DBA Early Armenian Army II/28(b) in 28mm

One day Don went out and purchased a painted 28mm Seleucid army on eBay and after looking at it I decided I needed a 28mm army to use against it. Looking through the list of enemies I selected the Early Armenian army II/28(b). 


Why this army? Well, I like Light Horse, that is for sure, and I thought that the Cataphracts would be interesting to play. Pitting Auxilia and Psiloi against Pikes would certainly be a challenge, but as I only needed 4 VP to win, I decided it would be easier to crush the non-Pike elements for the win. Looking to the future I can also see using this army to fight against a myriad of Roman lists, so they were not going to be one-use.


If you have followed posts on my other blogs – specifically on the Wooden Warriors blog – you know that at times I like to make my own figures from wood. One thing I always wondered about was how opponents might react to my using my hand-made wooden figures against their commercial, metal figures. Well, this army would be such an experiment. If it failed – the figures looked wrong, compared to commercial figures, or if people objected to me using them – I could always make another army to match against them. (That is where the Romans come in.)


Click on the figure below to see an enlarged version.

You can see more details in the Wooden Warriors blog entry. There were also all kinds of work-in-progress blog entries showing the cataphracts, horse archers, warriors (Auxilia), and archers separately. 


I am still making the Romans – I ran out of steam and I still haven't figured out what to use for the shields – but they will be sent to Bob Barnetson for painting (as he does a fair bit of painting for me now). I want to see what someone else can do with them and whether they are enjoyable for others to paint as I think they are.


Now, if only I would finish the Seleucid elephant that Don is missing, I would get a game in with these guys!

DBA Early Etruscan Army I/55(a)

I am not quite sure where I got this army – I think I bought it from someone on the TMP Ancients Marketplace – but these are Miriliton Etruscans, and from the composition of the DBA army pack they are Early Etruscans.

I held onto the army for awhile before sending it off to Bob Barnetson to have it painted, mostly because I was unsure of how it should look. You can see Bob's original work on his blog. The only real changes I have made are adding magnets to the bottoms of the bases, painting the sides of the bases, and adding shield transfers.

First up is the General in his Light Chariot on the left, and the two Cavalry in the center and right. Note that the right unit is in the style of Italian Greeks, so I applied some LBMS transfers to their shields.

Next are the two Psiloi in the army. I am not sure why Bob did not put the archers on one stand and the javelins on the other, but I was not going to mess up the basing by correcting that.

In the center is the single Blades unit in the army.

Although these are Spears, Miriliton mixed in a few with different shields. Again, I think I would have preferred mixing them in with the other Spears units, but this is fine. It allows me to use them as a specific sub-tribe of some sort. Unfortunately (for the list), they are not Auxilia.

Finally, there are the other Spears units. These are all styled as Italian Greeks with hoplite shields, so I put some LBMS shield transfers on them too. It certainly added a bit of color to the original figures.

I am not really sure of the historical accuracy of the Miriliton figures; they feel as if they come from a later period like the Etruscan League (I/57), but I can morph this army into the (a) variant of that list by painting another Spears unit.

The LBMS shield transfers were an interesting exercise. Don't assume they are like the decals of your childhood; they are not. Read the piece of paper that comes with the transfers; it is not a catalog, but rather instructions! Had I read the little piece of paper, I might not have wasted three transfers!

Basically you cut out the design, peel the thin, light plastic sheet off of the face, press the uncovered face to the surface (shield) as it has adhesive on it, then wet the paper backing in order to slide it off of the transfer. You do not have to wet the whole thing first and then slide the transfer off onto the shield. Doing so means you will not be able to peel off the plastic covering!

I used the Carthaginian shield transfers because it was the closest thing I could find to what I wanted, but I really need to buy some of the Greek ones, given that I have something like 100+ hoplites to do at some point. (You hear that Bob? One hundred Xyston hoplites are waiting for you to paint someday. All I need are shield transfers and spears.)

Now all I have to do is pull out my Italian Greek army (I/52(i)) for a game ...

No Post for Awhile

Obviously there has been no post for awhile. I need to rectify that. My goal this weekend is to at least get some pictures up on the blog of new DBA armies that I have acquired. I've gotten an Early Etruscan army that is painted based, but needs some decals for the shields, and a Kappadocian army that is painted and based, but needs a few details on the cloaks so they look a little less uniform. I also have a Trojan War army that just needs edging on the base. All of these were painted by Bob Barnetson (a.k.a. Bob in Edmonton). Bob's blog is here. He has a new set of Greeks for me coming too.

I've purchased a number of medievals from Mikey Gees. They were all listed as Teutonic armies, but some are more like generic German medieval. But they are all nicely painted. I may have a problem getting some into formation, however, because their lances overlap the bases by a significant amount.

I've also bought an army I have wanted to try for awhile: Hussites. Nothing like seeing what five War Wagons can do. I bought that army to fight two specific opponents and their armies. The first (with his Later Polish) moved away and the second (with his Medieval Germans) doesn't game much anymore. So, buying my own Medieval Germans now seems like a brilliant idea.

Of course, just because I want to put up pictures doesn't mean I am ignoring the DBA Solus project. I have always gone through phases and I just have not cycled back to DBAS yet. I have been doing a lot of Flames of War of late (as indicated on my Dale's Wargames blog), but I want to get back to solo wargaming - just because.

So, don't lose hope! I will return to this space.