I put the detailing wash on the Achaean spear and pike elements the other night, so I’m about half way through the army now. To finish the spear and pike I’ll drybrush the textured bases with a light dusty colour and put some static grass patches on, but I’ll do that all at once for the whole army.
Spearmen and Nestor's Pylians nearly finished
In the meantime I’m getting on with the dismounted charioteers and Myrmidons. The Myrmidons had surprisingly crude arms. For some of them I found it hard to tell where the sleeves ended, in fact some seem to have a long sleeve on their sword arm and a short one on their shield arm.
Progress on the heroic charioteers and Myrmidons (in the foreground)
Magister Militum figures are usually very nicely done (eg, the spear and pike men), but I noticed when I painted my Lydians that some looked to have been converted from other figures, because the pose was identical to other figures, but for somewhat crude sword arms (one even had the stump of his spear tucked under his arm). So I suspect that these are conversions too. Once they’re painted and on the table they should look fine though.
By sheer coincidence while I was doing the painting I listened to this very appropriate Guardian Podcast featuring Alice Oswald’s ‘mini Illiad’ . I’ve read other Alice Oswald poems before and liked them, so perhaps I’ll get a copy. It would certainly make a change in style, if not theme, from the little collection of WWII first person accounts I’ve picked up recently from the local remaindered book store.
I’ll have to check out that podcast. I read a review of the book a while back. Interesting what you say about some of these MM figures being conversions.