The Rage of Achilles

Still some work needed but my undead Classical Greek (5th c. BCE) army is pretty much ready for play. Here's an overhead view of the army lined for battle. 

A line of psiloi light troops advancing in front of the phalanx. A mixture of skeletal human and cynocephale javlineers and skeletal satyr toxotai (archers).

In back of the psiloi marches the phalanx. Six units of skeletal hoplites. Mostly from the Australian company Eureka, but on the right flank are figures from Foundry, Bronze Age and plastics from the Wargames Factory Skeleton boxed set. Behind the phalanx are two giant hoplites, one a repainted skeleton warrior from Vitruvian Hacks, and the other from Ral Partha.

Attached to the phalanx is the hero Herakles, and behind him (with spear and hoplon) the warrior Achilles.

A unit of Hellas' ancient foes, Persian sparabara assembled from the Wargames Factory skeleton boxed set with Perisan wicker shields. Now fighting in service of their enemies!

A group of mythical beasts. From left to right: a Cerberus (Rackham), a chimera (Wyrd), a khalkotaur (Reaper), another Cerberus (Reaper) and another chimera (Wyrd). Behind them (between the Persian sparabara and the Khalkotaur) is a group of Thracian ogres! (Spartan Games)

In the foreground is the hero Jason, with a group of undead minotauroi behind.

A pair of skeletal Pegasi with riders (Mythic Articulations). Behind them are a Skeleton Hydra (Ral Partha) and the legendary first king of Athens, Cecrops I (converted from a Die Hard Miniatures skeleton snake man).

Cavalry on the right wing. There's a bit more cavalry here than you'd see in a hoplite army of the era (although the Thebans did maintain cavalry forces). But I can't resist using all these undead centaurs! In front, centaur missile troops. A mixture of Rackham undead centaurs and old Dark Horse skeleton centaurs. On the main line from left to right: Wyrd Miniatures Kentauroi, Dark Horse skeleton centaurs, Eureka skelton greek cavalry, Rackham undead centaurs and two undead centaurs from Cadwallon.

Cavalry can be a bit fragile so in support we have a group of undead cyclopes! Grenadier, Ral Partha, Wizkids, Grim Reaper Casting.

Magic user: Akhlys, the personification of death, or more specifically, the death mist that overtakes the dying. Converted from a banshee from GW's Mortis Engine.

Magic user: Hecate, the Greek goddess of witchcraft and necromancy (and crossroads!)

Hero: Echidna. I've been thinking of converting her into Medusa however. (Conversion from a Die Hard Miniatures snake man)

WIP Undead Classical Greek Army - Mage, Peltasts, Cavalry and Creatures

Some more work on the undead 5th century BCE greeks. The first set of pictures is of my main magic user for the army, Hekate, the Greek goddess of witchcraft and necromancy (and crossroads...). Hekate is traditionally portrayed as possessing a single body, with three faces, or as a triple-bodied figure. She also is usually depicted carrying two torches and is accompanied by one or more dogs. The figure itself is a simple conversion. It was originally a prepainted D&D miniature; the "Skull Lord" (Demonweb #27). I'd been looking for a magic user for my Greek army and when I saw this triple faced figure I immediately thought "Hekate"! The prepaint is ok, good enough that I won't redo it for the moment. One of the hands was already in an open position so that was easy. The other held a staff made of bone, but it was easy to snip off. I just glued into place two torches from Ristul's Extraordinary Market. I then just plopped down two extra skeletal dogs that I had hanging around from the old Grenadier Fantasy Lords #157 "Undead Scouting Party".

The second set of photos is of a unit of peltasts. Peltasts were lightly armed and armored missile infantry that would skirmish in front of the phalanx. Troops are based for the game Piquet: Scramasax. Light infantry/skirmishers are usually based with four stands, two figures to a stand for a total of eight models to a unit. Here we have two groups, one is a set of skeleton satyrs with bows (taxotai) from Mythic Articulations. Mythic Articulations has produced (at my behest!) a few of their larger models in 32mm format which can be found at their Etsy shop. The other group is a set of regular human psiloi (javelineers) with pelta (the small crescent shield that gives peltast their name). I built them from the Games Workshop Vampire Counts Skeleton Regiment boxed set. I snipped off the spears from the plastic skeletons and replaced them with some javelins from Magister Millitum. Additionally, the pelta were from Magister Millitum as well. I still have to do a bunch of painting for these figs.

The next set of photos are of my unit of light Thessalian cavalry. Greek armies from this period did not emphasize cavalry, with the exception of the Thebans, but frequently Greek city states would hire mercenaries for this purpose. The figures are Eureka's Skeletal Horse and Rider w/Ancient Greek Weapons (100SKL06a). They're primed with a bleached bone primer and then dipped in Armory's Strong Tone Quickshade. Unfortunately, although Greek cavalry did use spears, they did *not* use hoplons, so I'll eventually have to replace the shields with pelta or something similar.

The next set of photos depict some of the mythical creatures I field in this army; two undead cerberuses and two undead chimera. The first cerberus is the fantastic sculpt from the now sadly defunct Rackham miniatures; Cerberus of Acheron. I've had it for years and it's one of my favorite pieces. The paint job consists of a primer coat of black that also acts as the base coat. From there, bone color is applied directly to the bones with the rest of the flesh and muscle being dry brushed over the black base. The second cerberus is the Reaper Cerberus, Hound of Hell (03423) by Julie Guthrie. It's a "meh" figure. Again, it's primed in black with a dry brush for the flesh and fur.


Lastly, there are the two chimera. Both are from Wyrd miniatures, the first being the old Rogue Necromancy metal sculpt and the second being the newer plastic resculpt. Like the other creatures, there is a layer of black primer, with base colors painted directly over. There is some dry brushing for the feathers on the wings, and a light sepia wash. I like how they turned out generally, but I am going to have to go over the eagle parts again because the purplish look doesn't inspire.