My pal Jim Clarke sent me this 28mm Gripping Beast Scythed Chariot from their Polemarch range a while ago. I intend to do some better photos for a different purpose later on, but thought I would post a quick review. I don't get much done anymore, so I'm anxious to share :)
First off, it's a metal kit with lots of bits. The armored hairy masked Median (or NFL safety) crewman has a whip that his only assembly bit. The four horses are unique and have slightly different patterns of scale or banded armor. The cab is four pieces, front sides, two wheels, and base, all standard chariot bits. The details are in high relief (meaning not subtle).. easy to paint style, hard to miss with ancient eyeballs.
The yoke is in two halves and I suggest you glue these together first and make sure they are tightly joined or you will have grief later. Test fit the yoke with the horses, they have tails that can conflict with the cab space, so make sure you get the right horses in the middle. The yoke supports are difficult to line up and some drilling is recommended to make sure they fit. Make sure the spear arrays fit on the yoke poles, and make sure the holes for the wheel scythes are open enough to get the posts in place.
I made a split wood plate out of a base to have a groove for the driver's base tab to cling too.
Other than that it's straightforward chariot assembly. I primed the cab and yoke assembly, separate, horses, wheels and driver black. Painting is based on the old Montvert Scythed chariot image by the late Angus McBride… it's red of course since that makes it go faster, with the ubiq bronze armor stylings that so many prefer (but we don't have any clue really, it could be tinned, or gilded) …. and Seleucid after all. I used my combo of Vallejo and craft paints on the contraption.
I left the cab/crew unattached since it would need to be pinned or wired to actually connect to the horses-- since sometimes my models travel on hateful airplanes I felt it best to leave it unattached… even though that will raise the paranoia level when folks pick it up and want to turn it over to gawk. Once the parts were painted and assembled on the base I added the reins. These were made out of wine coverings, that lead like foil stuff, rolled flat and cut into strips. It bends into nice loops, glues well onto the posts, and then could be cut into a little notch for the hand grip. The nice thing is that this material holds the paint and rarely chips, can be dusted off… so off to the chariot disaster I can go with a nice well animated red but entirely inept scythed chariot!!
enjoy!
