DBM Gaugamela in 20mm - Alexander's army.

This post replace an old one from 2011 with the same models. Hundreds of my faithfull followers (well, one at least...) complained about its poor quality pictures and hopefully these can make more justice to the models. I mentioned that old post on the one about Darius army and put it to rest. 

Still a few units like Hypaspists to be done but the majority of the army is here.

Alexander's figure and its beautiful Bucephalus are Zvezda and its Companions are both Zvezda and Hat.

The Thessalian cavalry is also Hat and its leader, Parmenion, had some Milliput applied on the horse's tiger skin to make him distinguishable.

The Hat Prodromoi. Only one figure can be used from the several available sets so some arm twisting was used in order to create more variety.

Alexander's lights.  In the first line there are the Hat Cretan archers and Zvezda Macedonian archers; second line has the Hat Agrianians and the third line has Hat Illyrian javelinmen.

Irregular auxilia from several of Hat sets. Some shields are scratchbuilt and other are Newline Designs. 

 Three of the Taxeis of Alexander Pezhetairoi are Hat industries...

... the other three are a mix of Zvezda and Atlantic conversions. 

The Atlantic conversions are based on the Greek Classic Hoplites. I chose the positions in which they are standing, cut ou the big classical Hoplon and sword they have, glued a roundel of plastic card and drilled the long sarissa on the right hand. like this they make some reasonable back ranks of Pezhetairoi. 

The front ranks are glued in double ranks as the Zvezda figures work better this way. 

Some middle rank figures didn't carry the small shield and some had to be made in plastic card. The Sarissas are made of plastic broom bristles with the tip heated with a lighter and squashed with pliers and finally shaped with an X-Acto.

Here it is Alexander's army ready to perform the famous tactic used in Gaugamela headed to strike at Darius himself.

Next: more Samurai or the armies of the Punic wars.

DBM Gaugamela in 20mm - The beggining of the Achaemenid Persian army

I started this army many years ago with a few touches here and there in recent days. The idea is to be able to refight Gaugamela 331 BC and by consequence all other battles of the campaign.  Darius army is the obvious oposition against Alexander's army that will  be showned soon.

The figures used here are Hat, Zvezda and Newline Design.

Here is what is done up to the moment, around 220 figures. What is necessary is something like four or five times this lot for the full Persian army of the battle even if definitive numbers vary a lot. I'll try the 1000 mark figure that will represent aproximately the 100.000 men of Darius army that modern historians say it had. 

Heavy Persian cavalry. Figures are mostly Zvezda with one Newline Design cavalry figure for stand. 

Light Persian cavalry. The figures are again Newline Design and Zvezda with some Italeri Mongol conversions with Zvezda heads. 

Apple Bearer infantry. A full Hat unit.

Albanian archers. Hat and Zvezda figures.

Sparabara infantry. A bit anachronistic but a must and helpful to beef up the ranks. Newline Design and Zvezda figures. 

Mardian archers. Hat and Zvezda.

Atropates Takabara. A full Zvezda unit.

Persian Levy infantry. All are Hat with a converted standard bearer. 

Babylonian Levy archers. Hat figures. 

Persian irregular cavalry. Everything is Zvezda.

Atropates psiloi archers. Hat and Zvezda again.

Saka psiloi. Zvezda  and Zvezda with different heads. 

Albanian javelinmen. Hat figures. 

War chariot. Newline Design.

Darius chariot with the man itself. Another nice model from Newline Design. 

Next: most probably Koboyakawa Hideaki's clan for Sekigahara 1600. 

Rapid Fire!/Able Archer rules - Ayatollah's Army in 20mm - Counterattack!

Warned by the presence of the Iraqi tanks in the region the Iranian army mount a powerfull counterattack led by a Scorpion reconnaissance company.

 A second  Bell AH-1J was added, this time an Italeri model. The symbols were, as usual, handpainted.

Also another Phantom II  entered the collection. This version is the F4E and the model is Revell's.

Finally my Iranians have something decent to cope with two Iraqi divisions! These repainted Chieftain Mk5 Fabbri diecasts received different sets of stowage and sandbags. 

The Scorpions on both sides are Airfix  (1/76th scale) and  the one in the middle is Altaya (1/72nd scale). The different sizes can  be attenuated by using the same base size and antennae lenght.

For the crew of some of the AFV's I used some Esci  WW2  Italian torsos with GreenStuff arms.

Next: wether more 80's  Iranians or Samurai as I've just watched Sekigahara (2017). A hell of a movie!

Rapid Fire! Desert War 1940-43 in 20mm - Fresh DAK reinforcements

At the Oasis of Ras-al-Festung (I was about to call it Ras-al-Wiederstandnest but it sounded too complicated and little Arabic) a strong Kampfgruppe from the DAK awaits the British onslaught. 

This is the 3d printed MiniGeneral Guy Lizard ACV. The model is big but very simple and complete with some parts printed separately for more detail. The usual antennae were stuck after drilling 1mm holes and a  command figure was made this time from a PSC torso from the Marder set with GreenStuff arms. 

It was obviously  painted with the original British Counter Camouflage scheme. 

Big German crosses and a Nazi printed flag were added in the end. 

The Horchs 108 with 20mm AA guns are again MiniGeneral. The car is quite nice, only a bit difficult to clean in its inside as I told you about the ones built for the 1940 7th PD.  The gun is relatively simple but captures very well the original look. Another separate part is the gun base that sits comfortably inside the car. 

 

The crew is made of figures from Airfix, Zvezda, Esci, Revell and Matchbox with a few conversions. 

The trailers are conversions from the MiniGeneral Flak 20mm gun limber. A structure of Evergreen plastic card was built on top and various bits of stowage were added.

The painted symbols are those of the 19th Flak-Division. 

The 50mm Pak guns are PSC. The crews came from different brands as I already used a number of them in other models.

                              

In this one crew is Esci, Airfix (mountain troops set) and hard  plastic Airfix.

Mostly PSC crew and one Airfix.

This one had a Zvezda crewman from the 75mm anti-tank set.

With these ones I have 12 of these 50mm Pak stands. The problem is that a total of 27 are necessary for the three main divisions of the DAK. These little greedy things  were used in the anti-tanks battalions and also in the Panzer grenadier companies when the less-men more-weapons organization came in 1942. 

Finally the last of a total of 12 PzIV necessary for the two Panzer Divisions was added. The model is an Hasegawa F2 offered by my friend JMM with a converted PSC figure.

Next: Iranians for the Iran-Irak war. 

Age Of Eagles (AoE) - Bussaco 1810 in 20mm (part 18) - Allied cavalry and artillery

This is the last post of the Bussaco series. It concerns the Allied artillery and cavalry of the Anglo-Portuguese army. The artillery is 9 batteries that represent the 60 guns present. The cavalry represents the two squadrons of the British 4th Dragons, the only Allied cavalry close to the action.

The British horse artillery is a mixture of the Esci and Airfix sets.

The British foot artillery is mostly Esci converted figures with infantry shakoes from Hat.

The Portuguese artillery is based on the Revell British artillery set. The limber is Airfix with drivers and passengers with infantry heads. 

The 4th Dragoons is based on the Italeri Prussian Cuirassiers with a few cuts and a careful paint job.

Next: more DAK.