Neo-Elamite Kallapani

 

Happy New Year for 2026!

Here is a four mule Neo-Elamite Kallapani cart that I've just finished painting. There's a comparison shot with a two mule cart I painted earlier. The figures are all Eureka Miniatures.These carts were mobile shooting platforms with a crew of a driver and kneeling, massed archers who could dismount as archers on foot. They were drawn by two or four mules or small horses. I wanted some with four mules for variety so bought some extra Eureka mules and added bridle and harness by gluing strips of paper on with PVA. Each cart will have a unit of foot archers to deploy as dismounted troops.

Neo-Elamite Horse Archers and Infantry

 

Here are some Neo-Elamite horse archers and infantry that I've just finished painting. The figures are by Steve Barber Models with a single Eureka Miniatures horse archer. The infantry are mixed with front rank spearmen and rear rank archers. I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and happy gaming, painting and blogging for 2026!

Neo-Elamite Infantry

 

Here are some Neo-Elamite infantry that I've just finished painting. The archers above are a mix of Eureka Miniatures and Warlord Games with three spare Foundry and Newline Chaldean and Neo-Babylonian archers in the back rank to make up the numbers. The mixed spearmen and archers below are all Eureka Miniatures.

More Bronze Age Civilians

 

Here are some more Bronze Age Greek civilians that I've just finished painting. They're lovely figures by Eureka Miniatures. The set above is called Labourers and Artisans and the one below Goat Herders.

Bronze Age Greek Civilians - Mule Train

 

Here are some Bronze Age Greek civilians in a mule train. Figures are all by Eureka Miniatures from their Bronze Age Greeks range. These are really handy figures for baggage and camps. They can obviously be used well in to the Iron Age as well. There is a comparison shot at the bottom with the Castaway Arts baggage mules.

Sumerian Archers

 

Here are two units of Sumerian Archers I've just finished painting. These are mainly Warlord/Cutting Edge figures from their Early Household Archers pack but two Eureka figures have snuck among them. I have another batch of twenty four of these based and primed to bring my archer contingent up to strength for my Sumerian armies.

Today in the mail I got my order of the Gangs of Rome Two rules and accessory set, see photo below. The rules are a beautifully illustrated, 192 page hardback book. Look forward to revisiting these rules, painting the plastic gangs and mobs and assembling the Sarissa villa. Tomorrow night we have our first game of Border Wars, the Flags of War Border Reiver skirmish game, lined up so it will be interesting to see how that goes.

Minoan Bull-Leapers

 

Here is a set of Minoan Bull-Leapers that I've just painted. The figures are by Eureka Miniatures who have just released some great civilian additions to their Bronze Age Greeks range, which are very handy for camps, not just in the Bronze Age but much later as well. Below is the Fresco of the Bull-Leapers in the Herakleion Archaeological in Crete on which it was based. The fresco was originally in the eastern wing of the Palace at Knossos. The photo below that is of bronze spearheads and a boar tusk helmet in the Herakleion Archaeological Museum. In 2009 we went to Crete and visited a number of Minoan Palace sites, including Knossos, Phaistos and Agia Triada, as well as the Herakleion Archaeological Museum, all incredible!

Warring States Chinese - Han Chariot and Qin Horse Archers

 

Here's a Han chariot and some Qin horse archers that I've just finished painting. The chariot is by Casting Room Miniatures and the horse archers are by John Jenkins Designs sold by Eureka Miniatures. This is the start of my Warring States Chinese Qin and Han armies, mainly I'll be using the brilliant John Jenkins Designs figures but have some of the Casting Room Miniatures Han range as well. An exhibition from China, The First Emperor at the NSW Art Gallery in Sydney in 2010, got me interested initially in this period and when Eureka Miniatures in 2021 released the John Jenkins Designs range based on the Terracotta Army I couldn't resist.

Neo-Elamite Cavalry

 

Here are some Neo-Elamite cavalry that I've just finished painting. The figures are all Eureka Miniatures. I had a bit of a disaster varnishing these and accidentally sprayed them with white primer instead of matt varnish. Very annoying, luckily it was only a slight light coating on half of them on one side and I was able to repaint that side. This is something I've actually managed to do before, the obvious lesson is check before you spray!

Neo-Elamites

 

Happy New Year to everyone for 2024!

Here are some Neo-Elamites that I've just finished painting. They were both allies and enemies of the Neo-Assyrians and Neo-Babylonians at various stages. The figures are all Eureka Miniatures. The only other 28mm Neo-Elamite ranges that I'm aware of are the Warlord archers which I have and the Steve Barber Models range as well, which are very nice but no Kallapani (the mule drawn carts with archers) as yet. Eventually I hope to refight the Battle of Til-Tuba or River Ulai which was fought against the Neo-Assyrian forces of Ashurbanipal in c. 653 BCE. There is a very interesting short British Museum YouTube video discussing the six panels of reliefs depicting this battle from Ashurbanipal's palace in Nineveh:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpe7fevbReA

Just before Christmas I went on a short mountain biking trip to Beechworth with Peter and Hans using our e-mtbs. We did the Epic Indigo loop between Beechworth and Yackandandah (lots of climbing in the second half) and the Diggers' Loop the following morning before driving back. Here are a few photos.

Starting out

A rest before the final climb

Wallaby Mine equipment

A koala resting up! The base of the sapling is
visible in the previous photo. 

Neo-Assyrian Sab Sharri

 

Here's two mixed spearmen and bowmen units of Neo-Assyrian Sab Sharri from the archives. They're also a mix of ranges with mostly Foundry command in the front rank, a Hinchliffe officer and spearmen and Eureka bowmen in the rear ranks. 

One of my most useful reference books for this period and earlier is the WRG book by Nigel Stillman and Nigel Tallis, Armies of the Ancient Near East 3,000 BC to 539BC, which is unfortunately out of print. I read on the Society of Ancients forum recently that this will be back in print soon, perhaps with an updated bibliography like Duncan Head's classic Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars 359 BC to 146 BC. Good news for all the biblical fans out there!