I’m still painting my 15mm Corvus Belli Carthaginian army for DBA. This weekend I completed two more elements to bring the army to the half way point of six painted elements.
First up is the Carthaginian War Elephant which was an amusing unit to paint. Hard to believe the War Elephant was an effective unit in Ancient armies, but apparently it was, particularly against cavalry and massed units of infantry. As this elephant miniature featured in my Pinning with Blu Tack tutorial back in late 2006, it’s nice to finally see it complete and varnished.
I had fun finishing this element as I painted the mahout and soldiers separately from the elephant and then fitted them together once dry. I then discovered I couldn’t get the mahout to sit behind the ears, mainly because of the long pole that ran from his right hand to his hip! A little swearing followed by some creative filing fixed that without visible effect on the final piece thank goodness.
The other unit I completed was the single base of Numidian Light Horse in the army. The Numidians were mercenaries for Carthage in the Punic wars. Like the Romans, the Carthaginians used a fair number of mercenary units in their ancient armies. This is reflected in the DBA Carthaginian army list, which is something of a mixed bag of DBA unit types, from Psiloi and Auxilia, Light Cavalry (which is what these Numidians are) to Cavalry, Spears and Elephants.
All these unit types makes them a challenging army to play I think because you’ve got a number of options regarding fighting strength and maneuverability. Compared with the Polybian Roman army I’ve put together, half of which consists of six Blade elements, the Carthaginians are a positive circus. Still it makes them an interesting army to paint and I’m looking forward to seeing them ranked up once they’re done.
Next on the list is a unit of Numidian Spear as Auxilia and possibly a Phonecian Cavalry element. That will leave me the General’s Cavalry element and three elements of Libyan Spear to paint. These remaining six elements will all be a challenge because their close formations mean I can’t use my usual method of painting on the base. The figures are being painted separately and then based and finished, which is something I haven’t really tried before in 15mm scale.
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As you promised! Great! I really like your paintjob, the smooth gradients are a really nice alternative to the hard edged painting style which is often seen in 15mm. Can you add some words on your technic considering e.g. the Carthagian infantry?
Did you ever bend arms in order to get around some problems e.g. with elephant ears? That could have helped, too I think.
Glad you like them. I’m looking forward finishing the entire army! I think what contributes to the soft effect on the figures is that I prime them white and then base coat them with watered down Games Workshop ‘Scorched Brown’ and then paint over that.
You can probably see this best on the Numidian Horse figures if you look at the enlargement. In particular look at the legs of the riders (the brown lines are just base coat showing through) and the horse’s legs which weren’t over-painted, so they’re basically the scorched brown base coat.
It gives the figures a much softer finish and lets me do ‘brown lining’ instead of the much harsher ‘black lining’ most 15mm painters seem to prefer. If I ever paint winter/Ostfront forces for Flames of War I’d use black lining though because that would be perfect for a harsh, cold winter feel imho!
Yes lots of bending was tried :). Unfortunately I couldn’t bend the elephant’s ears out any further because they were pinned and patched.