Balaeric Slingers (Iberians)

Ok, it has been a while once again. I have slowly been painting up a few Samnites, but for now I thought I would show you the figures I am using and am going to use as Balaeric slingers. That is the famed slingers from the Balaeric Islands.

Here is a picture of the first unit.

And a picture of the second unit of them.

Notice how the figures are the same, but the feel is quite different. The ones in white with red trims are perhaps the most original, and correct, but the pictures in Ospreys books also shows them in brownish garments with brownish trims. So a unit of slingers in these would not be too far fetched. Personally I like the brownish unit most.

Here is first standard poses for each unit

I made the headbands red, before I read that they were supposed to be used as extra slings, for other ranges. Apparantley slings have different ranges, according to how long they are. It makes sense I suppose,

Here is the other standard pose for the units.

The legend goes that as children the Balaerics were given a sling and told, that from now on they would have to find their own food. It is no wonder that they were expert slingers. Notice that unlike the pose in the Orion set, these slingers, from the HäT set, have a dagger each. You never know if you are going to be involved in some hand to hand combat.

I of course, as I do mostly when I can do it, preformed some simple conversions, with these figures. Mostly headswaps, but also one where I removed a hand from a sling. So here are those four poses.

This is a rather old paintjob that I did perhaps some 10 years ago. Glad it is still holding up pretty well...

~Claus

Iberian Slingers

So what do we have here... Well the title says it all: These are Iberian Slingers. That is slingers from the Peninsula, what we today would call modern Spain (and Portugal).

The sling was a cheap and accurate weapon back in the days of the Punic wars. It was deadly too. Famed where the Balaeric slingers, used much by the Carthaginians. These however I have decided are just regular slingers, from Iberia. Here is the first unit, clad in brown.

As can be seen, they are pretty much just armed with a handweapon, and a sling. The hand weapon is something along the lines of a long broad knife or dagger. Here is the second unit, clad in the traditional white cloth with red brims.

They are the same figures, just painted up differently, and as it was at different times. One is painted some 18 months ago, the other a mere hours ago. The ones in white are the oldest, they have wear and tear, as can be seen on the figure on the extreme left. Part of the paint covering the base has flaked away.


Here is a close-up of one of the two poses, in their different painting scheme: The loading slinger.

Note how I forgot to paint the iron on the scabbard, on the white clad figure. While i remembered on the brown one. These kinds of mistakes annoy me alittle, but not much. I paint in volume not in detail, so if there is detail, and I remembered it, good. If not, I will fix it later, maybe.

Here is a close-up of the second pose, in the different painting schemes: The slinger who is swinging his sling, ready to fire.

Again, the little details are missing on the white clad one, but at least I am consistent. If these where elite slingers, like the Balaeric slingers are supposed to be, they would have extra slings, for different ranges. Such slings would usually be in the form of a headband or hanging from their belts.

So here they are, the Iberian Slingers, from Orions set of Iberian Infantry.

~Claus