Ancient Miniatures

I generally buy everything that is of reasonable quality, and fits my definition of ancients (anything before gunpowder), and the Carthaginian Allies, by HaT fit into this category. So with the purchase of this set i got my first Punic War Libyans (along with a number of other figures). Later when i purchased Zvezdas Carthaginian Infantry i got a few more. 

These form the back bone of my Punic War Libyan ally contingent. I would hesitate to call it an army, since I think it is too small. Here is the entire "tribe" lined up and ready for battle. 

As can be seen it consists of 4 seperate units. Three more or less identical units, of spearmen (from the HaT set) with various shield patterns, and of course a "mohawk" which was dyed red. All accurate according to my sources.


Then there is a unit of Libyan spearmen as they look when made by Zvezda. They have somewhat cruder shields, but they have an iron rim. Also they are very clearly wooden, so it would be hard to mix these figures with the ones from HaT, that seem to have hide over there shields.


And then.... we have the command element. I like to group these with the Zvezda Libyans, to make a bigger unit. There are after all only 6 Libyans from the 2 boxes of Zvezda Carthaginian Infantry I picked up. Here we have them.


Only 2 of them are ordinary figures, that can be bought of the shelf, both from the HaT set. Two of the others are simple head swaps. (Can you recognize what set they come from?) And the last two, the Tribal Leader and his standard bearer are alittle more complex conversions. Have a closer look:

Standard bearer:

Tribal Leader:

Generally i like the work i did on these Libyans. However one thing bugs me. Are they supposed to have black skin? Or should they have been more like the rest of the Carthaginians? If you know the answer, feel free to tell me. Don´t think I will repaint the figures, as I like the look of black skin and red hair. But I am curious to what the answer might be.

~Claus

Well, I thought it was time for something a bit more fresh. Not completely fresh, as in brand new paint jobs, but something that i had done within the last 5 years at least. Also I was afraid that this was becoming very much a HaT blog, which it is by far going to be. So I let my brand new camera snap a few pictures of my Biblical Libyan Army.

First here is a picture of the entire army, lined up ready for battle.

Back in those days when I was living in Roskilde I had more space, and fewer figures. So today, it would be harder to do what i did back then. I basically had a place, on top of a deep yet low bookshelf, that was simply perfect to set up an entire army. So thats what i did with my Carthaginians.

The above picture shows the entire army lined up. The army consisted of Carthaginian War Elephants, my Carthaginian Cavalry, Iberian Infantry, Carthaginian African Infantry and of course Numidian Cavalry along with Numidian Infantry. Quite a colorful army.

Today I have an entire Army composed of Carthaginians without allies, and each of the allies (Numidians and Iberians) have their own army as well! In all three cases painted. This could only be done thanks to the many manufacturers that have dared to dive into the subject. So thank you Zvezda, Orion, and HaT. Especially HaT for their groundbreaking work.

~Claus