The Seleucid Settlers

[ToneTW]

Hi everyone,

I have recently finished my Seleucid regular phalanx (working on Silvershield regiment now) using 20mm Newline Designs "African pikemen". Again gave them all drawing pin shields. I gathered the 3 earlier 60mm square bases and set them up with the freshly done 60mm square base and 4 rear rank bases of 60x30mm bases with a few command figures. Photographed them a lot then set some of them up as a 12cm square pike block and took more photos. Here they are I hope you enjoy them.









http://showparade.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/the-seleucid-settlers.html

[Kekso]

It is so nice to look at these figures. Great work.
Did you polish those shields? They look polished.

[Mr. Andrea]

Astonishing!! I have that same army from Newline Design parked in a drawer since almost 3 years now. Thanks, for showing how awesome it may look once painted (provided that one could paint it as good as u did).
And those pin shields: the cherry on the cake!
Love them

[Kekso]

And those pin shields: the cherry on the cake!

That's clever. Now I have my answer. Thanks Mr.Andrea

[Konrad]

Wonderful and impressive work!
And my respect that you finished this project.
I've painted a macedonian phalanx in 2013.

[Ben90]

I like them! And the pins look great as shields!

[ToneTW]

Thanks everyone for the kind comments!

Kekso, the shields are push pins, I ordered them from ebay 9.5mm brass ones. Makes them the same size as Hat's phalangites. I just painted the backs brown but I did have to brush off lots of dust from basing sand.

Mr. Andrea, I sprayed them with white Army painter spray, painted in the colours. I ended up with a watered down wash from combining the leftovers of a few delvan mud washes with a bit of water added, it was a lot thinner than usual but I managed to get away with not highlighting the white armour. I will do a post on my other blog soon about the painting steps. I try to cheat and take shortcuts but I need to write it down so I don't forget for future pikemen.

Konrad, nice video and great pikemen, that is the dream to have an impressive phalanx like the one in your video.

[ToneTW]

Just made a quick painting guide for anyone interested:

http://paradegroundworkshop.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/painting-hellenistic-pikemen-rank-and.html

[sansovino]

I don´t have much knowledge about the seleucid armies. Did they had really golden-polished shields. Please give us some more informations how you researched their armour.

[ToneTW]

Hi Sansovino, thanks for asking! I am guessing they did not have shields as I have depicted but there might have been a slim chance it was possible. My main inspiration is mainly from illustrations from Ancient Warfare magazines, Osprey books and my pics around online including photographed miniatures. Also I have added a few of the books and articles below. But mostly I just go with whats easiest or how much patience I have at the time for painting and modelling.

From my reading I get the impression that "Macedonian" shields if they were bronze faced (sometimes leather) would likely be embossed with patterns or sometimes a monogram of the king's initials or maybe a symbol of their dynasty (the Seleucids may have used a ships anchor as a shield device). The Seleucid king Antiochus IV held a military parade at Daphne in roughly 166BC, there was a unit referred to as the "Bronze Shields" which it is believed until that point had only been used as a Antigonid regimental title. It may have been refounded by Antiochus after the battle of Pydna to attract Macedonian soldiers or keep the title alive?

I have found that studying the Hellenistic era fascinating but also frustrating quite often the more you read the more questions are raised rather than answered. It started for me when I was trying to find out what a "Thureophoroi" was about 10 years ago, and I just fell deeper into the era with no escape in sight

For ease and convenience I just kept the shields plain. Also the size and shape roughly matches that of HaTs 1/72 Alexandrian Phalangites so hopefully if I paint up some of my HaT minis there may be a bit of continuity with my metal figures that have a different body proportions.

Sorry to ramble on but I hope this helps. Cheers

"Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars" Duncan Head
"The Seleucid Army (Seleucid and Ptolemaic Reformed Armies 168-145 BC Volume 1) " Nicholas Sekunda
"The Ptolemaic Army (Selucid and Ptolemaic Reformed Armies 168-145 BC Volume 2) " Nicholas Sekunda
"Macedonian Armies after Alexander 323–168 BC " Nicholas Sekunda

Journal Articles found on Jstor:
"A Shield Monument from Veria and the Chronology of Macedonian Shield Types" Minor M. Markle http://www.jstor.org/stable/148374
"The Macedonian Sarissa, Spear, and Related Armor" Minor M. Markle http://www.jstor.org/stable/503007