Off the Workbench-Heavy Chariots

I finished up 4 more bases of Carthaginian Heavy Chariots...just in time to be temporarily retired with the rest of my Carthaginian army.  The Old Glory chariots are good with a few caveats: 

1.  You'll need a pin drill to drill out the hole where the axle goes into the wheel. Try to force a wheel on and  you'll bend the tiny axle back and maybe even let out a swear or two.
2.  Don't glue the wheels on until AFTER you've painted and detailed the chariot. Obvious to most people but I overlooked it with the first batch I painted.
3.  These chariots come with a grooved diamond pattern in them.  You'll want to create a paint scheme based on this pattern or risk poor results. I tried putting a stripe across one but the paint bled under the tape due to the grooves.  D'oh!

With the difficulties I had in coming up with a snazzy scheme for the chariot frames, I spent extra time on the wheels.  The trick that worked for me was to paint them black and then add contrasting colors that popped against the black.  I like the way the wheels turned out but I'm less happy with the chariots themselves. 

Now that summer is over, it's time to start a new army.  I've been eyeing Xyston Miniatures but almost anything I paint of theirs would duplicate an army that someone in our club already has.  A number of players run Medieval armies and with my ancient armies, I rarely get to play them.  I decided to focus on the Medieval era. After reading about Matthias Corvinus and his Black Army of Hungary, I settled on a Later Hungarian army.  Later Hungarians have an interesting and colorful mix of units.  Plus the Hungarians make a great tabletop opponent for my Ottoman Turks.

The last hurdle was to find miniatures.  Unfortunately, Old Glory doesn't have an Eastern European Medieval line.  I tried to scratch up units that could stand in for Later Hungarian but it was difficult.  Then I stumbled across a US distributor of Essex clearing their figures out at 50% off.  While their Medieval lineup has been well looted at this price, I did find enough Hungarians to build a Later Hungarian army.  Figures shipped today...I can't wait to get started!