20mm Persian Cavalry and Chariots

 After the Persian infantry come the Persian cavalry!

Like the infantry, you need lots and lots of Persian cavalry. These are all 20mm figures by HaT, Zvezda and Atlantic. They were painted in a similar way, sealed with PVA, undercoater black them misted with white to pick out the highlights. Block painted, washed with dark brown ink, then highlighted. Found a nally finished off with a coat of matt floor varnish. The varnish and PVA helps stiffen the thinner plastic parts. 

First up, four elements of light cavalry, two figures each on 40x60 bases. These are all from the HaT Persian Light Cavalry set, but I had to make up the numbers with two extra lightly armed figures from the Medium Cavalry set to get to four elements. They all have Javelins and little or no armour.

Being light cavalry, they are on the more subdued side of colours, and the horses are all various shades of brown, with the odd sock etc. Saddle cloths are predominantly blue or red, all with various degrees of decoration.

And we also have four bases of bow armed Light cavalry. It doesn't matter what light cavalry are armed with for DBA, but it matters for most other rules. Six of these figures are HaT (from the Light Cavalry box) and two are from the Zvezda cavalry set. The HaT set has six bow cavalry and six javelin cavalry, which was why I had to make the numbers up. 

Their colour palette is similar to the javelin light cavalry, but a number of the archers are moulded as Parthayan types with hair twists instead of Medean caps. I mixed the poses up fairly indiscriminately to give some variety and to ensure the archers weren't accidentally shooting their pals! (the firing figures are generally shooting sideways). 

Next up are the Heavy Cavalry. These are also a mix of Zvezda and HaT figures.

These three elements are all from the HaT Persian Medium Cavalry set. Some are wearing external armour and some are just in robes over their armour. They are armed with a range of swords, spears and axes. I mixed up the poses, but their clothing has a bit more regularity with similar coloured jackets on each element.

The command element is made up of Zvezda Clibinari and a mounted standard bearer. These are all armoured, riding armoured horses and two of them have the silly armoured trouser things and are wearing dashing cloaks.

We then have four elements of heavy, heavy cavalry. These are all in armour, riding armoured horses, wearing helmets and with armoured leg protection and are a full box of the HaT 'Persian Heavy Cavalry' set. They are noticeably crude than the Zvezda figures, but sturdy and fine for wargaming. 

As with the other heavy cavalry, the poses are mixed up but they have similar colour jackets on each element. As befits heavy cavalry, they also have a higher proportion of dark brown and black horses. These guys are in red/orange tops.

And these guys are in green or blue tops. The base colours of the horse cloths are the same in each element too, albeit with different decorations.

And finally, what Persian Army would be complete without chariots! I needed two Scythed Chariots for CnC (or one each for two DBA armies), and Darius needed a chariot too. 

The first chariot is a proper Zvezda Persian four horse chariot, a lovely model which went together very easily. I painted the whole thing after assembly, which made painting the four horses much easier, as I only did the bits which showed.

The second chariot is a dodgy conversion from the horrible old Atlantic 'Greek Cavalry' set. The plastic is apparently made out of some variety of soap, and it took a good deal of cursing, careful slicing with a modelling blade, and various type of glue, to get the added scythe blades to attach. The whole thing got two coats of PVA afterwards in a attempt to hold it together. It looks OK painted up though and has a Zvezda chariot crewman in it.

Finally we have Darius the Great, King of Kings. This is also an old Atlantic chariot, this time from the Ancient Egyptian set. It didn't take much conversion at all, I added some royal wings to the front and otherwise just painted it in regal colours. Darius is painted as his representation from Gaugamela, in  a yellow top, red trousers, purple Kandys and yellow cap. Yes, I know his hat should be upright in the kingly manner, but that was a conversion too far.