Bench update 01 July 2024

I'm catching up with the mini-project, set aside while I refit the Mycenaean elements. This is Hat's El Cid command, using four foot and three mounted, which is roughly half what the box offers you. It took me quite a long time to (a) decide which army to paint these for (b) find a colour scheme and (c) decide to stick to standard 3.0 bases. So the delay was a win.

For these command pieces I'm using layers of color over the initial seal. Patiently working up through white, moon yellow, deep yellow then red or green allows thin paint that naturally highlights.

Mycenaean refit complete!

With all the reshuffling I now end up with seven, not six, 4Sp or 4Pk elements. One of them is the full armor lads, so if it doesn't feel appropriate to have what we are led to believe was out of service by the time of the last siege of Troy. Or I can lend a 4Sp element out: but I think once all the morphs and (guilty shrug) new purchases are in, I'll have plenty of Trojan spears. The issue will be finding 4Bd elite/hero elements. But I'll save those thoughts for a later post.

Mycenaean refit 22 June 2024

I owe Caesar Miniatures an apology for saying they designed their sprue count around an older edition. My mistake was to build the two boxes of chariots first, and only then proceed to the foot. As long as the armored archers are used creatively and the spears/pikes from the chariots are repurposed as foot, the numbers are right. My only remaining gripe is that there aren't any obvious Myrmidon warrior minis.

The rebuilt crew for chariots. Two kneeling archers used as General's flankers.

Where the two spare dendra-armored spears were yoinked from, plug in two alternate heavy spears/pikes from the chariots. They stand proud so probably not the best choice.

The other swap-arounds and conversions including "Lykian" 3Bd on left, from the Philistine/Sea Peoples by HaT. 

A couple of dark age of Greece notes

1. I came to the hobby too early. More options of scale and affordability are available every few years, I am stuck finishing off what i have and trying not be tempted by new offerings from the likes of Linear A! 

2. My current projects, Atlantic's old Greeks and Caesar's relatively new Mycenaean, are not a match in size. So I'm never really going to benefit by completing this lot before i go back to the dark ages.

3. I don't believe Archaeology has provided wargamers with anything like an accurate appreciation of who did what when from the Minoan floreat, to the triumph depicted by Ramses iii, on the Eastern Med, to the Etruscan high age.

Mycenaean I/26a Achaian complete

The 4Sp including those converted swordsmen in front rank

The Myrmidons and 2x4Pk

The 4x4Bd dismounted elites

Ps options and Camp Followers

And finally the LChGen and the 3xLCh elites