Dacian archers

 

20 to 60 archers are needed for the Dacian army, so naturally I looked at my universal archer and painted up a dozen that were lying around in a Dacian type paint scheme.

Figures aren't brilliant but they'll certainly do the job. To get to 60 figures means 5 more units; probably restrict it to one or two extras.

Lots of Dacians would have short cloaks. Anyway, a couple the archers lying around were ones without a quiver on their back so I gave them short cloaks to see if they were necessary. Actually, they don't seem to add much to the figure so probably won't bother. However, might give future figures a sword glued to the belt. 

Paint pens and Dacians

Started using the new paint pens. They're ones with a 'brush' tip one end, 'fine' tip the other end - much easier to use than my last lot, better range of colours and comes with a colour chart. Like them.

 

One problem is that I'm tending to go overboard  with checks and things all over the place. Plain seems to have gone out of the window as far as Dacians and Gauls are concerned!

Any way, it's another unit of Dacian warriors finished.

The current crop

 

Continuing with the Dacian/Sarmatian infantry...

For the numbers I'll be doing I've stopped worrying about actual 'units' and just building up elements to be used as and where wanted.

I'm going a bit overboard on the use of paint pens though - lots of checks, tartans and shield patterns!

Currently on the painting desk are another load of Dacian'Sarmatian infantry plus a unit of Numidian cavalry.

Meanwhile I'n still working on other conversions. The front one is the early Rhoxolani Sarmatian figure painted up. At the time I thought I would need to cut away the kontos and replace it - thought the lance would be too thick.Tried it anyway and actually looks OK - cut the kontos down, hammered the head into a spear point, and works. Shield is from one of the Sarmatian infantry as per the WRG book. Last figure is from the cataphract with the bowcase removed and large shield added... probably needs a smaller shield, but as a first attempt at a Goth heavy cavalry doesn't look too bad.

Need to do something with the leather armour on the Rhoxolani - not sure if it does as hide armour. Time to work on that. Might just use the same method as for the horn armour on the horse armour.

Sarmatian and Dacian catalogue lists

 

One thing I don't spend as much time on as I should is putting together 'catalogues' for my use that include pictures of individual figures plus mould lists. The Sarmatian/Dacian Classical Range is an easy one to do though as it is pretty small!

Just 8 figures plus one conversion I'm working on!

SAC1 Cavalryman, leather armour firing forward. As far as I know never issued except by me. I found the original in the masters box as a separate rider and put it on a horse as an easier-to-cast one piece figure. 

SAC2 Cavalryman, leather armour firing forward, armoured horse. In this case I've simply painted it as wearing metallic armour - another 'conversion' from the SAC1 figure.

SAC3 Cavalry standard bearer - conversion from SAC4.

SAC4, 'Cataphract with lance (Kontos) full mail armoured horse'. The only Sarmatian cavalry figure that I know was originally sold. Painted here with horn armour.

Unlisted conversion to potentially produce as an early Rhoxolani cavalry figure - still not sure where to go with this one - could just use all SAC1 and possibly glue a shield on instead! Still, it wold give me a useful variation.

SA1 Infantryman with spear and shield, unarmoured. As far as I am aware this was the only infantry figure originally issued. I assume Sarmatian though I'm using it as Dacian!

SA2 Officer. Actually Dacian and probably coded DA1 - found an unlisted mould and a couple of masters of this figure... doubt it was ever issued other than by me (as DA1) either as SA2 or DA1!

SA3 Standard bearer. A standard bearer was listed in the 1972 catalogue but I don't have any masters or moulds with it on - this figure is simply a converted SA2.

SA4 Infantryman with falx and shield. Again, mould plus master figure but no other documentation - may have originally been intended as DA2? - I produced it in small numbers as DA2.

A list of issued and projected Garrison figures appeared as an insert in the 1972  Greenwood and Ball Journal. Wish all this had come out then...  :(  - anyway, I'm trying to fill the gaps... though 'my' SAC1 and 2 are a bit different to the 1972 catalogue version! Note the figures NOT listed here that I found masters of and have been able to produce! Apart from figures listed above, SAC3 with the bowcase carved off and replaced with a mace makes a good generic SHC cataphract, plus the generic horse archer I made works as a Parthian horse archer... so I could do a Parthian army... must try fitting SAC3 on a camel sometime...

