Immortal plastic Hoplite painted

Foundry Greek (left) and Immortal Greek (right)

I just finished a very quick paint job on one of my Immortal miniatures plastic hoplites. They were pretty quick to paint, except the shield, which took ages due to the fact that the shield transfers only stick to a gloss surface (Airfix decals don't give this problem). On a matt finish, as they dry they just fall off. So I had to paint the shield gloss, apply the transfer, then over-paint with matt to cover some  "frosting" which got under the surface of the decal then varnish. A pain, but it looks OK.

Foundry (l) Immortal (r)

 

The interesting thing is that although the proportions (particularly the head size) are different from my Foundry figures they don't look bad together at all.

 

One thing I learnt is that I need to leave the shield with the arm off until I have painted it!

Immortal have now released a box of Spartan hoplites with pilos helmets but I have dozens of the Foundry ones which come with some great chracter figures so don't know if I want to go over to these.  I am also waiting to see what the new Victrix figures will look like.

I have some more plastics based up and ready to start.

New Immortal plastic hoplites: size comparison

L to R: Artizan/Gorgon, Immortal and Foundry

Here are some pictures of a new plastic Immortal hoplite v my normal Artizan/Gorgon and Foundry ones. He is about the same height but much slimmer as he is better proportioned. The heads, especially are much smaller. Until I assembled one I thought they wouldn't work with my existing figures at all but now that I have put one together I have decided I would definitely have no problem putting them in the same army and maybe even in the same unit. Their historical accuracy and utter gorgeousness overwhelms any (slight) reservation I had about size compatability. Quite simply the best 28mm Ancient Greeks ever made.

You can clearly see the head size difference here

A couple more Spartans...and more on the way.

No more hand painted shield designs after these!

I've been desperately trying to clear my workbench of half finished figures and these two Spartans were lurking at the back so I decided to finish them off. I enjoyed painting them so much that I have started another six to form the basis of my second classical Spartan unit.

For the first unit of knights I kept their hoplons bronze and painted motifs on the metal. For the second unit, who are slightly lower status, I will be using coloured backgrounds. For these two I had to paint the motifs but everything should be much easier now I have taken delivery of a sheet of Immortal Miniatures new waterslide shield transfers.

Brilliant idea!

Hoplons are a problem for the LBM type of transfer as the curvature can cause problems but having waterslide transfers should make this a lot easier. I hope to try some out over Easter.

I am also looking forward to seeing Immortals new plastic Hoplites, which they are intending to have ready for Salute next month (not long now!).

I suspect they will be considearbly smaller than the Aritzan/Gorgon Spartans but you never know; they have said they will be bigger than their metals. I have some of their metal Persians and they are quite slight, so we shall see. I may have to take a Saleh Spartan with me in my pocket to compare them. Almost the best thing about them are the accurately modelled spears. Currently, I use the Gripping Beast cast spears and carve a rudimentary butt spike on the end. I'd love to just buy a sprue of spears but I don't expect it will work like that!