Byzantine and Sassanid Persian Cavalry

I finished basing the Sassanid and Byzantine cavalry that I painted this month.  The figures are all from the Baccus 6mm Sassanid Persian line.  Currently no one makes all the figures needed for Early and Maurikian Byzantine armies.  However, by adding shields and paint, I was able to convert the Sassanid cavalry to close approximations of the Byzantine counterparts.

I was able to locate a set of 3mm and 1.5mm paper hole punches.   2mm would have been a better size for the Byzantine shields and with the 1.5mm punch being too small I used the 3mm punch.  I had hoped to use Paintshop Pro to reduce the late Roman shield patterns from the Notitia Dignitatum, but they were too detailed and did not print correctly.  I ended up just printing red on cardstock and punching out the shields that I glued to the figures.

The Sassanids are on the left and the Byzantines are on the right.  There are 180 armored horse archers in the back, 180 lance and bow cavalry and 18 command figures.   The Byzantines have 144 lance and bow cavalry on unarmored horses in the back, 144 armored horse archers in the middle, 72 lance and bow cavalry on partly armored horses in the front, and 8 command figures.   I have other command figures for the Byzantines also, but those are from a while back.   The 72 figures on the partly armored horses were in a previous post.  I will be adding flock to the unfinished bases later today.



I was painting these figures throughout the month while taking breaks to paint the Achaemenids and NKE's.
The Achaemenid cavalry that I finished earlier this month are here
and the New Kingdom Egyptian army is here

The total figures painted for this month are 923 mounted, 677 foot and chariot crewmen, 30 chariots, and 60 chariot horses.

Sassanid Persians and Byzantines

I am in the process of replacing my Sassanid Persian and Byzantine armies.   I did have armies composed of figures from Heroics and Ros, but sold them to another club member a while back.  I would have kept them, but the figures were based on outdated information.  Currently only Baccus makes updated figures for Sassanid Persians.   Unfortunately they do not make Early Byzantine or Maurikian Byzantine figures.   However, with a bit of painting and adding shields to the armored horse archers and the lancers on unarmored horses the figures will pass for Byzantines.

The following pictures are of the 180 Sassanid Persian armored horse archers and the 72 Byzantine cavalry on partially armored horses.   I still have 180 armored lancers to paint for the Sassanid Persians, 144 armored horse archers for the Byzantines, and 144 lancers on unarmored horses for the Byzantines.

To distinguish the Byzantines from the Sassanid the Byzantine cavalry will have iron armor for the partially armored horses while the Sassanids will have bronze armor for their horses.  I also gave the Byzantine cavalry red standards and shields while the Persian standards and shields will be in multiple colors.   I did try reducing and printing shields from the Notitia Dignitaum, but the images would not print clearly.

 The Byzantines

The Sassanid Persians

Achaemenid Persian Cavalry

I completed the second set of figures this morning.   They are from the four different sets of Achaemenid cavalry made by Baccus 6mm.  There should have been a total of 180 figures, but six of them were from some other nation.

New Kingdom Egyptians

One of the clubs that I belong to has a painting "competition" for the month of April.  The option of the contest is to paint as many of unpainted figures as possible.

Today I completed one of the painting projects that I am working on this month.   The army has three "divisions representing the Amun, Re, and Suktekh divisions.   Each division was given a specific color to differentiate them. These are red, yellow, and blue.  In addition to the three main formations there is the Pharaoh in front center, two additional commanders, two units of guard infantry and one unit of Nubian archers.

Each Division has four units of archers, two units of close order fighters, one unit of Nubian archers, one unit of light infantry and 9 units of chariots.  The middle chariot in the front row is the division commander.  There are 176 infantry figures in each division, 18 charioteers plus one standard bearer, 18 horses and the 9 chariots.

The guards have 64 figures plus the 16 Nubians  The Pharaoh and commanders have 12 figures and
one mounted scout plus the chariots and horses.   Total figures painted for this army is 678 figures, 61 horses, and 30 chariots.  Except for the Pharaoh, who I purchased from Baccus, all figures are from Rapier Miniatures.

28mm Science Fiction Buildings and Vehicles

I recently found out about a website with free science fiction buildings and vehicles that can be printed.   They have  a variety of items available.   So far I have assembled some trucks, cargo items and several buildings.



The trucks are one of the vehicles available.  They can be printed in four different colors and  each has a choice of four different loads - Water, Fuel, Open, and Covered.   The chassis are all the same consisting of the main frame, cab cover, four re-enforcements, six interior wheel parts, and two additional parts.   The different payloads can be the same color as the chassis or can be different.   The open truck is carrying most of the boxes.

There are a lot of other vehicles, including drop ships, and a freight hauling spaceship. The buildings I have assembled so far are the water tower, wind powered generator, solar panel, a pair of storage tanks, a landing pad, a greenhouse, a storage shed, and two of the habitats.   The habitats have three different types of sidings and each type is available in four or five colors with a total of seven different colors.   The farm set has an additional habitat in one of the siding types with a different color pattern.  This gives a total of fourteen different color and siding combinations.  I left the bottoms off of the habitats so that they can be stacked.   Each habitat is assembled with twelve panels has six solid side panels, six window side panels, and two chimney panels to choose from.   These can be arranged in any order.   Additional items that can be added are the door, up to three dormers, and if desired a part to connect multiple habitats together.

The prefab habitats.  The one on the left has a dormer added above the doorway.

Landing pad, greenhouse, shed and large pallet of boxes.

Water tower, wind powered generator, solar panel, and two storage tanks.

I still have five of the habitats to assemble, ten service droids with four small parts vehicles, and a few additional items from the farm set.   There are some other vehicles I am thinking of printing and assembling and am still undecided about making the cargo spaceship.  There are eleven different versions of the spaceship to choose from and the model has a total of 42 pages of parts to print.

All the items that I have printed and assembled so far are fairly easy to assemble and fit together very well.  While not any particular brand the cargo trucks and some of the vehicles could be used for present day 28mm skirmish games.  The link to the free items is Free items