold with the black and I really like the way these turned out. I also have twelve rank and file cavalrymen and I intend to give them black shields too. The line fellows don't need a whole lot of paint touching up so other than fixing some paint chipping on spears, I can paint the shields and use the rest of the figures "as is".

The above picture places the individual figures side by side with their Before and After counterparts. The After figures were pretty much a total repaint job of both rider and horse.

My next post will show my Hannibal command stand after all of the base terraining is finished.

The Italian Job - Allied Cavalry

 

HaT Industrie figures: Italian Allied cavalry in Roman service

Please click on all pictures to enlarge the view

With my Carthaginian cavalry forces nearing completion, I have turned my brushes towards the Roman Republican army in my Punic Wars Project. At the top of the list were two 16-figure units of Italian Allies horsemen in service with Rome.

I purchased a dozen Italian cavalry from the gentleman in the UK who is disposing his Punic Wars armies in 54mm. Another six figures were sourced from eBay. I am always on the look out for 54mm figures on eBay or listed in various wargaming forums. Purchased and painted figures are a quick way to fill out one's army. I do not care about the quality of the painting because good figures need little "touching up" while poorly painted or heavily used figures will look good after some major touch up painting.

HaT Italian Allied cavalry. The figure on the left is a touch up figure that I painted, leaving the horse "as is".
The other five figures are shown as the "Before Picture".

The "After Picture" of some of the Italian cavalry, essentially these were totally repainted.

So I now have one 16-figure Italian cavalry unit that includes the 12 figures (untouched) from the UK and 4 figures from the eBay group. I have a second Italian cavalry unit of 16 figures that I painted in entirety.

The two 16-figure Italian cavalry units.

This is the unit that I painted.

This is the unit of purchased figures. The basing/terraining makes all the difference.

Command Stand -  A Mini Tutorial

I also painted a two-figure command stand for the Italian cavalry. The officer holding his sword aloft in heroic fashion ("forward lads, follow me") has a sword that I made from wire off cuts and a hilt made from epoxy putty. The standard bearer is straight out of the box. I use a piece of 1/8 inch bass wood for the base. I cut the base in an irregular manner using a small coping saw to curve the corners, then beveled the edges with a flat file. 

The figures were glued to the wood base using "tacky glue" and allowed to dry over night. I also placed a small blob of epoxy putty under the saddle before adding the glue. The putty helps to seat the figure solidly on the horse and fills in some of the gap between rider and horse.

The next step is to slather the base with my standard goop: wallboard paste with brown craft paint ($1.00 per bottle) mixed in to give it a brown tone. Once the goop is slathered around the horses' feet the base is sprinkled with a heavy coating of Woodlands Scenics railroad ballast. The ballast provides texture to the stand. Next, I dry brushed an orangish-brown color from my box of craft paints and then gave it a second dry brushing of linen white or creamy yellow.

Final step is to glue tufts and flowers onto the base and let them dry for about an hour. After that, I do the final touch and add a minimal amount of static grass to the base to finish it off.

See picture of the finished command stand below.

I will likely use this command stand as my overall Roman cavalry commander. The HaT Roman cavalry figures are noticeably smaller than the Italian cavalry figures so they do not look as imposing in comparison.

Next on the docket, some Roman cavalry. I have 12 figures primed and ready to paint and another 4 figures purchased on eBay. This will give me my standard 16 figure cavalry unit for this project.

My next blog post will feature the Numidian cavalry in Carthaginian service. These were painted several weeks ago, but I only got around to basing them yesterday.

More Gallic/Celtic Infantry Arrives!

 

Two 32-figure units of Gauls/Celts infantry.
HaT Industrie 1/32 scale (54mm) plastic figures.

I decided that my Carthaginian army needed another unit of Gallic infantry. This gives me one brigade of two Gauls and one brigade of two Iberian foot. A wargame command in my set up will consist of two allies/mercenaries and one African-Carthaginian unit or a unit of Veterans. With that in mind, I needed a second Gallic war band in the army.

Close up view of the new Gallic war band.

mm

mmm

Rolling Thunder: Numidian Light Cavalry Arrives

 

HaT Numidian Light Cavalry
Fighting for Hannibal

I have been focused on building my contingent of Carthaginian cavalry for the 54mm Punic Wars Project over the past several weeks. During that period, I have managed to paint and finish 34 Numidian light cavalry to serve Hannibal's army. All told, I am closing in on 100 Carthaginian cavalry. My plan is to have the Carthaginian infantry outnumbered by the Roman infantry and for the Carthaginian cavalry to outnumber the Roman cavalry. There will be a couple of elephants as well, but these generally weren't featured in any of Hannibal's  battles against the Romans, except for the final battle at Zama.

