"Aventine Etruscans Finally Finished..." Topic

I'm v. pleased with them. Next I'm going to paint some Principes.

link

Cheers, Simon

That's a beautiful unit!

Yep, and I'd really like to get some, but as Simon has shown us:

picture

…they're big! And I'm trying to get over that…

Allen

Hi Allen, yes they are larger 28s. Just right for me! :-)

BTW What size are the new Gorgons? Are they roughly WotG? Nice looking minis.

Simon

Good stuff, Simon. It'll be interesting to see how the Principes compare.

Paul

"BTW What size are the new Gorgons?"

I haven't seen them "in the flesh" yet. Scaling them from Dave Pauwels painted ones--he used 40mm spears with them, I'd say they're about the same as Steve's sculpts for Polemarch: i.e., not *quite* as large as the Foundry World of the Mega-Greeks. (Putting Polemarch command figures next to Foundry Successor phalangites is like putting Mark Sims' Crusader and A&A Carthginians together--both sculptors have learned to make smaller figures!)

But we shall see soon.

"Larger 28mm"? In your picture, the top of the Aventine guy has got to be just about at 30mm (although his feet could come down a millimeter, it looks like.)

Not like the Renegade Roman, though, who is crouched and still at 30mm! The Crusader Roman could come down a couple of mm, it looks like.

Allen

Hi Allen, I think the Aventines would work well with WotG or pretty well with Crusader (rather taller than the latter but a similar build). Mind you, I tend to stick WotGs and Crusaders in different units.

Renegade are in a class of their own…

If the new Gorgons are roughly Polemarch sized, that would be fine with me.

It's interesting that they are marketing the hoplites as Etruscans. Since they are equally useful as Greeks, they may miss some potential sales to collectors of Greek hoplite armies, who might be put off by the Etruscan label.

Cheers, Simon

Ah, I bet you that Hank and Dave are savvy enough to market them appropriately! If they hadn't thought of it before (and I know they have already noted the figures' usefulness as Greeks of various persuasions), they certainly would now!

They're listed as Etruscans because for the earlier period, what they came up with for sources (I helped a bit) showed the 1st Class mostly indistinguishable from Greek hoplites except in some small details, and you will see those primarily on the command figures and personalities, I suspect. It's in the 2d and 3d classes that you will see more distinctly north Italian flavor, such as the crested brimmed helmets that you've already seen on the Aventine Etruscans and Umbrians, and pectoral armor, and northern Italian shields.

Still, I do not expect Hank to let an opportunity slip to clearly identify the 1st Class as also usable as Greeks throughout Magna Graecia, or Syracuse, or even the Achaean homeland!

Allen

BRB; Brillant!

It's interesting that they are marketing the hoplites as Etruscans. Since they are equally useful as Greeks, they may miss some potential sales to collectors of Greek hoplite armies, who might be put off by the Etruscan label.

Right from Gorgon Studio's web site:

"Alternatively, the beauty of these figures is their supreme flexibility. Because the Etruscans styled their heavy infantry on their contemporary Greek counterparts, these hoplites can be used for almost any classical army, from Syracusan heavy troops to First Punic War hoplite mercenaries."

Dave

And, nice work Simon. The Aventine figures look very nice indeed.

Dave

Hi Dave, yes I saw that on Gorgon, but I would be worried that a casual punter, googling Greeks, might miss it.

Thanks, all! Simon

A casual punter, googling Greek, is going to get a whole lot of distracting stuff!

Nice painting again Simon! Cheers Mike Adams

Nice Simon. I particularly like the standard.

I don't know, those fellows look awfully lackadasical about the battle they're in.

I suppose if you don't put them in the front line, but leave them as reserves and they'll look fine

BTW, did you freehand those horses, or are they decals?

Thanks guys.

Roderick, they are indeed the stoical reserves. The guys at the front will be much more animated! The horses are from LBMS; in fact I've used LBMS white battledamaged transfers on all the shields.

Cheers, Simon

Thrusting poses!!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!
We need figures made for wargaming, holding their spear upright! I won't buy another thrusting hoplite … ever! Broken spears; can't rank up models; models don't fit on bases; can't move modles into contact; Do any figure sculpters ever game???

Mike B

Whilst I don't like a thrusting pose for close order infantry, I think it'll look good on the Velites and Hastati. Time will tell…

Part of the reason I went with the deeper base for the Triarii (which I didn't really NEED to) was because I wanted them to be consistently based with the lighter troops.

Cheers, Simon

They look great.
Bigger bases than usual? How big are these compared with your usual ones?
Andrew

Hi Andrew, they are 30mm deep, rather than the 20mm I'd usually use for close order infantry. The frontage I use is always 60mm.

Cheers, Simon

You have to tried with those one…

Amicalement
Armand

Thank you for your inspirational posts. Always a great read.

I tried to look at the Gorgon Studios Etruscans but there are currently no illustrations of the 1st Class infantry. If you wanted to use them as Greeks, you'd be hoping they didn't have a lot of Italo-Corinthian helmets, which were popular with the richer (ie Class 1) Etruscans but maybe they don't. I couldn't see because they're in the process of updating the site – hence the lack of photos. Not being a rich Etruscan myself, I can't afford to get them in 28mm anyway – I'm having to go for 15mm. Etruscans were my first love as an ancient army and I am looking to do them again soon. I have a few packs but the painting queue is long and my inept skills unfortunately slow . . .

These Etruscans are beautiful.