Bactrian Greek Project (part 3) - Some Cavalry Figures

 My first attempt at an Iranian lancer for the Bactrian hordes is this chap.

Here I have simply added a bearded head from the Victrix hoplite set to a Persian horseman with the arms chosen as firing a bow. I added a Greek sword from the Victrix box to his baldric and made a shoulder loop so that he could be carrying a lance (kontos) as well as his bow. Although I was quite pleased with the results of my mediocre putty skills in making the loop I was not so sure about the aesthetics of a complete unit so equipped.

Luckily I remembered that somewhere in the spares box* was a pack of combined bow and spear cases that resembled the Duncan Head AMPW illustration. I would keep the one chap with his shoulder loop but the rest would either be toting their long lance or have to rely on the cased version.

(* by "spares box" I really mean one of two dozen possible places in a variety of boxes...)

Although reasonably happy with this start I was slightly concerned that these horsemen were going to look a bit light, rather than charging battlefield cavalry (who also carry bows.) I therefore decided on the next figure to try to add some body armour. My putty pushing skills not being up to the task of adding the appropriate muscle cuirass to the body of the cavalryman, I decided to have a go at adding scale armour.

In fact I was going to cheat. Rather than cover the cavalryman's body with scales I added a row of scales below his hips and then, above them, the edge of a covering overtunic. A few scales at his throat and the job was done. I had a vague recollection of a reference of  Persians wearing layers of tunics and that was justification enough to save me a lot of work!

The arms chosen for this rider had a Greek style kopis sword and originally shield straps, that needed shaving off to leave a hand heaving on the reins. To improve this image I adjusted the angle of the back legs of the horse model to a rearing position. I did this by the good old method of applying boiling water to the area of the model that wants adjusting and then cold water after (in this case) the angle of the rear leg had been adjusted.

Next up a lancer with his bow in his left hand; maybe swapping from one weapon to the other. For this figure I thought I would try using the armoured thorax from one of the hoplite sprues to supply the heavier look I required. Although the Victrix box does contain a proportion of hoplites with muscle cuirasses, these do not look suitable for wear on horseback ( the lower abdomen protection would cause it to be impossible to sit down.) So I went with one of the linothorax bodies. Not an armour type in my two reference books for Graeco-Bactrian cavalry but Persian cavalry wear a similar looking corselet on the Alexander mosaic so that is close enough for me.

The hoplite body was "adjusted" with the help of a razor saw (through plastic like butter - a delight!) The new body fitted rather well with the Persian legs, with just a tiny bit of sanding and filling required. A wire lance and Greek cavalry sword completed this chap.

The next cavalryman was a straightforward command figure blowing a trumpet (bugle?) I kept this one simple: Persian body and legs, Greek head and arms. However  next I spotted that the horse earmarked for him had been oil-painted with a rather prominent seam showing on the horse's rump. Doom! I decided I didn't have the patience to repair the paintjob so went for a coverup by modelling a cloak on the bugler draping it across the horse's rump too, hiding the errant seam.

Another way to accentuate the cavalry being "heavy" was to add a piece of  head armour to the horse (a chamfron?) I had a crack at this on a couple  - see the first photo above. Again this is not directly attributed to surviving evidence but similar items were used by neighbouring areas in this period. Next the other half of the unit.