I really like the sense of action and energetic movement that the HaT figures have.

Numidian cavalry. The 16 figures in the front group were acquired from another collector
 while the 32 in the second row were painted by me.

The Numidian light cavalry was the best in Hannibal's army. They were brilliantly led by Massinissa, the Numidian leader, and they were instrumental in Hannibal's victories at Trebbia, Trasimene, and Cannae.

But wait, there is more!

Carthaginian Heavy Cavalry

I added another dozen Carthaginian heavy cavalry, already painted, courtesy of a gentlemen in the UK who has been selling off his similar Punic War armies in 54mm plastic. I don't plan on doing any major painting touch up on these figures, save for any areas where the paint might have completely chipped off. They just need to have the bases terrained and then they will be ready to go. These will be joined by the 8 Carthaginians that I previously acquired via eBay as well as the 8 unpainted figures that I scrounged online. I will use 4 of the latter to bring the Carthaginian unit up to 24 figures and use the remaining 4 figures for Carthaginian commander stands.

Here is the full Carthaginian cavalry contingent as of today. There are a dozen Celtic cavalrymen not shown on the table. If I recall correctly, I have 100 Carthaginian cavalry, of which approximately half are Numidian light cavalry.

I have added another unit of Celtic infantry, which I will show in a separate post, and I have started work on some Italian allies for the Roman army. These will also be posted in the near future.

Work In Progress - Punic Wars Project Update

 

Roman Velites for the Yellow Shield Legion

Click on the Images of All Pictures to Enlarge

Two weeks ago I finished this group of a dozen Roman Velites for my Yellow Shield Legion in my Republican Roman 54mm Punic Wars army. I have one legion with red shields and another with yellow shields. Were I to paint a third legion, it would probably have green shields. The shield colors obviously allow the player to tell the different legions apart.

I haven't finished the bases yet and I normally don't like to post pictures of my figures until they are based and ready to go in a game. On the other hand, I've decided that in 2022 I will make more blog posts by keeping a running update of Work In Progress ("WIP") units and finished units so that I can keep personal track of the progress and evolution of my projects.

Here are front and rear views of the Yellow Shield Velites. I have a dozen velites in each legion, but I have decided to increase their number to 16 per legion.

This past ten days I have been working on a second Gallic war band for Hannibal's Carthaginian army in Italy. The Gauls were more or less Hannibal's "cannon fodder" troops: they were always in the front line of Hannibal's troop deployment and their job was to do as much damage as they could on the first line (the Hastati) of the Roman army so that the Carthaginian (Punic and Libyan troops, collectively called "Africans") troops could join the battle as fresh troops fighting against a weakened foe.

Thus Hannibal's army will have four infantry units in the first line, two each of Iberian and Gallic soldier. They will be backed by a second line of Africans and Veterans. Light cavalry, Numidians, will be posted on one flank and the heavy cavalry, consisting of Gauls, Iberians and Carthaginian units, will be posted on the other flank.

Hannibal's Army Year to Date:

The Infantry:

2 x 32 Iberians (Spanish)

2 x 32 Gauls or Celts

1 x 32 African

1 x 32 Punic Veterans

1 x24 light troops

1 x 24 Balearic Slingers

The Cavalry:

1 x 16 Numidian light cavalry

2 x 12 Gallic heavy cavalry

1 x 8 Punic heavy cavalry

1 x Iberian heavy cavalry

I also have a couple of war elephants that need some painting touch up. These (and the Numidians) were purchased on line from other collections. I don't particularly care how these "Mercenaries" look as my plan is to do some minor touch up and repair. Yea right Jim. As is my wont, I will likely give these figures a totally new paint job before the end of the project. The basing appearance is what brings all of the figures together regardless of the quality of the painting. Buying mercenaries allows me to get figures onto the table top that much sooner.

The Iberian cavalry will likely be finished today and then I will start on a new unit of 12 Numidian light cavalry. After that, I'll either paint another dozen Gallic cavalry or a box of 8 Carthaginian heavy cavalry.

Republican Roman Army Year to Date:

The Infantry:

First Legion (red shields):

1 x 12 Velite skirmishers

1 x 32 Hastati

1 x 32 Princips

1 x 32 Triarii

Second Legion (yellow shields):

1 x 12 Velite skirmishers

1 x 32 Hastati

1 x 32 Princips

1 x 32 Triarii

The Cavalry:

20 x Italian Allies heavy cavalry

4 x Roman cavalry

All of the Roman cavalry have been purchased on eBay so you can see an example of how I can build up a part of the army without painting them myself. The Italian Allies will need a lot of touch up work. The Romans are passible and need little touch up.

