Basing Essex Camel Cataphracts...

[BeansNFranks]

I'm painting up a mighty morphable cataphract army, and I bought some Essex Camel Cats as they just were pretty. I thought they might be fun as a Parthian ally, or just to field as a regular cat BG in a Palmyran list.

My only problem with them is they only had one pose, and they are freaking huge. While I ordered enough to do four bases, I was considering only doing two models per base and doing some more creative stuff with the basing. It just looks kind of plain with three models which are identical stacked up on each other, and their size and the lance being held across the body is making it kind of clunky to base normally.

How much would this be frowned upon do you think? In looking at the models there is no way to confuse them with light horse.

Would appreciate any thoughts on the issue.

[Skullzgrinda]

Check out Peter Pig's cataphract camels:

http://www.peterpig.co.uk/parthiancataphractcamels.jpg

There are two (albeit similar) poses, and the Peter Pig ancients tend to run small compared to most manufacturers, but no so much as to be incompatible. I highly recommend their cataphracts as "filler" with other manufacturers in order to meet the base requirement sizes.

PS - I recently played against a Seleucid who had the camels mounted two to a base, and it was confusing. They were unarmored and 10mm though, so may have been worse than what you propose. Still, I would order a pack or two of the Peter Pig camels and play around with them.

[BeansNFranks]

Check out Peter Pig's cataphract camels:

http://www.peterpig.co.uk/parthiancataphractcamels.jpg

There are two (albeit similar) poses, and the Peter Pig ancients tend to run small compared to most manufacturers, but no so much as to be incompatible. I highly recommend their cataphracts as "filler" with other manufacturers in order to meet the base requirement sizes.

PS - I recently played against a Seleucid who had the camels mounted two to a base, and it was confusing. They were unarmored and 10mm though, so may have been worse than what you propose. Still, I would order a pack or two of the Peter Pig camels and play around with them.

The ones I am using are PA3 http://www.essexminiatures.co.uk/gal_pa1.html. I can't imagine a smaller figure mixing in well. The models are absolutely beautiful, but damn they are big!

[philqw78]

Change some of the jockeys around with your other cavalry

[BeansNFranks]

Change some of the jockeys around with your other cavalry

That is a good idea, I will have to see if they will fit.

[BeansNFranks]

I tried mixing in other cataphracts, doing three camels to a base and doing two camels to a base. The two camels to a base just fit and looked better. When I tried to do three models the camels were just to beefy.

The idea of putting a regular cat rider on the camel was a good one, but it spread the poor guys legs so much he looked silly. Just way to big of a saddle size difference. I'll post some pics up when I finish doing the base, so hold your boos until you see the final product.

[expendablecinc]

Once you get your full mix of essex seleucid, parthian, roman, armenian and camel cataphract figs swap riders around so that your camel bases have nobles all in different poses with different (but still very heavy) armour.

None of them woul have been uniformed anyway so an assortment of armour is better IMO.

Then its not really noticible that the camels are in the same pose. Luckily its a farily generic camel pose.

Then do three figs per base and you wont look like a scrouge.

I dont think anyone will complain if you use them as regualr (non-camel) cataphracts.

A good use for them is as an elymainn ally in a parthian army then you can field up to 20 cats (4 of which are true camel cats)

Anthony

I'm painting up a mighty morphable cataphract army, and I bought some Essex Camel Cats as they just were pretty. I thought they might be fun as a Parthian ally, or just to field as a regular cat BG in a Palmyran list.

My only problem with them is they only had one pose, and they are freaking huge. While I ordered enough to do four bases, I was considering only doing two models per base and doing some more creative stuff with the basing. It just looks kind of plain with three models which are identical stacked up on each other, and their size and the lance being held across the body is making it kind of clunky to base normally.

How much would this be frowned upon do you think? In looking at the models there is no way to confuse them with light horse.

Would appreciate any thoughts on the issue.

[Legionbuilder]

I have some that I have not painted. I am curious now. Would love to see some pics when your have them done