My paint pens have been getting quite ragged recently so I bought some more (had the originals for nearly 2 years... couldn't believe it!). New pens are much better and this is shown by the increased complexity of the patterns I'm putting on cloaks and tunics...

As a side note, start expecting people to put up wargames figure prices... just ordered a new batch of metal... 28th January 2025 I paid £724-20, this time round it was £890.30! 23% increase in a year. Worse, 5th March 2024 it was £604-20!  So the metal I use has gone up by 47% in two years! 

Sarmatian and Dacian Review

Still a long way to go before either of these armies are complete.

Sarmatian light cavalry unit using SAC1 for the rank and file, SAC2 for the officer and SAC3 as the standard bearer. This unit goes back to 2015... 

As do these... so 11 years before I got back to them...

The recent two heavy cavalry units. The army probably needs to double in size as far as HC/EHC are concerned, but a lot more of SAC1  figures to provide MC! 

The Dacians. Light cavalry are GAC2, the Gallic light cavalry, again with  SAC3 as the standard bearer. Need at least a couple of hundred more infantry for this army! Infantry are technically SA1 Sarmatians, but are much more convincing as Dacians! 

So a lot to go here - and the Sarmatian mould is back and will be ready for casting in a few days...

New mould -Sarmations and Dacians RY157

 

Got mould RY157 back from Pete. I've leave it a few days to post cure before I check it out. 

The mould covers all the Sarmation and Dacian infantry plus Sarmation cavalry riders, Both standard bearers are conversions. As far as I know none of the DA figures were ever issued in the past.

This is the nominal mix for the next mould. The Gauls basically cover the ones that weren't too successful before - one thing I'm not sure about is whether to add a load more Gallic figures to this mould. On the other hand, I think I have spent more on the Gallic moulds than I really wanted to. The Sarmation figures are two different one piece mouldings, three on unarmoured horses, one on an armoured horse. How well RY157 works will probably determine whether or not I add another armoured horse archer and fill out the mould with more Sarmations. The one piece casting is a medium cavalry figure so the half armoured horse is not a 'correct' figure - paint conversion! - but I can see me doing an army with lots of the other figure...

Dacian light cavalry

 

First actual wargames unit of the year painted and based - which gives me the entire 'allowed' native Dacian cavalry...

Unchanged Gallic cavalry with a tunic painted on instead of being bare chested. Standard is my converted Sarmation standard bearer figure.

I've given quite a few of them 'tartan' tunics and cloaks on the grounds that they could have worn tartan tunics and cloaks :) Tartans simply drawn using paint pens.

Must do some archers and light infantry javelins at some time... Archers using my universal archer figure? possibly add a short cloak? - also need to convert a figure to act as a Dacian infantry standard bearer.

Gods of Egypt

Very slow start to the New Year but finally starting to get things done...

First ones finished are some Minifigs Gods of Egypt. There should be six of them, but one seems to be MIA somewhere between getting it's undercoat and reaching the painting table.

The pictures on these look a lot worse than the figures! One hint about this - their clothing is acually ivory without even a hint of blue! 

Another lot of figures nearly finished is this unit of Celts repurposed as Dacian light horse. There is another unit of Celts undercoated - I've also undercoated a couple of extras so that I can use these as Celts by changing the command element!

And finally a couple of Minifigs Martian tripods undercoated. All the Minifigs figures were kindly donated by Santa (OK, Steven) while the Dacians were test castings from my new moulds.

Digressions - Dacia

First Dacian warband now completed apart from perhaps touching up bases.

Only two of these were painted by me - the rest were abstracted from the rather  large Celtic force I bought off Harry. Technically listed as Sarmations Dacian would be far more accurate anyway.

These are the two I painted. As far as I know the Dacian officer DA1 was never released by Garrison. The standard bearer is a conversion of DA1 using the hand and standard of the Sarmation cavalry standard bearer which was itself a conversion of the Sarmation cataphract...

Another figure not originally released was this one which will form the Blade elements of the army. The rest of the army will need some archers and light horse - haven't decided yet what to use for them. I do have some early PB Dacian archers lying around somewhere, plus plenty of Celtic cavalry to use.

Technically, the completed Warband has too many elements for a DBA Dacian army, but I felt I had to use what I've got.