At the weekend I made a start on painting the first few units for the new Epic Punic Wars game from Warlord Games. I decided to make a start with the Allied Division Division. The four sprues in this box make up:

• 6 bases of Celtiberian warriors (20 soldiers each)
• 6 bases of Italian allied infantry (20 soldiers each)
• 4 bases of Numidian skirmishers with bows
• 4 bases of Balearic Slingers
• 4 bases of Ligurian light infantry skirmishers
• 4 bases of Spanish Caetrati skirmishers
• 4 bases of Gallic Celt cavalry
• 4 bases of Spanish cavalry

I spent about an hour and a half, clipping off sprues, sticking to bases and undercoating. These miniatures are very light, so a good tip is to use some upside down making tape on your spray box to stop them ending up all across the garden!

After some careful consideration, I decided the best way to approach gluing to bases was to glue skirmish infantry (which consists of 5 individual miniatures) straight on to base with plastic solvent glue. The front rank of formed infantry were also glued to the base with plastic glue. The second rank strips and cavalry figures were temporarily glued to bases for painting using UHU type adhesive so that they could be easily removed to be glued into there final positions. The horses were glued to base for painting turned 90 degrees to how they will be finally mounted as I felt this would be easiest for picking up and giving all around access for painting.

This is the complete contents of the Allied Troops Division. Not bad for £27. I’ve worked out that equates to around 7p per figure!

The models have been undercoated (I use Halfords Auto Primer, Matt White) and washed over with a brown / sepia ink wash to aid definition and shadow.

The first unit painted is a 3 base (60 model) unit of Italian Allied Infantry.

The figures have been painted using Army Painter Speedpaint, which gives plenty of tonal variation for figures of this scale with out having to apply drybrush or ink washes afterwards.

The second unit is a 3 base (15 model) unit of Numidian Archers. I used a little filler around the individual bases to blend them in.

Here’s a comparison shot showing an Epic Punic Wars unit next to a 28mm Punic Wars Unit from my collection. Miniatures are 28mm Wargames Foundry Metal Castings… plastic was not available when these were first collected.

I did wonder about the costs, and will be investigating in more detail in my blog how they cost compares to other alternatives.
Epic miniatures are about 7p per figure. 28mm plastic figures £1.10

A three base unit will therefore cost £4.40 with 60 epic miniatures on it or £13.20 with 12 x 28mm plastic miniatures.

This is based on buying the Allied Contingent box which is £26.35 on pre-order from Sally 4th and contains 360 miniatures (330 infantry and 30 cavalry). The £28mm cost is based on a box of Warlord Games plastic Romans @ £22 for 20 miniatures.

To me, £4.40 per unit does not seem bad, and even although I have Punic War armies in 28mm metal, I’m looking to do epic armies because I think that 60 figure units will have a different look and feel to 12 or 16 figure units.

Handy Links:

Epic Punic Wars – The Adventure Begins! Project kick off article

Epic Punic Wars – Check out the full range at pre-launch discounts