Upgrading my Ancient Greeks

Well not a good start to the new blogger - couldn't find how to add pictures. So here are my first units of upgraded Ancient Greeks


The changes are new bases, shield decals replaced and half the psiloi had their phyrgian caps sanded down so they were bare headed.


For comparison here are old and new. You can see why I need to change.

Airfield buildings

I have had these a while, I picked them up on ebay to use for the planned Crisis point game, but when that was cancelled due to lockdown I put them to one side.


After assembly I felt disappointed by the appearance especially the Nissan huts and almost gave up, but I persevered

The Nissan huts were a basic frame that looked nothing like the originals and the side windows are appalling so I gave up using them, To give the correct appearance I clad them in corrugated card recycled from wine boxes, thanks to Steve A for that tip.

The Control tower is the best but I had to make all the levels accessible and added the railings around the viewing platform


The hanger is a very monolithic structure, I think a double roof would have looked far better and the entrance is not wide enough to get any 1/72 aircraft inside


One of the original pictures from ebay, I still have the "radar" but I won't be using it.

Wurttemberg Artillery

Some Napoleonics for a change and some recently purchased items. These are the HaT Wurttemberg Artillery with their Austrian Cavalry Artillery Limbers


A nice bit of colour to add to the table, horse artillery on the right and foot to the left


The guns do not have any "yellow" fittings as are often mentioned as I could not find a single example of it in my copy of Faber du Faur, and I have given the foot gunners grey overalls to match his depiction, except for the NCO who wears blue.

Details of the Wurrtemberg Artillery can be found in the Smoothbore Ordnance Journal (link)

Muscovite town cossacks

Some poor quality infantry to add to my Muscovite army. These were raised to defend towns, but occasionally used in battle ideally behind field fortifications or Gulyay-gorod.



Figures are Redbox Ukrainian Cossacks with a few Strelets bonus figures to make up the numbers.


To finish my painted 20mm collection has now passed 31,000 figures

Crusader skirmishers

These represent the range of local skirmishers available to the Crusader states. They were drawn from groups such as Armenians, Druze, Maronites, etc. armed with javelins, bows or slings.


Figures are from the HaT Almoravid Infantry and obviously they could also be used for Southern Spain and Sicily.

On the workbench - July 2020

With the Covid lockdown, life has lost any pattern and as I'm still "shielding" I can't see myself getting out until the end of the month at the earliest. So I'll be working on

• Five 8 figure units of Crusades era light infantry - they'll be fairly generic so they will work for either side
• Three 20 figure units of Renaissance Russian Town Cossacks
• Dutch brigs and frigates for Black Seas
• Napoleonic Wurttemberg artillery - four guns with crews and three limbers
• Then maybe some terrain

Oh and please leave some beer for me in the pubs by the time I'm allowed out properly

2020Q2 Progress against plan

Half the year gone already and it has been very odd with the lockdown. Overall painting progress has been good with 1,053 items completed which broken down by period gives:
Ancient 496
WW1 241
Medieval 190
Renaissance 80
WW2 28
Napoleonic 19
Modern 19
Terrain 7

Looking at the plan in detail

• An Achaemenid Persian army, I've about 200 items already purchased -Bought the extras needed and now completed.
• Cruel Seas - British/German/US flotillas of 6 boats each, plus some merchant ships- not started yet
• Black Seas - a small Dutch fleet (something a bit different from the norm)- not started yet
• Medieval – More WOTR longbow/bill units, mounted archers, cavalry, Scottish cavalry and extra Crusader foot- completed the WOTR bill/bow units and extra bits for Tannenberg including the Scottish cavalry pretending to be Lithuanians
• Renaissance – Russian Stoldatski, etc. using up the Strelets bonus figures plus Galleys- Now completed the Soldatski but still need to work on the Galleys and some Town Cossacks
• WW2 – bits and pieces (I'll try to avoid buying more)- Added some sdkfz 8 and a Panzerbefehlswagen IV
• SYW – More (French?) Cavalry, British guns- not started yet
• WW1 – increase/rebase Germans for 1917 and add some French - Completed
• 28mm – “skirmishing” WSS figures to provide more opposition for my pirates and Spanish- not started yet
• Terrain – more buildings, fences, balkas/wadis, vines, etc.- Only some railway track completed so far
• Organise the forces for the Lance and Longbow games at York, which will be Tannenberg 1410 and possibly Montgisard 1177 at Recon- successfully ran Tannenberg and we had agreed to run it at Phalanx in June, but this never took place not at all sure when I'll next get to a show
• New addition - I have decided to rebase my Ancient Greeks to match the Persians, so they can either provide mercenary units for them or fight against them.

4 years apart - sdkfz 8

Two versions of the same vehicle entering France in 1940 then leaving in 1944. It is a very cheap 4D model of an sdkfz 7 that I bought from Hong Kong/China, which took months to arrive because of the lockdown. It is over scale as 1/72 but matches the 12t sdkfz 8 in 1/76

Entering France


The are no decals, stowage or crew provided with the model, so I raided by bits box to provide them.


Leaving in 1944