Ancient chariot racing, anyone?

The paint is still drying on my Mitannian Mariyannu chariots.
Now say that three times, fast!
As is the paint on a couple of Hittite chariots.
Four ancient chariots? Yep, an unusual diversion for me!

So why am I suddenly painting ancient chariots you're probably thinking? Well, I'm signed up to play-test a set of chariot racing rules in development from Nic Wright over at Irregular Wars, called Faustus Furius.

Nic's other rules include Irregular Wars - Conflict at the World's End, Song of Shadow and Dust, and Galleys and Galleons, which I'm sure some of you will be familiar with.

The closest I've come to chariot racing, sort of, is Spin-Out Pod racing! Look, they both involve transports going around a track, that's close enough for me! But as I had such a blast with the pod racing, I thought a bit of tongue in cheek chariot racing would be fun.

Only problem was, I didn't have any chariots.

So, with a bid of rummaging round the internet I came across Caesar Miniatures who had just the models I was looking for. The Mitannian Mariyannu (H015) and Hittite (H012) chariots.

Both packs (1/72, 20mm) contain two chariots with two horses each and crews. In fact, 5 poses per chariot are included. They are beautifully sculpted with very little flashing.

They're made from a brown/red plastic of Medium Consistency, which meant they are more flexible than the more familiar hard plastic. Which gave me a bit of a conundrum. Would the flexible plastic lead to paint flaking off?

Just to be sure, I gave the parts a good wash in detergent and then applied a dilute solution of PVA/water. Then I primed with Humbrol fine miniature primer. From there on, they painted really quite well.

Hittite Chariots (1/72)

I've used four MDF 60x40mm bases from Warbases - purloined from my Roman Army surplus pile. Base coated with Humbrol primer, followed by white. Then a layer of PVA glue and a good sprinkling of fine saw-dust I'd fortuitously collected whilst jig-sawing MDF for a terrain project. Yes, good thinking Batman! Once dry, I finally applied a wash of Yellow Ochre and Titanium White pigments (ProPigments).

Mitannian Mariyannu Chariots (1/72)

I quite enjoyed painting these. I've never attempted chariots before. As I wanted them to appear a bit battered and dusty, the pro pigments came in very handy. I've still to do a bit of tweaking with the bases, but almost good to go!

So, all that remains is get some play testing done, which I plan to do over the next week or so and then send off our thoughts to Nic.