I have another 20 unpainted Roman cavalry that I plan on painting myself. Eventually the Roman army will have two 24 to 32 figure cavalry units. During Hannibal's battles in Italy he normally had more cavalry than the Romans, whereas the Roman infantry usually outnumbered that of the Carthaginian army.

I am painting approximately 24 to 32 figures per week and going forward, most of the painting will be cavalry to bring these units up to enough to finally stage a battle on the table top.

And then there will be a few war elephants. Hannibal's war elephants did not survive the crossing of the Alps so they will not be needed for any battles in Italy. Hasdrubal/Gisgo's armies in Iberia fielded war elephants in their battles, and of course, Hannibal is said to have had 80 elephants at the Battle of Zama in Africa.

Sometimes You Just Get Lucky

 

HaT Spanish Cavalry (left) - set number 9055; and
HaT Carthaginian Cavalry - set number 9056.

I've been looking for the HaT sets of Spanish Cavalry (#9055) and Carthaginian Cavalry (#9056) for quite some time now. Both sets are out of production right now and so they are as hard to find as hens' teeth. I have seen the occasional set of 9056 Carthaginians, but the Spanish were the virtual unicorn of HaT figure sets. I almost did not believe that the Spanish cavalry even existed.

The other night I was reading in bed and on a whim I picked up my iPad and did a random search for the Carthaginians, and what to my surprise but I was able to purchase both sets! It gets even better though - I was able to pick up a second set of the Spanish cavalry and now I await its arrival in the post.

Here is a picture, below, of the four poses of Spanish cavalry in the box. You get two of each pose for a total of 8 figures in the box. With two sets, I can create a 16-figure unit of Spanish cavalry and brigade them with 16 Carthaginian heavy cavalry. These 32 figures plus 32 Gallic cavalry will make up one of the Carthaginian cavalry wings. The other wing will consists entirely of Numidian light horse, possibly as many as 48 figures.

The HaT Spanish cavalry set has four different poses as shown above.
You get two of each pose for a total of 8 figures in the box.

Here is a picture, below, of the full contents of the Spanish box (set #9505).

Here are the complete contents of the Spanish box.

On the Painting Table

I am almost finished with another 32 Celtic infantry figures. This will give me two x 32 figures or 64 figures of Celts. Hannibal considered them to be fodder against the Roman soldiers, hoping that the Celts would wear down the Romans and then he would unleash his African (Libyan-Phoenician) veterans on the worn down Romans.

With the arrival of these new boxes of figures, I will likely start work on the Spanish cavalry after the Celtic infantry are finished. Here is what I have in the pipeline:

16 x Spanish Cavalry

20 x Gallic Cavalry

32 to 48 Numidian Light Horse

32  x Roman cavalry

6 x Roman Velites

3 x Carthaginian War Elephants

If and when I get through the above lot, then I might consider adding a third Roman legion (112 figures).

I want my Roman infantry to outnumber my Carthaginian infantry and have more Carthaginian/Allies cavalry than I do for the Romans.

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Roman Legions On Parade

 

A unit of Republican Roman Triarii figures from John Jenkins Designs. 
Scipio Africanus can be seen in the back row, on horseback.

Last week I cleared the Carthaginian army off of my game table because I decided that it was time to give the Romans some equal time on my blog. So this post is an update on the progress that I have been making with the painting of my 54mm Republican Roman army.

My Roman army will be divided into several legions (legio), each comprised of 12 Velite skirmishers, 32 Hastati, 32 Princeps, and 24 to 32 Triarii. The quality of the troops improves from the front (Hastati) to the back (Triarii). The Hastati are lightly armored with just a pectoral plate on their chest and one greave on the left shin. The Princeps generally wore chain mail and were considered to be veterans with more experience than the younger Velites and Hastati. Finally, the Triarii formed the third line of the legion in battle formation. The Triarii were the older and most experienced soldiers in the legio.

Two Roman Legiones or Legionibus in battle formation.
Velites at the front, followed by Hastati in white tunics, then in the second row are the Princeps in red tunics,
and Triarii in the  third row.

The above picture depicts two Roman legiones: red shield on the left and yellow shield on the right. The John Jenkins Designs Roman Triarii are stand-ins for the yet-to-be-painted yellow shield Triarii. Each Roman player in my game will command one legion.

My initial plan was to have two legiones so as to have sufficient room on the flanks for cavalry and general movement. However, I now plan on adding a third legio with green shields. As long as the legiones are deployed in three row there will be sufficient room on my 12-feet long game table to deploy the infantry and cavalry without having "edge of the world" secured flanks.

Isn't this how it usually goes? You plan on a moderate sized army, but once you start collecting the figures and painting them, you feel a need to make the army bigger. Three Roman legiones is enough. No, I really mean that.

