dimanche 30 avril 2017

New Kingdom Egypt I - archers

Hi! Not so easy to keep on painting minis and writing on the blog when you want to get outside in the spring sun after a long winter :)

Today, I, Philotep the scribe, wanted to start a series of posts related to the New Kingdom Egypt. My intention is to paint A NKE DBA army to fight against the Sea People (their army is growing, see the Sea People post), the Nubians (their army is not growing, but one day... see the first 2 Nubians here) and the Libyans (not very numerous as you can see in that post, but they will ally with the Sea People).

Back to the Egyptians. Let me introduce you the first unit, the foot archers. There were many archers in the egyptian army, and we can still see examples on the reliefs of several archeological sites.

I took these pictures in the region of Luxor a few years ago:

Ramasseum - Siege of Kadesh under Ramesses II


Medinet Habu - Fight against the Sea People under the reign of Ramesses III

Medinet Habu

I used the excellent minis by Caesar to represent the archers - great minis!

The archers in line, waiting for the invaders to come:


The first close-combat fighters arrive just in time to prevent the archers from being wiped out by the ferocious Peleset.

See you soon for the next unit: the Sherden.

dimanche 23 avril 2017

Musician of the month: Imperial Guard Bass Drummer

Back from the land of the Giants, I managed to paint the musician of the month and to take pictures this morning.
Last time (see last month's post: http://philotepsfigures.blogspot.fr/2017/03/musician-of-month-orc-drummer.html) I explained that I needed more drummers in the band, so after that orc drummer, I wanted to add a bass drummer, and I found one manufactured by Strelets.

Today's musician is a companion for my Bassoon player, since he is the Bass Drummer of the band of the Grenadiers à pied de la Garde, in campaign dress.



 
Bass Drummer and Bassoon Player

Not that original, but not that common either. I hope you like him.

samedi 22 avril 2017

A small trip in a land of giants - episode I - Jean Höfler figures

Hi! Today, something completely different, and NOT related to 1/72 figures !

Thanks to Beano Boy from Benno' s Figures Forum, I had the opportunity to discover the origin of some of the medieval toy soldiers I played with when I was a child. The toys are 1/30 minis (54 mm high, real giants compared to the 1/72 minis) from a series called "Knights and Castles", manufactured by Jean Hoeffler in the early 80s.

This is my collection:

The lot, as my brother and I painted them in the 80s - enamel colors, very strong !

Close-up on the best painted figure - not that bad, for a child's paint!

The knights on horse - same horses in the Cow-Boys and Indians series
 


The foot knights and heavy men-at-arms... yes, I loved to paint blood on the minis at this time

The lighter men-at-arms - the flag didn't survive our fierce battles ! It was a time when the bases were all green :)

The whole army.

What do you think of them ? Did you play with such soldiers ? I think there must be some others minis in this series, but I don't know them.

mercredi 19 avril 2017

Ancient Egypt Enemies III - the Sea People

The Sea People are named after the Egyptians reliefs speaking of a confederation of people who decided to invade the Nile delta during the New Kingdom Era. Most historians think that they came from the Mediterranean and / or Asia Minor areas. It is still difficult nowadays to identify the origins of the different people. The Egyptians called them Denyen, Ekwesh, Lukka, Peleset, Shekelesh, Sherden... Among the most known of them, The Peleset are usually considered as the Philistines named in the Bible, while the Sherden seem to have become mercenaries in the Egyptian army.


One of the most important sources of information related to the appearance of these various people is the funerary temple of Ramesses III in Medinet Habu (Ancient Thebes, on the west bank of Luxor). The reliefs of this temple described the battles between the Egyptian army under Ramesses III and the Sea People at the end of the New Kingdom Era at the beginning of the 12th century BC.

I had the chance to visit Luxor in 2007, and I took these pictures in Medinet Habu:
These prisoners wear the typical helmet associated with the Peleset.
 
