15mm Ancient Spanish Army Completed

The weekend saw the completion of this project, so I took some time out to gather the troops for a few group photos as it is unlikely they will ever see the table all at the same time and it helps to remind me what I have completed:

The figures are all Xyston, and the shield transfers are from Little Big Men Studios. Here are a few shots of the scutarii, with caetrati in the foreground and some Celtiberians in the rear:

And a few gratuitous shots panning of the infantry panning left to right, which I hope nevertheless serves to highlight some of the marvelous detail of the Xyston figures:

Looking at these pictures reminds me of how many individual shields, javelins and in some cases arms I have had to glue together. I like the effect but found that even pulling them out for a group shot like this inevitably means I have to glue some back together and I wonder at times whether the old one-piece figures may be less bother. Then again, the trade-off with one-piece figures is that the spears can often end up bent and wavy and in some cases snapped off completely:

Next, a few close-ups of the cavalry:

With my favourites being the light horse with caetrati pillion riders:

And a closer look at the armoured Spanish cavalry with some C-in-C and subordinate general elements immediately behind:

Finally, the twenty-eight balearic slinger elements (as opposed to the twelve actually allowable under the DBMM Spanish army lists) and the remaining light horse:

And one final group shot:

In total, the army is comprised of the following:

              67 elements of scutarii

              40 elements of caetrati

              30 elements of light and armoured cavalry

              28 elements of slingers

              16 elements of celtiberians

providing a total of 72 horses and 469 foot and cavalry figures, or 541 individual figures in total.

I completed the first experimental unit of scutarii in February while I was awaiting the arrival of some additional Gauls, but really only got started in mid-March so in effect this army took me four months to complete, which is around the same length of time it took me for the Gauls. At least I know I'm working at a reasonably steady pace.

That's it for the ancient Spanish. I have a few Carthaginian spearmen on the painting table at the moment so will try to get through them at a reasonable pace, before moving back on to some 28mm French Napoleonic figures.

15mm Celtiberians and Balearic slingers

The last two troop types for my 15mm Spanish project now completed. First, another twenty elements of Balearic slingers:

I had actually completed another eight elements earlier thinking they were Gauls, so that makes twenty-eight elements in total which is now quite a few more than I need. I also realised that what I originally thought was a headband is in fact representation of a spare sling that  Balearic slingers often used to carry tied around their heads, as seen here on the figure on the left:

There are four figures in each pack of eight, and they are fairly simply dressed so easy to complete:

Finally, I completed sixteen elements of Celtiberians as an allied contingent:

These are classified as Fast Blades in DBMM so should provide a bit of variety alongside the Iberian scutarii and caetrati:

They were fierce warriors and proved difficult for the Romans, defeating several attacks until Scipio prevailed at the brutal siege of Numantia:

Each Xyston pack of eight has six different designs, so there was a fair bot of variety to play around with:

That's it for the 15mm Spanish project. I'll try to get the completed army together for a group shot and final head count over the coming days, then on to some Carthaginian figures I have prepared. I also have some French Napoleonic cuirassiers crying out for attention, but am on a roll with the 15mm ancients so might keep going for a bit longer with them until I finally run out of steam.