Having polished up the bronze on my latest Greek Hoplites. It is now time to paint the rest of the men. The figures are a mix of Newline Designs 20mm Greeks with a couple of Macedonian Hypaspists and Early Roman Hoplites mixed in.
I intend the unit to represent Athenians of the 4th century when the Phrygian or Thracian helmet was coming into fashion and bronze armour was starting to be worn again. Being individualistic Athenians I want them to have a mix of equipment and clothing colours.
To provide some coherence to the unit I keep to a blue/white/yellow combination of colours — avoiding red shades to contrast with my red and bronze Spartans. Apparently Athenian ephebes (young men) wore yellow with black cloaks.
I painted the shields earlier when doing the bronze — with blue, white, yellow and polished bronze predominating. Most are hand painted but I did use a few Little Big Man transfers. Some have an Alpha design (for Athens) but I did not give all of them this as I want the unit to have an individualistic appearance whilst still being identifiably Athenian.
To make the shields look battle worn I rag them. This involves dipping a wet, scrunched-up tissue, into a watery raw umber and then dabbing the shields with it. This works much better than applying a wash as on the smooth shield surfaces a wash will run and pool.
The unit is beginning to take on the appearance I am looking for — a mix of different equipment and styles, with the limited colour palette making them look like they belong together.
The final step before basing is to give them an all-over wash of very thinned down raw umber. This brings out the details and makes them look like men on campaign.
And here they are based and ready for battle. The man with the sword on the left of photo could well be Demosthenes. At Chaeronea he carried a shield with Agathe Tyche (good fortune) written on it. It is a shame that I did not have this unit ready for my Chaeronea game!
As I use individual casualty removal in ‘Alala! it helps to mount the figures on movement trays. I put magnetic strips under the bases of the figures and steel strips on the trays. This keeps them firmly in place until it is time to remove a casualty.