In the dark days before discovering Newline (a long time ago now) I was hunting for thureophoroi, I grabbed a few Hat Thracians that had suitable figures and to get them in strength would leave lots of spares, I needed to secure a source of dedicated thureophoroi. I got hold of some Xyston thureophoroi, sold as 15mm they seemed about 18mm, I contemplated using some creative basing to incorporate them or to simply change to a more common scale of ancients as I really liked the Xyston miniatures. I then came across the Newline with their comprehensive selection and would be a closer match to the plastics I already had so the Xyston's ended up in a drawer.
What I loved about Xyston's figures was the helmets which were interesting and varied, I thought the size of their heads were roughly the same as Newlines so I thought while I was doing head swap conversions I could create a unique unit of Thorakitai using the Xyston heads and the Newline Designs 20mm African Veterans advancing. I missed the faces on the Newline figures but those heads were used on the Cretan Archers and now I have spares for future conversion ideas. The command figures remained unchanged.
I experimented a bit with the painting, I dry/over brushed the helmets with Vallejo Silver and used Agoras Dunes Contrast paint to give them a bronze tinge this was also applied to the greaves. Its an effective way todo metallics and something to consider for future projects. I also applied Contrasts to the shields again more of an experiment but I'm pleased with their turn out.
I got the railway background out to do some photos so I redid the last thorakitai conversions and attached below. I also got some pictures of the Moria Goblins finally so that will be a post at some point. I've also had a bit of solo gaming in so once written up there will be some posts on Strength & Honour, Dominion of the Spear and Lost Battles. On the miniatures front I'm preparing some Celtiberians for now but time at the desk is very sporadic and progress slow. I could also pick up some plastic sets that are part built but I'm into ancients currently. I'm wanting to pursue Punic wars campaign so expanding armies for that is a goal as well as expanding armies for Hellenistic states namely Ptolemiac troops for Raphia.
