Saturday, February 5, 2011

15mm Hittite DBA Army

This weekend I completed a 15mm Hittite DBA army for Barry. These are Essex figures and were lovely clean castings with the exception of a wicked issue with the spearmen shields. The mold line ran down the shield and were misaligned. This didn't show up until I had painted the shields white and I saved this by doing the half-and-half red/white design.

There are six bases of 3Sp that form the core of the army. There were two poses and I chose to go with mono-pose stands. Some of you will notice I have finally figured out the colour balance issue I had with the new camera.

I tried to pull out the cloth folds a bit with some strong shadows and careful painting. Hard to know if I got it right.

There was one base of 7Hd. This stand shows off the buff coloured grass I went with. I had opened my usual green static grass and decided at the last minute to go for a more arid look.

The last of the foot are two 2Ps bases (slingers). Nice enough figures but a bit flat. I tried to address this by mounting them at an angle.

The army included three heavy chariots. These were nice to put together with sturdy and plumb wheel joints (unlike Old Glory which are a total crap shoot). The General stand is the chariot on the right (guy with the feather on his helmet).

There is also one light chariot in the army. Essex differentiates the chariots by adding some horses (but not changing the yoke?) for the heavies as well as adding crew. That seems like a fairly economical choice.

Up next: I had some time this morning so I finished 90% of the painting on some 28mm Saxons. I also built, primed and did the flesh on a 15mm Greek DBA army and some 15mm WW2 US artillery bases. I will focus on these (a commission) and look to get them out this week. On build table, I have twenty 28mm skeletons necessary for my MayDay convention game. I may spray prime these guys tomorrow if the weather cooperates.

2 comments:

Robin Sutton said...

Bob

Hittites just arrived here from Essex last week, along with Early Archamaenids and Vedic Indians (all to go along side the Minoans).. plenty of painting to be done here.. thanks for the inspiration. Must get on to the painting.

Kind regards
Robin

Bob Barnetson said...

Thanks Robin. Good to hook with NZ gamers--in two years I'll be doing a sabbatical in NZ (likely 90 days in each of Auckland and Wellington but I'm tempted to try the south island given what I've read re: the sights). Good luck with your painting--sounds like a lot of figures!