Enough Carthaginians To Field An Army
/Regular visitors will remember that, given I already have plenty of Celts, I started building Carthaginians as a quick way to get another 28mm army ready for the tabletop.
Next off the production line were the Citizen Infantry, elephants, and Numidian light cavalry.
The Carthaginian Citizen Infantry hit the painting table courtesy of a 60th birthday present from my other (and much better) half, IIRC the first time she has ever actually bought me figures! One packet from Victrix, along with two sets of decals for their shields, gave me enough to build two units for To The Strongest.
These were really easy to build and paint, and I’m especially pleased with the way the shields came out. I used the new pre-punched shield decals from Little Big Man Studios via Victrix and I am completely sold on them. No more fiddly cutting out of tiny designs: these just push out with your thumb and, as you can see, they are just the right size. Why didn’t we have these years ago? I won’t buy anything else from now on!
Next up were two elephant bases, all models also from Victrix:
I was a bit concerned that these would be difficult to build and paint, but they were really easy to do. I didn’t even need any instructions!
I built and painted the following elements separately: the elephant itself, the howdah, and the three crew figures (the two “lights” on the base are spare figures from the other Carthaginian sets I’ve already finished). All very straightforward, even the decals, which look complicated, but aren’t, especially as they were also pre-punched (much love to Victrix/LBMS!).
With the elephants, I undercoated in my usual Grey Seer, then used Contrast Basilicum Grey highlighted with a a light grey acrylic for the skin. The ropes are Contrast Gor-Grunta Fur, the tusks an acrylic white over bone. That was it, nothing more. When it came to the decals for the elephants’ blankets, I brush-painted where they would go in a base white acrylic, waited until it was utterly dry, then just placed the decals as usual. Very easy, looks very good.
Almost the same for the howdah. I painted the frame in Contrast red, then painted the front, back and sides in acrylic white and, once utterly dry, applied the decals as usual. I actually couldn’t believe how easy they were to do. The only tricky bits were the insets in the howdahs’ crenellations, but that’s only because I was a bit impatient. If I’d relaxed a bit and made more of an effort to get them placed just right, they would have looked better…but they look pretty good anyway.
The crew were pretty standard, but it’s worth noting that you get three different varieties of crew in the packet, allowing you to morph your elephants into being Carthaginian, Roman, Ptolemaic or Numidian. Just make sure you buy the right decal sheet for the one you want to field.
Highly, highly recommended, and I’m now thinking I might buy another packet of two nellies for those really big games!
Finally, here are the Numidian light cavalry. Again, one packet’s worth:
These were slightly more difficult to build than the other Victrix sets that I have used over the last few years: for some reason, the place where the sprues and the parts join, once clipped, left stubs that slightly interfered with construction, so I often had to go back and re-clip and smooth before glueing. Okay, so I should make sure that everything is smoothly clipped anyway, but I mention it as a caution to those of you who will also buy this excellent set.
I painted the horses in the light palette that I use to clearly differentiate them from the Gallic horses that form the heavier cavalry (they are painted in much darker shades). I didn’t buy shield transfers for these, opting for a painted cowhide look i.e. not actually cowhide, but shields painted to ressenble it. Roman cow colours of course!
So that’s enough “main body” kit done for me to field Carthaginians: now all I need are the officers and heroes etc. And maybe some Ibericans…and some non-Gallic heavy cavalry…and some Balaeric slingers…and some…the list goes on!
