Dan Becker's Ancient Carthaginian 28mm Figures

Somewhere in the woods of the Iberian penninsula around 218 BCE, a warband of Celts patrolling. They are on a scouting mission for there is a rumor some warriors from Africa had crossed the straights through The Pillars of Hercules. Of course the Iberians heard of the trading post Carthago Nova ("New Carthage"), but the king wanted detailed numbers and descriptions of any foreign forces on Iberian soil.

All of a sudden a force is spotted. Some of these warriors look vaguely Greek, some look like Iberians, and some look like Africans. What is this force?

However, the leader on the black stallion with the leopard blanket makes the group identifiable - it is Hannibal and these are warriors from Carthage.

The two war bands line up on opposite sides of the clearing. They size each other up. Both are roughly equal in number. Should they battle? Or should the groups return to their bases? The two battle lines move closer.

All of a sudden trumpets blare and a noisy third party crashes through the trees. Not only cavalry warriors on horseback, but also warriors in fortified castles on top of gigantic beasts - African elephants.

The Iberian force pauses. The Iberian leader yells in Latin "You are on our lands, you must return to your land, pay tribute to our king, or face the wrath of the Iberians."

The Carthaginian force also pauses. Hannibal yells in reply, "Noble Iberians, I have no quarrel with you. It is the Romans, I wish to destroy. Rome looks to conquer and enslave Iberia. Ally with us, fight Rome, and you shall receive a fair share of the spoils of Rome."

And then Hannibal says "And let me introduce you to our allies from Africa, the Numidians".

And the Numidian leader says "What Hannibal says is true. We seek to destroy Rome also. For too long Rome has enslaved their neighbors, and now we also seek to destroy Rome and defile them for their attacks on our neighbors."

What will happen? Will the Iberians' report to their king create a conflict? Will Carthage be able to add new allies for their march on Rome? Will the Numidians fare well in the freezing mountains of the Alps?

I hope you enjoyed that story and seeing the figures in mass formations. The rest of this article details each set of figures and discusses the painting and model making techniques for this batch of miniature soldiers.

First up are the Iberian cavalry. These figures and their mounts are from the "Mounted Nobles" sprue of the Victrix Clash of Spears Iberian box set (98405). The figures are hard styrene plastic that you must assemble and paint. The sprue gives lots of weapon and head options. I decided to go mostly with javelin throwers and a few cav with swords.

This photo shows the other side of the Iberian cavalry.

The figures are painted mostly with Vallejo Xpress Paints and Vallejo Model Color paints. I like to do big areas with the Xpress Paints (such as the horses and the skin tones) and smaller highlights with the Model Color paints (such as the straps and weapons and armor). The Xpress Paints form nice highlights and shading and are a joy to paint with. The Model Colors are very opaque and smooth and can cover up any base color they sit on top of.

Next up are some light soldiers - the Iberian slingers and javelins.

Slingers were an impressive ranged weapon of the time. A slinger could fire over a longer distance than the bows of the time. And the lead pellet could easily kill or knock out an armored warrior. Both the Victrix Carthaginian and the Iberian box sets contain 6 Baleric Slingers, from their own sprue, shown here in light tunics. You can also get a pack of 12 Baleric Slingers from Victrix.

The second group are Iberian light javelin warriors, which come from the "Iberian Warriors I" sprue in both the Cathaginian and Iberian boxes. They are in tunics with no armor except for their large celtic shields. These figures have mostly Celtic helmets, but a few feature a hood with a horse hair crest.

This photo shows the slingers and javelins from the other side.

This photo shows the remaining figures from the "Iberian Warriors I" sprue. The Iberian box names these as Scutari and Scutari Veterans, but there are just 4 body types and variance with the heads and shields.

This view shows the scutari from the other side. The Vallejo Xpress paints do make a very vibrant looking ancient warrior. Some might like the more muted view of traditional model acrylics, but from an arm's length, the strong colors really pop..

This photo shows Iberian warriors with armor which come on the "Iberian Warriors II" sprue. These sprues are unique to the Iberian box set. Like the Iberian unarmored warriors, there are 6 body types. Two of them look like lights charging. All of them look very similar to the unarmored warriors except these warriors have a simple chest and back plate above their tunics.

These are the Iberian warriors with armor reverse side. All of them have Celtic type shields: big bosses, wooden backing, and metal edges. The shields are decorated with designs from Little Big Men Studios. LBMS was started by Artist Nathan Hale who works for Victrix. However LBMS was so successful, that they started their own business. LBMS designs for Victrix are only sold on the Victrix site. However LBMS designs for other companies are on the LBMS web site.

This photo shows the Numidian light cavalry that come with the Carthaginian box set. Rhe plastic sprue is called "Carthaginian Cavalry." They poses are nicely animated and lively. It is nice that they give a cape and helmeted head for the leader.

The Numidian cavalry were well known for their fast horses and wily hit and run tactics. Just when a unit thought they could catch the Numidians, they would evade and retreat in an orderly fashion with a shower of missile fire.

This side shows the reverse side of the Numidian cavalry. I really love painting horses in all their varieties. From the left to right we have a pie bald, a chestnut, a brown, a dun, a brown, and another chestnut.

This photo shows my first expansion outside of the Carthaginian and Iberian "Clash of Spears" box sets. These figures are the Numidian infantry from the Victrix VXA024 set. The set has 24 Numdian light infantry in tunics. I placed 12 of these Numidians done up as lights in beige tunics with the 6 "Javelin Men" given in the Carthaginian box to make up the 18 shown here. The remaining 12 Numidians are done up as close order infantry shown in the next group.

