Slitherine

Just got my hands on the new Xyston TSB figures and look forward to getting some paint on them. However the personalities pack is a little rough on the sculpt side, with all the armored figures looking a little one dimensional and lacking in detail. The "band" figures are quite nice and are modeled very well except for the faces which on at least three of the poses look somewhat melted?

One question to ask before I begin work in them is, would they look out of place or wrong with spears painted either blue, purple or red? I want them to stand out from a distance but cant find a reference anyplace about any Greek states having anything but plain wooden spear shafts?

Jim

I suspect they were generally just plain wood. There's no art sources that I know of showing coloured spears and I suspect the various histories would have mentioned spear colours had there been some.

grahambriggs wrote:I suspect they were generally just plain wood. There's no art sources that I know of showing coloured spears and I suspect the various histories would have mentioned spear colours had there been some.

Agreed.

I find most people fail with spears because they use 1 shade of brown. I try to to at least three depths of brown with my spears and pikes, and REALLY max out the differences. Livht brown to the point of being almost white and dark brown to the point where it is amlost black, and a brown somewhere in between. Add a bit of washing into this to make the 'grain' stand out and you've got some awesome looking spears.

That said, there is no complete historical records of the Greeks. They could have done stuff like painted the shafts of their spears, but for some reason it wasn't mentioned. If you choose to go down that path I would limit the number, so perhaps 1/4-1/3 of the figures having colours and the rest being wood, and possibly only do half (top hapf/bottom half) coloured.

I did a sacred band for a mate's DBA army. I had one element holding a Spartan shield up high on his spear. People would comment 'why is a Theban carrying a Lamda shield?' to which my mate could reply 'trophy after Leuctra'... it's all in how you present the army.

Thanks for the info chaps.

I did one blue and one red but they looked silly somehow I'm going to go with my usual wood colour and be damned, I tend to use long dress makers pins for my spears as they are far more robust and resilient to other folks fat fingered clutches, as a result they are totally smooth and devoid of any grain. I tried adding some with a lighter shade but they ended up looking like they had a thin slapped on wash and not at all good. I'm guessing how we paint our spears is down to personal preference, but coloured ones are out for me and my Thebans.

Jim

Baz_Baziah wrote:as a result they are totally smooth and devoid of any grain...

I didn't mean any real grain, I meant to make them look like they had grain. Have a look at Simon's (List_Lurker) Sarmatian lancer in the other thread for an example of what I meant.

ravenflight wrote:

Baz_Baziah wrote:as a result they are totally smooth and devoid of any grain...

I didn't mean any real grain, I meant to make them look like they had grain. Have a look at Simon's (List_Lurker) Sarmatian lancer in the other thread for an example of what I meant.

LOL neither did I. what I meant was they are just smooth, plain and a single colour. I do have some older figures where the spears do have molded grain, they are as thick as telegraph poles mind, but they do feature grain

jim

Should I field the band as a group of 6 or 8?

Six sounds right with there only being 300 of them.

Jim

Baz_Baziah wrote:Should I field the band as a group of 6 or 8?

Six sounds right with there only being 300 of them.

Jim

8.