Balearic Slingers

 

Here are some Companion Miniatures Balearic slingers that I've just finished painting. I have a few other ranges of these in 28mm, the Warlord ones with cloaks based on Trajan's Column, and Crusader and Gripping Beast figures as well, but these are my favourite.

According to Diodorus Siculus (Book V Chapter 18):

Their equipment for fighting consists of three slings, and of these they keep one around the head, another around the belly, and the third in their hands. In the business of war they hurl much larger stones than do any other slingers, and with such force that the missile seems to have been shot as it were, from a catapult; consequently, in their assaults upon walled cities, they strike the defenders on the battlements and disable them, and in pitched battles they crush both shields and helmets and every kind of protective armour. And they are so accurate in their aim that in the majority of cases they never miss the target before them. The reason for this is the continual practice from childhood, in their mothers compel them, while still young boys, to use the the sling continually; for there is set up before them as a target a piece of bread fastened to a stake, and the novice is not permitted to eat until he has hit the bread whereupon he takes it from his mother with her permission and devours it.

https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/5A*.html

Below are some old Minifigs 15mm Balearic slingers that I painted probably about forty years ago!

Galatians

Galatian chariots (3 x LCh)

Galatian cavalry (2 x Cav)

Here are some 15mm Celts that I will use as a Galatian DBA army to fight my Early Seleucids. The figures are a mix of Xyston, Essex, Minifigs and Corvus Belli. Some of the shields have LBM and VVV transfers and the rest are hand painted. The stone huts and enclosure are by Blue Moon. Some of the photos I took didn't past muster, there are three warband elements missing, but you can see them in the back rank of the cropped group photo at the bottom.

The back drop photo was taken at Hattusa (modern Bogazkoy), the old Hittite capital, on our visit there in 2011. The Galatians settled in Central Anatolia in the first half of the third century BC, actually at this site. According to Jurgen Seeher in his guidebook, Hattusha Guide: A Day in the Hittite Capital (p.175.):

The site of Tavium near the village Buyuk Nefeskoy some 20km south of Bogazkoy became the seat of the Trokmer clan, who took the land around Hattusha/Bogazkoy under their control. Buyukkale once again became a fortified citadel, and a small village occupied part of what had been the Lower City. The painted pottery characteristic of the Galatians was recovered here, as well as vessels imported from the Hellenistic cities along the west coast.

Galatian warriors (6 x Wb)

Galatian archers and slingers (2 x Psiloi)

Galatian DBA army with options (16 elements)