My 1/72nd collection.

How many have I? * Good question. Audit time!

First medievals in thier boxes

From top left;
Normans. 139 foot, 51 mounted
Vikings 118 foot, 14 mounted and also in the box, 21 turcopoles
Seige/artillery. 113 foot, 1 mounted, 21 guns, 2 rams, 5 seige mantlets, 2 catapults
Transport. 40 foot. 12 wagons, 15 packmules and 3 limbers
100 yrs War French. 75 foot, 46 mounted
100 yrs war english. 108 foot, 25 mounted
Hussites/Clubmen/Revolting peasants. 170 foot, 8 mounted, 5 wagons and 2 guns
Civilians. 142 foot, 4 mounted. Another 130 foot are unbased in the boxes. 7 market stands
Crusaders. 51 foot, 43 mounted plus general medieval soldiery, 53 foot and 2 mounted.
Saxons. 94 foot and 11 mounted.
Total so far.
1233 foot, 236 mounted, 23 guns,  17 wagons.
Display cases

Total in both.
Medievals. 113 mounted and 322 foot, 4 guns and 2 carts
Ancients. Romans - 16 mounted and 19 foot. 2 carpentum and a onager. Greeks 149 foot and 1 ballista. 5 mitanians and chariot. Britons - 2 chariots
Napoleonic. 79 foot, 3 guns and 2 limbers
Modern. 16 foot and 2 APU´s.
Bodstonia - 3 foot, 1 mounted, 1 gun with limber and ammo cart.
Fantasy. A dragon, a troll,
Odds and ends . 16 renaissance peasants, 13 guards band, 12 daleks,
Oh..and 5 ships on top

Second display case

Medievals 67 foot, 2 guns, 12 catapults, 1 seige tower,
Modern . 15 foot. WWI Planes 16, 4 Tanks
Bodstonia. 15 pirates and 11 Bodstonians, 5 boats
ACW. 1 Observation balloon
Khandibar - 1 boat
Fantasy - 4 Balrogs

Next lot, ACW and a box of odds and ends

ACW - 376 foot, 66 mounted, 8 guns, 6 limbers and 2 wagons
Odd Bods - 161 foot, 6 mounted and 2 chariots

Also, I knew I had to have more medievals somewhere and I´d totally forgotton this lot!!
The Bannockburn bods and WotR´s cavalry.(Box top left)

Another 307 foot and 129 mounted
Imagi-Nations
Bodstonians and Khandibah

Bodstonians - 23 mounted, 269 foot, 11 wagons and 6 guns
Khandibah -   46 mounted, 147 foot, 4 guns and 1 wagon
69 mounted, 416 foot, 10 guns and 12 wagons

Fantasy

78 mounted, 452 foot, 11 Trolls, 2 catapults and one cannon
Ancients
Romans, Gauls, Celts, Egyptians, Greeks, Carthaginians etc.

99 mounted, 1712 foot, 10 elephants, 11 Chariots, 4 scorpians


Total
Medievals/Dark Ages - 478 mounted, 1829 foot, 27 guns, 14 wagons. 14 catapults, 3 limbers, 1 seige tower, 4 ships
Ancients - 115 mounted, 1901 foot, 15 chariots, 10 elephants, 4 scorpians, 1 catapult
Napoleonic - 79 foot, 3 guns and 2 limbers
ACW. - 376 foot, 66 mounted, 8 guns, 6 limbers, 2 wagons and 2 balloons plus ground crew
Fantasy - 78 mounted, 452 foot, 4 balrogs, 1 dragon, 12 trolls, 3 catapults and 1 cannon
Bodstonia. - 24 mounted, 310 foot, 7 guns and 1 limber
Khandibar - 46 mounted, 147 foot, 4 guns, 1 wagon and 1 boat
Odd Bods - 173 foot, 6 mounted and 1 ship


Absolute total---if my summing up is any good..😋
4991 foot, 882 mounted, 50 guns, 12 limbers,  17 catapults, 28 wagons/Carts, 15 chariots,10 elephants

Making this post took a while with all the counting so more have been added since. ...and I´m missing some, Celtic cavalry for instance.

