"54mm Punic War Project" Topic

I enjoyed the 54mm (1/32 scale) Sudan Project last year that I decided that I would give the 2nd Punic War a try with 1/32 scale HaT plastic figures.

Here is a picture of my first unit of Roman Triarii (HaT set # 9017)

I'd like to increase the size of the unit from 16 figures (which is the contents of one box) to 32 figures, but these figures can't be found anywhere in the world, sigh.

Click the link to my blog to read about my Punic Wars Project and see lots more pictures of nicely painted figures.

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here is a picture of four maniples of Republican Roman Hastati. It shows you what is in the painting queue.

Here are some of the Carthaginians.

More of the Carthaginians:

Very nice – great effort!

I've been tempted by them ad well. I didn't know that they were hard to find now.

Nice

I have a long running project doing Command and Colours in 54mm punics and having been buying them whenever I find them anywhere.

Looking at that lot now I know why they are scarce!

Mike

That is stunning when they're painted up like that – excellent!

Very nice indeed!

That is one spectacular looking project Jim!! I have painted all of those figures but in the 1/72 version but they pale in comparison to your work. Very cool.

Wow! Gorgeous paint work! I love 54mm figures for gaming.

I play with Army Men, using my own beer-n-pretzels rules. I painted them, back in the early 2000's, but even with urethane stain applied to them (The Dip Technique), the urethane stain, plus the paint, rubbed off after 10 years, or so. Now I just texture their bases, and I forget about painting/Dip'ing them. I hope you fair better than I have, with your paint. Seeing it rub off even one of your figures would be heart-breaking to me. Cheers!

Regarding figure availability , the following HaT figures are still widely available :

Roman Hastati (set # 9018)
Roman Velites (9118)
Spanish Infantry (9019)
Italian Allies Infantry (9040)
Italian Allies Cavalry (9054)

Carthaginian African Heavy infantry (9020)
Carthaginian African Light Infantry ( --- )
Celts (9089)
Numidian Light Cavalry (9024)

The following sets are still available but are harder to find:

War Elephants (9023)
Roman Cavalry (9021)
Celtic Cavalry (---)

The following sets are out of production and are as hard as hens teeth to find:

Roman Triarii (9017)
Carthaginian Veterans (9212)
Carthaginian Cavalry (9056)
Spanish Cavalry (9055)
Celtiberian Warriors (9211)

In summary, there are enough sets to build Roman and Carthaginian armies, even though a couple of important sets, notably the Roman Triarii, that are impossible to find.

One can use the Numidian light cavalry for both sides and the Carthaginians can use the Celtic cavalry. I have resorted to "converting with paint" Roman Hastati into Roman Triarii. I paint black over much of the Hastati tunic and then dot the black areas with metallic iron paint. From a distance the difference is not discernible. So I wouldn't hesitate to start a similar project if the fancy hits you.

Another alternative is to use the excellent HaT 1/72 scale Punic Wars figures. There is more variety of troops readily available in this size and I think that Zvezda also makes some Punic Wars figures in plastic.

Of course, if you prefer to use metal figures, you can find anything that you want in 28mm figures .

I hope that this information is of help to anyone who is interested in this project. And, if you have any of those Roman Triarii, I'm willing to pay up to take them off your hands and put them to good use. :)

I have a huge bag of unpainted figures that I should take stock of and see what figures are there. My collection of painted has many of these figures I should see what I actually have and take inventory them.

Glorious is the only adjective that can describe your legions.
Health and Victory to you!

Thank you again Jeff. I'd be happy to take some spares off your hands.

Jim

I actually have some 3d models of Triaii, they are 28mm but I should scale them up and print them to see how they turn out. What is the actually height of those hat 54mm up to eye level?

I do have a resin printer so the detail will be pretty much what you see in the screenshots

The figures are 54mm from foot to top of the head, or 2-1/8 inches foot to top of head. The figure scale is 1/32.

Thanks, are the rules going to be homebrew or is there a set that works well for 1/32 you already have in mind? When you are done it should really be a sight to see.

I plan on using my own "Age of Rome" rules and these are a variant of my AWI and SYW rules, in terms of the mechanics of movement, firing, melee and morale. I will post them in the Fife and Drum Miniatures web store once I have a first draft done. People can then download the rules for free.

Jim

Roman Princeps using HaT 1/32 scale figures:

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These are gorgeous