Army Showcase: 28mm Ancient Spanish

I’ve always had a longstanding interest in Spanish history, but the ancient Iberians really kicked off when I got a copy of the Osprey book Rome’s Enemies (4): Spanish Armies in the 1990s. Although it’s now dated in some areas, the colour plates by Angus McBride were an absolute inspiration – very quickly, I found myself buying and painting a 15mm DBA army from Donnington Miniatures before expanding it to a much larger force with Essex and Chariot Miniatures.

The 15mm army was lovely but I also hankered after painting some 25/28mm miniatures. At the time, selection was limited – most 25mm manufacturers had a few Iberians tacked on as allies in their Carthaginian Punic Wars lists, but no full ranges. I had a handful of 25/28mm models from Newline Designs, Essex Miniatures and a few of the Spanish sculpted by Dave Gallagher for Foundry, but I needed some new releases to get the variety I wanted for a full force.

This began to change with the release of Warhammer Ancient Battles which was a huge shot in the arm for 28mm ancients; in particular, Allen Curtis’ Hannibal & The Punic Wars WAB supplement featured lists for full Iberian armies which prompted a whole range of new releases. Gripping Beast, Foundry, Curteys/ First Corps, Crusader Miniatures and A & A Miniatures all came out with bigger ranges than we’d ever seen before.

At this point, I decided to expand my Ancient Spanish by dipping into everything that was out there. Here’s a visual guided tour through my 28mm metal warband.

LEADERS

Here’s a few more hero shots that I dug out from that sunny garden photo session in the mid-2000s – models here are by Gripping Beast and Crusader. The GB models are from an early stage in Soapy’s sculpting career, so are not as polished as his later figures, but I rather like them. The female priestess (based on the famous La Dame de Elche sculpture as pictured on the front cover of the Osprey book) is one of my favourites.

WARRIORS

These chaps – often referred to as ‘scutarii’ by Roman sources – are the backbone of the army. I ended up collecting about 90 (organised into seven units of 12 in the pics below).

Here’s a few close-ups including a couple of 40 x 50 mm vignettes that are built into my units. The shields are all based on pictorial evidence (painted pottery etc) with some artistic licence – I basically took the visual sources and used the design elements to create designs involving stripes, curved lines and spirals. Having practised on a whole 15mm army, it was definitely an easier process second time around.

HORSEMEN

While this is many centuries before the rise of the Spanish caballero and jinete, it’s clear that horses were an important part of the Iberian culture in this period. There are many models available for these troops but – in my opinion – none finer than the Foundry range sculpted by Mark Copplestone.

And here are the light cavalry, largely Gripping Beast with some appearances from A & A and Foundry. Some of these are based individually, others in groups on 12 x 6 cm bases.

SKIRMISHERS

The Spanish were well-known for the quality of their skirmishers, ‘caetrati’ (armed with swords, javelins and round ‘caetra’ shields) and slingers (including the famous Balearic slingers who were employed by Roman and Carthaginian armies alike). Frustratingly, Mark Copplestone left Foundry before he had completed the range, but some of the dollies were used by Companion Miniatures to create some further Spanish variants, including Balearic slingers.

I based all of these on 25mm round bases to give them a slightly different look to the warriors.

CELTIBERIANS

These units were a later addition to the force, reflecting warriors from tribes with a mixture of Celtic and Iberian influence. The Crusader Miniatures range was the basis for these troops although I mixed in a few other models for variety, including some plastics.

I used similar shield designs to the Iberians but following a blue/ black/ white colour scheme. I have no historical evidence for this (and indeed I’m sure that producing this shade of blue on a large scale would be an expensive and difficult undertaking for this period) but I think it provides a Celtic vibe to the warriors.

Unlike the Iberians, these units were painted with a red-brown spray undercoat which provided a good base colour for the skin and bronze metalwork.

It’s been fun to pull these guys out again for photos. Hopefully they will see the gaming table again soon!