Roman Villa MK2

Roman Villa MK2.
The design and size  is based on my previous  Upper class roman house (built over 3 years ago..how time flys!!)
This one is for a collector who wanted one with a removable Roof and internal deco.
Walls - Scratchbuilt
Roof - lasercut
Mosiacs/Murals/paving - prints

Without roof

Kitchen

Bedroom

view from the garden / backyard

Along with the  Villa,  a set of Beehives with stands.
Beehives - resin
Stands - scratchbuilt

Ancient Roman Harvester (Vallus)

In Roman times a harvester, called the Gallic Vallus,  was developed
Described by the historian Pliny the Elder in 77 AD.   According to Pliny,
"on the vast estates in the provinces of Gaul very large frames fitted with teeth at the edge and carried on two wheels are driven through the corn by a donkey pushing from behind; the ears torn off fall into the frame."
There is another Version with an Ox pushing a similar looking device, and both types appear to have had either teeth or long prongs at the front to rip the corn heads off.

The conductor should be at the back of the frame and acts as a  counterweight and to guide the harvester to the right, to the left, up, down. A conpulsor works at the front,  pressing the ears of corn forward until they get stuck and ripped off  in the teeth of the  "comb".  

The Vallus is built from CD casing, the wheels are from the Airfix Waterloo French Artillery set.



 

The rake is scratchbuilt and the bod is from Linear-b´s Spartacus Uprising Defeat set.

 

A relief from Trier showing a gallic harvester. . How effective was it compared to a scythe? Tests with reconstructions Show that they do actually work and can clear a field faster than with  scythes with as much or as little wastage.

 

The Parthenon (Italeri)

Scale 1:250. Not for me, it goes back to it´s owner..I just painted it and put it together. Colour scheme not as per the box art.

Right side view. The Picture give the Impression that the top triangle (Pediment) is tipped back towards the Roof and the front row of pillars tip slightly away from the building. It´s an optical Illusion caused by the tilt of the front lintel (it gets smaller towards the top)

Left side view..or is it the right side turned at a different angle..TBH, I can´t remember, both sides/Ends are exactly the same.

Katsikis is Feeling a bit ashamed realising it should have been put on a 30° wash and not a 60° one


The build.
Two bags of sprues, 4 in each which are the same, one small sprue with 3 tiny bods and a statue of Athena Parthenos (the real statue of Athena Parthenos holds the shield a bit differently to the model), base and instruction booklet.

 

The bla-bla on the kit says  "Easy assembled model kit with an interlocking technique" and amazingly, to a large extent,  it actually does what it says on the tin. Quite  a lot of the larger parts click together without needing glueing. For example...
Columns, columns!!
The pic on the right is with half the lintel  attached to the Columns. The second half of the lintel (to attach the next layer of columns) needed glueing.

Work on the baseplate.
Observation number 1.
The Definition lines for the tiles...very shallow and getting any shading is a real pain. Note the steps are molded as one continious Piece.

Observation number two.
The baseplate has little Tabs/pegs on the underside to stop it sagging but where the columns are to go.. there´s none. This means that when pushing in the colums (you Need a bit of force to get them to sit properly) the plate bent and nearly cracked. This was only solved by putting a pile of metal discs under the plate to Support it whilst adding the columns.
Extra Posts under the baseplate would have meant adding a minimal amount of plastic, especially taking into consideration the amount of plastic from the sprues that gets binned.

Observation number 3
The columns don´t line up when added to the base!
Why didn´t they add a lintel Piece that covered all ten columns ?
Way around it..I heat welded the pair of lintels on the right.

The walls..and Observation number 4
The brickwork is ok (better Definition than the flooring ) but there´s scored  rectangular Areas on both sides of each wall section. Removing them is optional to allow a look inside the inner temple. Unfortunately these are deeply scored (to aid with removal if wished)  which leaves ugly rectangular shapes in the middle of each wall. They could have done the scoring on one side only so the outer facing walling wouldn´t have the marks.

