Saga: 28mm Iberians

This is a painted 28mm Iberian army I have for sale. I painted it severla years but have never had the chance to use it. The miniatures are a mix of Victrix and Crusader. There are 46 foot & 21 mounted.  I am asking for $525. I will have it at Historicon July 15-19. I have temporarily set comments to moderation if you want to contact me.

I used a limited color palette for the Iberians.  I have a 15mm Ancient Spanish army that I painted many years ago (also posted on this blog), and after looking at them and consulting my copy of Duncan Head's Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars (an invaluable resource), I had the basic scheme: tunics in various shades of off-white with red borders and a few blue borders.  Some tribes wore black, so I would use that to add in some variety.  I used a slightly darker skintone than I use for my Viking Age armies, reasoning that these troops would spend much of their time outside in the Mediterranean sun.  

Note that a unit of 8 slingers has been added to this army since I first painted it although they are not in the photos.

The first group I painted was a unit of 12 caetrati, skirmishers armed with javelins and the small caetra shield. Four of them are Crusader miniatures with Victrix shields substituted so I could use the LBMS transfers I had: in the first group the only one with a sword; in the second group the one pointing ahead, the standardbearer and the hornblower.

There are three units of 8 scutarii armed with a mixture of spears and swords (warriors in Saga).  Two of the units have the same range of off-white tunic colors so I differentiated them by painting their helmet crests either black or red.  The group with black crests has 2 miniatures from the Crusader Lusitanian Command pack: the hornblower and the officer near the center with a sword and 3 plumes.  The third unit of scutarii has black tunics and represent an allied tribe.

I have two units of 8 cavalry armed with spears and swords (mounted warriors in Saga).  To tie them into the army I used the same color scheme as the foot, with one unit in off-white tunics and one unit in black tunics as warriors from an allied tribe.  I don't normally use mounted warriors in Saga so these will be something different for me.

I wanted to have some tougher cavalry for a strike force, so painted a unit of 4 as nobles (mounted hearthguards in Saga).  They are distinct from the rest of the cavalry with red tunics, white or gray cloaks with a red border and larger shields.

I spent a lot of time thinking about what to use for the warlord.  When initially looking at options for buying the army I didn't see any miniatures that fit what I wanted for a warlord, so I decided to wait until later.  It turned out that I had enough foot to spare two for a warlord base.  Looking at the Crusader command miniatures I already had, I chose one of the leaders and the standardbearer from the Lusitanian command pack.  They both had scale or mail armor and greaves, while the leader had a cloak and the only beard in the entire army.  I gave him a red tunic and a white cloak with a purple border, using some of the same colors as the rest of the army but with some added color.

For a mounted warlord I had fewer options.  I only had the Victrix cavalry, but there were only three different bodies so I decided to attempt a conversion (one of my least favorite things to do).  I cut off the torso of a plastic foot command pose and cut one of the riders in half.  I glued the two parts together and was able to conceal the join.  None of the cavalry heads looked distinctive enough to me, plus I had used at least one of each of them for the other cavalry.  I ended up taking a head from the Macedonian phalangite set with side crests, removing the central Thracian peak from the helmet, and gluing on a central crest from the Iberian set.  Painting him in a mix of red and purple tones also makes him stand out from the rest of the army.  My general must have gotten his elaborate helmet as a gift from a Carthaginian envoy seeking an alliance.

The entire army drawn up for battle:  Caetrati in a screen out front with scutarii behind, cavalry to each flank and the noble cavalry in reserve.  Again, note that a unit of 8 slingers has been added to this army since I first painted it although they are not in the photos.