I find that setting up the painted/completed units on my game table keeps my painting mojo going. Over the course of several weeks and months I can see the growth in the army. I can also see what still needs to be painted in order to finish the army.

Here is a picture of the various Roman units deployed in the checkerboard formation, representing maniples or cohorts.

I generally paint the cavalry in my armies last. I don't know why, I just do it that way. I think that I like to see how the main component of the army (the infantry) is growing, while cavalry can be a pain in the neck to paint.

Some HaT Italian Allies cavalry serving with the Roman army.
I found these on eBay and plan to touch them up with paint and
give them a first class, fully terrained base.

Here is a picture of the Roman cavalry contingent on the left flank.
Italian allies on the left and Romans on the right.

Overhead view of the Roman army as of today.

Here is a picture of the red shield Triarii that I finished last week. The two movement trays in the front row were  painted awhile ago. Then I discovered that the Triarii figures are out of stock and additional figures are as hard as hen's teeth to find. I hit the jackpot on eBay when I found the 16 additional figures that I needed to bring the legio up to 32 figures. I also acquired enough Triarii figures from another collector to add a 32-figure yellow shield Triarii unit. I am working on this unit right now and hope to have it completed next week.

Roman legiones of the red shield legio. These are HaT figures.

Next in the painting queue are another dozen Velites skirmishers for the yellow shield legio. And then maybe I will be in the right frame of mind to tackle the Roman cavalry.

Salve!

My Carthaginian Army On Review

 

Hannibal's army of Italy - work in progress.

My 54mm Punic Wars Project has been making good progress since I kicked it off in October of this year. Both the Romans and the Carthaginians have 4 and 1/2 battle line infantry units painted. Both sides have assorted light troops (not too many at this point) and a limited amount of cavalry. I have been purchasing finished painted cavalry figures off of eBay from time to time so that I can start to fill out the cavalry contingent of both armies.

The other day I cleared all of the Roman buildings and Roman troops off of my game table (actually, a lot of the Romans are hiding behind the trees on one end of the table) so that I would have room to set up all of my painted Carthaginian troops for a parade review.

Thus far I have two Iberian infantry, one Celtic war band, and one Punic-African heavy infantry units that form the main battle line. I also have a small-ish group of light infantry armed with javelins and swords and another unit of 24 Balaeric Slingers. 

Finally, I have 16 Veterans unit, but I will be able to increase this particular unit up to 32 figures after adding and repainting additional finds on eBay. Here is a picture of the Veterans. They would have been the remnants of Hannibal's army in Italy that he brought back to Carthage when he had to confront the Roman invasion of Scipio Africanus, in the campaign leading up to the battle of Zama.

HaT Carthaginian Veterans

Here are some of the HaT elephants flanked by the Balaeric Slingers. Behind them are the Celts (right)
and the two Iberian (center and left) foot units. The slingers will operate in groups of six figures.
The Romans are lurking behind the trees in the back lefthand corner of the table.

Gallic cavalry and two larger Schliech brand of elephants. I have placed a Numidian cavalry figure
atop each elephant to give me an idea of what the finished set might look like

Second verse, same as the first.
Here you can get a better view of the Numidian cavalry figures that I recently acquired from another collector.

HaT Gallic cavalry figures. I am currently working on a unit of 12 horsemen.  
I have enough stock to have 48 Gallic cavalry in my Carthaginian army.

I will post a picture of the Roman army on this blog before the end of 2021.

It's All Starting To Come Together

CelticAllies

 I have been terraining the bases of my Carthaginian army over the past couple of days. Now that the units are organized and based, I can start to see what the armies of my Punic Wars Project will look like when they are all finished and on the table. Terraining bases is not the most fun thing to do with regard to painting an army, but it is something that has to be done. If done right, it can look spectacular.

Here is a panorama view of my Carthaginian army, so far:

The two units in the front row of the lower right corner are Iberian allies. Behind them, with the red shields, are African veterans. Below is a picture of Hannibal Barca and his retinue. These figures are from John Jenkins Designs.

Hannibal Barc Himself
John Jenkins Designs figures

Here are the Celtic/Gauls contingent. These are probably my favorite figures so far. I like them so much that I plan on adding a second Celt unit. Previously I'd only planned for one such unit.

One of the Iberian units, backed up by Hannibal's veterans.

The Carthaginian army, to date, has one unit of 8 cavalry that I found on eBay. I have another 24 Gaulish cavalry, painted, on the way from the UK. My Carthaginian cavalry will consist mostly of Numidian light cavalry and Gaulic medium cavalry.

I currently have some Romans on the painting table and they should bring me up to 32 Princeps to go alone with the 32 Hastati and 16 Triarii that I have already painted.