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Hello one and all, to a hobby blog most historical in nature.

Back when Wargames Atlantic released their Persian infantry boxed set, I knew I had to create the largest army of Persia ever to grace the gaming table. $35 bucks a box for 40 minis, with multi-box deals? I think my reaction went along the lines of "Sign me up!".

As such, I bought a single box. Mainly to test things out and get a feel for the kit.

Furthermore, I wanted to test out paint schemes. I generally can paint 5-10 infantry a day, depending on complexity and if I have the color scheme locked down. With the Persians being multicolored, that meant mainly setting out what colors i wanted to use for secondary elements, and leaving the tunic colors up to whatever I fancied at the time.

My first unit, and the testbed for how I wanted to paint these models, is a Sparabara unit. For those not into the minutiae of the Greco-persian wars, this is an infantry unit composed of a front line of spearmen with wicker "Spara" shields, which acted like the later pavise, as well as a secondary line of archers. In the reality of ancient warfare this would probably be 1-3 ranks of spears and many ranks of archers, but in game terms 1 of each is a good compromise.







As you can no doubt tell, they are a colorful bunch.

I have decided to base these on 40x40mm squares to provide flexibility of play. I'm mainly planning on using Hail Caesar by warlord games, but want to leave open other possibilities.

Although I don't have a picture, i have 12 more Persians converted with javelins from Wargames Atlantic's dark age Irish kit on my painting table right now.

So, what is next, I hear you say? Well, my 10 box deal of Persians arrived two days ago. For those keeping score, thats an additional 400 Persian warriors.

Yesterday I dug into the first two boxes (there are 16 padded armor bodies per box, so for 20 I needed 2 more sprues) and built a unit of 20 Mede Levy Spearmen. These are defined by their dress, as the subject Medes preferred padded armor and the spherical hat/headdress you see on these minis. (NOTE: minis are separate and have only been placed for photo. shields are likewise separate.)



With 320 more persians to build, I hope you join me on this journey and follow my blog.

Please feel free to share your thoughts.

I am still astonished at that number and i wish you the best of luck.

You've got a good start on them too! Colorful troops are one of my favorite things to see, and i'm looking forward to seeing more variety like that, and more historical info!

That is a beautifully excessive number and I am very here for it.

Really excited for this project. It's great to see historical hobby blogs. Good luck on your journey to immortality.

amazingturtles wrote:I am still astonished at that number and i wish you the best of luck.

You've got a good start on them too! Colorful troops are one of my favorite things to see, and i'm looking forward to seeing more variety like that, and more historical info!

Anything you want to know, feel free to ask. I'm trained in historical research

Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll wrote:That is a beautifully excessive number and I am very here for it.

Welcome to have you for the ride. I may increase it as well, funds permitting!

Don Qui Hotep wrote:Really excited for this project. It's great to see historical hobby blogs. Good luck on your journey to immortality.

1. your forum username is lovely and gave me a great chuckle.

2. Thank you for the luck and I hope you stick around.


Any who, for tonight's update, I have completed the aforementioned skirmishers. See here:







and a group shot with the previously completed Sparabara.




Alright, now to begin with those Mede Spearmen. Let me know what you think guys.

Lovely colours mate! They look brilliant all together.

It is rare to see historical stuff around and these are giving me good tingles.

Holy dooly that is a lot of bodies - good to see you already smashing through them.

Will you end up fielding the entire army at one time? That is something I do miss from the direction 40k & Sigmar are going in; enormous epic battles from massed ranks...ahhh.

Can't wait to see more!

 tzurk wrote:
Lovely colours mate! They look brilliant all together.

It is rare to see historical stuff around and these are giving me good tingles.

Holy dooly that is a lot of bodies - good to see you already smashing through them.

Will you end up fielding the entire army at one time? That is something I do miss from the direction 40k & Sigmar are going in; enormous epic battles from massed ranks...ahhh.

Can't wait to see more!

Most likely, yes. I have a friend who has a rather egregious historicals collection with enough men to keep these boys on their toes.

started on the Mede Spear Levy.

And the aforementioned Mede Spearmen are complete. Please let me know what you think.

Gah!! Your definitely going for the modern and accurate view of the ancients as bright and brash rather than white togas. Excellent. Are you planning on keeping the army pure Wargames Atlantic or adding Victrix and metals to the numbers? I have to admit with the 80 Halflings I'm using (who might end up aiding my Greeks along with Fauns and Centaurs) I would greatly appreciate another sprue with similar equipment but a few more options. Pikes at 45' etc....

 Llamahead wrote:
Gah!! Your definitely going for the modern and accurate view of the ancients as bright and brash rather than white togas. Excellent. Are you planning on keeping the army pure Wargames Atlantic or adding Victrix and metals to the numbers? I have to admit with the 80 Halflings I'm using (who might end up aiding my Greeks along with Fauns and Centaurs) I would greatly appreciate another sprue with similar equipment but a few more options. Pikes at 45' etc....

