Carthaginian War Elephants

Watch out! Here come the Elephants.

 

Actually these elephants are quite small compared to the elephants we know from today. That is because they are of a species now thought to be extinct (or maybe near extinct). The North African Forest Elephant. We know that the Carthaginians used these Elephants in battle, the way that can be seen above. They were used to crash through the enemy infantry, and scare the enemy horses, who did not like their alien smell.

First I will show a two pictures of the units with the red howdah. Here they are.

These figures are pretty much like they come out of the box, from HaT. With one exception. I made a headswap for the spearman in the central elephant. He is the unit leader, or at least that is how I like to think of him. The Elephants I know are painted a little too simply, being one color, and with no hightlights, but it will do, I think.

Then there is the unit with the white howdah. 

Again these are pretty much as they come in the set, but, the central elephant has a figure from the Atlantic Gladiator set, with a headswap. I like how he fits, and I consider him the Leader of all my elephants. 

I hope you liked my elephants. Sooner or later I will assemble and paint up the Zvezda War Elephants too, and introduce those to you as well.

~Claus

Carthaginian Army, HaT

Back in those days when I was living in Roskilde I had more space, and fewer figures. So today, it would be harder to do what i did back then. I basically had a place, on top of a deep yet low bookshelf, that was simply perfect to set up an entire army. So thats what i did with my Carthaginians.

The above picture shows the entire army lined up. The army consisted of Carthaginian War Elephants, my Carthaginian Cavalry, Iberian Infantry, Carthaginian African Infantry and of course Numidian Cavalry along with Numidian Infantry. Quite a colorful army.

Today I have an entire Army composed of Carthaginians without allies, and each of the allies (Numidians and Iberians) have their own army as well! In all three cases painted. This could only be done thanks to the many manufacturers that have dared to dive into the subject. So thank you Zvezda, Orion, and HaT. Especially HaT for their groundbreaking work.

~Claus

Carthaginian Cavalry, Conversions

So I promised a few pictures of some of my figures. Well I thought I would start off with something that old, and something that really was not made by any one figure company.

So back in 2000 something, I sat down, and did some simple headswaps. These were my first conversions, ever. I took the heads of some of HaTs Carthaginian African Infantry, and gave them the bodies of some of HaTs Republican Roman Cavalry. It felt like a good idea at the time. Carthaginians often took the armor and equipment from the battlefield, so why not cavalrymen too.

The result looks like this:

and from another angle, and a little more in focus:

Back then I was not as skilled as I am now. First of all I would have adjusted the heads, so that the guy at the back to the left, did not look like a casualty. But other than that, I am pretty pleased with the result. The pictures were published on HaTs website.

Some time later, HaT made a set with Carthaginian Cavalry, making this a project that i had not needed to do. But that´s life for you...

~Claus