Macedonian Phalanx Arrives.

I have been working on a block of 48 Magister Pike for the last three weeks which I picked up at the Derby World Championships a few months back. Whilst there I decided I would also buy shield transfers for the first time ever. To put it bluntly I was not sure I was up to painting the shields. I had in the past painted another 48 man block and had done a fairly good job then, but that was long long ago and I was a far more confident painter. The problem is that as the weeks passed since Derby I have looked at these transfers more and more as a sign of defeat and worse giving up without even trying. So in the end I decided to give it a go and the transfers went from a sign of failure to insurance.

The image of what could be described as my lack of confidence but I prefer to see it as a moment of weakness. These look rather nice and for sure are better than my own efforts but as they are in fact smaller than the shield space itself I think the overall result would not have looked as good and to be honest would have anoyed the hell out of me everytime I dug them out to play.

So with this fact in mind I paintd the rest of the figures less Pike and then finally grappled with the shield.

This is a close up of one of the finished models (15mm) complete with basing. Apart from not straightening the pike for the picture I am rather prowd of my effort. Of couse I have a further 196 to do but I am trying to ignore this fact at the moment. Whilst it's not perfect and it is also one of the nicer finishes I am rather fond of the result. I can't wait to get him and his pals on the table.

Heres a shot of the whole block. Whilst I was painting them they took up rather a lot of room on their bottle tops but as a block whilst looking imposing they just seem a little tiny. I love the shear size of the Magister pikes, care needs to be taken with the pikes to stop them being snapped but the metal is soft enough that they bend more than break. They also straighten with ease. I also like the pike extensions, in fact I think these figures are the best 15mm Phalanx available.
Another shot of the block. I can't wait to get to play with these, though I expect the first outing I will be seeing the fronts rather than the backs as they get used in suport of Lee's new army andmy next project is the re-basing of the Persins to face them. That starts straight away and I will take the oppertunity for some clean up work as they have been played well and hard in the past. As for these figures they have been painted exclusivly with Vallejo paints.