Samnites

The Samnites were a people living in the center of Italy at the age of the Roman Republic, and were one of its most famous opponents.
Romans and Samnites fought each other during the three Samnites Wars which occured in the 4th-3rd centuries BC. The Samnites were eventually defeated and were compelled to become allies to Rome. Rome just became powerful enough to stand against Pyrrhus and thereafter Carthage.

I used the Italian Allies box by Hät to represent the Samnites.

The warrior on the left has colorful clothes and shield, and wears a bronze armor.

The other warriors are dressed in white, with silver armor. They are noble members of a particular unit called Legio Linteata.

In the last photo, I show the Samnites together with Italian troops in Roman service (more concerning these troops here). They certainly fought each other during the Samnites wars, before the became forced allies.
 

I hope you like them :)

Undead Pirates

Hi everyone, a small update this evening.

Among the most improbable minis I could have dreamed of, the Undead Pirates, or Cursed Pirates, or Fishy-Sharky Pirates (or whatever you want to name them) are certainly a reference I would not have expected to see in 1/72... but here they are, produced by Mars, and I couldn't resist the siren's song :)

Some may say that these minis are not very attractive, but I found them nice to paint.

Well, to be honest, I painted only three of them (for the moment).

I would like to use them in a naval skirmish game, but I have no rules and no opponents - any suggestions ? I wish I could buy the Napoleonics naval troops by Hät, but this reference seems difficult to find these days.

Some closeups.

Thank you for visiting this page :)

Crusaders in Middle East, 12th century AD

Hi! Today, a few pictures related to the medieval Crusades in the Middle East.
If you follow that blog, you probably already saw my Templar Knights at fight with Ayyubid Ghulams.

This time I chose to paint an old reference - Italeri Crusaders. Do you remember them ?

Let's begin with the knights:

The third mini on the right is a Strelets Turcopole

The Italeri knights are nice figures with interesting details, but not very accurate. The heraldry patterns are engraved on the minis, which is a problem when you have several times the same poses, because you're not supposed to see the same knight several times on a battlefield (or anywhere else) !

I tried to cut off the pattern of the white and red (Argent et Gueules) knight, but it is rather difficult, and the result is not as good as I wanted.

I also painted two men at arms on foot:

Still a lot of work before I have a complete DBA army :)

New Kingdom Egypt II - Sherden Mercenaries

The Sherden were one of the tribes of the Sea People confederation (see the related post: The Sea People). They are mentioned in Egyptian and Ugaritic records in the late second millenium BC.

As for most Sea People tribes, their origin is still a matter of debate. According to the Eastern origin theory, the Sherden might come from Anatolia, while they might find their origin in Sardinia according to the Western origin theory.

Concerning their appearance, the Egyptian reliefs show men wearing round shields, short broad swords, spears, and horned helmets.

After their defeat against Ramesses II, some of the were incorpored into Egyptian service as Royal bodyguards. They are believed to have added on their helmets a disc representing the god Ra as a sun.

I chose to represent my Sherden warriors in Egyptian service. I used Caesar minis, who wear typical Egyptian clothes, and I decided to use a fair skin tone that I believe coherent with the two origin hypothesis explained above.

A warrior as a guard:

Several warriors, one of them using the characteristic round shield.

I hope you like them :)