From the German 'Kabinettskriege' - Cabinet Wars: a period of limited conflict from the Peace of Westphalia (1648) to the French Revolution (1789).

Old-School Ancients Top-Up Complete

I managed a bit of a push last week and today I finished off the last of the figures needed to bring some very old, old-school, units up to strength i.e., enough to occupy a 6" grid square.  In this case it was a couple of units of Successor pike.  I only had 16 in each unit plus 11 spare painted figures (5 of one unit and 6 of the other) so I needed another 21 to bring the two units up to 32 figures each.

And here they are, with the newly painted-to-match figures based up with the painted spares.


I am rather pleased with how difficult it is to tell the new from the old.  The best way to tell is to look at the hands grasping the pikes, if both hands completely enclose the pike, then it's a newly painted figure (I like to make the figures' weapons really secure).

Posed together with the old based-up figures, they make much better-looking units - bigger is always better with pike blocks. 


If anyone is interested the older bases are on the outer flank of each block.  I had trouble sorting them when taking the photos but finally realised I just needed to look underneath; the older bases have white steel paper underneath whereas those just based have black ferro-sheet.


8 comments:

  1. Very nice looking units. The blocks of pikes always look impressive on the tabletop.

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    1. They do, but all those projecting pikes do cause problems - another reason why grids are a good idea for these.

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  2. Nice work, the new ones match in really well and the completed blocks look great.

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    1. Thanks, the figures with silver stars were a pain to match, in the end I had to find the actual paint used on their tunics - Humbrol 20 Crimson Gloss.

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  3. These look very impressive all ranked up Rob and I can’t see any difference between the new and old at all!

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    1. That is a benefit of very simple block painting jobs - easy to reproduce.

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  4. Splendid stuff indeed Rob…
    The look magnificent…

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thanks, I did think of just doing a quick wash over the flesh, but decided to stick with the look of the original figures. Now I need to get them out on the table for a game!
      Currently trying to bash some old, poor castings of DK Austrians in shako into something that can pass as Spanish in round hat - a slow and frustrating job.

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