Ancient 1/72 Siege Weapons Scratchbuilt; Chinese siege scythe, hand mangonel, Triple ballista, Roman battering hand

 These summer days I've entertained myself with ancient wargames, and making some ancient weapons  . Still unpainted, although when painted they will not change much (some inkings to make look the wood old, as they are basically made out of wood for more realism) and changing the rubber bands to brown ones at least, as they are all really working!

From left to right;

Chinese Siege Rake; based on historical drawings, the chinese had this kind of huge "scythe" or "rake", to destroy battlements or crush people on the wall  . Slightly loosely based, out my memory after having looked many times at it. According to greek historians, a similar thing (in scythe form) was used in a siege in Anatolia.

Hand mangonel; the most basic and primitive catapult, one that was just pulled by hand  . Actually working, I can throw rocks on my unsuspecting minis  . Based on a chinese model, but the same concept would be used by Mongols, Byzantines and others.

Triple ballista; a concept invented by Chinese again, apparently to achieve a tremendous strength. I added wheels to aid in transportation  . I tried to make it work somehow using it's three "bows", but I didn't manage it so the back two are just decorative  .

Finally, a roman "battering" hand  . This one is basically my own invention. A bit inspired by Archimedes hook, which some 18th century painters depicted as a hand. I went a bit further and used an articulated hand of an action figure, as considering something that might have been invented to grip enemy ladders and siege engines  .

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Aramean soldiers 1/72 Biblical Bronze Age figures miniatures 25mm

 Here are the other soldiers I've managed to sculpt, mould and cast this summer, Arameans. Here are the pictures of the casted result, I've done them in two plastics. I plan on maybe painting the prototypes, and maybe casting in a third colour, as to represent the many Aramean kingdoms of Bronze age.

I only made 5 poses, but I modified them to give a bit more of life. I might do a few more in the future, to complement the ranks, if I find more time and more info about them.

Now I plan to maybe doing White Huns, I'll see if I have time before September when I start work again!

 

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Urartu soldiers on the works! 1/72 25mm figures

 With holidays and with more time, I've decided to go on a bold project! After painting the ottoman cavalry, roman hastati and the roman civilians, the other projects I had left were rather unattractive, so I've gone to sculpt and then cast some obscure soldiers that will hardly be made.

In this case, I've gone for Urartians  :-) . Or ancient armenians, as some might call them. Tomorrow I'll cast them with any luck!

Roman Peasants & Market 1/72 painted figurines 25mm Strelets set

Here they are, I finished them about two weeks ago, but didn't find the correct time to do the pictures!

They aren't easy to photograph, I am afraid that the pictures are a bit dark, damn it. Anyway, hope you like the set up. They really needed full sun, but I could not stand up to it, even if the weather forecasted a nice drop in the temperatures, it was about 35ºc plus and could not stand that for a good half and hour of soldier setupping!!

Anyway, these are Roman Peasants and Market life. Plus the single Strelets Senator , and a home made figure around. Houses are from a 1/87 Roman fort, there only to give a bit of ambientation.

This was the first time I tried to mix varnish with shadowings. In some I am afraid they became too dark, anyway, now I have more or less got the hang of it, one has to start somewhere . In this way, I save a step. These come about at 84 figures, quite tiring to do! this is the first set where I airbrushed most of the skin colour. However, due to not having mastered yet the airbrush, it was left at half and I finished the other half.