This relief gives us some evidence of the colors used to represent
the Sea People in Egyptian art

The colors used to depict the Sea People clothes are mostly Blue (Light and Dark), Red and White, and you will find these colors on any wargamer's army. Since it is coherent with the picture above, I decided to use these colors too.

Here you are my interpretation: nothing original, but it is a nice army to paint.

Most minis by Caesar, except for the armoured chieftain by Hät.













dimanche 9 avril 2017

Ancient Egypt Enemies II - Nubia

After the Libyans (see http://philotepsfigures.blogspot.fr/2017/04/ancient-egypt-enemies-i-lybians.html), today's article is dedicated to Nubia.

During the Antiquity, Nubia was a kingdom south of Egypt, in an area corresponding to current Sudan. Ancient Egyptians called this land Ta-Seti, or Bow land - a reference to the characteristic weapon used by the Nubians. Nubia was forcibly annexed by New Kingdom Egypt, but regained its independance and became the kingdom of Kush.

As for the Libyans, it is not so obvious to depict the Nubians accurately, and the skin color is also a matter of debate.

Searching the net (again), I found these documents:

Nubians on a wall painting in Beit El Wali (Nubian temple in the region of Asswan).

Nubian prisoners, Tomb of Horemheb, Saqqara Necropolis

The Nubians seem to have varied skin colors, from brown to very dark brown - if not an artistic licence, since the light and dark skins on the relief (second picture) are regularly distributed.

Once again, I tried to be pragmatic and simple: most illustration show the Nubians as black people with a dark brown skin, I chose that option.

Here you are the result:







The same minis, but with a different daylight (picture taken earlier in the morning):

samedi 8 avril 2017

Ancient Egypt Enemies I - Libyans

Hi! Today, I will write the first of several posts dedicated to the enemies of the New Kingdom Egypt.

Ancient Libya was a land located to the west of Ancient Egypt, along the Mediterranean Sea. The name "Libya" was used by the ancient Greeks, after the name of a Berber people called the Libus who established from Tripolitania to the Nile Delta.

Ancient Libyans associated with the Sea People to attack the Egyptian Kingdom in the Nile Delta during the 13th century BC.

It is not so easy to paint ancient Libyans. If their appearance is relatively well known thanks to the Egyptian reliefs, the color of their skin is still a matter of debate between scholars (and between not scholar people too). Searching in books and on the net, I could find these (among others):


This document was drawn after a wall painting found in the tomb of Seti the 1st. The first four figures are Libyans, depicted with fair skin. Note that this is not a primary document (I couldn't find good pictures from the tomb, I would be interested if anyone has some). But I liked the pattern of the fourth Libyan's cloak, so I used it as a model.



This document is a photograph from an Egyptian relief, but we also know that the skin tones vary from one painting to another. Furthermore, the colors may not be accurate but chosen according artistic conventions. Note the paintings (or tattoos) on the arms of the man.

I chose simplicity: I supposed that ancient Libyans looked like today's Libyans, and were probably similar to their Egyptian neighbours. And when you live outside, the sun darkens your skin, so I chose to paint them with a light brown skin.

Here you are the result:



I hope you like them, whatever their skin color is :)

samedi 1 avril 2017

8th Neapolitan Line Regiment

As I already explained in another post, I sometimes paint some Napoleonic troops (but it doesn't last long :)). And I try to paint regiments that you don't see every day, so I used Hät 1812 french fusiliers to represent a Neapolitan regiment, the 8th Line, with pink facing colors.

These troops were involved in the Peninsula campaign. Poor men... No wonder the desertion rate was very high.

I took the pictures this morning, before the rain came back, it was necessary to have a sunny light to evoke the dry spanish climate.

All minis by Hät, except for the flag bearer by Accurate (flag poorly printed from an image found on the net, sadly I don't remember where, so sorry for the credit, correct me if you can).

EDIT: I just found the source of the flag, I printed it from www.warflag.com, so its author is Alan Pendlebury. Thank you Alan !