Pillars. Observation number 5. Painting the red ring around each one was a real pain.  The area which is supposed to be red isn´t clearly defined...some pillars have a sort of collar molded on but not all the way around, some pillars don´t have the collar at all or it´s very poorly defined.

 

Test attachment of the columns. At this Point it became clear, even without attaching the cieling, that the inner chamber would be virtually invisible (note; I haven´t painted the backs of walls with the doors  in anticipation of this)

As  a Test, I laid a book over the inner chamber and the only way any Detail could be seen , and I couldn´t see a lot, was by using a torch!

The Roof.
The real clanger of the kit. Up until now the minor build Problems  can be  overlooked, most of them can´t be seen in the closed wall Version..and ...it´s not meant to be an historical replica..?

This is what the roofing should look like...the pic on the left an archeological reconstruction, the pic on the right a drawing of Doric Roof construction.

But what does the kit Version look like?

Planks...?? Every Image I´ve found of  scale models, drawings, paintings  of the parthenon Show  clear vertical lines created by the method of tiling.
Not only does it appear as if the Roof is made from  a set of Long red Planks but the roofing plates, no matter how I tried,  wouldn´t fit together. I pressed them together but seeing as they are fixed into holes they sprang apart. After using a large rubber band wound around the Pediments to press the Ends inwards, which failed,  I gave up and let it dry as it was.  The pic is a Close a gap as I could get. I filled the gap.


Conclusion.
It´s not that difficult to build and the end result is ok, you end up with a model 29cms Long, 15cm´s wide and 11cm´s tall.  If you don´t Count the historical mistakes,  the "Planks" to represent the roofing and missing sculpting on the plinths that hold the Roof, the Pediments are based on reconstructions of the west Pediment so both Ends end up being exactly the same,  it´s  a nice model.

The instructions are easy enough to follow, even if they are printed in a size that means using a magnifying glass to check some Details..they could have put the  instructions on a  A4 size booklet..it would have fitted in the box.
The part numbers on the sprues aren´t clearly defined, but the build is quite self explanatory and it´s not necessary to refer to them. A trick with painting over the numbers with  matt black, letting it dry and gently rubbing the paint off with a fingertip  to expose the numbers helped, but as I´ve noted, they aren´t  really necessary.

Also, the painting instructions leave a lot to be desired..they are Basic and due to the small size of the instruction booklet,   very small Pictures which  leave out some of the Details,  No suggestions for the colour of the cieling for example.

The snap together idea holds true to a degree but I recommend pre-fitting  any parts,  in some cases the pegs on the bottom of the columns needed filing down before they fitted into the holes on the base plate. 

Basically, as a Terrain Piece it´s ok but I suggest glueing the doors into a closed Position and not to bother with painting or building up the inside of the temple..the internals aren´t that visible to be of any interest. By having the doors closed,  you wouldn´t even have to add the pillars etc, they serve no practical function in Holding the Roof up.
It´s too small for a representation of the Parthenon for HO/OO let alone 1/72nd but will past muster (even if the bods would have to squeeze through the Columns to gain Access)  a generic smaller temple. That or it could be ok alongside  15mm bods.

 

Roman Transport - 4 (Strelets)

Another Addition to the ancients range and some new recruits for the town of  Scalpere Aedificere.
13 Bods,  two Litters,  Two mules, Two Oxen and a parrot.
The 10 Standing bods.....

...and the 3 sitting ones...and Polly the  parrot.

  

They had a couple of species of parrots/Parakeets kept as pets in ancient Rome. My Version is a Ringnecked Parrakeet from India.

A parrakeet Mosiac (from Pergamon  ca 200BC) of an Alexandrine parakeet or Alexandrian parrot (scientific name Psittacula eupatria, ) named after Alexander the Great, who is said to have first sent several of the birds from the Punjab to the west.

Pliny the Elder  wrote  instructions for teaching parrots to talk which included hitting them on the head with an iron bar!!
Probably didn´t work that well and ended up with an ancient Roman forerunner of the dead parrot sketch.

