Monday 12 July 2010

Phalanx Done(ish)

Here's the refurbed/extended phalanx I've been working on recently, finally complete(ish).  I say complete(ish) because I've decided that it ideally needs another 32 figures to bring it to 128, which is a much more Macedonian number, but they will have to wait a while for reinforcements as I'm working on another phalanx, now.


On the battlefield they will doubtless be formed up 4 deep, but 8 looks great. 


The rear view (above) shows that only the front 3-4 ranks have linen armour. 


All but one of the minis are Foundry (there's a solitary Bronze Goat in there somewhere).

Unusually for me, I did paint most of the figures in this unit, except for the first 2 dozen that were beautifully painted by Andy Bryant, whose style I have tried to imitate.  The last 30 minis were painted using the fast method I described in a recent post, using sprays and dips as much as possible.

21 comments:

jkklnjbjb said...

This looks amazing! Well done! Go you buy the foundry figures out right from the site? Or from a dealer? I need some pike for my WAB early Macedonian army so if you have any connections let me know. Once again it looks very cool

Christopher(aka Axebreaker) said...

Wow!That is a very impressive looking pike block!

Cheers
Christopher

BigRedBat said...

Hi Lickwars, all the Foundry minis came from eBay or swaps, and not one from Foundry. Foundry don't get much business from me because of their silly postage charges and pricing.

I think, in total, I must have the better part of 4000 Foundry minis and less than 10% came from them.

jkklnjbjb said...

I figured, the prices are CRAZY

-Aaron

AJ (Allan) Wright said...

Fantastic work on these. I particularly like the color selection for the helmets and the way the raised detail on the shields looks when painted.

DeanM said...

Awesome! Wow - what rules are you using for this 1:1 Syntagma! Now you need one with their pikes lowered (at least the front ranks

War Minister Crittumbo said...

Those are great. I guess we can say the Bat's batty for pikes.
(runs away)

Sire Godefroy said...

Fantastic! That's what a syntagma should look like *looks sadly at his humble 25 men phalanx*.

If you'll use this amount of miniatures per unit in a game, it's going to be one of the most impressive tables I can imagine.

Cheers
SG

Caliban said...

I agree with AJ - the embossed shields and the helmet variations make for a great unit. I shall have to copy you at one point!

Paul

Anonymous said...

Noone can say 28mm does not capture the massed ranks now. Wow...

BigRedBat said...

Thanks chaps- I've definitely not finished with this unit, yet! I'd love to think it will make it to 256, some day.

The next one will be 128-strong, but that'll take months to do.

Counterpane said...

Excellent, Simon, but I'll still think I'll stick to 6mm apart from HOTT!

Richard C

BigRedBat said...

Hey Richard! Didn't realise you were a feloow bloggista!

Simon

Giles said...

That is pretty amazing - the depth really works and makes it look like a "proper" phalanx. Very inspiring. I painted about 100-odd Foundry Macedonians about 8 years ago but haven't got around to basing them yet!

Best wishes

Giles

Keith said...

Oh YES I love them, keep at it, I look forward to seeing the whole 10yards lol.

Keith

Anonymous said...

That is one Pike Block Bonanza there Simon. Before you know it you'll be skirmish wargaming?

It is interesting that when you see a large number of figs like that, it does bring history to life and makes you realise just how effective the phalanx must have been in battle.

Its inspired me to start painting my ECW Regt with 100 pikes.(notice I said start)
Cheers Paul

BigRedBat said...

Thanks chaps! Now I wish they were 16 deep.

Secundus said...

Wow that looks amazing. I love the details you've put in with all the different poses going on, very nice.

Grégory Privat said...

Excellent. I ve received the mat, by the way : thank you very much.

Grégory Privat said...

Excellent !

BigRedBat said...

Hope it's useful Greg! Scatter some Green flock on it and it'll look the biz.

Simon