Zvezda Set 8005 V-IV Century Greek Infantry

It's about time. This was the Set that I wanted to post last time. I thought that this post would end up in March. I'm glad that I was wrong. I had a lot of fun painting this set. Although my Infantry colors do not match the Shields of the soldiers, I still think they came out great. This set is made by Zvezda. The only problem that I had with this set is the fact that each Greek City was molded in the same pose. Greece was separated by different cities back in the V and IV Century. Before and after that period as well. Each City had it's own symbol or Picture representing that city on their shield. This left me with options. Do I paint each city in it's own pose? Or do I disregard the Shields and paint four different cities? Well, because I wanted a larger amount of soldiers per city, I decided to paint four cities. After they were all painted I was pleased in the choice that I made. I will explain were I got the inspiration for each city group as the post continues. As for now, this is what the set looks like before it is painted.

As you can see in this picture. I was stuck with one leader and musician. This meant that I had to dedicated them to only one city group. I think I did well when it came down to segregating the units. Let the pictures begin.

This is the first group that I painted. This group was not painted to represent a city. I actually decided to paint this group after Achilles and his mercenary group in the movie Troy. What a great movie it was!!! I like the way these turned out with gold on black. On to the next Group.

This City group is cool as well. I painted these to represent more common Greek cities. As far as I know, (most likely due to the fact that the majority of the figures on the back of box set are painted like this) This is what the majority of the Greek soldiers wore when it came to colors. So there really is not a city for this group but rather a reflection of common military. On to the next one.

I painted this group after another movie. I can not remember the name of the movie. I thought it had Arnold Schwarzenegger in it. I guess not because I just searched IMDb's web site for his movies and it was not there. When I find out , I will post it. I was watching the movie while I was painting another set. I thought it would be cool to paint this set like the soldiers in the movie. They had light blue uniforms like this. If anyone know what movie I'm talking about please let me know.

This  is the group that I decided to use the leader and the musician with. These guy's are painted after the Spartans. These guy's were famous for there military strength and brutality. This group was by far my favorite one to paint. Yes I got the inspiration from the movie 300. Looks like all four cities were painted after movies. Probable not the best idea. Here are some single shots to finish the post off.

Well that wraps up this post. Please leave comment if you have them. Next post will be in the same Era!!! Until then.

Lucky Toys King Porus's Army

Well let's start off by saying that this is not set I had in mind for this months post. I just happened to finish re basing this set before the set I wanted to post this month. That's OK. We will just have to wait another month. I wish I could post a new set every week!!! I have a 19 month old son and a 4 month old daughter. Those with kids can understand that I do not have all the time in the world. I'm lucky if I get a total of 3-4 hours a week when it comes to my miniatures. I'm sure I have more then 4 hours of free time a week but I'm not going to spend it all on miniatures. After all I like to pretend that I have a life still. Let's get on with this set shall we.

This set is made by a company with the name of Lucky Toys. I'm so not happy with the quality of these miniatures. For more then one reason. The plastic used for the casting of these miniatures is soft. This does mot work well for me as I paint with enamel paint. I do not use Primer but I do spray all my miniatures with Flat White testors spray paint. This seems to work well for me as long as the miniatures are hard plastic. When I painted these miniatures only half a sprue(the part the miniatures are on from the box). came out dry and ready to paint. The other half on the sprue it was like the plastic was melting. The paint would not dry on them it would just stay wet and sticky. So I decided to paint what I could out of this set since I paid for them anyways. I was not to happy with the detail on the molds but I had to do the best I could. They are a little smaller then 1/72 scale although they are advertised as 1/72 scale. The reason I bought this set in the first place was because of the elephant. I had spent some time painting soldiers and this set offered an Elephant three horses and a chariot. I thought it would be fun painting something a little different. It was fun but frustrating. Perhaps because of the quality. One thing that will remain is that I will not buy from Lucky Toy's again.

This is what the set looks like before I painted them. You can see what I had to throw away as well.

Basically all the Infantry units had to go. I do think that the Elephant came out pretty good for a first time. I guess I could look at this set as set that I could practice with. These were painted before my Americans but after my British. Well enjoy.

Like I said I'm totally not happy with the paint job and this set in whole. I took the time to paint it so I will take the time to post it. Stay tuned for the next post. Same Era different Army.



Accurate 1776 American Militia

So here it is. The next set completely finished. After painting the 1776 British infantry I needed to have the American side.This set was cool because it had a wide selection of uniform and out outfits to paint. Half the set (25) units came wearing the normal blue uniform that we all know. The other half (25) came wearing different  clothes of the time period. I was able to paint all (25) of these ones different so that not one was alike. In stead of putting all 50 units on one placement tray like I did to the the 1776 British Infantry, I decided to split the trays so that I could segregate the differences. All and all I have 50 units per American and British. I think in the future I will make a chess like game where I can fight off these painted soldiers of 1776. This is what the set looked like before I painted them.

Like I said in the last post. The number of poses are reflected by the number in brackets under each unit. I think that my favorite two units in this set would be the captain and the unit with the two pistols. The unit with the two pistols shows the beginning of the stereotypical American. (Guns blazing). Now that you have seen what they look like before they are painted, I will show you the finished product.

 So this is what they look like after they have been painted. I think that they look sweet!!!! Please post your comments and follow the blog at www.pjrminiaturewars.blogspot.com. Thanks for taking the time to read this post. Stay tuned for next time where I step into a different era.