Back to Basing

The year began with the good intention of rebasing all my ancient cavalry, a project that I thought would be easily achievable within January, despite having already started to go off on a tangent to paint up a batch of Gallic Chariots.  As the weeks went by, tangents multiplied.  Now and again I would remove a few horsemen from their old bases but got no further with them.  Looking back, I think the problem was that I had too much time and the lack of constraint allowed my mind to wander off down all sorts of byways.  Happily that has been resolved in the last couple of weeks with the arrival of much unexpected business leaving me much less time to attend to the hobby and much less bandwidth to give to rule writing and scenario building.  In that context the mechanical process of rebasing has been an attractive option.  Indeed, such has been the progress made that I have now run up against the constraint of having run out of bases while having quite a lot of figures still needing them!  Resupply will be arranged during a forthcoming trip to the UK and I now hope to complete the project by the middle of the year.

The heading photograph shows two batches of figures.  To the front are Newline camel archers.  These used to be on a very desert style base that looked out of place with my gaming mats and other base finishes.  The new look is a mix of sandy and dry grass, still different from but not such a glaring difference with other basing.  The same mix has been used for the Numidian cavalry behind the camels.  These are all Zvezda figures which have been painted for several years but never previously based.  I think I had been waiting until I started on a Carthaginian army for them to serve with.  Having now based the Numidians they may jog me to make a start on the Carthaginians before too many more years pass by.

Newline Maccabean light and heavy cavalry complete

Closer view of the Maccabean heavy cavalry.  I've gone for a generic look so they can be used interchangeably with Ptolemaic or Seleucid armies as need arises.

Kappadokian light cavalry screening their heavy cavalry.  Both are again Newline figures

Closer view of the heavy horse

Persian Satrapal cavalry.  These are all HäT figures

East Iranian horse archers with other light cavalry behind, again all from HäT.

Altogether 78 bases have been completed in the last fortnight.  Persian heavy cavalry and chariots remain to be done, along with all of the Macedonians and most of the Seleucid horse, but I reckon the project is now about three quarters done.

The final picture is of one of the other projects that interfered with the cavalry rebasing.  This was the resorting, repairing, adding to and then rebasing an assortment of hoplites, some HäT, mostly Zvezda and a sprinkling of Newline figures.  These I hope to complete over the weekend and get into battle next week.