28mm Trojan Wars: Chariots, Archers and Achilles

Having started on a bit of a whim, the 28mm Trojan Wars project is finally about to make its first public appearance at the Lard Workshop as part of Britcon 2024 in Nottingham this weekend. What started as an impulse buy of a few Lucid Eye miniatures then turned into the acquisition of a full Amazon force, which of course needed some opposition. Over the last year, I have bought and been donated various secondhand miniatures that I have used to put together some Achaeans to take on the Amazons outside the walls of Troy.

After completing a number of units of spearmen and Achilles’ Myrmidons, I needed some chariot-riding nobles to back them up. The disadvantage of having acquired various secondhand lots was compatibility of the models, and while I will usually happily mix and match between ranges, the Lucid Eye chariots are of far more heroic dimensions than the Foundry ones.

Given that I had eight LE chariots and four Foundry ones, I decided to get all my Achaeans into Lucid Eye chariots. This meant putting Foundry minis in as crew which has worked a treat. I liked some of the Foundry heroes on foot, so some of those ended up drilled and pinned in as chariot-riding warriors as well.

Putting together metal chariots is always a faff, but much easier if you have the right kit. (Had I started this project today, I’d probably have gone straight for the newly-released Wargames Atlantic plastic chariots, but that’s one for a future article).

Fortunately, with eight models on the go, I could run an assembly line, cleaning and filing each piece as needed. Superglue accelerator was an absolute must!

Each crewman had a hole drilled into their foot and then a long piece of metal rod (cut offs from North Star spears) inserted, which served the dual purpose of a painting mount and a pin into the finished chariot. A couple of unfortunate crew members did suffer some ankle damage during this process, but fortunately many sins are hidden by standing inside a chariot cab!

I also took the time to drill out the drivers’ hands to hold reins; this is entirely optional, but I think that it improves the look of the finished model enough to be worth the effort.

Chariots were sprayed with Halfords Camo Paint dark brown, then highlighted with various acrylics. Red was the theme for my Achaean army, so I tried to add a red element into all of the models, which I embellished with patterns painted in black and white.

Horses also featured in the colour scheme, with co-ordinated blankets. The horses used were a mixture of Lucid Eye and Foundry from the bits box, undercoated with sprays and then painted using an oil wipe-off technique (you can see a better breakdown of this with my Amazon chariots here).

Crew were undercoated white and then painted with my usual mix of GW Contrasts and regular acrylics. I usually varnish before applying metallics, which I’ve found is especially important with shiny bronze-armoured warriors. The armour had a base coat of dark brown (GW Contrast Cygor Brown is great for this) and a coat of matt varnish. This was followed by a base coat of Vallejo Brass, a wash of Winsor & Newton Nut Brown ink and a final highlight of Vallejo Gold (with a very top highlight of Army Painter Silver in a few cases).

The six Achaean chariots are also accompanied by a couple of Sea Peoples ones – the same Lucid Eye models but with a different paint job. Possibly as the result of having drawn Portugal in the house sweepstake for Euro 2024, I’ve gone with a red and green combo for the Sea Peoples. I have dozens more of these miniatures in the lead pile so will be going for more.

To back up the chariots, I needed a couple more archer units, so some Eureka Miniatures found their way onto the painting table.

These chaps don’t have much in the way of clothes but were a quick paint job!

Lastly, I decided that Achilles needed a more mighty model than the Foundry one I already have painted (he’s nice but can’t really go toe-to-toe with the heroic Lucid Eye Amazons). I settled on the ‘Paris triumphant’ vignette from Redoubt Enterprises (now sold by Grubby Tanks).

I know that his equipment doesn’t exactly match Homer’s description but it’s the stance that’ll make him stand out on the table.

With these pieces finished, I now have a small but battle-ready Greek force that will be marching out at Britcon 2024 and also Ebor Lard in September. Looking forward to getting them on the table and into action!