I already converted GW marauders into greek hoplites using maxmini greek helmets and shields these models are bare chested so will work perfect for unarmored hoplites., I m using the island of Ithica as a base and will use the demigod of Posidon to start.

Jon

In Mary Renault's books, after Antiope is in Athens, her guard - young men, were called the Leopard guard or something like that, could also be a possiblity here. I am an old guy now and my painting and modeling skills are not what they once were, but I woudl be game to try this!

OK, so it seemed that there was great support for a customizable Hoplite for this project, so I went and put one together.

This guy is made mostly of bits & pieces from other past Hoplites, built on an old human armature that we had made up way back when for Mycenae. He's basically just a torso with legs and a shield arm - the head and weapon arm are separate pieces. Basically the same way we do the 'Front Rank Hoplites', but with a separate head.

You'll notice that there are a couple new shields in the picture too (bull and octopus) - these are the first 2 of a dozen or so shields that Todd and I made over the past year. I'll show off some more in a few days, the shields will be available in random assortments to make up mercenary units.

I'm going to try to put these together so that you get 3 head options, a couple weapon options, and a single shield (probably random).

The basic guy is done now, but it will be a while yet before he's totally ready - I still need to make another generic head and another weapon arm (maybe a sword). I'm just sneaking bits in on him between working on the rest of the Kickstarter minis (while their putty is drying...)

Here's what one looks like unassembled:

Here is one assembled:

Same body, different head, shield, and weapon.

Yeah! Now we're talking Keep on sneaking these bits in, Chris!

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"Muddy water, let stand, becomes clear." -- Lao-tzu

Those look great Chris. I really like the new shields.

Tony

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Tjaroy the Fist of Ptah Champion of Sobek(SF05), Champion of Amun(TX05), Champion of Bast (TX05), Champion of Bast(SF06) Sasobek the Devouer of the Weak, Defender of Khepri (GenCon07), Champion of Ra(GenCon07)

Outstanding! That's what I'm talkin' bout! +1 on the shields!

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Sometimes the gods bless you in the morning and curse you in the afternoon.

I am digging these so much Fitz. They are awesome.

Wow, simple yet very cool. It makes me hope that one day (a long way off I know) the Croc will venture into plastics.

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Get Lost! In the Lost Egg Blog...lostegg.blogspot.co.uk

Yes, please!

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Slayer of the Minotaur Lord of Knossos (S.D. '10), Savior of Calydon (S.D. '11)

WOW......yes..awesome been waiting forever for this. Can't wait

Love the shield,Greek Chthullo from the Myscatonic city state lol,I will be buying a unit of these

These are fantastic. I really like the trident and octopus shield.

When will they be available ?

Love the helmets! LOVE the Octopus! By Poseidon!

Osiris said:

Hektor said:
With all the major factions committed over the next, what, 18 months, I realize this may be a bit premature, but just wanted to throw it out there anyway. Obviously we have the ability to customize our phalanxes with shield variations, like the Myceneans with their three major cities or with battle honors, etc. Taking that a step further, would it be possible to make a generic hoplite set with separate heads/helmets? If there were a few helmet/crest variations available and some additional, non-faction aligned shield options (there are some really cool hoplon devices out there, or if one is really brave and has a steady hand you could free-hand paint them on a shield without any raised relief), then the possibilities for customization grow rapidly. That way people could make Achilles' Myrmidons, Ithakans under Odysseus, Ajax's troops, the Theban Sacred Band, on and on. Also opens up the story possibilities for campaigns.

As an aside, will other factions be able to take 'mercenary' phalanxes aside from the Corinthians?

Just a thought. I realize I could do this with hoplites from other manufacturers (and maybe will for the short term) but I'd much rather have said figs from the Croc if it were possible to do so.

I'd love to do a generic customizable phalanx (there will be some rules for custom factions in the book) but Tim and others are correct - I have a LOT of sculpting to do, so they may have to wait until next year sometime.

I may try to sneak in a single hoplite though, so we could have some photographed samples & examples in the rulebook -- if I do this, I'll let you guys know, as it would be great to get the WarGods community involved, with all of you guys painting/converting a single model to used for various mercenary units of other citystates. I envision a page in the book with a dozen or 2 of the same model, all converted and painted by different painters.

