The To-do List.

Welcome to the workshop. Just a side blog to keep my main blog 'tidy' with WIP info, painting guides and unpainted miniatures reviews and comparisons.

I have chopped and changed my plans more than I can remember. Whether it has been because of basing or ruleset preferences or just an expansion of how many figures I want in the units, I am forever dredging through my boxes of figures trying to remember why I bought this set or that set. I am planning on using this workshop blog to plan my future projects and have to-do lists to help me remember and keep me on track of what's going on.

Currently the focus is on Lost Battles and To The Strongest!

After a slump with painting and general unsatifaction in my original format I decided rebase my ancients armies. I also invested in a gaming cloth and there is a secondary goal of matching the colours of that.

Units will be based on an 80mm frontage. 12 heavy foot 2 ranks of 6, 6 for lights. For horse 4 riders per base and 2 for lights. Still deciding in vehicles and elephants but the current 40mm frontage of my elephants might be fine depending on what is needed for scenarios.

The list below is what is left to do for the battles and will be deleted when completed and hopefully photographed and posted on the main blog. For reasons mentioned above some units will end up being proxied and not neccesarily the 'nationality' mentioned in brackets.

Key:

Planned

In progress

MAGNESIA, 190 BC 

Romans:

2 AHI
- 1 Pergamene and Achaean,*
- 1 Macedonian and Thracian,*
Could use finished Thureophoroi or paint some new units.

AL + VHC (Eumenes’ Pergamenes)
- using Maccabean Cavalry.

Seleucids:

2 LHI
-1 Cappadocian and Mercenary*
-1 Galatian and Asiatic, using Armoured Thracians

1 LCA (Settler),
Using Seleucid Companions for these


* Could easily use finished Thureophoroi units!

Updated 10/9/20

Newline Designs 20mm Carthaginian African Pikemen

A few old scans of Newline Designs 20mm Ancient Carthaginian African Pikemen codes. Originally posted on the 1/72 Ancients yahoo group. They may not be much use as listed because the idea of Carthage fighting in the Macedonian manner has fallen out a favour some time ago now. I think this was due to misunderstanding over the translation of "Longchephoroi" which was translated as a pike bearer in earlier versions I believe. However the longche is currently believed to be a light spear or javelin.

However these are great miniatures to use as Hellenistic Successor pikemen if paired with ANM01 Macedonian foot command figures. They could also be mixed along with the Macedonian pikemen (ANM02-04) to give a nice variety of helmet types, especially with the addition of the masked helmeted 2nd ranker (ANM03a). I am hoping to do that for a unit of 48 mixed pikemen for a "citizen" phalanx for the likes of the Achaean League for example.

I am also hoping to use the 2nd and some 1st rank figures as spearmen with larger Agrive type shields. The larger shield should cover the left open hand whilst the thin bristles I use for spears should be able to be angled away from the larger shield. Hopefully they would then have an appearance akin to a hoplite. The only issue would be the extra strap moulded on, but it'll not be too much of a problem to me. Initial experiments have convinced me this is doable. Anyway to the scans.

These are currently unlisted, African veteran pikemen in chainmail, front rank and pike upright pose:

They are reminiscent of the Hellenistic pikement illustration featured in Peter Connolly's Greece and Rome at War:

African pikemen ANA02 Front rank, ANA03 2nd Rank & ANA04 Rear ranks which have a few conical helmets which could be fashioned into the simple pilos helmet potentially:

My Seleucid Phalanx using "African pikemen", half the ANA02 figures and ANA03 codes:

 

As ideas change and some fall out of favour and others rise into prominence some figures will become defunct however there could be ways to give them a new function or lease of life. A bit of re-branding or renaming could make this line more relevant to current trends for example; ANM## Successor pikemen. Ultimately I am very pleased that these figures are available whatever their designation as I have stockpiled quite a lot of them because of their usefulness.