Wednesday 6 February 2019

15mm Gallic Chariots

The DBMM army lists allow for up to eighteen chariots, but I thought a dozen would be sufficient for my needs. I was however not entirely happy with the chariot riders as initially supplied as they were all gaesatae figures, whereas I thought the Xyston soldurii would be more appropriate and especially because I wanted to base a few as generals:


















I ordered two packs of soldurii and ended up with seventeen figures, using a dozen as chariot riders and putting four aside for an additional solurii element, while the spare figure and a gaesatae warrior found their way on to the chieftain's base as an additional bodyguard:


















The sub-generals are likewise differentiated with one additional chariot runner each, while the remaining gaesatae were put to use in the recently completed gaesatae contingent:


















The chariot models themselves came in seven parts which needed to be glued together. Not overly difficult, but they probably won't stand up to much rough handling:


















The fiddliest bit was sticking some fuse wire on the models for reigns. I nearly gave up, but am glad I persevered as I think the models look better with the drivers holding something other than thin air. I did have a chuckle to myself when, just I had used up my last piece of fuse wire, the pool filter circuit board tripped about three hours later. I am sure some water got in there with rain we have had overnight, and I don't believe that modern circuits require fuse wire anyway, but I enjoyed the irony of the moment nonetheless:
The only other thing I wrestled with was cutting the riders and standing driver figures from their bases, but thought I'd end up making too much of a mess of the figures themselves. Besides which, it is really only noticeable if viewed from the rear:


















That's all the units for this project completed. I still have the one element of soldurii and four more cavalry elements to finish, all recent additions, and I am hopeful I'll be able to finalise everything within the next couple of weeks.

12 comments:

  1. Wow - what beautiful looking chariots Lawrence - well done!

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    1. Thanks Keith, I was pleased with the way they turned out.

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  2. Gosh, well done on finishing your army, the chariots look great! You'd need to have a pretty old fuseboard to still have fuse wire!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks Iain, and that's what the lady in the hardware store said when I bought the wire. I didn't actually tell her that it was for sticking on to chariots, of course.

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  3. Impressive and wonderful collection, love them!

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    1. Thanks Phil, and they may even actually see a game or two this year.

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  4. Great looking chariots Lawrence.

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    1. Thanks Mark. I thought I was nearly there with the project, but realised this afternoon that I have accidentally mixed up some Spanish slingers with my Gauls so already have some rebasing to do.

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  5. Really nice...and I think I'll be shopping for fuse wire myself soon!

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    1. Thanks VisBellica. The lady in the hardware shop look a little surprised when I asked her for some, and said something along the lines of it having been a while since anyone had purchased it. I wish I had bought a couple of packets now, just in case!

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  6. Really fine looking chariots, Lawrence. I agree that adding reigns to them is a pain, but it really improves the end result.

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    1. Thanks Peter. I nearly gave up but am glad I didn't. My 15mm Carthaginian four-horse chariots may be a different proposition though!

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