Thursday 14 November 2019

15mm Carthaginian Chariots

This is the last of the Carthaginians, which presented a bit of an obstacle to overcome. Given that eight heavy chariots means having to paint thirty-two horses and affix thirty-two pieces of fuse-wire for reigns, I knew that this would take some time.

The chariots themselves come in six parts and required gluing together, which is quite fiddly in 15mm, but I am quite pleased with the results:


















The Carthaginians had phased out chariots by the Second Punic war, although they did use them for chariot racing. They featured at the battle of the Crimissus River where the Sacred Band were also wiped out.

The crew figures are Libyan rather than Carthaginian, which fits in with the theory that the chariots were actually supplied and crewed by Libyan mercenaries:




































The DBMM Early Carthaginian lists lack a but of punch, so the chariots appear to me to be an essential addition to give them a chance against other armies of the period:




































That's it for the Carthaginians. Quite pleasing in that I managed to get them finalised in just over three months:


















I'll assemble them all and do a final headcount over the coming week, and try to post a group shot or two of the completed project.

16 comments:

  1. Such an impressice collection of gorgeous chariots!!

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    1. Cheers Ray, they are nicely sculpted models which cam up nicely.

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  3. Those chariots sound like a lot of work but the end result was worth it.

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    1. Thanks. I underestimated how many horses were involved in eight heavy chariots, so it took me a bit longer than I was anticipating.

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  4. Your chariots are AWESOME! Can't believe you rigged these 15mm beauties with reins.

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    1. Cheers Jonathan. Thankfully each horse only had the link for one reign each, so thirty-two bits of wire. If it had been sixty-four I might have thought twice about it.

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    2. And that should be "rein", and not "reign", of course.

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  5. Your horses are superb - the faces on the duns are pretty amazing. Could you share your horse painting strategy, including what brands/colors you use and how you approach them?

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    1. Thanks for the kind feedback. I use the Foundry horse colour triads so much of the colour selection is done for me. On 15mm horses I only use the shade and intermediate colours, applying that first and then going back over the reins and mane with black to tidy up any rough edges before painting them in. I use charcoal black (or the base colour again) to highlight the manes, so it's all pretty simple really. The key for me is the Foundry paint sets which apply well and means I don't have to give it too much thought in trying to remember what to use each time I paint a horse.

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  6. The may have been fiddly to assemble and yes that is a lot of horses, but they look damned good!

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    1. Thanks Mark. My motivation flagged a little halfway through, but I'm glad I persevered with them.

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  7. Well worth persevering with these, they look splendid! Lovely work all round!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks very much Iain, I was happy with the end result.

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