The one on the right. An Amanuensis, ("within Hands reach") a slave who worked in the capacity of personal assistant or secretary to the Dominus /Domina. The one on the right a Baiulus ("porter" or "bearer") a slave who performed tasks similar to that of a normal footman.

Another pair of Baiuli. The one at the front, getting the box bashing into him, looks like he has literally got the "bum deal"

A letica (transportable Couch) and the leticarii (Couch carriers)

So far, so good. Everything is fine. Very Little Flash to be dealt with, nice Details and poses.  The Bods are a bit slimmer (more finely sculpted) than their previous contempories but fit well alongside them.


The other Transport Piece in the set.  Where can I start?
The historical accuracy?
The earliest reference I can find to  horse carried Sedan chairs (or litters) is from the medieval period. The best  reference I found is  a painting by Jean Fouquet about an Event in 1378 called Entrée de l'empereur Charles IV à Saint-Denis,   or Entrée de l'empereur Charles IV devant Saint-Denis painted between 1455- 1460.
I´ve found no  references to Roman litters,  even ones for high Nobility, being carried by horses. That´s not to say the romans couldn´t have come up with the idea but , at time of writing and lacking any references..it´s historically innacurate to portray them doing so.
It doesn´t look like anything from the Roman period, it´s more a 17th / 18th century design.
The construction?
The poles across the doors would mean they would have to be removed to let passengers in or out. Considering the length  and possible weight of the carrying poles, and having to set the cab down and release the poles from the mules,   this would be a difficult Task to say the least.  Virtually every example of a sedan chair has an opening to the front but in this case it would again be impractical. The passengers would have to Exit between the cab and a mule (danger of getting kicked if at the front) and then duck under the pole.

Apart from that, it fits together reasonably well. The width of the carriage means the carrying poles need bending slightly inwards to make it possible to attach them to the mules but when attached they stay put.
The set Comes with three passenger bods. At a squeeze only two would fit and then opposite each other but it looked very uncomfortable.
Still, I like the look of the cab and I like the idea,  so with a bit of Alteration it will be given a use in Bodstonia.


OOB

Roman Transport 3 - Strelets

Another Addition to the Roman Transport line  from strelets. This one  seems to depict a slave round up Scene but seeing as there´s a wagon involved it passes for a Transport set.
13 bods (two as a pair and 14 if the Infant is counted) 2 oxen and 1 wagon.

 

"Is that a gladius under your Sagum  or are you just pleased to see me?"

From left to right;

1.Farmer about town. I reckon he was to be leading one of the bulls but he makes a decent enough "stand alone" bod.

2.Casual onlooker. I´ve painted up the object he´s eating as a pomegranate, seems more Roman style than a "common" apple (although they treated apples etc as luxury items)

3. Riddled walker. He was carrying a Whip in his right Hand but seeing as there are bods with Whips in a couple of the previous sets, I thought another was unecessary so he ended up with a  replacement Walking stick.

4. Concerned onlooker. Judging by her clothing and jewellry she isn´t connected to the other slaves..if she was she would have been relieved of her jewels etc pretty quickly.

The prison wagon.
Fits together well, although releasing the parts from the sprue and the following cleaning up does take a while.
As always, the scheme for attaching the beasts to the wagon leaves a lot to be desired, the pic Shows the set up as OOB.

Still, after a lot of carefull snipping and "spotwelding" (Holding a hot pin to turn the plastic on two pieces liquid and run into each other) the Cage and the Roof together, adding a scratchbuilt towing bar (metal rod heated up and welded to the bottom of the wagon) it doesn´t look too bad.

Seeing as there is no indication of  a door (a good idea would to have been to add a lock and hinges to one of the pieces that make up the Ends of the Cage ) I´ve added a Piece of jewelly chain to give an Illusion of  there being some way of opening the back.
Above and below the chain, you can see the result of the "spotwelding" . Now the whole Thing is fixed  together I can remove Them but for the purposes of the pic I haven´t.

Seeing as it has  more of a  Fantasy look to it (it´s chunky design) I may  use it for the Goblin Slavers