28mm - Spartans - Wargames Foundry and Victrix Miniatures

Figures are being completed thick and fast at the moment.  The reason for this is that I had nearly finished some units and then got side-tracked on to new shiny things.  Finally they are all coming into fruition!   These Spartans were painted in May but basing has just been completed.

I decided to add some more troops to my Greek collection.  I started off doing Thebans, then Athenians and now on to Spartans.  I tend to just do whichever ones I fancy doing and add them to their respective boxes.  My Greek project is more of a Marathon than a Sprint...which I guess is appropriate! 

The Spartans can be a little more straightforward to paint than the Athenians in that most sources seem to indicate clothing and cloaks in red and simple shield designs.  This suits me.  The Victrix Spartans do wear linen armour so I put some different colours in to represent captures from Athenians etc.

Whilst painting up the Spartan infantry I decided to paint up some 'Brigade' leader stands too.  I really enjoy using Hail Caesar rules (much modified over the last decade), so leader stands are needed. I normally neglect leader stands so the policy of doing them at the same time as the troops seemed a good way to get them done painlessly.  

The leader stands used Wargames Foundry figures.  These are really nice and it was a pleasure to just have to just de-flash them and they were basically ready for painting. This is a nice contrast to the plastic figures which seem to take ages to build and prepare.

Having said that, I don't help myself.  The one issue that I had with the Victrix Spartans is that most of them are wearing footwear of various types.  One thing that seems to appear in sources was that the Spartans had a contempt for those who wore shoes/sandals etc.  So it did irk somewhat.  I wondered if a sharp scalpel would work to scrape the shoes off and make more into feet shapes.  It actually worked really well and I was able to do this quite quickly.  Basing also covers many sins too!

The Victrix figures are very nice. I find I do have to read the instructions carefully, and practice putting things together (usually cloaks etc). I had to bend the hair a little to get the heads to fit on necks, but I am sure that is from me doing something amiss.  The finished result was pleasing.

A few more pics below to finish off.

There are lots of outside distractions going on for me at the minute which might affect output, so I am not sure what to do next and indeed when I will finish the next unit.  It has got very warm here now.  The UK is not great in the summer heat.  The air is humid, people outside are noisy and paint dries too darned fast (might need to use a wet palette). .  I am also extra tired from work.  Air con is not really a UK thing but I think it will be the way it seems to be getting hotter year on year...maybe I should paint some more desert stuff!