Paternal Leave & Pyrrhic Victories: Starting a 28mm Macedonian Army

Howdy all!

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Life has unfortunately sapped a lot of my writing time over the past year—but thankfully not my hobby time! I’m hoping to redeem myself over the next couple of months by logging several projects I’ve been putting work into recently.

First up: some ancient Macedonians!

A New Chapter (and New Hobby Time)

My wife and I welcomed our first child late last month and between learning how to be parents and completely relearning how to manage our daily routines, we’ve mostly been locked at home. However, fatherhood comes with a silver lining for the hobby desk: a surprising amount of painting time while the baby sleeps!

In classic wargamer fashion, I didn’t use this time off work to whittle down my extensive backlog. Instead, I dove headfirst into a brand-new project in a period I’ve never touched before: Ancients! I’ve spent plenty of time in WWII and dabbled in Napoleonics, but I had never painted anything pre-gunpowder.

Inspired by Dan Carlin’s podcast series on Alexander the Great and reading up on Pyrrhus of Epirus, I decided that a mighty Macedonian phalanx would be the perfect starting point.

The Core: 48 Victrix Phalangites

Like any proper Macedonian army, the core of this force is the phalanx. I started with a 48-man block of phalangites (including command) from Victrix.

Assembly was straightforward, as these plastic kits come with relatively few parts per model. The real challenge for me was settling on a color scheme. Historical evidence for uniform colors during this era is pretty sparse, which was tricky given that I wanted to maintain a decent level of authenticity. In the end, I settled on a rich red scheme—even if it means my Macedonians might get mistaken for Romans from time to time!

Taking inspiration from a Duncan Rhodes tutorial, I painted the red tunics using Citadel Mephiston Red and the linen armor (linothorax) with Citadel Pallid Wych Flesh. For most of the remaining details, armor, and metallics, I relied heavily on the Two Thin Coats paint line namely battle Axe Brass for the armor, which worked like a charm.

Expanding for Hail Caesar: Pyrrhus & The Elephant

Although I originally only intended to paint a single phalanx block, momentum took over. On a whim, I picked up an elephant, eight skirmishers, and the mighty Pyrrhus of Epirus himself, all from Warlord Games. This rounded out the models into a full, playable force for Hail Caesar, Warlord’s mass-battle ruleset (just in case I actually manage to get a game in one of these days!).

Reading about Pyrrhus was one of the biggest sparks for this army. He was the only commander other than Hannibal to reliably beat the Roman Republic in the field. In fact, he was bold enough to take on both Rome and Carthage at the same time, which ultimately proved to be his undoing. Still, he remains one of ancient history’s most fascinating figures, giving us the phrase “Pyrrhic victory” to describe a win achieved at far too great a cost.

The elephant deserves a special mention because it was an absolute blast to paint. The Warlord Games sculpt has heaps of personality and came together brilliantly. While metal/resin hybrid casts can sometimes be hit-or-miss, the crisp details on this model blew me away, making it the best Ancient elephant on the market in my opinion. I especially loved painting the layered armor and the characterful crew riding in the howdah. It makes an incredible centerpiece for the army.

Groundwork: Mediterranean Bases

To tie the force together, I wanted the bases to look fitting for any Mediterranean theater—whether Italy, Greece, or Sicily. I also wanted a method that didn’t take hours per miniature.

I decided to try out Krautcover’s “Soil of Sparta” premade basing mix. I’ve recently started experimenting with ready-made basing materials, and for historical models, they are a complete game-changer. I’d 100% recommend them if you want realistic ground texture with minimal effort.

Wrapping Up

This force was a total joy to build and paint from start to finish. I hope this peek at my Macedonian army inspires you to dive into a bit of ancient history or maybe pick up a paintbrush for a new historical project of your own!

Until next time, happy hobbying!