Firepower!

HaT's Greek Catapults

Additions for DBA2.2 armies Later Hoplites (Phokians) and Syracusans

With spring comes daylight saving and with daylight saving comes enough light to work on projects during the evening! Having just completed a HOTT army in 28mm, I turned my attention to an easy project for DBA in 1:72 - HaT's Greek Catapults.

These are probably not particularly historical outside of Syracuse's floreat. HaT does tend to do pretty detailed research though, and besides, I'm not that fussy. So, what do you get?

The pack contains four catapult kits, and enough crew to provide up to six per engine. The crew is very simple but well thought-out: one man with a bolt (roughly javelin sized) two with rocks, two holding an arm out as though they were adjusting something (on opposite sides so you can use both) and one in windlass-cranking position. Four crew is plenty to place on a DBA base so I reserved a couple from each pack to use as camp followers or such like.

The catapult is of a proto-ballista design, essentially a giant cranequin on a trestle stand. The trestle is perhaps the least likely part of the model, but a siege engineer might have erected such a thing. The catapult certainly couldn't be transported on it.

That's a finished model, though not taken at the greatest angle. The figures were very easy to finish with a sharp craft knife, and the catapult needed a little work on mould lines. The plastic is of the rubbery kind HaT often favours, so super-glue worked fine to stick the catapult parts together. Once cleaned up and washed in  normal hot dish-washing water and detergent, they took the base varnish perfectly. HaT is very reliable for this. I did not bother to base paint the catapult and just laid various browns over the base varnish, then a final sealing coat of tough varnish. I base coated the crew in white, and since they are dressed so simply the job of adding flesh, hair, another layer of white to make the white tunics really white, then light flesh colour over the first flesh tone and the eyes (always the hardest in this scale!) The javelin and a sword for one crew were the only other detail I can recall. Oh, the  rocks were a bit of a nuisance, but by using a fine detail brush I managed to make the rock not look like part of the hand or vice versa.