What say you guys?

Sign me up!

We got the last batch of masters back from our moldmaker, and they included the first batch of Mercenary parts we showed off a few weeks ago.

Here is the next wave! All built on the same body/arm/head template, so they should all have interchangeable parts.

The guy with the sun/starburst pattern I thought could be cool as a follower of Apollo. The other 2 poses show a slightly more armored version of the original model, with greaves and a studded leather skirt, and a new head featuring the Corinthian-style helmet from the Demigoddess of Athena model.

I'll be adding some more parts as more and more models get completed, and I can cannibalize bits off of them (helmets, weapons, etc.) I'll probably make some modifications to make some of these a bit more overtly fantasy as well (spikes, shoulderpads, etc.)

Hope you guys like these...

Great stuff Chris, I love this stuff When will we have a chance to get these goodies?

cheers Thomas

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Want to see painted Croc minis? Take a look at http://www.dieplatt.de or check out my Gallery at http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?action=gallery;su=user;u=2521

Just excellent. Simple, yet so effective.

Fantastic idea.

Looking great Chris. Can not wait to get them.

Tony

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Tjaroy the Fist of Ptah Champion of Sobek(SF05), Champion of Amun(TX05), Champion of Bast (TX05), Champion of Bast(SF06) Sasobek the Devouer of the Weak, Defender of Khepri (GenCon07), Champion of Ra(GenCon07)

Absolutely awesome! Definately on my "want" list.

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"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety"-Ben Franklin

powerfrog99 said:
Great stuff Chris, I love this stuff When will we have a chance to get these goodies?

cheers Thomas

Glad to see you guys like these.

They are being worked on bit by bit - the Kickstarter stuff has first priority, so these will be after the Trojans, at the earliest. I'll likely just have a 'group mold' made of them, which means we'll be able to get some quickly, but they'll only be available in assortments - large quantities of a specific part would not be available.

The idea here is to get a few into the hands of our players/painters, so we can get some cool & unique models assembled and painted by the community, in time to be included in the book. Hopefully we can pull this off and get some great images!

Sounds like a plan. Very keen to paint some up

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There is no spoon - just sporks

Sign me up. I would love too get my hands on a few to paint for the Rule book.

Tony

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Tjaroy the Fist of Ptah Champion of Sobek(SF05), Champion of Amun(TX05), Champion of Bast (TX05), Champion of Bast(SF06) Sasobek the Devouer of the Weak, Defender of Khepri (GenCon07), Champion of Ra(GenCon07)

Totally in for these too!

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"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety"-Ben Franklin

I like this idea and I will be happy if I can be of any assist to get some of these guys painted for the book.

cheers Thomas

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Want to see painted Croc minis? Take a look at http://www.dieplatt.de or check out my Gallery at http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?action=gallery;su=user;u=2521

Count me in for this too Fitz

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Miniature Painting Studio and Hobby Blog www.fanplasticlittlemen.blogspot.co.uk

I'm in!

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Slayer of the Minotaur Lord of Knossos (S.D. '10), Savior of Calydon (S.D. '11)

I'm sure that I could get a group of gamers here to take part as well...

Great to hear there is support for this, guys! I'm going to do a couple more 'generic' heads and a sword arm, and then try to get some castings of these so we can all get busy with our contributions!

Woohoo!!!

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"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety"-Ben Franklin

I will take a few dozen

Adam

OK, here are the 2 new heads I did just for these guys. All the earlier heads/helmets were pillaged from pre-existing models, but we needed a couple that looked more basic, universal - rather than all of these guys looking like refurbished Spartans and Corinthians!

These 2 helmets are variations of the historical corinthian helmet, the top is an early precursor, the bottom is a later version that the corinthian helmet eventually became.

There are new shield designs too, we now have nearly 20 different shields for these guys... bulls, birds, geometric designs, flames, ram head, gorgon, octopus, dolphin, stars... lots more I can't even remember now. Once I get them all mastered I'll put up a photo with all of them!

But this should about do it with these, we should now have plenty of parts to build a bunch of different & unique-looking citystates! It will be a few weeks before we have castings though, as they are in line behind the last of the Trojans.