So, as a community coordinator for Wargames Atlantic, I can say that halflings will be getting cross compatible parts in the forthcoming halfling cavalry set. no release date set at present.

Back on topic, I'm undecided. The plan right now is to paint up my 380 or so persians and see how it goes. I may convert other historical minis as necessary. For example, I have some gripping beast arabs that i may convert to be commanders or a version of the king on foot with attendants.

Such a lovely orange for those levies! What sort of dyes would they used to get the kinds of colors they had back then?

 amazingturtles wrote:
Such a lovely orange for those levies! What sort of dyes would they used to get the kinds of colors they had back then?

Hi Amazingturtles. My area of historical expertise is uniforms from the period of 1700 through to about 1870, although I could stretch to 1900.

As such, I am basing my painting for this project off of extant research and reconstructions. Specifically the lovely The Achaemenid Persian Army by Duncan Head. as well as various plates and other pictographic data found on the internet. I admit that the wider internet is not the best place to do detailed research without checking sources for correctness, but at the moment its what I am able to do. Thankfully, due to my research background I have been trained in how to tell (generally speaking) what is a legitimate document/piece of research and what is conjecture. I am not infallible, however.

That said, I can give you two sources of information that, in my estimation, are well researched. The first is an article on ancient Achaemenid clothing, and the second is a general overview of natural dyes and the processes by which they are applied to fabrics. I will note that this overview seems to be aimed at reconstructing dark age or early medieval clothing. However considering that those in the medieval period would have close to the same availability of natural dyes, it seems like a good place to start.

https://iranicaonline.org/articles/clothing-ii

http://kws.atlantia.sca.org/dyeing.html

If there is anything else I can assist with please let me know.

GENERAL BLOG UPDATE:

With the Mede Spears done, I am going to be building a unit of 20 archers. After that, I will work on a unit of 20 Persian Hoplites and then another unit of Sparabara. Maybe 2 units of Sparabara one after the other, I'm not 100% on that though.

Archer unit has been put into progress

Archers are done pending basing.

Thank you so much for the info! It's been fun to read through. Interesting that the one mentions cochineal beetles as dyes, i'm pretty sure we still use them in some occasions!

The archers are looking as snazzy as can be

 amazingturtles wrote:
Thank you so much for the info! It's been fun to read through. Interesting that the one mentions cochineal beetles as dyes, i'm pretty sure we still use them in some occasions!

The archers are looking as snazzy as can be

You are very welcome. If there is anything else I can help with please let me know.

Archers are done, and I took an army shot as of 10/08/2020

Work on the first unit of Kardakes Hoplites is proceeding apace.

Love the work here, the multicolored Persians are really neat, the Spara shields are really cool. I'd love to see what a full army in the field as multicolored as this would have looked like. I'm not sure if I missed it, but was there an actual ruleset you use these guys with?

 Vaktathi wrote:
Love the work here, the multicolored Persians are really neat, the Spara shields are really cool. I'd love to see what a full army in the field as multicolored as this would have looked like. I'm not sure if I missed it, but was there an actual ruleset you use these guys with?

The plan is to use these with Hail Caesar in mind.

Kardakes unit 1 is painted, notwithstanding shields which are in progress.

Kardakes unit 1 is finished. Next is a unit of Sparabara. and then its up in the air. Please let me know what you think of these. Also freehand is not a strong suit for me yet.

No pictures this time, but I have another unit of sparabara in progress. Currently working on the front ten spearmen.

Today I bring you the beginning of Sparabara unit 2. I'm channeling the grief from saying goodbye to a dog whose life I was part of for 5 years to create some color and art today.

This one's for you Zeus. You were the best boy.

Sparabara unit 2 complete, as well as a mounted commander. Also an army shot up to date as of today.

Great army shot! I like the freehand stuff on the shields. Are you planning on including any chariots in there?

 Don Qui Hotep wrote:
Great army shot! I like the freehand stuff on the shields. Are you planning on including any chariots in there?

Eventually, yup! Unfortunately I haven't found one that I like yet

You're making great progress! And i'm sorry to hear about your dog, that's never an easy thing.

 amazingturtles wrote:
You're making great progress! And i'm sorry to hear about your dog, that's never an easy thing.

Thank you on both counts.

He was truly a good boi. well behaved, except for minor issues occasionally. Loving and caring too, as he would come check up on you if not sit with you throughout the day. Unfortunately health issues are what they are, and my wife could tell he was in pain at the end.

100 persians in a month. holy crap.

20 Kissian archers painted. also army shot. Yes, I messed up when gluing these to their multi bases, leading to them not ranking up well. if I do another unit i may try to mix them and make it work.

mate that is simply unreal progress, congratulations on your productivity! Unlucky with the archers; there's always something to miss. Hopefully you can shore that up with some more later on. They really look brilliant all together, fantastic colours.

Sorry to hear about your good boy - we really don't deserve dogs. It's the right thing sometimes when they are obviously in pain but it's not something you'd wish on anyone. Zeus is a great name too. I'll give my boys an extra pat tonight for him!