Hairy Tapurian Hillmen from the Hills.

From the background material I've read on the Parthians it would seem that they did employ small quantities of infantry during their many campaigns in Asia. What form these took seems to be a subject of some uncertainty so I've had to wing it a bit with the following figures.

They started life as Crusader miniatures Persian Kardakes, I then took a scalpel to their tiara headdresses and replaced them with the shaggy hair and beards now sported. The spear and javelin armament is again speculative but at least probable though I may mix in a few more figures with multiple javelins for variety. The thureos shield would again be a possibility, it was fairly ubiquitous throughout the hellenistic world, but equally a small round buckler type could be mixed in to give a more irregular appearance. The OTT lion head shield is one of three included in a pack of Palmyran cataphracts bought from A&A miniatures and included simply because I like it.
So there you have it a fairly generic pair of irregulars to trail along in the wake of the cavalry and doing  all the menial tasks and helping the nobles feel superior.

Parthian Death Ride.

Overly dramatic no doubt, but as the latest output of miniatures includes two casualty figures not entirely inappropriate:

There are still a few bits and pieces to touch up, exposed as ever by the argus eye of the camera but overall they're coming on nicely.

A Short Parthian Re-Cap.

After a somewhat premature blogpost recently regarding some expected progress on my nascent Parthian army I have in the usual fashion been bitten severely on the arse by the fates. The recent hopeless weather here in Blighty which has already delayed several jobs has coincided with a fall off in the amount of work we are picking up so as a consequence a lot of my spare time has been spent chasing after more suitable work and generally trying to keep my workforce gainfully employed.
So just to keep the ball rolling I've taken a few progress photos just to keep up morale at this end.

The hit & run specialists.

The business end of the Parthian Army. Cataphracts.

All of the figures used so far are A&A miniatures from their Sassanid/ Parthian & Palmyran ranges, other than 50% of the horse archers which are Foundry Scythians which are very fine indeed. The only downside with this army is that it represents a later era than ideal for my aims, what I really would like to do is an early Parthian army to fight my large collection of successors but this really is a very small gripe in the general scheme of things.

Normal Service Resumed.

After a brief sabbatical from painting miniatures due to other creative commitments ( see http://handgrenadealiensretrodungeon.blogspot.com for details) and a general lack of enthusiasm I've taken up the brushes again to press forward on the Parthian Army I started last year.
Pictured below is the commander for a third unit of cataphracts:

He is an A&A miniature from their Parthian / Sassanid range and most excellent he is too. Its good to be back on the lead painting wagon again; much as I enjoyed painting the South American plastics there is something even more satisfying about a lead miniature, its that indefinable way they take the paint and the sheer Newtonian mass of all that metal.
Its good to be back!

Gran Colombian Artillery.

After a build time extended by both distractions and a certain amount of ennui I have finally finished an artillery piece for the South American Wars of Liberation project. Despite really struggling to finish this I am fairly happy with the result.

This is the last Hurrah from South America for the foreseeable future, to be frank I've just run out of enthusiasm for the project for the time being. I was making reasonable progress until the turn of the year  but the output has just got slower & slower and it has reached a point where I'd rather divert my attentions elsewhere for a bit.
I don't foresee any large scale new projects, more a case of filling in a few gaps in neglected projects and generally running down the unpainted lead drawer to sensible levels again. There are some very nice A&A Parthians lurking in there somewhere which deserve a lick of paint, but they will have to fight it out with the ECW Clubmen who are beginning to look more mutinous with every viewing.

Pimp Your Roundhead. A Very Bling Earl of Essex.

Unusually for me I took a Saturday off work today and in between drinking Guinness & listening to the test match on Radio 4 I wasted the rest of my time painting Warlord Games take on Old Robin.

He's destined to be used as generic commander in Pike & Shotte so I decided to make him as splendid as possible so he stands out as such. The blued and gilded armour is in the earlier Greenwich style but it seemed feasible for the Devereaux family to be in possession of a suit given their earlier services to the crown.
P.S. Do you think he looks like Beefy Botham? Shredded Wheat anyone.

Sunday Pike & Shotte Game.

After Herculean efforts getting things ready the first outing of Warlord Games newest offering at Shropshire's smallest wargames club finally came to pass.
For this latest event Mr. Ireland and I were joined by Mr. Will Johnson & Mr. Steve Morgan who as the proud author of the rules had kindly offered to teach we other three how they worked, which as it transpired rather well.

The set-up was as follows:

A view from either end of the 11'x4' modular table we used and yes I will have to paint that blue styrofoam a suitably neutral colour.

This was populated with around 350-400 miniatures per side representing various European armies of the Thirty Years War period:

Here we have the army of Generals Morganstierna & von Scheldona in more detail, the pictures below show the four brigades from left to right across the table.

Steve and I had opted to play a defensive role so the onus was very much on Paul & Will to play an aggressive strategy which they did with great gusto. On the left wing Will and Steve fought a battle of attrition which narrowly went in Steve's favour despite Will being able to call on the services of some cavalry reinforcements which very nearly tipped the balance in his favour.
The pattern was repeated in the left centre with Steve only prevailing in the last round of combat due to some ridiculously lucky dice rolls. In fact Steve's dice rolling was a source of some wonderment throughout the day.

On the right wing Paul and I fought a prolonged and what was for Paul a frustrating cavalry combat. The narrowness of the terrain and the actions of a particularly stubborn dragoon regiment serving to stymy his aggressive intent.
The right centre saw Pauls infantry brigade attacking into a storm of musketry & cannon fire which ultimately saw them off. Some late reinforcements made things interesting for a while but by then my pike blocks were well and truly on the offensive and with the intervention of Steve's currassier reserve effectively put the mockers on a late reverse of fortune.

Steve & Will Battle it out on the left wing.

Events come to a head as Will's cavalry brigade is  effectively put out of action and Steve's foot fight on despite heavy casualties.

The denoument on the left wing, Wills infantry brigade have been put to flight and his  replacement horse reduced to a shadow.

  

On the right wing Paul & I fight a series of indecisive  combats.

The upshot of the right wing stalemate. My strong infantry brigade  sees off Paul's first attack, then goes on the offensive to divide his wing with the assistance of Steve's Curassiers.

Finally a wall to wall panorama from the victorious battle line, this time from right to left:

All in all the four of us had a fantastic day, there were sufficient moments of drama to keep us all engaged right to the bitter end and in all honesty things could have turned out very different if the dice had rolled less kindly for Steve & I. In the end it was the fragmentation of Will & Paul's Army that caused them to declare but it is fair to say they withdrew with honour intact.

Hope you enjoy this quick report, all errors and inconsistencies are my own and as such subject to revision by the other participants.

Regards to you all HGA.