The photo to the right are Thessalian Cavalryfrom Hät's Macedonian Army.Click on the photo to see a larger version.This inexpensive ($7.50) box contains 60 foot and 12 mounted figures - an excellent value.The range of unit types and poses for this price is unequaled by metals miniatures.Additionally, Hät and many other quality manufacturers (e.g. ESCI, Italeri, Zvedzda, IMEX, Stretlets)make many ancient figures to ally or oppose this army.See Plastic Soldier Review for many photos and write ups on all the different figures.
The fancy-looking commander (second from right) has a bronze musclecuirass and sits on a leopard-skin horse blanket.All riders have some form of chest armor known as a "linothorax" - lino because it was madeof linen and thorax because it covered the midsection or thorax.This classical Greek armor often has "pteruges" or feathers which coveredthe hips, groin, and upper legs.These cavalry have smaller spears than the Alexandrian Companion cavalry.These spears are roughly 20 mm which is about a scale 2 metersThe Companion cavalry, which many war game rules model as knights or cataphracts, have a longer"kontos" which is roughly 50 mm or about 5 scale meters in length.
All the figures on this page are "speed painted" with the goal being to paintas many figures as possible in the shortest amount of time.I estimate the 28 figures required about 14 hours of hobby time or about 30 minutes per figure.The steps include:
Most paints used on these figures are Reaper Master Series paints.I use Reaper, Vallejo, Foundry, and many other paints.I like Reaper because of the wide range of colors, the eye-dropper squeezey bottle witha mixing pellet, and the thin fine nature of the paints.Most of the Reaper paints cover extremely well, but as with anypaint line, there are some colors that are duds.I also have had some paints straight from the bottle dry with cracking, perhaps theydid not contain enough medium.The medium for Reaper is somewhat thinner and less flexible than Vallejo - perhapsmore vinyl and less acrylic.Reaper has many light colors, tans, and browns to choose from. The greens aresomewhat sparse compared to others.The liners and inks are fantastic and fun to play with.
Well, that is all for now. Even with the speed painting, I am happy withthe results.The rest of the Alexandrian Army box (with phantastic phalangites and more cavalry) isbeing primed and on the painting queue.I have in mind a game for Alexander and Darius,a simple skirmish rules played on 1 inch (25 mm) hexes.The army is filling out and certainly look nice just sitting on the shelf.Thanks for reading about my miniatures. More links are at the bottom of the page.