Assyrians
One of the most anxiously-awaited ancients armies for 1/72 is the
Assyrians. HaT's Imperial Roman Auxiliaries set gave me the
impetus to finally makeo ne for myself. They were the first great
"evil empires" (flaying and impaling their enemies, conquering or at
least sacking all their neighbors, and so on). They also make up
a colorful and varied army list, with chariots, cavalry, and infantry
of various types. I tried to make my army flexible enough to
stand in for any of the list from the Middle Assyrians (I/25) onward,
so I needed 2 HCh, 2 LCh, 2 Cav, 2 Bd, 2 Sp, 2 Hd, 4 Aux, and 3
Ps. This fudges the difference between 4Aux and 3Aux (I use 3 Aux
for all of them) and also means that in some case the LCh will have to
pretend to be HCh, and the HCh pretend to be LCh for I/25a and
I/45. I'm ok with that.
The Chariots were the centerpiece of the army, and the emperor himself
would ride in one. I used one Zvedza Persian chariot, with
the scythes removed and the crew bumped up to four for the General's
HCh. The other HCh I scratchbuilt.
Left to right the crew are a Carthagian elephant crewman, with a shield
added; the Airfix Roman charioteer, a HaT Roman Auxiliary, and an
Italieri Roman (the pose with the shield overhead.) All have had
some knife and putty work, for example carving down the Romans' crests
to look more like the Neo-Hittite crest seen on Assyrian helmets, and
beards added. The horses are HaT Cossack ponies, with barding
painted on. The Chariot wheels are from an Imex Civil War
artillery set (these have the most spare wheels and horses of any set
except the OOP Atlantic Egyptians). The cab is cardstock and the
harness is florists wire.
The Light Chariot gives a better view of the triangular bit
characteristic of Assyrian chariotry.
All the chariots had these added as well. Here the archer is
another HaT Auxiliary. The driver is an Atlantic Egyptian -- the
guy smiting someone with a mace-axe. I melted the mace-axe head
and streched it out into a whip, and gace him a bushy beard. The
cab is scratchbuilt as above. The horses are Imex Sioux horses.
Assyria is also famous as being among the first mesopotamian
civilizations to include cavalry in their army. One element is
just Zvedza Persians slightly modified to have pointed helms with no
crests, full beards, long hair, etc, mostly accomplished with
paint. The second element is more heavily converted:
Two HaT auxiliaries were spliced onto some Nexus cowboy legs and
mounted. The lancer is a HaT Carthagian command figure with his
arm rotated. My orgininal idea was have him holding the reigns of
an archer as the earliest Assyrians might do. The horses are HaT
Romans horses.
The infantry comes mostly from HaT Carthage Africans and the
Auxiliaries. For the Auxilia, I used Lybian light infantry with
new shields and clothes painted to imitate Assyrian short-sleeved
tunics, pants, and boots.
The Psiloi are again Roman auxiliaries:
The Hordes were made of a front rank of four Auxilia and three Psiloi.
The Heavy infantry is either Blades or later on the Spearmen with body
shields. These are HaT Punic infantry, with beards and clothes
painted appropriately, and card shields replacing the round ones on the
Spearmen.
Blades:
Spearmen
As you can see the plumes were trimmed so only the front bit is
present. This gives them the look of Neo-Hittites again.
If/when real Assyrians are made, I'll call this a Urartian army (I/39).