I really love the motifs on the shields especially the giraffe and zebra skins.

This shows the Numdian infantry reverse. The hair styles are really awesome. The long black comb over reminds me of Fab from the 80s group Milli Vanilli.

This photo shows the remaining Victrix Numidian Infantry VXA024 set done up as close order infantry. You can see how just changing the heads and weapons can make the same bodies look like a whole new set. To recap, the 12 infantry here in green tunics and bronze helmets are from the same kit as the last group in beige tunics and long black hair.

Here are the Numidian infantry from the reverse side. All with bronze helmets and more swords.

Thus far I have shown the Iberian and Numidian groups, and now on to the Carthaginians.

These Carthaginian cavalry are not from the Victrix Carthaginian or Iberian box sets. Rather they are from the Gripping Beast Classical World historical line. In the center of the group, Hannibal on the black horse with leopard skin and the standard bearer horsemen are from the GB PUNC01 set and the remaining 5 cavalry are from the Saga Age of Hannibal SHC01 and SAHCO2 sets.

This photo shows the reverse of the true Carthaginian cavalry, not some allied Numidians or Iberians.

These are the only metal figures in this article. The rest shown are all plastics. I find the metals tend to have fatter arms, legs, and weapons.

This photo shows a combination of the Carthaginian and Iberian commands from the two box sets. One sprue is the "Carthaginan Command" with 3 figures. One sprue is the "Iberian Command" with 4 figures. Two more Carthaginians figures have photo-bombed this photo for a total of 9. The trouble is I have forgotten who goes with which set! I will have to sort them out later.

The mixed set of Carthaginian command, Iberian command, and two other guys from reverse.

This photo shows the Carthaginian skirmishers from the Carthaginian Clash of Spears box set. The white tunics are from the "Baleric slingers" sprue. The green tunics are scutari from the "Iberian Warriors I" sprue.

I am being inconsistent here. I've removed the six beige tunic Numidian javelin men of this box and placed them with the Numidian photos. Yet I have not removed the Iberian scutari and placed them with the Iberian photos. You can see how getting a mixed box set is good for getting a variety of units, but it can be tough to organize.

Carthaginian skirmishers from the reverse

This photo shows another bonus group I added which are the Victrix Carthaginian Infantry (VXA011). The sprues are labelled "Carthaginian Citizen Inf" and make a total of 24 figures to add to your collection. All of them are in tunics and unarmopred except for the bronze helmets and the Celtic shields. Again, fine shield designs from Little Big Men Studios.

Here is the reverse side of the Carthaginian Citizen Infantry.

The Citizen Infantry would be the native population of Carthage. Most of the Carthaginian army were hired mercenaries from other allies such as the Greeks, the Phoenicians, Numidians, and Iberians. Most Carthaginian nobility were merchants and not conscripted to fight like the Romans.

This final group of infantry show the Carthaginian Punic Infantry. These 18 come with the Carthaginian box set on the "Carthaginian Warriors" sprue.

The body types come either with chain mail armor or linothorax armor with pturges, Linothroax comes from a Greek word which means "linen body armor". It was used in the early Bronze Age throughout the Mediterranean world. The linen could have been made stronger through many laminations and glue Pturges are the leather skirt and arm fringes which make a moveable and strong armor.

The figures with mail armor have been armed with Celtic shields and helmets. The figures with linothroax have been armed with round aspis bronze shields and helmets.

This photo shows the Carthaginian Punic Infantry reverse.

Most of the bases for the Carthaginians are done with a light brown sandy texture and straw grass. This is my idea of a North African setting, although it is likely that this area was much more lush 2400 years ago.

And if you a little bit about Hannibal and the Punic Wars, you probably know that the Carthaginians employed elephants. This photo shows two sets of the Victrix African War Elephant set (VXA029). Two elephants and 16 humans are included in each set.

In my mind these elephants are the highlights of these armies and the sets mentioned in this article. The elephant sculptures are nice, lively, and the 16 humans can represent Numidians, Carthaginians, and Republican Romans, or even Ptolemeic Egyptians, all of whom used African elephants. I have taken two of each human and glued them to a metal washer. They can be placed loosely into the castle atop the elephant's back. The other humans are the mahouts who are the drivers who sit on the elephant's neck.

My issue with this set is the cost and the value. I think they could easily have included another body half on the sprue to get three or four elephants into each set.

This shows the African War Elephants from reverse

The decals on the castles and the blankets are from Little Big Men Studies.

Notice that there are 16 humans in this photo: 4 mahouts, and 4 each of Numidians, Carthaginians, and Roman warriors. If you buy two of these Victrix sets you get 32 figures, but I have opted not to paint the second set. I hope to find a use for them for some project.

We have now covered all the figures for this article, just two more photos on how I store my 28mm miniatures.

This cardboard box is known as a book mailer box. They come in many sizes, but this one is 13" (33cm) wide by 9.5" (24cm) deep by 3.5" (9cm) high.

I have cut a hole in the top panel and glued a clear acetate sheet so that I can see what is inside. These can easily bear weight and stack to about 4 boxes high.

This box contains the combined Iberian and Numidian figures of this article.

This photo shows the opened Carthaginian storage box.

Most of my figures are stored on magnetic unit bases which attract the ferrous washers of the base of the figures. The units are placed on basswood plywood so that it is easy to move a group of units in and out of the box.

You can see the elephants with their castles are too tall for the box so they must lay down.