Saturday, January 16, 2016

The Slings and Arrows of Egyptian Fortunes


As I was finishing up the rest of my Old Glory Egyptian figures about 2 years ago, Wargames had a big sale on their remaining stock of Essex figures, which they would no longer be carrying. Being a sucker for a sale, and also knowing that My Egyptians could stand some reinforcements if they were to stand up to my large Assyrian army, I picked up about 30 figures for future use. 


The future having arrived in the form of several planned games this year using my Egyptians, I painted them all up the first half of this month.  


This Medium Archer unit belongs to Division  Seti in my scheme, which has Blue as its distinctive color. 


These Essex figures painted up nicely and quickly. enhanced by some Magic Wash. I used a lighter (less ink) version because of all the white and off white in the costume of the figures. 


This unit has a different style of Archer dress (filled out with some spare Old Glory figures; being a clearance sale, you never knew for sure how much of any given figure they would have left by the time your order was processed). 


 The Essex figures did require the bows and slings to be glued in place (using cyanoacrylate glue), which was kind of a pain!


The yellow distinctive color of the unit places it in Division Ra. 


This is a unit of LI slingers, included for variety.  


They belong to Division Ptah, which has Green as its distinctive color. 


I used some paint dry brushed onto the tufts to bring out "desert tones" to them. 


I most rules, the slingers won't fight any different from Light Infantry archers.


A second small unit of Light Infantry slingers.


I see I forgot to paint the sling stones - I'll go back and fix that!


Once again, their yellow distinctive color marks them as members of Division Ra.


Scenic sand and railroad talus was used for the basing, applied over thinned white glue (after the tufts were glued on and dried).


I really needed more figures for generals and "heroes", and that was one of the best things I got from the Essex order.


The center figure is an Egyptian "Prince", If I recall correctly.


The figure to right here is an officer, and carries a bronze sword. I used light purple for his decorations, figuring that only an upper class person could afford that color, presumably already being made from the Murex snails in the city of Tyre.  He wears crocodile skin armor. 


The figure in the foregound is a "General" if I recall correctly. I've given him light blue and red ornamentation, and a heavy neck piece made of copper, carnelian (red), and lapis lazuli (blue). 

25 comments:

  1. Very nice figures, I love Bronze Age armes.

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  2. Great looking stuff Peter. This is an era I have managed to resist diving into so far, but holds a massive appeal.

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    1. Thanks, Jake. You've got plenty of projects under way - time enough for Chariots etc in the future!

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    2. Jake, it is a period I have on the back-burner. Will 2016 be the year I start?

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  3. They look superb, great job on the clothes!

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  4. Nice figures, very enjoyable! Gluing weapons on is a pain but not as annoying as when they fall off!

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    1. Thanks, David, and I agree! After the Pike disaster at HCon 2015, I now always keep Crazy Glue in my Convention Emergency kit!

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    2. "After the Pike disaster at HCon 2015" Ha ha Would love to swap war stories with you one day.

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  5. They look great, the one's with blue and white stripes are my favourites
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks, Ian. They are the most classic looking. BLue was probably a quite unlikely color in ancient times - decent blue dyes didn't really exist then. But we choose to ignore that. :-)

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  6. Excellent Egyptians, Peter! I like how you distinguish by color-coding divisions. I bet that helps sort subordinates out during the heat of battle.

    On question on the headdress. Being a relative neo-NKE aficionado, I am led to believe that the striped linen headdress was a sign of royality. It that interpretation accurate and figures are molded in the model of Hollywood?

    Great stuff!

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    1. Yes, you're correct that the current feeling is that it was limited to Royalty, but it is so linked to our mental images of the Egyptians from Hollywood and older sources (Funken, and many others), that here I am going with what looks good.
      Yes Color coding helps ID the units on the table when needed. Once again, uniformity of dress or equipment would have been very unlikely at this time, but it serves our purposes well to ignore that!

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  7. Very nice work on these Peter, and I think I'd be tempted to take the same approach. Stripe headdresses and Egyptians just seem to go together.

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    1. Thanks. Ours is a visual hobby, and in some ways like Movie storytelling; I am willing to accept some Movie costuming as well, as opposed to a mass of dull off white, brown, tan and black!

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  8. Very nice and colourful units, the ensemble must look even more impressive! :) Cheers!

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    1. Thanks! You'll get to see them more en masse in a game shortly!

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  9. Love me some Egyptians! The blue & white are indeed striking!

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    1. Thanks, Iannick! Glad you enjoyed them. I have some Murawski Badeners to work on soon.

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  10. Unbelievable coincidence I just received some Essex 15mm Slingers that require gluing! Never struck this before and impossible to get a good result.

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    1. They were very difficult to do in 28mm - I can't imagine doing it in 15mm!

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